WooCommerce Packing Slips, Shipping Labels and Pick Lists

WooCommerce prints none of the three documents a warehouse works with: no packing slip for the box, no shipping label for the outside of it, and no pick list for collecting the items. They solve different problems and come from different places, and treating them as one is the usual reason a store ends up with three plugins doing overlapping work. Here is what each one is for and what to check before you print it.

Three documents, three jobs

The invoice is a fourth document with prices and tax, and it is covered separately in WooCommerce invoices. A packing slip is close to an invoice with the money removed, which is why the two usually come from the same plugin.

What WooCommerce gives you

Each order has an edit screen with the items, the addresses, the shipping method and the customer's note. That is everything a packing slip needs, but there is no printable layout: printing the screen from the browser gives you the admin menu, order notes and prices along with the items. There is no bulk print from the orders list either.

Shipping labels are a different matter. WooCommerce calculates shipping rates through its zones and methods, as set up in WooCommerce shipping, but rates are not postage. A label with a tracking barcode is bought from the carrier, so it comes from a carrier integration or a label service connected to your account. The document plugins in this article do not replace that.

The packing slip

This is the document worth getting right, because it is what the packer checks against and what the customer reads when something is missing.

It should show:

• The SKU and the product name, so the packer picks the right item rather than a similar one.
• Variation attributes — size, colour — on the line, not hidden in the product name.
• Custom item data, such as engraving text or a chosen option. If your store stores extra data on cart items, as in woocommerce_add_cart_item_data, check that it reaches the slip; it is the line most often lost.
• The customer's order note, which is where delivery instructions live.
• The shipping address only, not the billing one, for orders sent to someone else.

It should not show prices. A gift, an order sent from a supplier on your behalf as in WooCommerce dropshipping, or a replacement shipment should not tell the recipient what was paid.

Generating it is plugin territory. WooCommerce PDF Invoices is one example: alongside invoices and credit notes it generates packing slips, so both documents come from the same plugin.

The pick list

A pick list is useful once more than a handful of orders are packed at once. Instead of walking the shelves once per order, the picker collects every unit of each SKU across a batch, then the packer splits them by order.

What makes one usable:

1. Grouped by product, with total quantities, not by order.
2. Sorted by shelf location, if you keep one. A list sorted alphabetically sends the picker back and forth.
3. Variations as separate lines. "T-shirt × 12" is useless when it is four sizes in three colours.
4. Generated from a selection, such as all processing orders, so the batch is clear.

Stock levels should already be right before picking starts; if they are not, the pick list just prints the mistake faster. That side is covered in WooCommerce inventory management.

When to print

Most stores print packing slips when an order reaches processing, because payment has been taken and the order is ready to fulfil. Printing on completed is too late: completed is usually set after shipping, and it triggers the customer's completed email, as described in woocommerce_order_status_completed.

Bulk printing from the orders list matters more than any template option. Check that the plugin can print documents for twenty selected orders in one go, in one file, in the order they were selected.

Paper and printers

• A4 or Letter for packing slips printed on an office printer.
• 4×6 inch thermal labels are the standard for shipping labels. Check that your label source can produce that size if you use a thermal printer, because a label scaled down from A4 often fails to scan.
• Barcodes on the packing slip, such as the order number, let the packer scan instead of typing when they mark the order shipped.

Common mistakes

• Prices on the packing slip of a gift order.
• Expecting a document plugin to buy postage. Labels with tracking come from the carrier side.
• Losing custom item data, so the engraving or chosen option never reaches the packer.
• A pick list by order instead of by product, which removes the point of having one.
• Printing on completed, after the customer has already received the completed-order email.

Verify

1. Create a test order with a variable product, a custom option and a customer note.
2. Print its packing slip and check every one of those appears, and no price does.
3. Select several processing orders and print slips in bulk; confirm one file, correct order.
4. Generate a pick list for the same batch and check quantities are totalled per variation.
5. Print a shipping label at the size your printer uses and scan the barcode. </content>