Warehouse KPI examples: 24 KPIs you need to improve fulfilment

A robust shipping fulfilment process is about more than just what happens when a package leaves your warehouse. By taking control and working efficiently in the areas you and your staff can influence, your business can benefit from the moment an order is placed to when it's shipped off with a trusted courier. For retailers, fast and accurate shipping isn’t just about operations—it’s a competitive advantage that builds trust and drives repeat business.

But how do you know where there’s room for improvement? By identifying and monitoring warehouse KPIs (key performance indicators), you can start to paint a picture of what you're doing right and where there’s room for optimisation. Tracking KPIs can help you increase team efficiency, reduce costs and improve order accuracy—all key to keeping customers happy. Miss this, and you risk losing ground to global giants like Amazon, Temu and others who are setting the bar high with super-fast delivery.

Let’s dive into common warehouse KPI examples and look at how becoming a strategic, data-driven warehouse can help you outpace rivals by delivering orders faster, cheaper, and more reliably.

Table of contents

• What are KPIs in a warehouse context?
• The benefits of warehouse management KPIs for your business
• Warehouse KPI examples – core warehouse KPI metrics
• KPI examples for warehouse employees
• Warehouse Supervisor or Warehouse Manager KPI examples
• KPIs for Warehouse Pickers
• Using a warehouse KPI dashboard with automation
• Export your data with a warehouse KPI Excel template
• Next steps: using warehouse KPIs to drive efficiency

Inventory management is a good example – if inventory isn’t restocked quickly or accurately, it could affect same-day delivery orders or result in customers getting the wrong items shipped to them. The root cause? Often, it’s not just stock levels, but poor visibility or slow receiving processes – issues your KPIs can help to pinpoint.

The benefits of warehouse management KPIs for your business

Let’s take a look at some of the benefits paying attention to warehouse management KPIs can provide your business. Unlike generic best practices, tracking the right KPIs will diagnose specific bottlenecks, like excessive picker travel time or overstocked shelves, and help you address these root cause issues. Whether you’re looking to save money or get your team working together better, a strategic focus on metrics is essential to find areas for improvement. Measuring warehouse KPI metrics can – through the process of addressing the underlying issues – lead to benefits such as:

Increased efficiency

Reducing wasted time in the picking and fulfilment process gets orders shipped quicker.

Better inventory control

Real-time data and tracking of your products can help to avoid overstocking or stockouts that disrupt the fulfilment process.

Improved order accuracy

Efficiency and accuracy at each stage of the process reduces the rate of returns due to error and helps build customer trust in your business.

Optimised workforce performance

Clear metrics can help you identify bottlenecks in picker routes or packing workflows and determine the most efficient way to reallocate team efforts.

It’s also essential to choose warehouse KPIs that are measurable so you can compare new data with old and see if any changes have a noticeable impact.

Choose KPIs based on your warehouse’s unique challenges – speed for same-day delivery, cost for tight margins, or accuracy for high-value items. Think about what metrics would be best for improving order accuracy, managing your inventory or enhancing team productivity. The right data will help you find inefficiencies and improve your workflow to help you meet these goals.

Starshipit tip: If warehouse KPIs feel overwhelming to track, consider using a tool like Starshipit that automates the process for you.

KPI examples for warehouse employees

While it’s possible to turn almost any task into a trackable metric, there are some shipping KPIs we think every warehouse should be tracking. These are general KPIs that can help you understand your fulfilment efficiency and overall team performance. Focus on these over others, like vanity metrics (e.g. total packages moved), to drive real outcomes.

1. Order picking accuracy

This tracks the percentage of orders picked correctly, a direct measure of quality over speed. High accuracy reduces costly returns, while low accuracy signals issues like unclear labelling or rushed workflows. Focus on this metric to improve customer trust.

2. Orders picked per hour

This measures how many items a picker handles hourly, balancing speed with practicality. It’s not just about pushing staff harder – pair it with travel time data to see if layout changes could boost output without burnout.

3. Average fulfilment time

This tracks the total time from order receipt to dispatch, spotlighting delays in picking and packing. Reducing this time can unlock faster shipping options but first weigh up the cost – rushing might spike errors. Aim for a sweet spot based on your delivery promises.

4. Rate of return due to picking errors

This reveals how often the wrong items reach customers, tying directly to accuracy. A high rate might justify slower picking for precision, while a low rate lets you push speed. 

5. Warehouse throughput

This counts items processed daily or weekly, showing overall capacity. It’s useful for scaling, but don’t chase it alone. High throughput with sloppy accuracy wastes effort. Check it against order lead time for more context.

6. Order lead time

This spans order placement to customer delivery, including shipping. Shorter lead times boost satisfaction, but warehouse control ends at dispatch – carrier delays can skew it. Focus here if speed is your brand’s edge, and coordinate with couriers.

7. Carrying cost of inventory

This tracks storage costs for unsold stock, like rent or spoilage. Lowering it might mean tighter inventory cycles but overdo it and stockouts loom. Use this to decide if holding extra stock beats losing sales.

8. Inventory turnover rate

This measures how often stock refreshes, hinting at demand alignment. High turnover cuts carrying costs but risks shortages; low turnover ties up cash.

9. Stock-to-sales ratio

This compares inventory to sales volume, flagging overstock or shortages. A balanced ratio avoids lost sales without bloating storage costs.

10. Lost sales due to out-of-stock items

This estimates revenue lost when stock runs dry, a wake-up call for inventory planning. Reducing it might mean higher carrying costs – this is decided based on profit margins. It’s a strategic lever for growth, not just a number.

Warehouse Supervisor or Warehouse Manager KPI examples

Some warehouse KPIs are better suited to managers and senior staff as they tie to broader business goals like cost control and customer retention. If you’re a warehouse manager, you will need to manage KPIs relating to employee performance and overall company efficiency, which guide strategic decisions.

1. Inventory record accuracy

A critical warehouse KPI that measures how accurately recorded inventory matches actual physical stock. High accuracy prevents stockouts or overordering; low rates point to unreliable counts.

2. Labor cost per order

This tracks labour expenses per order, revealing staffing efficiency. High costs might signal overstaffing or slow processes, while low costs could hide quality issues. Balance it with picking accuracy for real insight.

3. Dock-to-stock time

This measures how fast incoming goods hit warehouse shelves, critical for avoiding back orders. A slow time might justify more staff at receiving, but automation could provide a cheaper alternative.

4. Order cycle time

This tracks processing speed from order entry to dispatch, a core efficiency metric. Shorter cycles impress customers but rushing risks errors – data should set the pace.

5. Receiving efficiency

This counts items processed per worker at intake, testing staff productivity. High efficiency cuts labour costs, but low numbers might mean understaffing or bottlenecks. Pair it with dock-to-stock to spot the real issue.

6. Backorder rate

This tracks orders delayed by stockouts, a red flag for planning. A high rate might push you to overstock, but that could hike carrying costs.

7. Perfect order rate

This measures orders delivered flawlessly – picked right, packed well, shipped on time. It’s the gold standard for customer satisfaction.

8. Space utilisation rate

This shows how much of your warehouse is actively used, guiding expansion decisions. High rates save rent but can clog workflows; low rates waste money. Optimise with throughput data – don’t just fill space for the sake of it.

9. Storage cost per unit

This calculates the cost to store each item, from rent to utilities. Lowering it might mean faster turnover, but stockouts hurt sales. Use this to weigh holding costs vs. availability.

10. Warehouse capacity utilisation

This assesses total space efficiency, beyond just storage. High utilisation maximises your footprint, but overcrowding slows pickers. Balance it with picker travel time.

KPIs for Warehouse Pickers

When managing your picking team, there are key metrics to track picker efficiency and accuracy, balancing speed with quality. These can also be shared with your pickers to help them understand how they are performing and what the expectations are for their role.

Essential warehouse KPIs for pickers include:

1. Pick rate per hour – Number of items picked in an hour.
2. Picking accuracy rate – Percentage of orders picked correctly.
3. Travel time per pick – Time spent walking between storage locations.
4. Cost per picked order – The labour cost of picking each order.

The advantage of using a dashboard is that it centralises your data across all the warehouse KPIs you’re monitoring and means you don’t have to jump between platforms to compare the number of backorders with your inventory accuracy rate. It can also become a one-stop shop for measuring employee efficiency alongside fulfilment speed and inventory levels to give a detailed overview of how your warehouse supports broader goals like customer acquisition.

To really take this to the next level, automation can bring even more efficiency into the reporting process and reduce the amount of time you spend combing through data. Automation helps by:

• Providing real-time insights into warehouse efficiency – instead of manually pulling a report, an automated dashboard can display live KPIs.
• Enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions – collected data can help you target inefficiencies and make process changes that will have a tangible impact.

Starshipit tip: Instead of manually pulling reports, Starshipit’s dashboard provides real-time visibility into key warehouse KPIs like order accuracy, shipping times, and carrier performance – helping you make faster, more precise decisions.

Being able to communicate trends with employees or senior leadership is important in situations like giving performance reviews, explaining a change in process to the pickers or making a case for investment in your warehouse operations that needs approval from leadership.

By exporting data to a warehouse KPI excel template, it can be easier to analyse the data you’ve collected and review the performance metrics that you’re focused on. Some key benefits are:

Track trends in fulfilment efficiency

Are there times in the year when efficiency drops? Are you seeing new processes impact fulfilment speed? Monitoring trends over time will help you understand how things develop.

Monitor employee performance over time

Who are your star performers? Where are the bottlenecks in their picking routine? Review order accuracy stats and the labour cost of each order to understand how efficient your team is.

Identify areas of improvement with historical data

What was your order accuracy rate two years ago? What about your backorder rate in the lead up to last Christmas? Real-time data is just part of the puzzle, as reviewing previous trends can help you realise what changes have helped your warehouse operate efficiently, and opportunities for more improvement.

Starshipit tip: Need a quick warehouse KPI report? With Starshipit’s reporting and analytics tools, you can export key performance data in seconds. This makes it easy to analyse trends, track fulfilment efficiency, and improve operations.

Next steps: using warehouse KPIs to drive efficiency

To make the most of your warehouse KPIs, you want to ensure you have the right tools that not only help you collect data, but analyse it regularly as well. By regularly reviewing your warehouse KPIs against your goals, you can continuously improve your processes for greater efficiency, effective cost control and fast (but still accurate!) fulfilment speed.

By the right tools, we of course mean a warehouse KPI dashboard that can show you essential metrics in real time so you can stay on top of the numbers that matter most. With smart use of automation features, plus the ability to export data to warehouse KPI excel templates, you can track past and future trends to watch how these metrics evolve over time and identify trends that need your attention.

To get a glimpse of what this could look like in your warehouse, try a 30-day free trial of Starshipit and see how tracking warehouse KPIs can turn operational wins into a competitive edge.