How to Use Pick Tickets

For resellers managing inventory and fulfilling multiple orders daily, the process of pulling products, organizing them, and shipping quickly is what separates efficient operations from frustrating bottlenecks. One proven way to streamline these tasks is through the consistent use of pick tickets. When set up and executed properly, pick tickets become the link between your inventory storage system and your order fulfillment process, saving time, reducing packing mistakes, and aligning your whole team on what needs to be shipped.

What is a Pick Ticket?

A pick ticket is a printed or digital document generated from your central inventory or sales system. It lists the order details — typically customer name, items purchased, quantities, and crucially, bin locations where those items can be found in storage. Think of it as a shopping list for your warehouse or stockroom picker. Without pick tickets, workers often waste time searching shelves or cross-checking order screens. With them, every item has a designated location, and the workflow becomes systematic.

Why Pick Tickets Increase Speed and Accuracy

When fulfilling multiple orders simultaneously, mispicks (grabbing the wrong item) and delays in finding stock are common. Pick tickets address these issues by:

• Providing bin numbers: Instead of wandering aisles, staff go directly from bin to bin along an optimized path.

• Confirming quantities: Reduces errors by clearly stating the count for each item.

• Centralizing tracking: Once an item is pulled, the system can mark it as picked, helping prevent duplication and confusion.

• Enhancing training: New staff adapt faster because they follow the ticket rather than relying on memory or verbal instruction.

Steps to Implement a Pick Ticket System

1. Establish Bin Locations

Before pick tickets can help, your storage area must be organized with bin or shelf identifiers. Label all areas clearly (e.g., A-01, A-02, B-01) and keep this consistent across your entire operation. Taking the time to map your inventory once saves hours later.

2. Centralize Your Order Data

All ticket generation should come from a central system that connects orders, inventory, and customer information. This consolidation ensures that the ticket reflects real-time stock availability and prevents errors caused by manual entry. A tool like Gavelbase can act as this central hub, automatically producing pick tickets and marking items as pulled once completed.

3. Design the Ticket Layout

A well-formatted pick ticket includes:

• Order number and customer name (for packing reference)

• Item name and SKU

• Quantity required

• Bin location code

• Check boxes for staff to mark items pulled

Keep the print clear, avoid clutter, and make sure the bin location is highly visible.

4. Print and Assign

Assign pick tickets at the start of each picking shift. For large teams, distribute tickets to different workers or zones of the warehouse. For smaller teams, a single person may process multiple tickets sequentially.

5. Mark Pulled Items

To prevent mistakes, each ticket should have a system for marking progress. This can be manual (checking boxes with a pen) or digital (scanning barcodes). The key is that it syncs back to your central system, producing a record and updating inventory automatically.

Best Practices for Using Pick Tickets

• Batch picking: Instead of fulfilling orders one-by-one, use pick tickets to pull items for multiple orders at once, grouped by bin location. This reduces walking time.

• Zone picking: Divide your storage area into zones and assign staff to particular regions. Each will process tickets only within their bin range.

• Prioritize by shipping deadline: Print and process pick tickets based on when orders need to leave the building, not just when they were placed.

• Audit tickets weekly: Randomly double-check a few completed pick tickets to ensure staff accuracy and refine layout if recurring issues arise.

Integrating Technology with Pick Tickets

Paper pick tickets work well for small operations, but digital and hybrid approaches scale better:

• Barcode Scanning: Adding scannable codes on bin labels and tickets prevents accidental mispicks.

• Mobile Devices: Pickers can receive digital tickets on tablets or smartphones, updating in real time when items are picked.

• Cloud-Based Systems: Platforms like Excel or Google Sheets can handle small setups, but integrating with a dedicated order management tool allows dynamic updates and ticket generation at scale.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Unclear bin labeling: If labels fall off or look inconsistent, pick tickets lose their usefulness.

• Skipping centralization: Generating manual tickets from separate order data risks duplication and stock-outs.

• Failure to update status: If tickets aren’t marked complete, inventory counts become unreliable.

• Overly complex layouts: Too much clutter on a ticket slows the picker; simple is better.

Conclusion

Pick tickets are more than just paper slips — they are the backbone of an efficient fulfillment process. Whether your team consists of one person working from a garage or a dozen staff in a multi-room warehouse, leveraging pick tickets with bin locations, clear formatting, and central tracking gives you tighter control of operations. By combining a structured layout with batch picking and inventory updates, you dramatically speed up packing and improve accuracy.

The next step is simple: map your storage, decide on your central system, and start testing pick tickets today. Even a modest implementation yields immediate gains in productivity and customer satisfaction.