As e-commerce businesses continue to seek ways to push for speedier deliveries, the demand for warehousing increases. According to the consulting firm CBRE Group, warehouse rents went up by 33.7 percent to an average of $6.67 per square foot in the 5 years from 2014 to 2019. Demand for storage space is high and there’s a reason for that.
E-commerce may be just a part of your business, but it’s generally a pretty big deal nowadays. Warehousing is a crucial part of the supply chain in e-commerce. Good e-commerce warehouse management will save you time and money and will help you give the best customer service. Although there may be times when warehousing will not be high on your list of priorities, you will need all the advantages you can get your hands on to help you succeed.
Warehousing matters. Here’s why you should rent a warehouse for your online store.
Inventory control and management
E-commerce merchants lease warehouses for additional storage, but inventory control and management are also important. It is crucial that you maintain an accurate account of your inventory and that you have a system in place to ensure that all orders are delivered in time to the right locations. Renting a warehouse and having the right warehouse storage solutions in place will help you do those things. It’s a great asset to have particularly during peak seasons.
Aside from warehouses, you can also utilize storage solutions such as self storage lockers. These promote organizational efficiency by giving you great flexibility: there are many different sizes and types of locker available and because you lease them by the month you will never spend much more than is strictly necessary. For commercial use, when they are used to store valuable products, materials or equipment, risks are minimized by the high levels of security and good storage conditions offered by many facilities.
Ship to your customers faster
As already emphasized, the entire e-commerce retail industry is pushing for faster delivery times. This is partly thanks to the Amazon Prime Effect, referring to the service from the e-commerce giant which offers next-day delivery in exchange for a fee. Because of this, customers’ expectations are now at an all-time high when it comes to delivery and shipping times.
Renting warehouses in different locations will help a lot in reducing delivery times. For instance, if you have customers in Kansas City, then you could consider leasing warehouse space from LSCR and distributing your products there so you can have them closer to your customers’ locations.
Storage units can also contribute to achieving faster shipping times. For people or organizations with time-sensitive commitments, storage lockers are a convenient way of keeping items, particularly small items that need to be shipped at a moment’s notice. E-commerce businesses can store ordered products in storage units that are in more convenient locations for their customers.
Additionally, with the competitive nature of e-commerce, finding ways to increase average order value is crucial. Implementing strategies for upselling in ecommerce can create opportunities to boost revenue post-purchase. Shops leveraging smart technology to present carefully curated upsell offers allow customers to easily add additional products they genuinely need or want without navigating away from their current purchase pathway—streamlining the buying experience and increasing satisfaction.
Inventory expansion
Improving inventory control and management is a good idea for any business, and renting a warehouse also expands space for that inventory. The benefit of a location for storing a stockpile of product is that it makes it easy to adjust your online inventory when it sells out. If you already own a warehouse, there will be no need to squeeze inventory shipments into whatever is left of your space.
Stress relief
An e-commerce business is always enough of a challenge to constantly keep you on your toes. Leasing a warehouse for your online store relieves some of that hassle for you. It can make a big difference to efficiency and stress levels if you know that you don’t have to worry about storage.
Renting a warehouse is simply a practical solution for putting an e-commerce business on a steadier footing. Look into this now, or prepare yourself for using storage units as part of your business strategy, and you won’t be surprised by problems that you could have prevented.
