I am Ramon Kleiss and since May 20, I work at Picqer as an Senior Developer. Together with my colleagues Wouter and Anna (and of course Casper and Stephan) I hope to make the Picqer software even better than it is at the moment.

Before I started at Picqer, I worked in the social media world for 5 years. Before that, I studied Embedded Systems Engineering at the Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen. So you could say that I am completely new to the world of web shops and warehouses and this was exactly what attracted me to Picqer at first. The quality of the software and the clear communication are other things that I really like about Picqer.

Beside building software, I really love to go skiing in the winter and take a good mountain hike in the summer. I also love motorcycling, although it isn't possible for now due to leaking carburetors.

I look forward to helping you with handy features and bug fixes!

Good news for users who send packages with Sendcloud. We have expanded our Sendcloud integration with international shipping. This makes sending packages to a foreign country as easy as pie.

For shipments outside of the EU customs union you need to provide extensive product information and add special customs documents to the parcel. We automatically give this product information to Sendcloud when you create a shipment for a country outside of the EU customs union.

Shipping documents

For international shipments you won't receive an A6 shipping label, but multiple customs forms. These you need to attach visibly to the outside of your parcel. Sendcloud generates these documents for you and Picqer automatically prints them.

Product information

For international shipments, extra product information is required such as weight, HS code and country of origin. Read all the needed preparation on our page about international shipping.

International shipping with Sendcloud is now available for all Sendcloud users.

Good news for DPD users. From now on Picqer can directly create shipping labels with the use of your own DPD contract.

The DPD team created an integration so you can now directly create shipping labels in Picqer. The only thing you need is your own DPD contract inside the Benelux with a DIS 2.0 account and set up the DPD integration.

About DPD

DPD is one of the biggest express and parcel service providers in Europe. They ship over 4.8 million packages every day. DPD Netherlands exists out of 9 depots in which 1.400 employees ensure an easy, fast and trustful delivery of packages.

Pick up locations in Magento 2

DPD has an extensive network of pick up parcel shops throughout 20 countries in Europe. With 25.000 pick up points, of which 1.500 in the Benelux, there is always one close to your client. DPD is busy expanding this network in the coming years.

Does your webshop run on Magento 2? Then the DPD integration recognizes the pick up locations automatically and will send your shipment to the pick up location.

Shipping services

The integration supports different DPD shipping services such as Classic, Express and Predict. With Predict your customers get proactive notifications about their delivery per text or mail with an 1 hour time slot of delivery. With Predict, the client is also able to adjust their delivery up until 30 minutes of delivery.

By choosing the right shipping services you increase the chance of a succesful first delivery.

Activating the DPD integration

We explain how you activate the DPD integration step-by-step on our support page.

We have expended our MyParcel integration with international shipping. Now you can send packages as easily to America and Russia as you do to Utrecht or Antwerp.

For shipments outside of the EU customs union you need to provide extensive product information and add special customs documents to the parcel. We automatically give this product information to MyParcel when you create a shipment for a country outside of the EU customs union.

Shipping documents

For international shipments you won't receive an A6 shipping label, but multiple customs forms. These you need to attatch visibily to the outside of your parcel. MyParcel generates these documents for you and Picqer automatically prints them.

Product information

For international shipments, extra product information is required such as weight, HS code and country of origin. Read all the needed preperation on our page about international shipping.

International shipping with MyParcel is now available for all MyParcel users.

There are lots of ways to pick your orders. One of these options is batch-picking. In this blog we tell you about the different batch-picking methods and how you can best use them.

What is batch-picking?

Batch-picking is a method of order picking in which you pick the products of different orders at the same time. Because you only have to walk through your warehouse once to complete multiple picklists, you save a lot of time. The amount of picklists you combine at once often lies between 6 to 24, depending on which kind of products you sell.

During collecting your batch you keep your orders separated in different containers. At the packing table you pack the products for each order.

Which kind of batches are there?

Beside the usual batches where you collect multiple picklists at once, there are more variations on batch-picking such as 'singles-picking'. This are orders where there is only one product on the picklist. For the total of Picqer users, 59% of all orders are 'singles'. This makes the use of this method very interesting.

With batch-picking you divide the products in different containers, for single-batches you can put everything in just one. With this method you can pick way more picklists at once. But be aware: this method only saves you time when a software program assists you. Not every software system supports this method.

There also are other ways of picking such as wave-picking (multiple employees collect the same order) and zone-picking (the warehouse is divided into zones and products get collected for each zone and later combined into one order). But when you process less than 5000 orders a day, these methods are often not interesting as your warehouse is probably too small to incorporate these methods and normal batches often work quicker and more effective.

When can you best use batches?

When you have a large warehouse with small products, batch-picking is an excellent way to process your orders quicker. You have enough space to walk around with a cart and the products are small enough to be collected in containers.

When you sell large products, batches are not as handy as it is hard to collect multiple large products at once. Also, when you have a small warehouse, it might be better to pick per order. The surface is too small to maneuver a cart.

What do you put into a batch?

A batch is a combination of different picklists. But how do you know which picklists to combine?

The best way to create a batch is to see if you can make clear selections. Do you send half of your packages to foreign countries? Then it might be interesting to create batches for each country. This might be helpful when you use different tape or commercial material for different countries, so you don't have to watch out which tape or flyer you're using. Do you only send some packages to a foreign country? Then it is possible your batch becomes too small and sepperating them is not useful.

Do you have multiple floors or locations within your warehouse? Then it might be smart to select your batches per floor so you don't have to walk complicated or long routes. Picking per location is different as the earlier mentioned 'zone-picking' as here you only pick full orders in one zone. Orders spread over multiple zones or floors still have to be walked at once.

How to best incorporate batch-picking?

There are different ways to incorporate batch-picking. It is important to see which method is best for your warehouse.

A clear rhythm is important to not make mistakes. You need to decide if you want to pick in the morning, evening or both. Especially when you group your orders on location or country it is important to walk them multiple times. So be aware these batches don't become too small. Small batches are easily forgotten and it might be you send out a package a day later then promised.

Other aspects to look at are if you want to print your batches on paper or use a hand scanner. And what will the flow of picking be? Will one person pick the orders and someone else will finish it at the packing table? By asking these questions you get a clear overview of what the best batch-picking method is for your warehouse.

Want more tips?

Do you want more handy information about how to start your warehouse and find out which ways of picking there are? Download our free (Dutch) book

Download our free book ‘Zo mag je magazijn er zijn’ full of tips to make your warehouse even more efficient..