Order Accuracy Improvement Strategies

When Small Mistakes Turn Into Expensive Problems

Order accuracy is one of those operational metrics that hides in plain sight. When it is high, nobody celebrates. When it drops, customers write long emails, retailers issue chargebacks, and marketing teams wonder why churn is suddenly climbing. For growing ecommerce brands, order accuracy improvement strategies move from a nice-to-have to a requirement the moment volume exposes the weak points in your workflow.

Accuracy failures do not happen in isolation. They come from tiny cracks across the system: mislabeled bins, rushed picks, sloppy receiving, paper notes, unscanned moves, packing decisions made on instinct, and units that drift because nobody caught a mismatch in time. Fixing accuracy means fixing the habits that create chaos, and building a warehouse environment where correct is not heroic, it is normal.

Why Accuracy Slips Without Anyone Noticing

Accuracy erodes quietly. A new SKU is placed in the wrong location. A receiving pallet is mislabeled. A picker shortcuts scanning to move faster. A packer assumes a product belongs in an order. None of these decisions look catastrophic on their own. But as volume rises, those mistakes compound. What looked like a tiny hiccup becomes a pattern that stretches across days of work.

Maureen Milligan, Director of Operations and Projects at G10, sees the roots of accuracy breakdowns in brands leaving other providers. She explains that "most of the customers who come to us from another 3PL, their challenges have always been access to their data, order accuracy and efficiency, and meeting the committed requirements." Those three issues live in the same ecosystem. Without data, you cannot see accuracy. Without accuracy, you cannot meet commitments.

Receiving: Where Accuracy Begins or Dies

The first chance to protect accuracy is at receiving. If inbound shipments are not scanned, counted, labeled, and stored correctly, every later step will inherit the error. That is why Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment at G10, says that "you want everything to be scanned in the warehouse, nothing done on paper." Paper hides mistakes until it is too late. Scanning exposes them immediately.

Strong receiving workflows treat every pallet as a data event. Quantities are verified. Lot details are captured. Locations are assigned by the WMS, not by guesswork. When receiving is disciplined, accuracy is protected long before the picker ever touches the product.

Slotting and Layout Shape Accuracy More Than People Think

It is easy to blame workers for mispicks, but the warehouse itself often sets them up to fail. Poor slotting places lookalike SKUs beside each other. Narrow aisles create congestion that encourages shortcuts. Unclear labels make fast decisions risky. Order accuracy improvement strategies begin by designing a warehouse that reduces confusion.

G10 uses its ChannelPoint WMS to guide slotting patterns so that fast movers sit close to packing, similar items are separated, and zones are organized by workflow. When paired with automation, the effect multiplies. Holly Woods, Director of Operations at G10, notes that "the Zebra robots are allowing efficiency with pick paths. They are lowering fatigue on employees." Lower fatigue means fewer mental lapses and better accuracy.

Pick Paths That Reduce Mental Load

Mispicks often happen when workers are rushed or overloaded. Long walking paths amplify fatigue and push pickers into speed-over-accuracy mode. Automation and thoughtful routing reduce the number of decisions a picker must make. Instead of wandering through aisles, workers follow optimized tasks that present the correct SKU in the correct sequence.

ChannelPoint’s pick logic reduces branching paths and minimizes unnecessary travel. The fewer turns and decision points a worker faces, the easier it is to stay accurate. Accuracy is not simply a matter of going slower. It is a matter of designing flows that make the right action obvious.

Scanning at Pick: The Accuracy Backstop

Even the best designed paths need validation. Scanning at pick ensures that the SKU in hand matches the SKU in the order. It prevents a wrong-item mistake from ever entering the carton. It also forces the system to validate quantities, batch assignments, and lot control where needed.

Connor’s insistence on scanning applies here too. Without scanning, the entire process relies on memory and trust. With scanning, the WMS has the final word. When workers see that the system catches mistakes before they travel downstream, they learn to rely on the guardrails.

Packing: The Last Defense Against Inaccuracy

Packing is the final checkpoint. Even if picking is flawless, the pack station can introduce errors through incorrect substitutions, rushed decisions, or incorrect inserts. Good pack stations are designed for clarity. Screens show each SKU required. Scanners validate each item again. Inserts are stored in separate bins with clear labeling.

Packing workflow matters even more for brands with complex orders, kits, or channel specific requirements. When your 3PL understands retail compliance, subscription flows, and DTC bundles, the pack station becomes a fortress rather than a guessing game.

Inventory Visibility Is Accuracy’s Best Friend

Brands cannot improve what they cannot see. That is why accuracy strategies depend on dashboards, reports, and real time data. If the only way to know your accuracy rate is to wait for customer complaints or retailer scorecards, the damage has already been done.

Connor notes that G10 clients "can see their daily orders, they can see KPIs, and they can see historical transactions." That visibility provides early warning when accuracy slips. If a specific SKU starts generating exceptions, the team can inspect the bin, check receiving history, and retrain workflows before customers feel the effects.

Returns as Accuracy Feedback

Returns are not just a reverse logistics problem. They are accuracy feedback. When customers return the wrong item, or complain that something is missing, the signal often points to a breakdown somewhere in the accuracy chain. When returns are tied to order data inside the WMS, patterns become clear. Affected SKUs, zones, shifts, or workflows can be identified and corrected.

Joel Malmquist explains how G10 handles returns decisions, noting that staff determine whether "it looks good, we are going to restock this, or it looks damaged, we are going to either dispose of it or put it in a quarantine area." That same clarity helps pick and pack accuracy because there is always a clear path for exceptions.

Multi Node Accuracy Without Multi Node Chaos

Accuracy becomes harder when inventory is spread across multiple warehouses. Without strict scanning discipline, nodes drift. One location shows stockouts while another shows overages. Orders route incorrectly. Customers receive delays.

G10’s multi node network uses ChannelPoint to keep all locations synchronized. Inventory moves are recorded. Transfers are scanned at both origin and destination. Nodes behave like one system instead of isolated islands. That synchronization is why multi node brands can keep accuracy high instead of letting geography introduce confusion.

Peak Seasons Reveal Accuracy Problems Fast

Accuracy weaknesses hide during slow months. They explode during peak. When volume spikes, every mispick creates more downstream work. Every incorrect putaway multiplies across dozens of orders. Every missing scan becomes a ticket, a refund, or a replacement.

Holly describes peak prep as a disciplined routine. She says that "we run forecast models, staffing models, and we audit inventory." Those audits catch accuracy issues before the surge hits. A warehouse that treats accuracy as everyday discipline handles peak with confidence. One that treats accuracy as optional faces a flood of preventable mistakes.

Accuracy as a Brand Reputation Engine

Customers do not often praise accurate orders, but they absolutely notice inaccurate ones. A single wrong item can overshadow an entire positive shopping experience. Accurate orders reduce support volume, increase customer lifetime value, and stabilize operational costs.

Mark Becker, CEO and founder of G10, describes the kind of brands he wants to support by saying that "we are going to grow with them." Growth requires accuracy. If your operation spends too much time fixing the same errors rather than preventing them, it may be time to rebuild accuracy as a system, not a lucky streak.