Written by Weekender

All the behind-the-scenes magic at the regional e-fulfillment hub after you cart out

Photos: Weekender/Zalora; shot on Olympus Pen-F

Browse, add to the cart, pay and you’re all set to bless your wardrobe with new sartorial picks.

It’s simple right?

Not quite, as we discovered on a recent trip to KL.

With cameras on the ready and safety vests in bright neon hues, we trooped into Zalora’s new regional e-fulfillment hub in Selangor, Malaysia, to uncover what goes on behind the Asian e-commerce giant’s day-to-day operation.

With a total area of 470,000 square feet — also the approximate size of nine FIFA football fields, and split across five levels, the hub plays a crucial role in fulfilling thousands of orders each day.

To put things in perspective, the fashion e-store facilitates orders round the clock across eight markets including Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Philippines.

Lest you think a warehouse of this scale would be a nightmare for the staff to maneuver, you’ll be pleased to know that they use high-tech solutions like mobile picking to transmit customer orders through mobile devices, so that picking up the right items can be accurate and productive.

No more wrong orders? Sounds wonderful to us.

Here’s a sneak peek of what happens before your shopping haul gets dropped off at your doorstep and how to track you zalora order?:

1. Inbound goods from around the world arrive at the warehouse

2. Stock taking is done with a special Order Management System, which allocates each item with a unique code

3. Products are stocked across five levels according to type, size and more

4. Once an order is made, the mobile picking solution helps pinpoint the location of the products which have to be picked up

5. The picker then heads to the shelf indicated on the mobile system, to collect the items for an order

6. Items are once again scanned for accuracy and matched to their allocated codes, before being transported to ground level via a conveyor belt

7. Down it goes!

8. A sorter separates the orders according to single items and group orders

9. Then, a packer scans the items to check for the mailing address before sealing the bags

10. Finally the packed items are sorted according to their destination countries, waiting for pick up by transport services like NinjaVan

Shop Zalora Singapore sale  here. To track Zalora order can follow this steps or simply see our apps.