Logistics & Operations · Commerce operations
A custom platform that integrates Shopify, warehouse hardware, and multiple shipping APIs to automate order processing.
Outcome
Duplicate picks and wrong-carrier shipments stopped: barcode checks lock each order, and 3 carrier and invoicing APIs are picked by destination.
A high-volume e-commerce business relies on the speed and accuracy of its warehouse operations. For our partner, a growing Shopify merchant with both domestic and international customers, the ability to fulfill orders efficiently was central to their success and reputation.
As their order volume increased, their manual process for packing, invoicing, and shipping became a significant bottleneck. Each step was disconnected, requiring staff to cross-reference orders and use separate systems for different carriers. This friction not only slowed down fulfillment but also introduced a high rate of human error, leading to incorrect shipments and increased operational costs.
Robust Devs was engaged to design a unified system that would remove these operational constraints. We developed a custom internal application that centralizes order management, product validation, and logistics into a single, cohesive workflow for the entire warehouse team.
The challenge
How we solved it
Technologies
To eliminate packing errors, the system integrates directly with barcode scanners in the warehouse. As an employee picks items for an order, they scan each product's barcode. The application validates the item against the Shopify order data in real-time, providing immediate visual confirmation. This simple check ensures near-perfect order accuracy and prevents incorrect shipments.
The platform manages all third-party communications for invoicing and logistics. Based on the customer's shipping address, the system intelligently routes requests to the correct API-Sameday for domestic deliveries or DHL for international. This logic is invisible to the warehouse employee, who simply clicks a single button to generate and print the correct invoice and shipping label for any order.
How we built it
Locked every order to one pair of hands and made the scanner, not the packer, decide when a box was right. The two expensive errors on the floor were two people picking the same order and a box leaving with the wrong contents. The first is solved with a reservation: when someone starts an order it locks and disappears from everyone else's queue until it ships. The second is solved by validating every barcode scan against the Shopify order before the app lets the packer move on. Invoicing and labels sit behind one API layer that reads the destination and calls the right service, SmartBill, Sameday or DHL, so the packer never chooses a carrier and never opens a second system.
In the client's words
“Two people used to pick the same order. That stopped the week it went live.”
Tell us what you're building. We'll show you how we'd approach it and what it would take to ship.