What are Kitting, Co-Packing, & Pick and Pack Fulfillment?

Inventory storage

A 3PL will manage and store your products until it is time for kitting assembly.

When an eCommerce order for a kit is received at the warehouse, your 3PL provider will determine whether the order is for a pre-bundled kit or if the assembly is required.

If the order is not already bundled, fulfillment employees pick and pack the kit.

In contrast, kits can be bundled ahead of a customer’s order if you offer a specific combination of products.

Order picking and packing

A picking list is systematically generated when a co-packaged order comes in. Your 3PL partner’s team uses this list to pull individual items from your inventory.

They take your products to a staging area where the items are scanned and combined.

Then the products are packed into one box, or as few boxes as possible, with the appropriate packing materials to prevent breakage.

More product offerings for your customers

You can expand your product offerings with kitting fulfillment without increasing production or sourcing new inventory.

Kitting allows you to use existing SKUs or items in your 3PL partner’s warehouse to create new SKUs.

This offering gives you the flexibility to boost sales with collections, gift sets, surprise boxes, and more. When you provide multiple options, the customer experience is better, and so is your profit margin.

Increase in the average order amount

Kitting and co-packing allow you to offer customers a broad range of products and upsell without actually upselling.

With the kitting approach, your customers can obtain a nicely curated package with minimal effort. From the customer’s perspective, bundling items into a kit looks better than a long list of charges for individual purchases.

Those who choose the kitting fulfillment approach for their business can offer discounts on these bundled items, making customers feel like they are getting more for their money.

Reduced cost through bundling products

Kitting is a valuable tool for reducing overhead costs.

A streamlined warehouse flow for kitting fulfillment means fast assembly and speed to market. Also, including items that are slow moving helps eliminate dead stock and reduces your inventory costs.

Saving on shipping costs

Your fulfillment partner can help you save on shipping costs by kitting and co-packing several of your products into one shipment.

It’s much more cost-effective to ship a single package over individual items.

Your fulfillment partner can even optimize kits and their packaging for freight shipments, moving more items at the same cost.

Piece picking

Piece picking happens when orders are prepped one item at a time.

The fulfillment partner’s warehouse management system picks each product for an entire order when it comes in. All items move to a packaging station.

Once at the packaging station, your fulfillment provider will complete the final steps before handing the order off to a trusted shipping partner.

Batch picking

Batch picking is similar to piece picking.

All orders are done at once instead of one at a time.

Each batch of orders will be for items in the same warehouse area or location. The fulfillment center’s warehouse management system divides the orders and assigns packaging responsibilities.

Zone picking

Zone picking can be an excellent option for more extensive fulfillment needs.

Fulfillment warehouses are divided into zones and have workers dedicated to each zone. These workers are committed to knowing their area and only pulling items from their assigned zones.

This approach offers speed based on product velocity or movement.

As an order comes in, each zone worker picks the products located in their designated area before passing the order along to the next zone.

After an order moves through all the zones, collecting each item on the pick slip, the order transitions to the packing station.

Wave picking

Wave picking combines elements of batch and zone picking.

In this process, employees stay within a zone but pick more than one order at a time. Fulfillment workers in each assigned zone pick products for a large batch of orders. Then they pass the batch to the next zone for picking.

Careful coordination is required when working with large quantities. This process must be efficient and mapped out.

The pick and packing process is an integral part of effective kitting. Ask your fulfillment partner about the processes they use for various order configurations.