This website comes into play when an order picker has finished collecting reservations in the shop and/or warehouse and delivers the collected items to the packing department. There are two main methods by which an order picker can collect items.
Carriers
One method involves collecting items for reservations in carriers. A carrier refers to a container in which all items belonging to a reservation are placed. If a reservation contains too many items for a single carrier, a second or additional carriers may be used. Often, multiple containers are placed on a trolley, with the number of containers matching the maximum number of reservations collected simultaneously. Collecting several reservations at once is referred to as a “wave”. A “wave 16” means that up to 16 reservations are collected in a single run. The wave size can be configured in RetailVista, and it is also possible to create a “wave 1”, where only one reservation is collected at a time.
Each container used as a carrier must have its own unique number. We recommend starting with carrier number 1 and creating as many carriers in RetailVista as there are physical containers available. Within RetailVista, we advise reserving numbers 1 to 999 for physical carriers. Each container should preferably have a barcode label displaying its carrier number, making it possible for the packing department to scan the carrier so RetailVista knows which reservation items should be in that container.
A reservation can therefore be contained in one or more carriers if the number of items does not fit into a single one. It is also possible to create ad-hoc carriers on the spot while collecting items. For example, if an item is too large for a standard carrier, an ad-hoc carrier can be created. In that case, a label is printed using a mobile (Wi-Fi) label printer, giving that ad-hoc carrier a unique number and barcode. These are called ad-hoc carriers; they are temporary and, once the reservation containing that carrier has been processed, the label is discarded and that carrier number is never reused.
Items
The other method of collecting reservations does not involve carriers but instead uses a single trolley in which all collected items are placed. The disadvantage of this method is that the packing department receives several trolleys full of items and must determine which items belong to which reservation. However, the Pack & Ship website assists with this as much as possible, as described further in this documentation.
Packing department
The packing department therefore receives carriers or trolleys with collected items for sales order reservations. In the case of a trolley, the Pack & Ship website helps to link the items in that trolley to open reservations. For example, if a pillar candle has been collected, the system will look for open reservations containing that item and suggest the oldest one as the most likely match.
In the case of a carrier, scanning it will prompt the Pack & Ship website to identify the reservation to which it belongs, and the system will also inform the packing employee if other carriers are associated with the same reservation.
In both the carrier and trolley scenarios, it is possible that other items belonging to the same reservation are being collected by another department and are not yet available. The website may therefore indicate that another carrier number belongs to the same reservation, but that carrier may still be in the picking process. The same applies to the trolley example: if a reservation includes both a pillar candle and a hanging lamp, the lamp might be collected by a different department and employee.
In such cases, the reservation cannot yet be processed and will need to be set aside temporarily while awaiting the remaining items.
Reservation control process
Once a reservation has been found, a series of general checks is performed. One important check is whether sufficient payment has been received for the reservation to be fulfilled. If not, the Pack & Ship website will check whether cash-on-delivery (COD) parcel services are available. COD means that payment is made to the delivery driver upon receipt of the parcel (or at collection, in the case of pickup). If no COD parcel services are available, the process stops here and a solution will need to be found with the customer to ensure payment before the reservation can be packed for delivery or collection.
We recommend enabling COD so that reservations can continue to be processed within this workflow. If COD is available and the reservation has not been fully paid, the Pack & Ship website will only allow the selection of parcel services that support COD.
Item control process
After a reservation has been located, the Pack & Ship website can be configured to require scanning of all collected item barcodes within that reservation. We strongly recommend enabling this verification setting, as it ensures that packing employees check that the correct items have been collected. This step helps prevent incorrect shipments, which could otherwise result in unnecessary return costs and customer dissatisfaction.
If all expected items have been scanned and match the reservation, the Pack & Ship website will give the green light for the next step in the packing process. If an item is scanned that does not belong to the reservation, it will be rejected, and a logistics employee will need to ensure that the correct item is added to the reservation. The process will not continue until all items and quantities match the reservation.
Incomplete reservations
During item verification, it may become clear that an item is missing, for example because it could not be found. If, after a second search, the item still cannot be located, a decision must be made either to modify the reservation or to wait for the missing item. By modifying the reservation, the missing item can be removed; it will remain on the sales order as undelivered. The remaining items will then match the actual collected items, and the control process can proceed to the next step.
The same applies if item quantities do not match the reservation. If too few items have been collected, the reservation must either be adjusted or supplemented with the missing quantities before continuing.
Selecting a parcel service
Once all items have been verified, the packing employee selects a parcel service. This may be an external provider such as PostNL or DHL, or the internal RetailVista parcel service for collections or in-house deliveries. Along with selecting the parcel service, the desired number of parcels (colli) must be specified.
Sometimes, the items in a reservation do not fit into one box and multiple boxes are needed. Many parcel services support multi-parcel shipments, where a single shipping fee covers all boxes. Separate labels are printed for each box. The RetailVista parcel service also supports multi-parcel shipments, printing an individual label for each box.
Closing a reservation
Once all control processes have been successfully completed and the reservation has been registered with a parcel service, the reservation will be closed. This process includes generating revenue from the reservation, permanently deducting the stock, and marking the reservation as logistically completed. With this final step, the reservation has been fully processed, and the Pack & Ship website can proceed to the next one.