Delivery Delays? 8 Hidden Warehouse Causes You Need to Know

If your outbound orders keep running late, don’t be so quick to blame the courier.

Your delivery partner might be the one showing up late at the customer’s door, but the real delay often starts much earlier. Inside your warehouse.

Let’s talk about what’s actually causing delivery delays and how you can fix it.

How Warehouse Issues Cause Delivery Delays

Let’s talk about what’s actually going wrong and how you can fix it.

1. Your Picking Process Is Slowing Everything Down

If pickers are standing around waiting for instructions, chasing missing stock, or getting stuck in aisles, you’ve already lost valuable time.

Ask yourself:

• Are pick lists printed and handed out manually?
• Are your pickers jumping between zones instead of working in a logical order?
• Are you using the same process for every order, no matter the size or type?

What to do:

• Use wave picking or batch picking for high-volume orders.
• Group similar SKUs together to reduce walking time.
• Go digital. A mobile picking app cuts delays caused by paper-based errors.

Example:

A wholesale distributor handling over 200 daily orders moved from single-order picking to batch picking with handheld scanners. The change reduced picking time by nearly three hours a day—cutting delivery delays and allowing an extra delivery run before the afternoon cut-off.

2. Stock Isn’t Where It Should Be

You can’t pick what you can’t find.

Misplaced or incorrectly labelled stock creates a ripple effect:

• Pickers waste time searching.
• Orders get short-picked or mispacked.
• Dispatch gets held up waiting for corrections.

Check for:

• Wrong bin locations.
• No barcode scanning.
• Poor stock rotation practices.

What to try:

• Assign clear zones for fast-moving items.
• Label every bin and shelf with barcode-readable tags.
• Do rolling stocktakes instead of waiting for end-of-month chaos.

Ask yourself:
When was the last time you did a walk-through of your pick faces? What’s actually happening on the ground?

3. Your Cut-Off Times Are Misaligned

Are your warehouse team and sales team working off different clocks?

If sales keep pushing orders through past your warehouse cut-off, you’re always playing catch-up.

Here’s what to watch:

• No clear cut-off policy communicated to sales.
• Urgent orders sent through without priority tags.
• Dispatch team forced to rework plans last minute.

Fix it by:

• Agreeing on hard cut-off times and sticking to them.
• Creating an “express order” rule with limited daily slots.
• Using colour-coded order statuses visible across teams.

Example:
A mid-sized eCommerce business introduced a strict 1pm cut-off for next-day delivery orders. Once sales and ops teams were aligned around the rule, dispatch planning became more predictable and late shipments dropped noticeably within the first week.

4. Packing Is the Bottleneck

Even if picking is smooth, packing can break your outbound flow.

Slow packers. Wrong box sizes. Missing inserts. Manual labelling.

Sound familiar?

Audit this area:

• Are packers trained in speed and accuracy?
• Do you pre-build boxes or pack on demand?
• Are labels and paperwork automated?

Try these fixes:

• Set up a fast-track packing lane for repeat SKUs.
• Auto-print packing slips and labels at the same station.
• Use scales to verify package weight against order weight.

Small tweaks here save minutes per order. Multiply that by 100 orders a day and you dramatically reduce delivery delays.

5. Poor Communication Between Teams

If sales, warehouse, and customer service work in silos, delays follow.

Your warehouse team can’t fix what they don’t know about.

Problems this causes:

• Special instructions missed.
• Backorders picked by mistake.
• Partial orders sent without warning.

Bridge the gap:

• Use shared dashboards showing order status live.
• Add a comments field for each order.
• Have a 10-minute daily stand-up between key roles.

When your team talks more, delays happen less.

6. You Have No Real-Time Visibility

If you’re still relying on spreadsheets and email, you’re reacting too late.

You need live data to stay ahead and prevent delivery delays before they happen.

Without it, you’re blind to:

• Orders stuck in pick.
• Delays at the packing bench.
• Last-mile dispatch problems.

What helps:

• A warehouse management system (WMS) that tracks each stage.
• Dashboards showing real-time order progress.
• Alerts when orders fall behind.

Think about this:
Can you tell, right now, how many orders are waiting to be picked? Packed? Shipped?

If not, you’re flying blind.

7. Too Much Manual Work

Manual processes break under pressure.

Typing labels. Handwriting pick slips. Chasing emails.

You lose time to:

• Typos and human error.
• Redundant double-checks.
• Staff having to ask questions they shouldn’t need to ask.

Fix it with:

• Scanning at every stage—receiving, picking, packing, dispatch.
• Pre-built workflows for common order types.
• Role-based views so each person sees what matters to them.

Result:
Less back and forth. Faster handoffs. Fewer mistakes.

8. You’re Not Measuring the Right Metrics

If all you track is delivery time, you’re looking too far downstream.

Measure what happens inside your four walls.

Track things like:

• Time to pick per order.
• Orders packed per hour per staff member.
• Orders delayed in each stage.

Why it matters:

You can’t fix what you don’t measure. And once you do measure, you’ll spot trends you didn’t expect.

Some warehouses see a spike in picking delays on Monday mornings. A common reason is overlap between unpacking weekend inbound stock and starting outbound fulfilment.

One solution is to stagger shift times or assign a dedicated team to handle putaway separately, so outbound operations can start without interruption.

Want to Fix the Delays for Good?

If you’re still managing stock on spreadsheets or chasing down late orders, it might be time for a change.

Datapel gives warehouse teams clearer control and faster workflows. With tools that support 99% inventory accuracy and cut labour time by up to 50%, you’ll spend less time fixing problems and more time preventing delivery delays and getting orders out the door.

We keep it simple.

It starts with a quick 15-minute call to understand how your warehouse runs, what’s slowing you down, and what you’d like to improve.

If it makes sense, we’ll book a demo tailored to your setup—no pressure, no fluff.

See if Datapel is the right fit for your business

Casey Harper

As a WMS Industry Analyst & Content Lead I write about warehouse management systems from real experience—helping businesses streamline operations, reduce errors, and scale smarter.

Over the past 8 years, I’ve worked closely with warehouse teams, tech developers, and business owners to break down complex supply chain problems into actionable solutions. My goal? Make WMS content useful, not just informative.

When I’m not writing, I’m digging into user feedback, testing new tools, or speaking with industry experts to stay ahead of what matters most to warehouse operators.