Retail compliance warehouse management system: meeting chargeback rules by design

Retailers do not argue about compliance. They invoice it. When a shipment misses a routing guide, uses the wrong label, or packs cartons incorrectly, the result is not a warning. It is a chargeback.

As brands expand into wholesale and big-box retail, the search for a retail compliance warehouse management system becomes urgent. Teams are not trying to optimize a corner case. They are trying to stop margin from leaking out through avoidable penalties.

Retail compliance is not a checklist you tape to the wall. It is a system problem that needs a system solution.

Why retail compliance breaks down as volume grows

At low volume, compliance can survive on tribal knowledge. Someone remembers how Target wants labels placed. Someone remembers Walmart carton rules. That approach collapses under scale.

As SKUs increase and retailers multiply, the number of unique requirements explodes. Manual checks slow shipping and still miss details.

Bryan Wright, CTO and COO of G10, explains why this complexity favors strong systems. "With B2B, you're shipping to places like Target or Walmart. They have routing guides that make you specific labels on and put them in a specific place on the box." A warehouse management system has to enforce those rules, not just store them.

Chargebacks are usually process failures, not bad luck

Retail chargebacks often feel random until you trace them backward. A label was missing. A carton was packed wrong. A pallet configuration did not match the ASN.

Those mistakes rarely happen at the last step. They start earlier when the system allows the wrong action to happen.

Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment at G10, ties compliance to execution discipline. "One of the pain points our clients have experienced with previous 3PLSs is inventory accuracy; maybe their previous 3PL wasn't great at picking the orders accurately." If the wrong item or quantity is picked, compliance is already broken before labels print.

What a retail compliance WMS must control

A retail compliance warehouse management system must do more than generate paperwork. It has to control behavior on the floor.

That means enforcing pick accuracy, validating pack configurations, printing the correct labels automatically, and blocking shipments that do not meet routing guide requirements.

Scan-based execution is essential. Perkins states the baseline rule. "You want everything to be scanned in the warehouse, nothing done on paper." Scans are how the system confirms that each compliance step actually happened.

Why routing guides belong inside the WMS

Routing guides define carriers, service levels, label placement, carton size, and pallet configuration. If those rules live outside the WMS, they rely on memory and manual checks.

A strong compliance WMS embeds routing guides directly into workflows. When an order is released, the system already knows how it must ship.

Wright explains why systems designed for B2B rigor perform better here. "A lot of other people have created D2C software and they're trying to get into the B2B space, and they many not realize the significant amount of effort that it takes to be compliant for B2B customers." Retail compliance is not an add-on.

Labeling errors are the fastest way to lose margin

Retail labeling rules are precise. Where the label goes, which barcode it uses, and how it is oriented all matter.

Joel Malmquist, VP of Customer Experience at G10, describes the reality bluntly. "Walmart's pretty intense with their labeling rules. Dick's Sporting Goods is the same; if you don't do it right, you get those massive chargeback." Those chargebacks can erase the profit from an entire order.

A retail compliance WMS reduces that risk by automating label generation and placement rules so humans are not guessing.

Carton and pallet rules are where manual processes fail

Retailers often specify how many units go in a carton, how cartons stack on a pallet, and how pallets are wrapped and labeled.

Manual processes struggle here because mistakes are not obvious until the retailer receives the shipment.

A compliance-focused WMS validates cartonization and palletization before shipping, reducing rework and post-delivery penalties.

Visibility turns compliance from stress into control

Compliance failures feel stressful when they appear after the fact. Visibility changes that experience.

When teams can see each compliance step in real time, they can intervene before a shipment leaves the dock.

Maureen Milligan, Director of Operations and Projects at G10, explains the value of transparency. "What these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility." Visibility allows teams to manage compliance proactively instead of reactively.

Multi-warehouse retail compliance raises the bar

When retail orders ship from multiple warehouses, consistency becomes critical. One site doing something slightly differently can trigger penalties.

A centralized WMS ensures every location follows the same rules for the same retailer.

Holly Woods, Director of Operations at G10, describes how distributed execution works when systems are aligned. "Now it's not just one site working on these orders. We have three sites that are working on orders for you." Compliance rules have to travel with the order across all sites.

Why compliance failures cost more than the chargeback

The invoice is only the visible cost. The hidden costs include rework, delayed payment, strained retailer relationships, and internal time spent reconciling disputes.

Over time, repeated failures can affect retailer scorecards and future opportunities.

Retail compliance is not about avoiding one fine. It is about protecting long-term channel viability.

How to tell if your compliance system is underpowered

Warning signs include frequent chargebacks, last-minute shipment holds, manual label overrides, and teams double-checking everything by hand.

If compliance depends on heroics, it will eventually fail.

A healthy retail compliance WMS feels boring. Shipments go out clean. Chargebacks become rare. Teams spend time planning instead of fixing mistakes.

How G10 supports retail compliance at scale

G10 supports retail compliance with a scan-based WMS that enforces routing guides, labeling rules, and carton requirements automatically. Compliance steps are built into workflows, not left to memory.

Perkins describes the integration capability that supports this approach. "We have experience with omni-channel integration setup and we're capable of doing any EDI, API, flat file, XML, any type of integration needed throughout the omni-channel for the marketplaces out there." Retail compliance depends on clean data flowing end to end.

When questions arise, Malmquist describes the support experience. "If you're working with G10, your experience for getting help is that you can either email or call your direct point of contact. It's that simple." Compliance issues move fast, and support has to keep up.

If retail chargebacks are quietly eroding margin, the fix starts with a warehouse management system designed for compliance by default. Bring your retailer mix, your routing guides, and your current pain points, and we will show you how to turn compliance into a predictable, controlled process.