Finding the right warehousing solutions for your eCommerce business

Whether you’re a big or small eCommerce operation, a start-up, an established large enterprise or anywhere in between, you cannot escape the need for warehousing.

Warehousing is the first step when setting up or expanding any eCommerce business. Online shops can quickly scale so the decisions taken at the warehousing stage can have an impact on the long-term scalability and profitability of your business.

What is the concept of warehousing?

Warehousing is at the core of any product based online business. Goods need to be physically stored somewhere. This storing process is called warehousing. In eCommerce the term also refers to the management of stock and movement of goods to and from the storage space. The most successful eCommerce businesses are warehousing samurais. It’s clear from large operations such as Amazon that a big part of their success is due to the consistent diligence they put into streamlining and improving warehousing logistics.

Good warehousing focuses on safely and securely storing products in an organised way to track where items are located, when they arrived, how long they have been in stock, and the quantity on hand at any given point in time.

Small and new businesses, often do this from home until they outgrow the space. Larger businesses rent storage space, or outsource logistics to a third-party and store inventory in their facility. The term warehousing also covers the logistics involved once an order is placed and items are packaged, labelled and shipped.

Why is Warehousing important?

Warehousing is important because it encompasses everything about the journey of each product stocked and sold. From sourcing to managing inventory and, getting orders delivered safely, efficiently and on time — every time. Along the years warehousing has increased in importance because technology has made the world a smaller place, meaning that any local eCommerce site can scale and grow quickly by extending its delivery regions.

Why is warehousing hard?

Some businesses attempt to do this in-house. But often it turns into a difficult and expensive operation, which endangers the success of the project or business.

Once companies outgrow their office or home they start looking for a space to store and manage their products. Finding the right space, and converting it to fit their specific warehousing requirements, setting it up, organising stock and creating a system to manage stock is no easy feat if you do not have much experience doing this for eCommerce. Even companies who have been warehousing products to sell locally can find eCommerce warehousing hard to deal with.

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How do I choose the right warehousing solution for my business?

Picking the right solution is not easy, but in a few steps you can gain a lot of clarity on the best way forward for you and your business. Here are 7 things to think about to find the right warehousing solution for your eCommerce Business:

1.  Warehousing Storage costs

When analysing whether this would be a good extension of your business, start from the basics. Get some warehouse lease pricing, then divide the number of stock-keeping units needed by that lease price. This will be a fixed running cost for your business so you need to make sure you stay profitable when you add this to the equation.

2.  Warehouse Space

Make sure that the numbers tally. If the amount of stock items you need to make the cost per item viable is too high, you may need to rethink it. You can also calculate various scenarios. What if you outsourced warehousing for larger more bulky but more profitable items whilst keeping smaller less profitable items in your office or home? Explore all the options and scenarios you have available. Calculate how your inventory varies, the potential storage fees and how much space you will need in a warehouse.

3.  Know your warehousing budget

Go deeper into your business finances and understand how scaling might require more personnel if done in-house and compare this to the expenses involved in outsourcing your warehousing. You may find that it is a little more expensive at first but will save you a lot of money in the long term as you scale your business. It also allows you to focus all your efforts on the quality and marketing of your products — both are key to your success. Warehousing just needs to work and be as stable as possible to allow marketing and product quality to do their best work. This is how eCommerce companies become giants.

4.  Seasonality of your business

Keeping in mind the seasonality of your business is key when estimating costs. If you hire a warehouse, the overhead apportionment of rent per item will skyrocket at times when your sales are low. This is a problem because during low cashflow periods you will experience higher costs per product. That is not the best equation to be basing your business on and can affect your scalability. On the flip-side, seasonal fluctuations also cause peaks like the Christmas period. These periods cause complications in supply chain management and high demand can make warehousing logistics very complicated. Done in-house this may mean hiring temping staff who have to learn on the job — a recipe for disaster! Using a logistics third-party partner like Miles Express can help prevent you from being stuck in such situations of extreme.

5.  Location of the warehouse

Most people don’t give this its due importance. Malta is small so price tends to trump location when picking a warehouse. However, choosing the right location is a very important part of creating efficient logistics. You need a warehouse in a central location or within close proximity of its target customers to get orders delivered as soon as possible. In the case of international deliveries the location should be in close proximity to the company organising your international logistics. Miles Express’ warehouse is located in a very central part of Malta, to make it easier for the deliveries to reach your customers on time, every time.

6.  Warehouse technology

Technology is a critical part of efficient warehousing. It’s ideal to connect your sales channels to the technology that will automatically send orders to your warehouse for associates on the floor to begin picking. Each step of the process should be recorded and tracked whilst updates as well as new information ought to be sent back to the customer.

7.   Delivery system integration

Warehousing should be well integrated with your delivery systems to ensure efficient and timely delivery every time. Failing to create the right delivery structure or route plans, may mean that your delivery team makes numerous trips and becomes less cost-effective.

At Miles Express we offer warehousing either as a standalone service and can deliver daily parcels and pallet consignments to the client, or as part of our nationwide delivery service. This can be easily integrated and offer you the peace of mind that both warehousing and logistics are managed in a professional manner.

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Warehousing with Miles Express

At Miles Express we understand that every business has very specific requirements for warehousing and delivery logistics. We can also take care of, storage, cross-docking and order picking. We work hard to customise your processes — our experience in logistics and technical knowledge help us work out the right storage and logistics solution for any business. Our clients can opt to receive directly at our warehouse imported cargo once it arrives. They can also choose to store stock on a short, medium or long-term basis, depending on client requirements. We can control the products from the point of arrival to the point of departure including administrative and customs formalities for you.

Moreover, our warehousing solutions can easily plug into our delivery service. We also offer our clients an in-house nationwide daily distribution of parcels directly to your customers. Our nationwide distribution service integrates seamlessly with the warehousing solution. Coupled with our experience, this enables us to process orders swiftly, with flexible cut-off times. Our services are in line with the highest industry standards, safeguarding your goods and your reputation. We work hard to make sure your customers are delighted and come back to your website to order again.

Our method avoids the handling of the products at your location. We help you reduce the costs of distribution and warehousing, whilst making your supply chain more effective.

We take care of your stock by providing:

• Electronic inventory linkage
• Applying bar code labelling
• 24/7 video surveillance over the goods
• Prompt cargo acceptance and distribution
• Flexible handling time for faster dispatch
• Customs clearance
• 24/7 service availability
• Add-on services to customise to your specific needs

If you would like a customised quote and more information on how we can help you with your warehousing, book a call-back here or call us on (+356) 2124 0877.