In e-commerce, picking up products from the warehouse and packing them is just one part of the work. Once the order has been prepared, each package must be classified before shipment. With demand peaks, in campaigns such as Black Friday or Christmas, the daily volume can reach thousands or tens of thousands of orders, and this classification becomes one of the most critical points of logistics operations.

When logistics activity grows so much, ranking becomes a difficult task to assume only with the temporary increase in the workforce. That is why many fulfillment centers use automatic systems capable of identifying each package and directing it to its destination.

Instead of reviewing packages one by one, as an operator would do, automated systems cause each shipment to circulate through a network of conveyor belts where scanners identify the code of each order. From there, its destination is decided and it is automatically diverted to the corresponding charging point.

Some e-commerce companies use this technology on a large scale.

JD Logistics, the logistics operator of the Chinese platform JD.com, uses highly automated classification centers. At its center in Kunshan (China), it can process up to 9,000 orders per hour, a task that would manually require about 180 workers. Packages are scanned, sorted by region and grouped automatically before loading into delivery trucks. The system decides to which dock each package should be directed according to its destination.

Zalando, one of the largest fashion e-commerce platforms in Europe, uses in its fulfillment centers the so-called bag sorters, classification systems in which each item is temporarily inserted into a bag that circulates through the circuit. In some centers, the classification circuit can hold up to 700,000 bags. From here, items are sent to packing and dispatching stations.

The great advance is in the ability to absorb volume without losing precision. Classifying thousands of orders in a few hours stops depending on the number of people available and is possible thanks to an automated flow that keeps pace even in high demand campaigns.

E-commerce is testing all logistics operations. In the last mile, the challenges remain very demanding. Inside the warehouse, on the other hand, order classification can flow much better even when online purchases skyrocket.