How Lean Logistics Saves Brands Millions

With steady fulfillment rates, on-time deliveries, and few customer complaints, it can be easy for an e-commerce brand to assume that its logistics operations are performing well. 

But an e-commerce system that functions isn’t necessarily efficient. It might be overstaffed. It might rely on manual processes and redundant steps. It might be doing more work than needed to get the same result. Over time, this extra effort translates directly into shrinking margins that grow harder to ignore as order volumes increase. Take, for example, a brand launching a promotion that caused a sudden surge in orders. On the surface, the campaign looks like a success—every order shipped on time, and customer feedback remained positive. But internally, the fulfillment team had to bring in temporary staff, extend warehouse hours, and manually coordinate with third-party carriers to keep up.

The system didn’t break, but it bent in ways that cost the brand thousands in unplanned expenses. Had the logistics been more automated and scalable, the same sales bump would have produced stronger margins instead of eroding them.

This is why brands must invest in ways to do more with less—consistently finding ways to move faster, reduce errors, and operate with fewer resources without compromising the customer promise. Lean methodology plays a central role in making that possible.

Lean focuses on maximizing customer value by systematically identifying and eliminating waste or muda—any step, task, or process that consumes resources without directly adding value to the customer experience¹. In the context of e-commerce fulfillment, value means fast, accurate deliveries, reliable inventory availability, and a smooth experience from checkout to delivery. Anything that doesn’t directly support that experience is considered waste.

The Lean methodology’s relentless pursuit of efficiency has been proven to improve productivity while reducing costs². And while results vary depending on the scale and complexity of a brand’s e-commerce operation, multiple studies have shown that Lean logistics can increase fulfillment productivity by up to 30% and improve delivery performance by 20%³. This increase in productivity might mean fulfilling the same volume with fewer shifts, equating to thousands in monthly savings on labor costs. Add to that the cost reductions from fewer fulfillment errors, less rework, and improved carrier coordination, and it’s easy to see how Lean logistics directly impacts the bottom line.

The potential is massive, but only if you know where to look.

Targeting Waste in the Warehouse and Beyond

Lean provides a powerful lens for spotting inefficiencies by breaking them down into categories that can be tracked, measured, and improved. Below are the eight most common types of waste found in logistics environments:

Defects

Errors in picking, packing, labeling, or shipping result in rework, returns, or replacements. These mistakes slow down operations and can damage customer trust. In a fulfillment center processing 10,000 orders a month, even a 1% error rate means a hundred problematic shipments, each requiring time, labor, and sometimes, product write-offs to resolve.

While a 1% error rate may fall within industry benchmarks⁴, to the customer, that one wrong delivery is a 100% failure. In fact, 85 out of those 100 customers who had a poor delivery experience, are likely to never order from your brand again⁵. Since 100% error-free fulfillment is unlikely to ever be achieved, brands need systems in place that not only minimize defects but also manage the fallout when they occur. This is where communication becomes a critical part of Lean thinking.

Clear, proactive communication with customers can help manage the waste created by defects. A mistake caught and addressed early—with prompt notifications, easy resolution processes, and clear ownership—can prevent a fulfillment error from escalating into a permanent loss of customer trust.

It’s critical to tighten quality control at every stage of fulfillment, not just at the end. At the same time, communication should remain tightly integrated into operations to reduce the broader impact of defects, keeping your logistics as lean as possible.

Inventory

Excess inventory ties up working capital and adds avoidable costs across multiple areas of fulfillment. Manufacturing, transportation, and inbound warehousing consume resources before products are even available to sell. The more inventory you hold, the more you pay in duties and tariffs for items that might sit idle for months. And as goods sit longer, brands continue to absorb storage fees, insurance premiums, and, if the items become dead or expired stock, costly disposal fees. Excess inventory can become a compounding financial burden that eats up 20-30% of its value each year⁶.

However, holding inventory in the right places at the right time can turn what’s typically seen as waste into a competitive advantage. Strategic inventory and fulfillment, such as stocking goods and fulfilling orders from Canada, can help brands avoid or reduce tariffs and duties, especially in the face of ongoing trade tensions. By carefully positioning inventory closer to demand and optimizing around shifting trade policies, brands not only lower fulfillment costs but also maintain a lean focus on flexibility and resilience in a volatile e-commerce market.

Overproduction

Overproduction is producing or preparing for demand that doesn’t exist. In logistics, this often shows up as pre-packing kits for marketing campaigns that haven’t been finalized, building out custom bundles before orders come in, or staging products in advance based on aggressive sales forecasts that don’t materialize. In contrast to inventory waste, which is often a storage issue, overproduction starts further upstream, driven by inaccurate forecasting, batch-oriented workflows, or pressure to "stay ahead" of demand. The fix isn’t slowing down or doing less, but rather building integrated fulfillment systems that respond to demand in real time.

Waiting

Waiting in fulfillment typically shows up as idle time and dwell time.

Idle time refers to pauses in the workflow. This could be workers waiting for their next task, workstations that aren’t being fed fast enough, or orders stuck in queues between stages like picking and packing. These gaps often stem from poor task coordination, unbalanced workloads, or system lags. In high-volume environments, if 20 workers are idle for just 6 minutes per shift, that’s 2 hours of lost productivity per day. That’s 10 hours a week, 40 hours a month. Annually, that’s the equivalent of more than 2 months’ pay for no work.

Dwell time, on the other hand, is any time an order is not moving forward through fulfillment. It can show up in many forms, such as:

• Orders waiting too long to be picked after they are received.

• Picked items sitting in staging areas before they are packed.

• Orders waiting to be labeled before they can move to shipping.

• Packed boxes stacked by the dock waiting for a truck.

Left unchecked, idle and dwell time can cause confusion in the warehouse, increase labor costs, clog up warehouse space, make it harder to accurately forecast staffing needs or carrier capacity, and add unnecessary delays to deliveries.

Non-Utilized Talent

Teams working on the frontlines often see problems and opportunities before anyone else. This includes frontline workers, managers, and leadership who are regularly on the floor, closely connected to the day-to-day operations. If their insights aren’t heard or acted on, the brand misses an opportunity to improve. That’s why fulfillment operations must build in constant checks and balances at any given time to make sure everything is working as it should. This not only keeps workflows sharp but also ensures that teams are actively assessing their talent, systems, and processes for greater efficiency. Numerous studies have shown that empowering frontline teams to take ownership of these improvements helps build a culture that attracts and retains top talent in a high-turnover industry^7,8.

Transportation

Unnecessary movement of goods—especially across facilities, between buildings, or due to poor slotting—adds time and cost without improving service. In large-scale fulfillment centers, inefficient layouts can lead to more handling time per order than necessary. For instance, if fast-moving items are stored far from packing stations or scattered across multiple aisles instead of being grouped together, pickers may spend an extra 15 seconds per item just navigating the floor. Over the course of a thousand picks a day, that adds up to more than 4 hours of wasted labor—time that could have been spent fulfilling more orders.

Motion

Unlike transportation waste, motion refers to unnecessary physical movement by workers—bending, reaching, repositioning, transferring, or searching for tools or products. These micro-inefficiencies compound over thousands of shifts and increase the risk of injury. Reducing this through ergonomic setups, better task sequencing, and intuitive work layout design directly improves throughput and reduces fatigue. In fact, each dollar invested in better workstation design can yield $2 to $10 in returns⁹.

Overprocessing

Overprocessing occurs when a brand expends unnecessary effort, time, or resources to refine fulfillment beyond what the customer expects or requires. While exceeding customer expectations can be a good thing, there must be a clear limit to what is “too much”. One simple way to define that limit is by asking: “Does the customer find value in the result of this process?” For instance, when a customer experiences a delayed order, proactive communication can help offset the negative experience. However, too much communication, such as bombarding the customer with multiple notifications in a day, crosses the line from being attentive to being irritating. In lean logistics, every process should be intentionally designed to deliver value without excess.

All things considered, instead of building Lean systems from the ground up to address these wastes, e-commerce brands can accelerate efficiency by partnering with a fulfillment provider that has already embedded Lean principles across its logistics infrastructure.

The Lean Logistics Blueprint at Stord

Stord operationalizes Lean across its technology, workflows, culture, and every facility in its network through five core principles:

1. Define Value

Every high-performing logistics system begins by aligning with the customer’s definition of “value”. For some, this may be speed; for others, cost-efficiency or order accuracy. For Stord, value means delivering all three: fast shipping, cost-effective operations, and consistently accurate fulfillment. By clearly defining this composite value, Stord ensures every part of the logistics process is engineered to meet these outcomes. This focus eliminates guesswork and channels operational resources where they have the highest return, both for the brand and its customers.

2. Map the Value Stream

Stord maps every step in the fulfillment lifecycle—from inbound receiving and inventory storage to picking, packing, last-mile delivery, and returns. With data integrated across Stord’s platform, it becomes possible to distinguish between value-added steps, non-value-added steps, and pure waste. These value stream maps (VSMs) allow brands to visualize bottlenecks, identify redundant tasks, and gain actionable insights into process inefficiencies.

3. Create Flow

Once inefficiencies are identified via VSM, processes are re-engineered to support continuous flow. In practice, this may involve automating repetitive tasks, reconfiguring pick paths, consolidating inventory across zones, or sequencing labor to reduce downtime. The goal is uninterrupted movement of orders through the fulfillment process while minimizing delays and maximizing throughput.

4. Establish Pull

By working closely with the brand and its internal teams, Stord helps identify the right fulfillment strategy, potential node locations, and inventory flows. Together, they build a process that aligns inventory with real-time demand signals (“pull”), not just forecasts (“push”). Stord’s collaborative approach, together with its integrated end-to-end commerce fulfillment system, empowers brands to become more efficient across the board, ensuring the right inventory is in the right place at the right time.

5. Pursue Perfection

Continuous improvement or Kaizen is built into the culture. Stord supports ongoing optimization by empowering frontline teams and leadership to constantly identify and implement incremental changes that improve workflows, reduce waste, and enhance the end consumer experience. Regular audit processes and mock recalls are also a key part of Stord’s unceasing commitment to perfection. These routine checks give teams a structured way to spot gaps, test response readiness, and drive improvements in real-world conditions. All these progressive initiatives compound over time and result in a more agile and scalable fulfillment network for partner brands.

Real-World Savings Through Lean Logistics

Here’s how Lean logistics at Stord has translated into tangible savings for e-commerce brands:

Boosting Throughput with Kitting Optimization

For growing brands like Brave Books, manually managing complex kits led to inefficiencies. By adopting Stord's integrated Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Order Management System (OMS), the brand gained real-time inventory visibility and implemented a more structured, reliable kitting process. The case study details how this Lean approach reduced unnecessary steps and helped standardize kit assembly. In summary, Brave Books doubled its daily order capacity and significantly shortened fulfillment lead times. Units Per Hour (UPH) increased, labor cost per order dropped, and the entire operation became more scalable.

Cutting Costs with Automation

Manual order routing and carrier selection often create unnecessary costs and delays, especially as order volume grows. Stord eliminates this friction by automating these decisions through Stord Parcel combined with Stord’s Last-Mile Optimization software. Each order is evaluated in real-time to find the fulfillment center and carrier with the best rates and delivery speed. As featured in the case study, The Zero Proof saw projected savings of 78% vs standard carrier list rates during peak season by leveraging these automated optimizations.

Reducing Prep Time with Integration

Alen Corporation, a leading provider of premium air purifiers, faced a surge in demand that strained operations at its single fulfillment center, resulting in a 5-day lead time before orders were ready to ship. With Stord’s integrated fulfillment platform, Alen quickly adopted a multi-node strategy, moving products faster and sustaining strong growth even as demand climbed. This seamless integration, as detailed in the case study, not only sped up fulfillment but also boosted accuracy. Since partnering with Stord, Alen has cut order prep time from five days to just one, enabling a free 2-day shipping promise.

Shared Efficiency is Shared Savings

By applying Lean principles across its network and leveraging the combined scale of the hundreds of brands it supports, Stord delivers meaningful operational efficiencies. Its integrated end-to-end commerce enablement and fulfillment platform optimizes workflows, reduces waste, improves accuracy, and increases throughput. By driving collective efficiency across its ecosystem, Stord helps brands save millions of dollars in logistics costs, turning their supply chain into a competitive advantage.

Lean, for Stord, isn’t just a methodology—it’s a partnership philosophy focused on delivering maximum value by eliminating everything that doesn’t.