Do you participate in ecommerce as a seller? If so, you might want to set up an ecommerce warehouse to store and organize your products efficiently. In a warehouse setting, products can quickly be picked and packed– then sent to their destination. Buyers place orders online, and thanks to computers, the warehouse is alerted when a sale occurs. The team at the warehouse, whether it’s all done by human hands or robotics or a combination of the two, can then find the ordered products, package them up and send them out so the consumer gets them delivered to their door.
E-commerce Planning Tips
If you plan to set up an ecommerce warehouse, keep in mind that it’s generally a place to store things for longer periods of time, such as months or years. If it’s a “fulfillment center,” which is kind of a variation on the warehouse idea, then it’s set up for some long-term storage, but also able to handle daily picking, packing, labeling, sorting, etc. You can own and run your own warehouse or fulfillment center, or you can have a third-party logistics firm handle your business.
When ecommerce orders need to be fulfilled, you want to set up a system that makes inventory management simple and effective. You should have “the right number of SKUs” on hand to fulfill your orders daily, but not have too many SKUs on hand that you’re just wasting valuable space. Therefore, a good ecommerce warehouse or fulfillment center is good at forecasting order volume, as well as having good communication with manufacturers and freight forwarders. Ideally, the powers-that-be should be able to get an accurate inventory count at any given moment– that’s an ultimate goal!
Look for options where products can be picked from a shelf easily and then packed into a shipping container, box or wrapper easily, too. Ask about value added services that third-party logistics providers offer. Find out what exactly a company offers before signing their contract.
Finally, it’s nice to be in close physical proximity to your customers so delivery takes hours not weeks. So, if you know most of your customers live and work in a certain city, then it makes sense to locate your ecommerce warehouse/fulfillment center there.
Whether you’re looking for reliable e-commerce warehousing in North America or you need a third-party logistics partner to market your warehouse, learn how Affiliated Warehouse Companies can help.
