E-COMMERCE & RETAIL FULFILLMENT
The website says four. The shelf says one.
Each picks and small parcels, with a channel sync that oversells the minute counts drift. Every oversell is a cancelled order and a customer who may not come back. Peak season doubles the volume and finds every shortcut.
We fix the floor process behind your available-to-sell number, then stay through the rollout.
How a bad count becomes a cancelled order
Oversells you have to cancel
The storefront says it's in stock. The picker can't find it. Customer service sends an apology and a refund.
Pickers walk the whole building for one order
SKUs are stored where they fit, not where they sell. A three-item order turns into a tour of every aisle.
Returns pile up in a corner
Returned product waits days or weeks to be inspected and restocked. It's sellable stock that the website can't see.
The pack station is the bottleneck
Picks arrive faster than they get packed, shipping labels print in the wrong order, and orders miss the carrier pickup.
WHY IT BREAKS HERE
Your inventory number is public.
In e-commerce, the on-hand count is what customers see. A misplaced bin or an unrecorded damage turns into an oversell the same day. And the faster the catalog grows, the more SKUs land wherever there's an empty spot.
The fix is mostly on the floor: slotting built on order velocity and affinity, a pack station laid out for flow, a returns process that gets stock back on the shelf quickly, and cycle counts aimed at the SKUs that oversell.
From the pick to the carrier
Fulfillment work tends to land at the pack station and in returns.
- 01Trace your oversells and cancellations back to the floor step that caused them
- 02Re-slot each-pick locations by velocity and items ordered together
- 03Lay out the pack station for one-touch flow to the carrier
- 04Set up a returns process with clear grading and same-day restock
- 05Target cycle counts at high-velocity and frequently oversold SKUs
- 06Write SOPs for normal days and peak, then train on the floor
You keep your platform, WMS or ERP. Most oversells start with a floor error the sync can't see, and we sell no software.
Start the Flight Check two to three months before peak, so Ground Crew can finish before volume doubles.
If you're picking from paper or syncing channels by spreadsheet, Flight Plan finds a system built around your channels and order profile.
How an engagement runs →Common questions
When should we start before peak?
Earlier than you think. Changes are easiest to make and train when volume is normal, so ideally the Flight Check happens two to three months before peak.
We outsource to a 3PL. Can you help?
Yes. We can help you set clear process and accuracy expectations, measure the 3PL against them, or plan a move in-house if that's where you're headed.
Do you set up the channel integrations?
No. We fix the inventory accuracy those integrations depend on. If the integration itself is the problem, we'll tell you, and help you pick a partner to fix it.
Stop overselling what you can't find.
Thirty minutes on the phone. Tell us how orders flow through your building and we'll tell you where we'd start.