30,000+ SKUs and 430 Orders/Day on a Single Platform

The Challenge

Their previous system was Katana, a manufacturing-focused tool they were using for maybe 20% of its capability. Katana didn’t do picking. It didn’t do scanning. It wasn’t built for eCommerce fulfillment. ShipStation handled labels, but everything between the order and the shipping label was manual — printed paper pick lists, no barcode verification, no batch picking.

The bigger operational challenge was dropshipping. Forty to sixty percent of orders route to external vendors, and the company works with dozens of suppliers. Each line item on a multi-item order might need to route to a different vendor based on cost and availability. The routing decisions were being made manually or through brittle workarounds that couldn’t scale.

Marketplace-specific complexity added another layer. The same product might be sold as a single unit on Amazon but as a kit of eight on eBay, depending on the listing photos and marketplace rules. Kit decomposition — breaking a marketplace kit back into individual SKUs for fulfillment — needed to be automatic.

“I didn’t think that we’re all that complicated in how we operate, but apparently we are.”

GM General ManagerAuto Parts Distributor

Why SkuNexus

The GM had run a lot of demos and tried a lot of software. He knew the space. What stood out about SkuNexus was that every question he asked — about vendor cost-based routing, about kit decomposition, about batch picking with barcode scanning, about wholesale orders created outside Shopify — got a real answer. Not a “that’s on our roadmap” answer. A “here’s how it works” answer.

The wave picking demo was the turning point. When the GM saw orders grouped into optimized warehouse walks with barcode verification at every step, the operational math clicked immediately.

“We’re going to fire like three people. Just kidding.”

GM General ManagerAuto Parts Distributor (on seeing the wave picking demo)

What Was Built

Automated Vendor Routing by Cost

The decision engine evaluates every line item on every order and routes it to the vendor offering the lowest cost with confirmed inventory. When multiple vendors carry the same SKU, the system selects automatically based on cost, availability, and geography. No manual routing decisions. No spreadsheets.

Kit Decomposition Across Marketplaces

A product listed as a kit on eBay and a single unit on Amazon decomposes into the correct fulfillment components automatically. The warehouse team picks individual SKUs regardless of how the product was sold on the marketplace.

Wave Picking with Barcode Verification

Hundreds of daily orders are grouped into optimized waves. Pickers follow system-directed routes through the warehouse, scanning locations and products at every step. The paper pick lists and manual processes that previously managed 430+ orders per day were replaced entirely.

Consolidated Multi-Channel Fulfillment

Orders from Shopify, Amazon, and eBay flow into a single fulfillment pipeline. The decision engine routes each order — or each line item within an order — to the right destination: warehouse pick, vendor dropship, or split across both.

The Results

A 30,000+ SKU operation running 430 orders a day across three marketplaces with a hybrid warehouse-and-dropship model now runs through a single platform. The vendor routing that used to require manual decisions happens automatically. The wave picking that replaced paper lists cut the labor math dramatically. And the marketplace-specific kit logic that used to create fulfillment errors is now handled by the system before the warehouse team ever sees the order.