Warehouse Picking Accuracy: How to Reduce Mispicks Without Slowing Down

Warehouse picking accuracy is the moment of truth in fulfillment. You can have a beautiful storefront, a clever ad strategy, and a fast carrier mix, and still lose customers because the wrong item shows up in the box. Picking errors are expensive because they create a chain reaction: returns, replacements, extra shipping spend, customer frustration, and sometimes retailer penalties. Picking accuracy is not a feel-good metric. It is a profit lever.

Brands often assume picking errors are just a training problem. Training helps, but the bigger issue is process design. If your workflow lets people pick without verification, mistakes will escape during peak. If your inventory locations drift, pickers will chase empty bins and improvise. If packaging looks similar, pickers will make the same mistake repeatedly. The goal is to build a system where the correct pick is the default, not the heroic choice.

Why picking accuracy breaks as volume grows

Picking accuracy usually breaks for boring reasons. Volume increases, velocity increases, touches increase, and the warehouse gets interrupted more often. That combination creates pressure to skip verification and take shortcuts. It also increases the odds of location drift, where inventory is not where the system thinks it is. When picks fail, teams improvise, and improvisation is where mispicks are born.

Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment at G10 Fulfillment, described what customers experience when execution is weak. They were "losing money by shipping wrong items or wrong quantities of items." Those errors often start at picking. If the wrong SKU is picked, the rest of the process can be perfect and the shipment will still be wrong.

Picking accuracy is also sensitive to slotting and layout. Look-alike SKUs placed next to each other, unclear labels, and inconsistent bin organization all increase the odds of errors. That is why accuracy is not only a people problem. It is a systems problem.

Scan-based picking is the simplest accuracy upgrade

If you want to improve warehouse picking accuracy quickly, insist on scan-based picking. A scan-based workflow requires the picker to scan the location, scan the item, and confirm the quantity. The system validates the pick in real time. That means the process catches many errors before they leave the aisle.

Connor described the baseline rule that makes scan-based picking possible: "You want everything to be scanned in the warehouse, nothing done on paper." Paper pick lists can work in quiet environments, but they break under pressure because they rely on memory and manual checks. Scanning turns picking into verified transactions.

Scan-based picking also creates a record you can analyze. If a SKU is repeatedly mispicked, you can see where it happens and why. Without that record, you are stuck with anecdotes.

Inventory location truth is a prerequisite for accurate picking

Picking accuracy depends on the system sending pickers to the right place. If location data is wrong, pickers waste time, picks fail, and the temptation to substitute or override increases. That is how a small location error becomes a wrong shipment.

Bryan Wright, CTO and COO of G10 Fulfillment, described the tracking standard that keeps location truth reliable: "A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point that you touch it." When inventory is tracked at every touchpoint, it is less likely to drift into the wrong place without a record.

Bryan gave a vivid example of how deep visibility can go when the system is capturing movement, not just storage: "At any point in time, I know that Bobby has this product on fork 10 right now, and if I needed to go find that product, I just got to go find Bobby on fork 10." That level of tracking reduces the time wasted on exception hunts, which helps accuracy because pickers are less likely to take shortcuts when inventory is quickly findable.

Pick methods matter: batching and wave picking can raise risk

As volume rises, warehouses often move from simple pick-and-pack to batching, wave picking, or zone picking. These methods can increase efficiency, but they can also increase error risk if verification is weak. When multiple orders are picked into totes, it becomes easier to drop one unit into the wrong container. When zones are split, handoffs can introduce mistakes if items are not verified at merge points.

Warehouse picking accuracy improves when each handoff has a scan confirmation. That way, the system catches a wrong item before it travels farther down the line. The goal is to build checkpoints that feel natural in the workflow, not annoying add-ons.

Pack verification turns picking mistakes into catchable mistakes

Even in strong operations, a few picking mistakes will happen. That is why packing verification matters. When pack stations scan items into a carton, the system validates the match, and many picking errors get caught before shipping. Pack verification does not replace pick accuracy. It supports it by providing a second net.

Joel Malmquist, VP of Customer Experience at G10 Fulfillment, described the execution outcome that matters to customers: "We have over 99.9% ship accuracy of these orders." That kind of ship accuracy usually requires both pick verification and pack verification. It is the downstream proof that accuracy controls are working.

Accuracy tracking should be tied to root-cause fixes

Tracking warehouse picking accuracy is not useful if it ends at a dashboard number. The value comes from what you do next. If a location is repeatedly associated with errors, fix labeling, slotting, or replenishment discipline. If a SKU is repeatedly mispicked, separate it from look-alikes, add visual cues, or change packaging. If a shift has higher error rates, investigate staffing pressure, training, and workflow interruptions.

This is also where audit trails matter. When you can trace transactions, you can diagnose. When you cannot, you adjust counts and hope. Strong systems make traceability normal. Bryan described that traceability directly: "We have portals that show you the data. We have history that shows you all of that tracking." That history turns accuracy issues into solvable process problems.

Omnichannel pressure makes picking accuracy more important

In omnichannel operations, picking mistakes create bigger consequences. A wrong D2C shipment creates a customer complaint and a replacement. A wrong retailer shipment can create compliance failures and chargebacks. Accuracy becomes the cost of doing business across channels.

Jen Myers, Chief Marketing Officer at G10 Fulfillment, described the omnichannel need that sits underneath accurate execution: "You want to make sure your inventory is tracked across those two different systems, to make sure that there's enough inventory." Accurate picking depends on accurate inventory truth. When inventory data is wrong, pickers improvise, and improvisation creates errors.

Customer visibility reduces interruptions that create mispicks

One of the quiet causes of mispicks is constant interruption. When customers cannot see order status, they ask. Those questions become tickets. Tickets interrupt warehouse execution. Interrupted execution increases the odds of missed scans and rushed picks.

Maureen Milligan, Director of Operations and Projects at G10 Fulfillment, described what real-time access provides: "What these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility." When customers can self-serve status, the warehouse stays focused, and picking accuracy improves because the process stays consistent.

How G10 approaches warehouse picking accuracy

G10 focuses on scan-based execution and transaction-level tracking to make picks verifiable and to keep location truth reliable. Connor summarized the baseline: "Having a 3PL and WMS that is 100% scan-based is crucial." Bryan described the tracking foundation behind that baseline: "A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point that you touch it." Maureen connected visibility to fewer interruptions: "What these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility."

If you want to reduce returns without slowing down, warehouse picking accuracy is the standard to insist on. When picks are scan-verified, locations stay truthful, and pack stations confirm what goes in the box, mispicks stop being a constant cost of doing business and start becoming a rare exception you can actually prevent.