Small errors in fulfillment don’t just cost time—they cut into your margin.
Most companies expect to lose money on late shipments or damaged packages from time to time. But when those mistakes become routine—even at a small scale—they quietly drain your profit.
The most expensive fulfillment issues aren’t always the ones that make the most noise. They’re the ones that happen every day: the mispick that leads to a return, the packaging that adds unnecessary cost, the delay that results in a chargeback.
This blog outlines three of the most common fulfillment mistakes that hurt profit and gives you one practical way to fix each without overhauling your entire operation.
1. Mispicks and incorrect orders that lead to returns, rework, and lost revenue.
A single mispick might seem small. But across thousands of orders, it adds up fast—in labor, shipping, returns, and damage to customer trust.
This often shows up in:
- Items picked for the wrong SKU variation (size, color, style)
- Bundles packed incorrectly or missing components
- Manual picking from outdated or printed pick lists
- Lack of scan validation before orders are packed
Here’s one proven fix to start with:
Implement real-time scan verification during pick and pack. Even basic barcode scanning can reduce error rates dramatically by confirming the correct item is picked before it leaves the shelf. If your team still relies on printed sheets or institutional knowledge, this is the fastest way to reduce returns and avoid reship costs.
Fixing mispicks protects more than accuracy—it protects your margin, your labor hours, and your customer’s confidence.
2. Late shipments that result in chargebacks, lost sales, or retail friction.
You may think your team is on schedule, but missed SLAs often creep in when there’s no buffer for volume spikes, exceptions, or team handoffs. And retailers won’t wait for your process to catch up.
This can show up because of:
- Carrier cutoffs missed due to batching delays
- High-priority orders stuck behind standard queue
- No real-time visibility into order status or workload bottlenecks
- Unclear internal handoffs between ops, fulfillment, and support
Here’s one proven fix to start with:
Segment high-SLA or retailer orders using flags or routing rules in your WMS. This creates a separate fulfillment path for the orders that matter most—without slowing down your DTC volume. The cost of a missed retail SLA is too high to let those orders sit in a general queue.
Speed isn’t about doing everything faster—it’s about doing the right things faster. Prioritizing high-risk orders is one of the simplest ways to protect profit when time is tight.
3. Poor packaging decisions that increase damage, shipping costs, and CX issues.
Packaging isn’t just about presentation. It directly affects labor, materials, and shipping rates—and the wrong approach erodes margin even when everything else runs smoothly.
This is how this usually shows up:
- Oversized boxes lead to dimensional weight (DIM) upcharges
- Inconsistent pack-outs increase material usage and time per order
- Damage claims rise from under-packing or poor protection
- Branded packaging requirements applied inconsistently
Here’s one proven fix to start with:
Create packaging standards by product type, not just by brand. For example, if certain SKUs are always fragile or heavy, build standard pack-outs and box selections into your system. Train for it, document it, and make it the default. This reduces overpacking, speeds up fulfillment, and avoids preventable damage.
Packaging is one of the few areas where cost, efficiency, and customer experience intersect. When you get it right, it pays off across the board.
The fulfillment mistakes that hurt profit rarely come from big blowups. They come from small gaps—mispicks, missed SLAs, and packaging missteps—that happen every day and quietly cut into your margin.
If you want to protect profit, start by tightening the parts of your process that get overlooked. Sometimes, just one clean fix in the right place can recover thousands in avoidable costs.
If you’re worried about effectively scaling your operations, download the Fulfillment Growth Readiness Worksheet. This practical tool will help you assess whether your current fulfillment setup can adapt to growth, identify friction points across flexibility, tech, SLAs, and value-added services, and uncover where strategic changes are needed to support expansion.
