I’m Kayla. I sell home goods and pet stuff online. Think storage bins, dog brushes, that kind of thing. I’ve run my own warehouse. I’ve packed late at night. I’ve cried over labels that wouldn’t print. So this is my real take on ecommerce warehouse management—what I used, what broke, and what saved my bacon. If you want a second opinion from another warehouse operator, check out this ecommerce warehouse field report.
My Setup (The Mess and the Map)
- Space: 6,000 sq ft, three aisles, 600 SKUs
- Peak: 500–700 orders a day during Black Friday week
- Team: 9 pickers, 2 packers, 1 receiver (me, many days)
- Tools: Shopify, ShipHero (WMS), ShipStation, Zebra scanners, Rollo and Zebra label printers, and a short test with ShipBob for overflow
If you’re still picking your cart software, consider checking out CandyPress; it’s a lean, self-hosted option that keeps costs predictable.
It smelled like cardboard. The tape gun sang all day. Pallets came in. Pallets went out. Things got real fast.
One quirky discovery from the pet aisle: cat-centric copy converts. Subject lines or product names that drop “minou” (French for kitty) consistently out-clicked plain English versions in my email tests. It’s a cheeky reminder that language sells—just peek at this playful example, “Je montre mon minou,” over on Plan Sexe for a quick case study on how bold wording and visuals can crank up engagement around feline-themed products.
The Core Tool: ShipHero WMS (Daily Driver)
I used ShipHero for inventory, picking, and returns. It sat between Shopify and the real world. The scanners ran the show.
If you want unbiased user perspectives, you can scan the ShipHero reviews on the Shopify App Store to see how other operators rate the same features.
What I liked
- Wave picking: I made waves by zone and order size. That cut walking. We went from 35 lines per hour to around 72.
- Lot and bin tracking: Bins like A1-04 and B3-11. No more “where’s the teal brush?” guesswork.
- Mobile app: The Zebra TC21 scanned fast. I set it to beep once for good, twice for oops. It saved us from dumb slips.
What bugged me
- Wi-Fi dead spots: The app would hang in aisle C, far corner. I learned to hang a mesh node on a beam. Ugly, but it worked.
- Returns screen: Good, but slow when photos were big. I had to shrink images or it lagged.
Real story
On Cyber Monday, we pushed 2,900 orders in 48 hours. We ran waves by aisle. Small orders first, then the weird ones. Error rate was 0.7%. The year before, without tight waves, it was 3.1%. That gap? That’s the difference between “We got this” and “Please don’t email me again, Megan.”
The Starter: SkuVault (My First WMS)
I used SkuVault my first year. It did the basics well and it didn’t scare my team.
What I liked
- Simple cycle counts: I counted 20 bins each morning with coffee. That kept stock clean.
- Easy reorder points: It warned me when slow movers got low. Saved me from stockouts on boring items that still sell.
What bugged me
- Reports loaded slow on Mondays.
- Kitting felt clunky for bundles with many parts.
Why I moved
Once we hit 300+ orders a day, I needed faster waves and tighter mobile scanning. So I switched to ShipHero. If you’re under 200 orders a day, SkuVault still makes sense.
Need an even deeper dive that compares ShipHero across industries? Skim through the ShipHero reviews on Capterra for side-by-side scores and anecdotes.
Labels and Rates: ShipStation (The Glue)
I used ShipStation to compare rates and print labels in big batches.
What I liked
- Rules: Orders with glass? Flag for Fragile. Orders over 5 lbs? Default to UPS. Set it once, breathe more.
- Batch labels: 400 labels in a run felt like a magic trick on a good Wi-Fi day.
What bugged me
- Customs forms: Canada orders sometimes threw errors after a software update. I had to re-map HS codes. Not fun at 1 a.m.
Real story
On one wild Friday, we printed 1,200 labels in one push. The Rollo hummed. The Zebra sulked. More on that next.
Scanners and Printers: The Little Heroes
Zebra TC21 handheld
- Good grip, loud beep, hot-swappable battery.
- It fell off a cart once. Scratched, but fine.
- Set to Code 128 barcodes. Fast, clean scans.
Honeywell Voyager (corded)
- Sat at pack stations. Never missed a beat.
- Cheap, sturdy, ugly in a cute way.
Rollo thermal printer
- Fast. Small. Eats 4×6 labels like candy.
- Only jam I had was with a bad roll that curled in winter. I flipped the stack and it fixed itself.
Zebra GK420d
- Solid, but picky. Cold mornings made the labels curl. We learned to pre-warm the stack near the heat vent.
- When it jammed, it jammed hard. I kept a tweezer by the station. Not kidding.
A Quick 3PL Test: ShipBob for West Coast
I sent 80 SKUs to ShipBob for 2 months to speed up West Coast orders.
What I liked
- Two-day ship times jumped. Happy folks in LA and Seattle.
- Their portal showed units in transit and on hand. Clear enough for me.
What bugged me
- ASNs had to be perfect. I messed up inner case counts once. Fee city.
- Kitting add-ons were pricey for small bundles.
Would I use it again?
For overflow, yes. For my core line, I like my own space. I want control. I also like knowing what’s going on by the sound of the room.
If you're still on the fence about keeping stock versus pure drop-ship, give these field notes a look: one merchant's take on running an organic drop-shipping store and another who tested auto parts drop-shipping for a year. Both nail the trade-offs.
The Flow That Saved Us
Slotting like a grocery store
- A items near the pack wall. B in the middle. C stuff up high or far.
- I moved top sellers every season. Spring was pet brushes. Fall was bins. Feels like musical chairs, but it cut steps by a lot.
Batch vs. single picks
- Orders under 3 lines went in small batches of 20. One cart, one loop.
- Big kits or odd stuff got a single picker with a fresh cart.
Pack stations
- U-shape table. Scale on the left, tape in reach, bins behind.
- I kept one “fix-it” station for weird orders. That station had a measuring tape, bubble, and a marker that never moved.
Cycle counts
- 20 bins a day. No drama. Drift stayed under 1%.
- Mondays we counted returns bins first. Keeps the monsters small.
Kitting
- Simple BOM in the WMS. We pre-built top bundles on slow afternoons. A little prep saved us on rush days.
Fail Moments (That Taught Me Plenty)
- We lost 36 teal dog brushes. Guess what? They were up high, behind a pallet of yoga mats. Turns out I’m not the only one who’s wrestled with mats—see this yoga shop fulfillment story for a familiar headache.
- A picker turned off the beep sound. Quiet scans felt faster. They weren’t. Error rate doubled in two days. Beeps came back.
- Friday rain made the ramp slick. One box fell, shampoo everywhere. We moved liquid stuff to low shelves and added grip tape.
Curious how things unravel when you never touch the product at all? Peek at this brutally honest blind drop-shipping post-mortem.
Numbers That Matter
- Pick lines per hour: 35 → 72 after waves and slotting
- Order error rate: 3.1% → 0.7% with scan-to-pack
- Dock-to-stock time: 24 hours → same day for most POs under 200 cases
- Returns processing: 3 minutes each → 90 seconds with photo notes and presets
Small lifts add up. The room feels lighter when the numbers behave.
What I’d Tell a Friend
Under 100 orders a day
- Shopify + ShipStation + a Rollo printer + a corded Honeywell scanner