Move the bestsellers closer to the packing bench before November

Before: the walk to the back shelf

Picture a small warehouse in early December. It's a labeled composite, but you've probably worked in one. The packing bench is by the roll-up door. The best-selling holiday candle lives on the top shelf of the last aisle, because that's where there was room when it arrived in August.

Every order with a candle in it means a walk to the back, a reach, a walk back. On a quiet day that's fine. In the second week of December it's the same walk dozens of times a shift, by the same people, while orders queue on the screen. The gift box that usually ships with the candle is in a different aisle, so it's two walks.

Nobody designed it that way. The shelves were filled in the order things arrived. And the layout made sense for the year as a whole, when the candle was a modest seller and the work boots were the big item.

That's the part worth noticing. Your warehouse is probably slotted for your average month, and peak isn't an average month.

After: the season's sellers by the bench

Same building, re-slotted in early November. The twenty items most likely to ship this season sit at waist height in the two aisles nearest the bench. The candle and the gift box are side by side, because last December they shipped together more often than not. A few holiday bundles are pre-assembled on a cart. The work boots moved one aisle back. They'll still sell, just less often for the next eight weeks.

The packers don't walk less because anyone is working harder. They walk less because the things they reach for most are close. Questions like "where did the candles go?" have an answer, because the new locations went into the system before anything moved.

That's the whole idea. It's not a new warehouse or a robot. It's one afternoon of planning and a weekend of moving, done before the rush instead of during it.

Find what peak actually sells

Start with data you already have: last November and December's order lines, from your store, your marketplace accounts and your warehouse system. Not the year's totals. Just the season.

Sort the items by how many orders they appeared in, not by revenue. A cheap item that's in a third of orders matters more to the walk than an expensive one in a few. Then look for pairs: items that ship together often enough that they should live side by side.

Adjust for what changed. If you've launched a new product, decided on a big promotion for Black Friday on November 27, or dropped a line, put that into the list by hand. Your marketing calendar is part of your slotting plan.

The result is usually a short list, a few dozen items rather than hundreds. That's where the effort goes. Everything else can stay put.

If you sell through more than one channel, check that the list covers all of them. A marketplace bestseller that never shows up in your own store's reports still gets picked from the same shelves.

Move it without losing it

The re-slot itself is where things go wrong. A box gets moved, the system still says the old shelf, and three days later someone marks an item out of stock that's sitting in aisle two. We wrote about the gap between available and actually pickable. A careless re-slot creates exactly that gap.

So do it in this order. Change the location in the system first. Then move the box. Then scan or count it in its new place. If your system can't hold two locations at once, move a little at a time, at a quiet hour, and don't pick from that item until it's confirmed.

Think about who's new. If you bring on seasonal help in November, they'll learn the new layout as the only layout, which is an advantage. Print a one-page floor map with the moved items marked, and tape it by the bench. The people who've worked there for years are the ones who'll reach for the old shelf.

Label the old spot. A simple "moved to aisle 2, shelf B" note saves the person on Saturday who still has the old map in their head.

Do it in the first two weeks of November. Earlier, and you're moving products away from where they sell well right now. Later, and you're moving boxes in the same aisles people are picking from.

After peak: put the year back

In January, the candle is a modest seller again. Plan the move back when you plan the move out, so it doesn't become "the new layout" by accident. Keep the list of what you moved and where it came from. That list is also next year's starting point.

Count again once the season items are back. January is when small location errors from the busy weeks are cheapest to find.

Write down what you'd change. Which items should have moved and didn't? Which pairs turned out not to be pairs? We suggested re-reading last year's rescued orders before peak. Your re-slot notes are the warehouse version of the same habit.

And look at the packing bench itself. If the shelves are close but the bench is still slowing things down, the next fix is there, and our note on checking the order at the bench is a good place to start.

Put this into practice this week

Pull last November and December's order lines and sort items by how many orders included them. Circle the top few dozen and the pairs that ship together.

Walk the floor with that list and mark where each item lives now. You'll know within an hour whether your bestsellers are near the bench or at the back.

Pick a date in the first half of November for the move. Update locations in your system first, move second, count third, and label the old spots.

If your stock locations, order data and warehouse system don't quite agree, or you'd like the system to suggest the re-slot for you next year, that's the kind of fulfillment operations work we do. Talk to us.

Related work: Paddle8.