Warehouse Guide
Warehousing of products is very important for the execution of e-commerce. In particular, the fact that orders are prepared from these warehouses and brought together with the buyer makes points such as the locations of the warehouses and storage conditions even more important. You can find general information about warehousing in our article.
Table of Contents
What Is Warehousing?
In the simplest and shortest explanation, warehousing refers to the physical storage of products before they are ordered and shipped. Warehouses are places where products are put for distribution. In order for the trade to continue, it is very important that the products are kept safely in the warehouses.
Storage activities may not be of great importance for smaller and new businesses. Such businesses generally carry out their warehousing activities and order fulfillment processes in-house.
For large businesses, the warehousing is extremely important, however, growing businesses may also need to professionalize in warehousing departmant. Warehousing activities have a very important place in e-commerce. We will explain the warehousing activity, which consists of three main elements, in the rest of our article.
3 Important Elements of Warehousing
We talked about the importance of storage activities. However, we stated that storage activities consist of three main points. Here storage activities consist of the following three main stages.
1. Warehouse Management
Warehouse management is a very important activity and is carried out on a daily basis. The correct storage of products in the right places and the timely preparation of orders are associated with warehouse management. Therefore, warehouse management directly affects your business.
Warehouse adequacy, inspection of products, fulfillment of requirements in the warehouse, keeping products intact and safe. Directing the shipping and distribution of products are the responsibilities of warehouse management. Other issues under the responsibility of warehouse management can be listed as follows:
- Warehouse employees use the right equipment for their job security.
- Pre-calculation of required storage space and workforce
- Paying attention to the professionalism of equipment users
- Continuous planning for effective use of storage space and correct preparation of orders.
- Keeping a record of all shipments.
2. Warehouse Operations
Managing and organizing the inventory is within the scope of warehouse operations.
It ensures that there are no problems in warehouse operations, cost reduction, timely shipments, correct use of storage space, and correct use of equipment. Warehouse operations, when carried out correctly, will have extremely beneficial results for your business, such as:
- Ensuring the efficiency of the employees
- Correct use of the area and keeping it clean
- Detection of declining products
3. Warehouse Management Systems
Warehouse management systems refer to software used to manage warehouses. These softwares enable the warehouse management to be carried out much more effectively and healthly by transferring the management and all records to the digital environment.
Many issues such as displaying the product lists in the digital and transferring the orders correctly are provided by these softwares.
Warehousing and Supply Chain
The supply chain today has become more speed-oriented than ever before with the development of e-commerce. Warehouses are very important to ensure this. Contrary to the classical warehousing approach, order fulfillment warehouses do not only work on the storage of products. Order fulfillment warehouses work continuously in the picking, packing, shipment cycle. In this part of our article, we will talk about the functions of the warehouse in the supply chain.
Storage of Inventory
Storing inventory means placing the products sold in specific sections. Storing inventory correctly provides the following benefits:
- Quick determination of exact location of wanted inventories
- Comparison of the number of products in the list and counted
- Identification of expired products, recalled products or faulty products
- Ensuring that old products are shipped earlier than newer products
Shipping and Receiving
The shipments of the products are made to the warehouses. The products to be stored are delivered to the warehouses by shipments. The inventory is recorded and the ordered products are sent back to the buyer from the warehouses.
Distribution Centers
Distribution centers are generally owned by larger companies. These centers, which are a kind of warehouse, are used for short-term storage of products. From here, the products are sent directly to the sales centers.
Returns
Warehouses also appear as centers where returns are collected. At this point, warehouse operations carry out responsibilities such as receiving, processing and labeling returns.
How Should You Determine Your Warehousing Solutions
Not all e-commerce companies have the same warehousing needs. At this point, different solutions may emerge for different needs. You can also benefit from the following points when deciding on the warehousing solutions your own company needs:
Storage Costs and Your Monthly Sales Amount
Your monthly sales volume will determine how much product you need to store. Storage costs are also an important point in this regard.
Fluctuations in Your Business
Some sectors can be greatly affected by periodic fluctuations. In this case, your warehousing needs may change periodically. Therefore, you may need to take into account seasonal fluctuations in your business.
Location of the Warehouse
Are your orders concentrated in certain regions? Then you may want to prefer regions where your buyers are concentrated.
How Many Warehouses Do You Have?
It is very important how many warehouses you have and where these warehouses are located.
Storage Management Technologies
If you are dealing with a third-party provider, you may need to do a thorough research on what technologies they use.
Conclusion
Warehousing activities are extremely important for the correct delivery of products and constitute the first step of the ordering process. For this reason, Warehousing activities should be carried out in a very professional manner, especially if you have a large or growing business.
Warehouses directly affect the shipment of products. The differences between the location of your warehouses and the locations of your orders are therefore extremely important. To overcome this problem, you can store in different places or use third-party services. You can handle the warehousing activities yourself or hire a third-party logistics provider for this. Since warehousing activities are very important and complex processes, it is important that they are carried out professionally. Check out our 3PL Guide to learn how 3PL providers handle warehousing and fulfillment activities.