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Do you need a WMS, or can your fulfillment be optimized first? See three levels and when Shipmondo or a WMS fits your needs.
When more orders have to move through your fulfillment flow, small inefficiencies quickly turn into real bottlenecks. Manual order processing takes time, employees take unnecessary steps between the items, and the risk of picking errors grows as the pace increases.
At some point, the question therefore arises: Do you need a WMS, or can you solve the bottlenecks in your order fulfillment before investing in a larger system?
A WMS, or Warehouse Management System, can be the right choice when your processes require advanced inventory management. But if the challenge is first and foremost getting orders through picking, packing, and shipping faster and more reliably, there may be an important step before the WMS.
Here, we look at three levels of fulfillment and at when it makes sense to take the next step.
Three levels: From manual order fulfillment to WMS
The need for a WMS does not necessarily arise because the order volume grows. What matters is how complex your processes become and where the bottlenecks arise.
Do employees spend a lot of time processing orders manually? Are many unnecessary steps taken during picking? Do you experience picking errors that then take time to correct? Or do you need actual inventory management that goes beyond order fulfillment?
The answers are decisive for which level your setup needs. Because the biggest system is not necessarily the right next step. It is the system that solves the problems you actually have.
Level 1: When order fulfillment requires many manual processes
In a less complex setup, many processes around order fulfillment can be managed manually. This can work well as long as the volume and workflows are manageable. But as the number of orders grows, each manual action gets repeated several times a day.
Employees have to process orders, find the right items, move around the warehouse, and make sure the right products get packed. As the volume grows, that way of working can create bottlenecks.
Here, the challenge is not necessarily a lack of inventory management. The challenge is the flow itself, from order to finished package.
Before you invest in a WMS, it is therefore relevant to look at how much of that flow can be streamlined.
The webshop system can still manage part of the inventory management
The fact that you come to need a more efficient fulfillment flow does not necessarily mean that you also have to move inventory management over to a dedicated WMS.
Your webshop system can still be part of the setup, while Shipmondo is connected for order and shipping management. With Shopify, for example, which has strong built-in features for inventory management and goods receiving, orders can be transferred automatically to Shipmondo, where you can continue working with picking, packing, and shipping, among other things.
Webshops can also be extended with apps, plugins, and integrations that support WMS workflows. This lets you distinguish between two different needs: How do you keep track of items and stock, and how do you get orders efficiently through your fulfillment flow?
If your existing setup still covers the need for inventory management while the bottlenecks lie in order processing, picking, and packing, a WMS is therefore not necessarily the next step. Here, Shipmondo can instead build on your existing setup and streamline the fulfillment part.
Level 2: Streamline picking and packing with Shipmondo
With Order Management and Pick and pack, you can digitize several of the processes that would otherwise require manual actions in your fulfillment.
In Order Management, you can gather and process orders from your sales channels. When the items need to be found and packed, Pick and pack can support the work with digital pick paths and order check, among other things.
With digital pick paths, you can pick several orders on the same route. If you have bin codes on the items, the picking list can be sorted by the items’ location, giving the employee a more efficient route through the warehouse. Otherwise, the route can be sorted by SKU.
Product images can make it easier to identify the right item along the way. And with order check, the item can be scanned so the employee is notified if the wrong item is picked. This means, among other things, that you can work directly on some of the typical bottlenecks in fulfillment: unnecessary steps, manual checkpoints, and errors in the picking process.
From 4% picking errors to nearly 0%
KiMs is a concrete example of what this can mean.
In August 2024, KiMs started using Shipmondo’s digital pick paths. With handheld terminals, employees can see the product image and quantity directly during picking, among other things. This resulted in KiMs reducing their error rate from 4% to nearly 0%, and they have had several months with no picking errors at all.
This illustrates an important point: You do not necessarily need a WMS to streamline your order fulfillment. If the bottlenecks lie in order processing, picking, and packing, you can first optimize the processes that create the problems without making the leap to a WMS.
Level 3: When investing in a WMS makes sense
There comes a point where the need can extend beyond order fulfillment.
A WMS is a major strategic decision and investment. It is therefore relevant to consider whether your challenges require a WMS, or whether you can achieve the desired efficiencies by first optimizing your existing fulfillment flow.
If the bottlenecks primarily lie in order processing, long pick paths, and picking errors, it is worth first investigating whether you can streamline your fulfillment without investing in a WMS.
If, on the other hand, you need actual WMS functionality, the investment may be the natural next step.
The decisive question is therefore not:
“How do we get a WMS?”
But:
“Do we need more advanced inventory management, or do we first and foremost need a more efficient fulfillment flow?”
That difference matters. Because a WMS and Shipmondo do not necessarily solve the same problem.
It doesn’t have to be Shipmondo or a WMS
Shipmondo is not a WMS. Shipmondo can be used for order, pick, pack, and shipping management, among other things, while a WMS can manage the more comprehensive inventory management. If you need both, the systems can work together.
Shipmondo has integrations with a range of WMS solutions, including Apport, LOGIA WMS, Ongoing, Pakman, PeakWMS, and SELVEO. This means that the development of your setup does not have to be an either-or choice:
Manual order fulfillment > streamlined order fulfillment with Shipmondo > WMS + Shipmondo
So you can streamline the processes that create bottlenecks now, without it having to define your entire future system landscape. And when the need for a WMS arises, Shipmondo can still be part of your setup.
Do you need a WMS?
Before you invest in a WMS, you should start by defining the problem the investment is meant to solve. If employees spend too much time on order processing, take unnecessary steps during picking, or experience picking errors, the challenge lies in your order fulfillment.
Here, Order Management and Pick and pack can help digitize and structure the flow from order to finished package. If your need, on the other hand, is about actual and more advanced inventory management, a dedicated WMS may be the right next step.
And if you already have a WMS, Shipmondo can be integrated with WMS solutions and become part of your existing system setup. The point, therefore, is not to avoid investing in a WMS. The point is to make the investment when your needs call for it.
Until then, there can be a lot to gain by optimizing the processes that already create bottlenecks in your fulfillment.
