Optimization of product category allocation in multiple warehouses to minimize splitting of online supermarket customer orders

In an online supermarket, people may purchase multiple items in a single order for convenience or to obtain free delivery. Multi-item customer orders often need to be split into multiple shipments because the ordered items may be stored in different warehouses. Order splitting results in higher shipping costs. One way to reduce splitting is to store and retrieve all the items in a single warehouse. However, due to the vast volume of items sold …