How to optimize your pick-and-pack fulfillment for the holiday season

The holiday season can make or break a small business’s year—and for ecommerce merchants, pick-and-pack fulfillment is at the heart of it all. Having a strong fulfillment strategy is crucial for handling increased holiday demand and ensuring customer satisfaction.

If you’re gearing up for peak season, now’s the time to refine your workflows, lean on technology, and ensure your team is ready to handle the rush. Fulfillment strategies have evolved to meet the needs of modern ecommerce sales channels, making it essential to adapt your approach.

Your fulfillment warehouse serves as the central location where the entire process of fulfilling orders—from inventory management to shipping—takes place. Integrating multiple ecommerce sales channels with your fulfillment strategy is key to seamless order management.

Here’s how to make your pick-and-pack fulfillment as efficient and stress-free as possible by optimizing the entire process from order receipt to delivery.

Introduction to pick-and-pack fulfillment

Pick-and-pack fulfillment is at the core of a successful order fulfillment process, especially for ecommerce businesses facing the pressures of the holiday season. The pick-and-pack process involves carefully selecting items from inventory and preparing them for shipment, ensuring that each order is accurate and arrives on time.

By optimizing pick-and-pack processes, businesses can streamline their fulfillment operations, leading to faster delivery timelines and fewer errors. Effective pick-and-pack fulfillment services not only help reduce shipping costs but also play a vital role in winning customer loyalty.

For ecommerce businesses looking to stay competitive, investing in efficient fulfillment services and refining the entire fulfillment process is essential for meeting customer expectations and driving repeat business.

Understanding the pick-and-pack process

The pick-and-pack process is a multi-step workflow that starts with receiving customer orders and ends with preparing those orders for shipment. During the picking stage, warehouse workers use picking lists and inventory management software to locate and retrieve the correct items from inventory shelves.

Accuracy is crucial here, as mistakes can lead to costly returns and dissatisfied customers. Once items are picked, the packing process begins—this involves using appropriate packing materials like bubble wrap, sturdy boxes, and protective fillers to ensure products reach their destination safely.

Whether managed in-house or through a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, understanding each stage of the pick-and-pack process allows businesses to identify bottlenecks, improve inventory management, and deliver a seamless experience for every customer order.

Fulfillment center operations: Setting the foundation

A well-run fulfillment center is the backbone of efficient pick-and-pack processes. The right warehouse layout, combined with effective inventory management and robust warehouse management systems, can make all the difference in streamlining fulfillment operations.

By leveraging a warehouse management system (WMS), businesses can monitor inventory levels in real time, manage incoming orders, and optimize pick-and-pack routes for maximum efficiency. Investing in quality packing materials and setting up organized packing stations helps reduce errors and ensures that every package is prepared to the highest standard.

With a solid foundation in place, fulfillment centers can achieve greater order accuracy, minimize shipping costs, and ultimately enhance customer satisfaction throughout the busy holiday season.

Steps to optimize your pick-and-pack fulfillment flow

1. Streamline your workspace and inventory management before the rush

Think of your warehouse layout like a racetrack—the fewer obstacles in the way, the faster and smoother your team can move. Audit your shelves, bins, and packing stations, with special attention to your warehouse shelves as a key component, to make sure your top-selling SKUs are easy to grab.

Group frequently purchased products together to reduce travel time during picking. Optimizing warehouse processes and maintaining an efficient warehouse space can further streamline picking and packing during peak season.

Pro tip: Label everything clearly. Even experienced pickers lose time hunting for items during peak volume.

2. Implement batch picking for efficiency

Batch picking is a powerful strategy for businesses looking to boost efficiency during periods of high order volume. By grouping multiple orders with similar items, warehouse workers can pick several orders in a single trip, reducing travel time and streamlining the picking process. Saltbox member Shinery was able to fulfill 400+ orders with the same packing list to maximize efficiency during a high-traffic ecommerce event simply by using batch picking and processing.

This method is especially beneficial for businesses with limited warehouse space and a high volume of customer orders. Utilizing warehouse management or shipping software, businesses can easily identify opportunities for batch picking and create optimized picking routes.

The result is faster order fulfillment, lower labor costs, and improved customer satisfaction—making batch picking a smart choice for scaling operations during the holiday rush.

3. Automate wherever possible

Technology is your best friend during the holidays. Use your ecommerce platform’s integration with your Warehouse Management System (WMS), shipping software, order management software, or pick-and-pack software to generate packing slips, print labels, and update tracking numbers automatically.

Automation doesn’t just save time—it reduces costly human errors. Real-time tracking and advanced warehouse systems provide greater visibility and control over inventory and shipments. From barcode scanning to inventory alerts, these small changes can have a big impact on your ability to keep orders moving.

4. Build a flexible, trained team

Your fulfillment workflow is only as strong as the people running it. Cross-train your staff so anyone can step into picking, packing, or labeling when needed; a well-trained warehouse worker is essential for maintaining efficiency during peak times. If you anticipate big spikes in orders, consider hiring seasonal temporary labor—but bring them in early enough to train before things get hectic.

If you’re using a co-warehousing solution like Saltbox, tap into on-demand workforce options so you can scale labor up or down without long-term commitments.

5. Prep your packaging strategy with appropriate packing materials

During the holidays, presentation matters as much as protection. Pre-fold boxes, ensuring you have the right packing materials for each product type, stock up on branded tape, and pre-pack common gift bundles to save time.

Customize your ecommerce packaging to enhance the customer experience and elevate your brand recognition. If you offer gift wrapping or special inserts, create an assembly-line process so it doesn’t bottleneck your workflow. Evaluate your pick-and-pack methods to ensure efficiency and product safety, as well as pick-and-pack strategies to optimize workflows and reduce costs.

6. Monitor carrier deadlines closely

The best pick-and-pack process can still be derailed if you miss shipping cutoffs. Order shipping is a critical stage in fulfillment, and choosing the right shipping method for each order ensures cost-effective and timely delivery.

Stay updated on major carriers’ holiday deadlines and communicate them clearly to customers at checkout. Offering multiple shipping options (including regional carriers), generating accurate shipping labels, and managing shipping processes help ensure timely delivery.

Reviewing order details, packing slips, and picking lists during order packing helps ensure accuracy and that products reach their final destination undamaged.

You can find the full list of this year’s deadlines in our 2025 Holiday Hub.

Optimizing the way you ship orders and manage shipping orders can improve efficiency and customer satisfaction during the holiday season.

7. Manage costs during peak season

Controlling costs during the holiday peak is essential for maintaining profitability and delivering a great customer experience. Ecommerce businesses can minimize shipping costs and improve efficiency by adopting advanced picking strategies like batch picking, zone picking, and wave picking. These methods help reduce labor expenses and speed up the order fulfillment process.

Investing in pack software and warehouse management systems further streamlines operations, reducing errors and supporting cost savings. For many businesses, outsourcing pick-and-pack services to a third-party provider offers additional benefits, such as access to specialized expertise, scalable resources, and further cost reductions.

By implementing these strategies, ecommerce businesses can manage costs effectively, maintain high levels of customer satisfaction, and ensure a successful holiday season.

8. Keep communication flowing

Whether it’s between your fulfillment team, customer service, or suppliers, open communication is critical during peak season.

Use daily stand-up meetings to flag inventory shortages, high-priority orders, or workflow adjustments. The faster you can respond to issues, the less likely they are to snowball.

Wrapping up your holiday pick-and-pack fulfillment strategy

Peak season doesn’t have to mean peak stress. With an organized workspace, smart automation, a trained team, and a clear plan for packaging and shipping, you can turn the holiday rush into a well-oiled machine.

And remember—every minute you save in fulfillment is a minute you can spend delighting customers and growing your business.

Visit the 2025 Holiday Hub for shipping deadlines, fulfillment tips, and seasonal resources to help your business thrive.