Introduction

Despatching orders to customers can be quite a labour-intensive process in e-commerce companies. The orders are frequently made up of small numbers of items (often only one) which have to packed by hand as they are rarely received in the warehouse in separate packages, and the volume of such orders that need to be handled can be enormous. It is therefore important to spend some time thinking about your despatch process and streamlining it wherever possible so that you maximise the number of orders that your despatchers can process. Fortunately, there are many options that can be added to your PVX account to help with this, whether you use the web app or the mobile app to perform your despatching. These can all be enabled by raising a ticket with the PVX helpdesk.

Configuring Despatch in the web app

The flowchart shows the general workflow for despatching sales orders and the options that are available for configuring the process to suit your warehouse operation.

The option Hide final despatch screen removes the last screen in the process, preventing the despatcher from editing the despatch details and simply allowing the final click to despatch the consignment.
There are options to speed up the despatch process, useful if you are despatching many standard consignments where the chance of errors is low. You can choose to Enable despatch all which skips the item scan on individual products so long as the despatch location only contains a single order. This can be particularly useful in combination with a pick method like "Pick and sort to trolley", which separates orders into different locations on the trolley. Similarly, the option Enable auto despatch will cause the consignment to despatch automatically as soon as all the required entries in the despatch screen are completed.
A significantly quicker despatch process can also be achieved if the despatcher does not have to click the mouse or use the keyboard frequently. The Despatch prompts option allows the route of the input selection to be controlled and advance between the required fields for your operation with the minimum number of mouse/keyboard interactions. At the final point in the process, the "Complete despatch" button can be 'pressed' by the use of a command barcode.
Where special instructions are needed by packers and despatchers, you can introduce Configurable messages under the comments box on the despatch screen. The title, text and colour of these messages can be customised if these options are enabled.

Certain specific despatch processes have their own particular options:

If you need to print Amazon 'Click and collect' labels, then you need to add the Use external URL for labels option to your account.
If you use multiple packages in each despatch and you want the option of tracking them either as a group or independently, then you will want to receive tracking numbers through your carrier integration. In this case, you need to add the Tracking number assignment mode option.
Finally, if your business is wholesale rather than e-commerce, you may not want to scan items at all as you are despatching large quantities in standard packages. Enabling the Client wholesaler option will remove the need for scanning during despatch.

Configuring Despatch in the mobile app

Despatch in PVX is normally performed only using the web app. To despatch orders using the mobile app, you must add the Mobile Despatch option to your PVX account. This can be especially useful if you regularly despatch large items that can't be placed on a despatch bench, or if your despatch area is too small to conveniently accommodate a computer or monitor.

Paid Feature: Mobile despatch is a chargeable feature. You need to raise a ticket with the PVX helpdesk to have this option enabled on your account.

If you have set up containers in your warehouse inventory structure, you can also choose to Despatch by container using the mobile app. Designed for wholesalers and other B2B operations or for replenishment of outlet stores, this allows you to despatch entire containers of picked items by scanning a single barcode.

Note: Despatch by container on mobile is only compatible with 'pick for stores', 'One person picks one sales order' and 'pick by zone'. Despatch by container is a chargeable feature. You need to raise a ticket with the PVX helpdesk to have this option enabled on your account.

When despatching using the mobile app, you can use the Skip despatch screens option to simplify the despatch process, by removing screens where the despatcher has to make a decision and push a button. With this option added, the despatcher only needs to scan every item to complete the despatch.
Conversely, if you want to maximise the flexibility of despatching in the mobile app, add the Always allow despatch orders option. This allows users to use Despatch by items to despatch orders containing any number of different items, rather than just single-item orders.
If you want to customise the text that's displayed against an item in the mobile app, add the Item title and Item subtitle options to your PVX account.
Finally, there are two options available that may help increase the efficiency of despatching with the mobile app: Print order, which allows you to select the order in which despatch documents are printed from the app, and Prefill quantity on despatch, which enters the quantity of items scanned automatically.

Using print templates to manage despatches

The printing of documents is still a critical part of the despatch process. Labels and despatch notes need to be printed quickly and at the right time to keep the process running smoothly and efficiently. Make sure that you set up the print templates you need for your despatch documents, and then you can apply rules that control when a particular template is used to print a specific document.

Using print templates allows you to choose how you handle your despatches. There are two basic options:

Set up separate despatch benches for each carrier. You should then make sure that despatchers at that bench can only print documents using the appropriate templates for that carrier. There are several ways you can control this. For example, if you use a specific carrier for shipments in the UK, then you can create a print template rule that uses that carrier's template when the despatch destination country is 'United Kingdom', which avoids the despatcher having to select a particular template. Alternatively, you can configure the role permissions for your Despatch operators so that they have to use certain carrier integrations (OpenDespatch or Metapack) which are set up to only use specific carrier companies. (These integrations are described in more detail in a separate article.)
- The limitation with using separate benches for each carrier is that it may be difficult to increase despatch capacity if needed, unless the increase in orders equally applies to despatches using all carriers.
Handle despatches using any carrier from any bench. Again, print templates and their associated rules are critical here, as you don't want despatchers to have to manually select templates if possible. You will also need to make sure that each bench has the required printers close by for printing all the documents that might be needed for any despatch. This approach allows despatch capacity to be scaled directly; for example, if you add two more despatch benches to the four you already have, then you can process 50% more despatches than before using this approach. The same may not be true if each bench handles despatches using different carriers.

Whichever setup you choose for your operation, you can benefit from the parallel printing facility in PVX, where multiple documents can be printed on multiple printers at the same time. For example, you can print a despatch note on a laser jet printer while you're printing the address label on a ZPL-compatible printer. Although you need two printers, the increase in your despatch speed should more than offset the extra investment in hardware.

Setting up packages

Using packages in PVX allows you to define the packaging levels needed in the warehouse inventory and monitor which packages are used to despatch items. They also may be used as a basis for more advanced picking methods using composite barcodes.

To use this feature, you need to set up your packages in the web app. This involves entering information on the measurements and other characteristics of a given package type. Packages contain a barcode field, so users can select them by scanning rather than using the mouse on the PC.

Follow these steps to set up a new package:

Go to the Packages tab in the Setup module of the web app.
Click Add new.
In the Add new package dialog, enter the required information:
- The display name of the package;
- A barcode for the package;
- The normal and maximum weight of the package and the relevant units (see Package weights below);
- The dimensions of the package.
Optionally, you can add a URL for an image of the package to help your despatchers identify each one visually.
For packages that are to be used for shipping orders (and not only for storing inventory), tick the box.
Click Save. The new package will be displayed in the tab, and will be available for selection in the despatch screen. Use the software that you use for printing your item and location labels to print out the barcodes for your packages so that they can quickly be selected during despatch by scanning the barcode from a sheet.

You can select an existing package and click View and then Edit to amend its details, or click Delete to remove it from the system.

Note: You can add the option Package default weight UOM to your PVX account if you want to change between weight units, otherwise you are restricted to the units you originally chose when setting up the package. Raise a ticket with the PVX helpdesk to enable this option.

Package weights

If items stored in the system have a weight recorded against them, this will be automatically added to the package weight at the point of despatch. Therefore, you should ensure that the weight entered against the package is the weight of the empty package. The total weight calculated by the system will be the weight of each item scanned at despatch plus the weight of the package type selected at despatch.

If you enter a maximum weight for a package, you can add an option to your PVX account so that the despatch process automatically uses the maximum weight value as the consignment weight when that package is selected.

Alternatively, you can choose to use the package types to reflect the average weight of certain parcels.

For example, if the average weight of your Royal Mail tracked parcels is 3 kg, you may choose to record a weight of 3 kg for each Royal Mail tracked parcel despatched. In this case, you should set up a package named ‘Royal Mail tracked’ and record the weight as 3 kg. In this scenario, the weight of all inventory items must be recorded as zero, otherwise the item weight will be added to the allocated weight of the package at the point of despatch and the calculated weight will then be too high.