Warehousing services have been around as long as warehouses. The Romans, famous for their logistics, even had kitting for buildings! Warehouse remains and ship records show that you could order stone and marble as raw blocks or finished, and round out your order with sarcophagi, columns and grinding stones to give your villa a coherent appearance, much as people might pick coordinating cushions and throws today.
So if the Romans were offering pick and pack, what kind of warehousing services do we still use today and who can benefit from them?
What are the benefits of warehousing services?
- You can simplify your logistics. Choosing a warehouse with good access to a range of transport systems included docks, motorways, airports and even waterways. This means that your orders tend to be both closer to customers and closer to effective logistics routes.
- Specialisation is standard when you use warehousing services. One major reason that some businesses invest in warehousing services is that they require specialist support – for example pharma and medical products can be highly fragile, art and antiques can be demanding to pack and transport, live products (obviously livestock but increasingly other items like nematodes) have intensely rigorous transport legislation around them. Because specialist fleets, operatives and procedures are normal business for warehousing services, this can leave businesses to focus on production, public relations and other areas of activity.
- Better metrics on your products. It’s simply the case that most warehousing service providers are going to have state-of-the-art technology, not only on what stock you have in their warehouse space but also when it comes to tracking your product on its way to customers. This tends to drive greater efficiency in both inventory and shipping than businesses can necessarily afford to invest in for themselves because the warehousing service provider has the economy of scale – it’s offering the best services to all its clients.
Ecommerce enterprises and warehousing
While e-commerce is one of the few industries that has benefited from the pandemic, with higher levels of online shopping and people changing their purchasing habits permanently to online, it does create challenges too. Every business can now sell globally – but how are they to do this efficiently? Warehousing services offer advantages to e-commerce entrepreneurs:
- Secure and efficient storage – calling warehousing services rather than relying on an owned or rented warehouse space can deliver greater security as well as allowing for a wider range of inventory to be stored, which leads to faster delivery and higher customer satisfaction.
- Streamlined distribution – using an already defined set of distribution routes and procedures means that new markets can be penetrated quickly and effectively; there’s no learning curve for each new market and the complexities of customs and shipping don’t have to be mastered because the warehousing services provider will already have solutions on hand.
- Reduced logistics costs – when routes have been tested and procedures are in place, the supply chain moves more quickly and cost-effectively; this leads to swifter deliveries to customers in one direction and better warehouse maintenance in the other. Together, these lead to lower charges for logistics which improves profit margins and allows prices to be competitive in the marketplace.
Manufacturers and warehouse space
Traditionally, manufacturers warehoused their own products. Those Romans who chipped out pediments and pillars from marble also stored them in warehouses right next to their quarries, but today manufacturers have changed priorities.
Warehousing has become a much more complex process – and one that requires greater levels of security and access. Manufacturers who choose to outsource this part of their operation generally benefit from the ability to focus on core concerns such as research and development, quality control and production. Obviously this creates greater efficiency in manufacturing and allows for a higher level of specialisation within the organisation as ancillary activities can be undertaken by a professional warehousing services provider.
In addition, warehousing services may have more advanced inventory management systems than manufacturers and this can benefit their clients because it helps the manufacturer to know not only how much stock they have on hand, but to have better predictive understanding of demand so they can tailor their production schedules to achieve maximum efficiency. Just as manufacturers often find that specialising in fewer products can boost productivity, they also often find that ceasing to divide their focus between producing and storing goods can benefit activity.
Finally, using a 3PL can help manufacturers get closer to their markets. Going back to our Roman model, the famous Carrera marble quarries are nearly 500km from Rome. Obviously, storing your wonderful marble products in Carrera doesn’t help you get those rich Romans to pay premium prices for your creations – so being able to store your products in the Roman suburbs doesn’t just help you sell more, it also means that you can benefit from quicker turnaround times on orders, which are a major consideration when it comes to customer satisfaction.
Warehousing services for retailers
Retailers always have to find a balance between costs and services. Where bricks and mortar retailing is the process, the customer experience is an integral part of the retailing design – whether that’s a luxury personalised experience or a quick, utilitarian one. However, by using warehousing services, retailers expand their ability to deliver customer service. It allow them to have inventory in one or more locations that are easily accessible – ensuring the entire range is easily available for purchase.
There are also added-value services available through warehousing, such as kitting, which can lead to easy upselling, labelling and repackaging. Some warehouses will also handle a returns process which can be a valuable part of retail activity, as it’s one of the areas where customers are most likely to assess and respond positively to customer service. By outsourcing areas such as storage, distribution and returns to a third party logistics company, retailers can reduce the need to invest in infrastructure in those areas and instead focus investment in high value, high return areas such as equipment, personnel and customer experience.
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