Packing can be labor-intensive because each piece of a customer order must be handled; but there is little walking. And because each piece will be handled, this is a convenient time to check that the customer order is complete and accurate. Order accuracy is a key measure of service to the customer, which is, in turn, that on which most businesses compete.

    Inaccurate orders not only annoy customers by disrupting their operations, they
also generate returns; and returns are expensive to handle (up to ten times the cost of
shipping the product out).
    One complication of packing is that customers generally prefer to receive all the parts of their order in as few containers as possible because this reduces shipping and handling charges. This means that care must be taken to try to get all the parts of an order to arrive at packing together. Otherwise partial shipments must be staged, waiting completion before packing, or else partial orders must be packaged and sent.
    Amazon, the web-based merchant, will likely ship separate packages if you order two books fifteen minutes apart. For them rapid response is essential and so product is never staged. They can ship separate packages because their customers do not mind and Amazon is willing to pay the additional shipping as part of customer service.
    Packed product may be scanned to register the availability of a customer order for shipping. This also begins the tracking of the individual containers that are about to leave the warehouse and enter the system of a shipper.