The trouble with selling tangible products is finding space for it all. Whether your business scales rapidly overnight or slowly picks up steam, eventually you’ll come to the problem all eCommerce businesses face: where to store everything.
Purchasing your own warehouse is costly, time-consuming and impractical. Outsourcing warehousing frees up space and lets you focus on your business while someone else handles the logistics.
Ask Yourself These Questions
When considering outsource warehousing, ask yourself these questions from WarehousingAndFulfillment.com:
- How many products (or SKUs) do you offer?
- Where are you storing them?
- Is air-conditioning required? Refrigeration? Humidity control?
- How many orders are you filling each month?
- How many items are in each order?
- Do you fill orders on demand each day, or on a weekly schedule?
- Which carriers do you use to mail or ship? Do you have a preference, and why?
- Do you mail/ship in envelopes, small boxes, or large cartons?
- Where are you storing them? (And your packaging tape, and mailing labels?)
- Do you use special protective cushioning, paper straw, or other special fillers?
- Where do you store those?
- How many invoices do you print each month?
- How many packing slips? Mailing labels? Return labels?
- How many returns do you process per month?
- Which product/item is your best seller? Your worst?
- When is your next new product due to launch?
- Are all items accounted for in an inventory control system?
- Have you established reorder points?
When you sit down and put down answers, you’ll likely find that you have a lot more needs than you thought. The more complex your answers are and the more you answer “yes” to the questions above, the more a warehouse can help streamline your business.
Why Should I Outsource My Warehousing?
The reason to outsource warehousing is really quite simple. When you rely on an existing warehouse, you also gain all of the expertise and processes in place. The logistics company that owns the warehouse(s) already has strategic partnerships to aid with inventory management, packaging and shipping as well as simply storing your products. You can also select strategically placed warehouses that may be in a different city from your company, but easier to ship from. At MVP, our warehousing and fulfillment centers are located in Minneapolis and Houston.
Simply put, outsourcing your warehouse takes work and stress off your shoulders.
Are you looking for a warehouse for your eCommerce fulfillment and retail distribution needs? We have room available at our Houston and Minneapolis locations. Call us at 1-888-390-5320 to get started.
MVP Logistics is your logistics partner for supply chain, Houston warehousing and fulfillment and all your Houston TX, and Minneapolis, MN transportation and logistics management needs. Our Minneapolis and Houston warehousing, logistics and supply chain management services can provide national and international shipping services as needed. Find your solution today.
