━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PHASE 2 — SOP HEADER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SOP TITLE: How to Pick, Pack and Dispatch a Customer Order from Payment Confirmation to Collection VERSION: 1.0 DATE CREATED: May 2026 LAST REVIEWED: May 2026 NEXT REVIEW DATE: November 2026 DOCUMENT OWNER: Fulfilment Manager PURPOSE: This SOP exists to eliminate wrong-item and missing-item errors that result in customer complaints, returns, and negative reviews. When followed correctly, every order dispatched matches the customer's invoice exactly — first time, every time. SCOPE: Begins when a paid order notification is received in Shopify. Ends when the courier collection scan is confirmed and the tracking number is sent to the customer. WHO THIS APPLIES TO: - Picker: locates and retrieves items from stock - Packer: verifies, packs, and labels the order - Dispatcher: books collection and sends tracking to customer WHAT YOU NEED BEFORE STARTING: ✓ Access to Shopify order dashboard ✓ Printed or screen-visible packing slip for the order ✓ Packaging materials (boxes, tissue, void fill) ✓ Label printer loaded and connected ✓ Courier portal login active ✓ Scanner or phone with barcode app ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PHASE 3 — STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ STEP 1 — RETRIEVE ORDER FROM SHOPIFY Who: Packer Action: Open Shopify, navigate to Orders > Unfulfilled. Select oldest order first (FIFO — first in, first out). Detail: Print packing slip or open on tablet. Never fulfil from memory or email notification alone. Output: Physical or digital packing slip with order number, customer name, and items listed. Time estimate: 2 minutes Common mistake: Fulfilling the most recent order first — always work oldest to newest to prevent delayed shipments. STEP 2 — PICK EACH ITEM FROM STOCK Who: Picker Action: Locate every item on the packing slip using SKU code, not product name. Detail: Scan each item barcode against the packing slip SKU. If scanner confirms match, place in picking tray. If no scanner: read SKU on product label against packing slip character by character. Decision point: If item not in stock → STOP. Do not substitute. Notify Packer immediately. See Step 2A below. Output: All items physically collected in picking tray, matching packing slip exactly. Time estimate: 3-8 minutes depending on order size. Common mistake: Picking by product name or appearance — variants (size, scent, formula) look identical. Always use SKU. STEP 2A — OUT OF STOCK RESOLUTION (decision branch) Who: Fulfilment Manager Action: Check restock ETA. If item restocked within 24 hours: hold order, notify customer of delay. If restock over 24 hours: contact customer with options (wait, substitute, refund). Log in Shopify order notes. Output: Order status updated in Shopify. Customer notified. Time estimate: 5 minutes STEP 3 — VERIFY ORDER BEFORE PACKING Who: Packer Action: Compare every item in picking tray against packing slip line by line. Read product name AND SKU for each item. Detail: Place packing slip flat on packing bench. Hold each item next to corresponding line. Tick each line when confirmed. Decision point: If any item does not match → return to Step 2 before proceeding. Output: Every line on packing slip ticked. Order verified. Time estimate: 2-4 minutes Common mistake: Visual checking only — "that looks right" causes 80% of picking errors. Always confirm SKU against slip. STEP 4 — PACK THE ORDER Who: Packer Action: Place items in appropriate box size. Add tissue paper, brand insert, and void fill if needed. Detail: Fragile items (glass bottles) require bubble wrap layer. Insert card goes on top, facing up. Seal with branded tape. Output: Packed, sealed box ready for labelling. Time estimate: 3-5 minutes Common mistake: Overfilling box to avoid upsizing — items damaged in transit cost more than a larger box. STEP 5 — PRINT AND APPLY SHIPPING LABEL Who: Packer Action: Generate label in courier portal using order's shipping address from Shopify. Print and apply to largest flat surface of box. Detail: Verify customer name and postcode on label against packing slip before applying. Label must be flat with no wrinkles over the barcode area. Output: Labelled box with correct customer address. Time estimate: 2-3 minutes Common mistake: Applying label before address verification — wrong address labels result in returned parcels and reshipping costs. STEP 6 — MARK ORDER AS FULFILLED IN SHOPIFY Who: Dispatcher Action: Return to Shopify order. Enter tracking number from courier label. Mark as fulfilled. Confirm automated tracking email is enabled. Detail: Copy tracking number directly from courier portal — never type manually. Output: Customer receives automated tracking email. Order status changes to Fulfilled in Shopify. Time estimate: 2 minutes Common mistake: Marking fulfilled before label is applied — if label is then changed, tracking number sent to customer is incorrect. STEP 7 — STAGE FOR COURIER COLLECTION Who: Dispatcher Action: Place labelled box in designated collection area. Confirm collection booking in courier portal for today's slot. Detail: Collection area must be accessible to courier without staff assistance. Ensure collection is booked before courier cutoff time (check courier portal for daily cutoff). Output: Box staged. Collection confirmed. Process complete. Time estimate: 1 minute Common mistake: Missing courier cutoff — orders staged after cutoff wait until next day, delaying delivery by 24 hours. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PHASE 4 — QUALITY CONTROL ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PRE-PROCESS CHECKLIST: ☐ Shopify unfulfilled orders reviewed and sorted oldest first ☐ Packing slip printed or open on device ☐ Label printer tested and loaded with labels ☐ Packaging materials stocked (boxes, tissue, tape, void fill) ☐ Scanner charged and connected ☐ Courier portal login active and collection slot available IN-PROCESS QUALITY GATES: Gate 1 — POST-PICK VERIFICATION After: Step 2 (picking complete) What to check: Every item in picking tray has SKU confirmed against packing slip Pass condition: All items ticked on packing slip, no unticked lines Fail condition: Any item unverified → return to stock, re-pick correct item before proceeding. Notify Fulfilment Manager if SKU not found. Gate 2 — PRE-PACK VERIFICATION After: Step 3 (verification complete) What to check: Physical count of items in tray matches line count on packing slip Pass condition: Item count = packing slip line count Fail condition: Count mismatch → do not pack. Identify missing or extra item and resolve. Gate 3 — LABEL ACCURACY CHECK After: Step 5 (label printed) What to check: Customer name and postcode on label match Shopify order exactly Pass condition: Name and postcode identical to order Fail condition: Any discrepancy → reprint label. Never apply a label with a suspected error. POST-PROCESS VERIFICATION: ☐ Shopify order status shows "Fulfilled" ☐ Tracking number in Shopify matches label on box ☐ Customer tracking email confirmed sent (check Shopify timeline on order) ☐ Box confirmed in collection staging area ☐ Courier collection confirmed in courier portal ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PHASE 5 — KPIs, ROLES & IMPROVEMENT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ KPI DASHBOARD: Order Accuracy Rate Measures: % of orders dispatched with correct items, first time Calculation: (Orders dispatched correctly ÷ Total orders dispatched) × 100 Target: 99.5%+ Warning threshold: Below 99% Critical threshold: Below 98% → immediate process review Dispatch Time (per order) Measures: Minutes from order retrieval to label applied Calculation: Average across all orders in a session Target: Under 15 minutes Warning: Over 20 minutes consistently Critical: Over 30 minutes → capacity or process issue Same-Day Dispatch Rate Measures: % of orders placed before cutoff dispatched same day Calculation: (Same-day dispatched ÷ Orders placed before cutoff) × 100 Target: 98%+ Warning: Below 95% Critical: Below 90% Return Rate (wrong item) Measures: % of orders returned due to wrong item shipped Calculation: (Wrong-item returns ÷ Total orders) × 100 Target: Under 0.3% Warning: Over 0.5% Critical: Over 1% → immediate root cause analysis RACI MATRIX: ┌─────────────────────┬─────────────┬──────────────┬───────────┬──────────┐ │ Task │ Responsible │ Accountable │ Consulted │ Informed │ ├─────────────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┼───────────┼──────────┤ │ Order retrieval │ Packer │ Fulfilment │ — │ — │ │ │ │ Manager │ │ │ │ Item picking │ Picker │ Packer │ — │ — │ │ Order verification │ Packer │ Packer │ — │ — │ │ Packing │ Packer │ Packer │ — │ — │ │ Label printing │ Packer │ Dispatcher │ — │ — │ │ Shopify fulfilment │ Dispatcher │ Dispatcher │ — │ Customer │ │ Courier booking │ Dispatcher │ Dispatcher │ — │ — │ │ Out of stock │ Fulfilment │ Fulfilment │ Customer │ Picker, │ │ resolution │ Manager │ Manager │ │ Packer │ └─────────────────────┴─────────────┴──────────────┴───────────┴──────────┘ FAILURE ESCALATION PROTOCOL: Scenario 1 — Minor Failure Trigger: Single wrong item discovered post-dispatch (customer contact) Immediate action: Apologise, send correct item same day, arrange return label Who to notify: Fulfilment Manager within 1 hour of customer contact Resolution: Log error, identify which step failed, brief team within 24 hours Scenario 2 — Moderate Failure Trigger: 3+ wrong items in one day or one batch Immediate action: Pause dispatch, audit all packed but unsent orders immediately Who to notify: Fulfilment Manager immediately, Owner within 2 hours Resolution: Full batch reverification before any further dispatch. Root cause identified before resuming. Scenario 3 — Critical Failure Trigger: Order accuracy rate drops below 98% or returns spike above 1% Immediate action: Full process suspension pending review. No orders dispatched until root cause confirmed. Who to notify: Owner immediately. All affected customers proactively contacted. Resolution: Full SOP review, retraining, and process change implemented before dispatch resumes. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT TRIGGERS: 1. Any single order returned due to wrong item shipped 2. Picker reports SKU labelling inconsistency on stock 3. Dispatch time average exceeds 18 minutes for 3+ days 4. New product variant added with similar appearance to existing SKU 5. Team member change — new hire joins fulfilment team SOP EFFECTIVENESS SCORE: - Clarity: 9/10 - Completeness: 9/10 - Efficiency: 8/10 Improvement: Steps 2 and 3 could be combined into a single scan-verify step if barcode scanning is implemented consistently — reduces process to 6 steps - Measurability: 9/10 - Adaptability: 8/10 Improvement: Add a version control log at the top to track changes over time as the product range grows