Pallet-Level Inventory Control That Keeps Your B2B Orders Honest

Pallet-level inventory control sounds straightforward until you discover how quickly a missing case or an unscanned pallet can send your entire supply chain into a slow-motion slide. One moment you think everything is neatly stacked and accounted for, and the next you are staring at a retailer chargeback, wondering how one pallet managed to destabilize an entire shipment. Search behavior confirms how often teams wrestle with this. Operators commonly look up why is my inventory always off or how do I stop losing pallets in my warehouse. The truth is simple: pallets are easy to move but even easier to misplace when the system is not designed to track them with absolute clarity.

If you have ever wished pallets came with GPS trackers or loud voices announcing their location, you are not alone.

Why pallet-level problems hit harder in B2B fulfillment

B2B orders rely on pallet accuracy more than any other part of the supply chain. Lose track of a pallet and you are not just losing a few units, you are losing a retailer's trust. Pallets hold dozens or hundreds of units, each one tied to forecast commitments, replenishment cycles, and delivery windows that retailers consider sacred. A single wrong pallet can turn a completely correct purchase order into a rejected load. And rejected loads feel like someone pulled the fire alarm on your entire day.

Joel Malmquist, VP of Customer Experience, sees how often retailers react strongly to pallet-level mistakes. "Walmart is pretty intense with their labeling rules. Dick's Sporting Goods is the same. If you do not do it right, you get those massive chargebacks." A mislabeled pallet is more than a labeling issue. It is a data issue, a compliance issue, and often a late delivery waiting to happen.

Where pallet-level visibility usually breaks

Most pallet-level issues begin in receiving. This is the moment when pallets must be scanned accurately, counted, and associated with the correct locations. But many warehouses rush through receiving or still rely on paper logs for part of the process. That is how pallets drift away from the system. They get moved by forklift, stacked for convenience, or parked temporarily while the team handles something else. The warehouse may remember them, but the system does not.

Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment, explained how small receiving errors ripple outward. "One of the pain points our clients have experienced with previous 3PLs is inventory accuracy. Maybe their previous 3PL was not great at picking the orders accurately. So they were losing money by shipping wrong items or wrong quantities of items." When pallets are not tracked precisely, these errors multiply quickly.

Why tracking every movement matters more than ever

Retailers track pallets with almost scientific attention. They expect your WMS to know exactly where every pallet sits, exactly when it moved, exactly who touched it, and exactly how many units remain on it. If your system only updates when pallets are picked for orders, you are already behind. Pallets must be scanned at receiving, scanned when moved by forklift, scanned when broken down, scanned at pick, scanned before stretch wrap, and scanned again before loading.

Bryan Wright, CTO and COO, described the difference between partial tracking and real tracking. "A bad WMS will not track inventory 100 percent. A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point you touch it." Without that, pallet-level inventory control becomes educated guessing.

The human bottlenecks that make pallet errors inevitable

Even with the right systems, pallet control breaks down when communication does. Many 3PLs rely on large customer service teams that operate through ticket systems. Every answer comes from a different representative who does not know the account, which creates delays when something unexpected happens.

Joel explained the contrast clearly. "At some 3PLs you get thrown into a ticketed queue, and you get different people replying every time. It can take days, if not weeks, to get a resolution." That delay is devastating when pallets must be located immediately for a retailer pickup.

At G10, every merchant gets one direct point of contact. As Joel said, "You call one person. That is it. And things get done." This is essential for pallet-level accuracy because pallet problems are time-sensitive problems.

How pallet-level control affects routing guide compliance

Pallet issues are not just about location. They are about whether the pallet meets the retailer's rules. Pallet height, wrapping style, carton orientation, and label placement are all regulated. If the pallet is constructed incorrectly, the entire load may be rejected even if the inventory is correct.

Bryan pointed out why G10 succeeds where others struggle. "Our WMS was written around B2B from day one. If a retailer has a specific labeling rule or ASN rule or pick requirement, it is already built into the software." Pallet-level control means the system knows how the pallet should look before it ever reaches staging.

What strong pallet-level inventory control looks like in practice

A real pallet-control system follows the pallet from start to finish. The moment it is received it is scanned. When it is placed in storage, the system records the exact location. When a forklift operator moves it, that movement is logged. When it is picked for a B2B order, that pick is recorded. When it is wrapped and labeled, every detail is logged. When it hits the outbound dock, the system knows the trailer it is on, the order it belongs to, and the timestamp it left.

This level of visibility makes life easier for brands and for retailers. It reduces chargebacks, eliminates most compliance errors, and shortens the time needed to fix unexpected issues.

The G10 difference in pallet-level handling

G10 approaches pallet-level control with a mix of precision and urgency. The technology ensures nothing is lost. The people ensure nothing waits. When a pallet problem occurs, action happens immediately instead of slowly bubbling up through a ticket queue.

Joel recalled one moment that reveals the G10 philosophy. A Target-bound shipment was delayed at the port and arrived far past the expected window. "Our supervisor, warehouse manager, and several employees worked the entire day into the night, then came back at 5 a.m. to make sure we had the routing completed." Pallets were received, scanned, sorted, and turned around with no room for error. That is what real pallet-level workflow looks like under pressure.

The bottom line for brands that rely on pallets to scale

Pallet-level inventory control is not optional for brands selling into major retailers. It is the backbone of reliable B2B fulfillment. When your pallets are fully tracked, accurately built, and compliant with every rule, retailers see you as dependable. When they are not, retailers see you as a risk.

If you want pallet-level accuracy that keeps inventory honest and retailers happy, reach out to G10. You will get cleaner data, cleaner pallets, and cleaner relationships with the retailers who determine your growth.