There is a lot that goes into building or renting your own warehouse. You have to take many of those considerations into account when outsourcing to a 3PL as well. So, if you look at these factors to consider, you can have a better understanding to make a proper decision on your warehouse location selection. Having a partner should help you with all of these, whether they are a site owner, construction company, or fulfillment provider.
Availability at Warehouse Locations
Obviously, you will need to find an available location. However, starting in 2021, available warehouses are few. Now you must look not only for available warehouses but also warehouses that are planned. When starting your hunt, start by contacting construction companies and warehouse space providers to not only see existing but also planned warehouse space. There might be a line for warehouses, so you might need to wait a bit if you have inflexible requirements.
Where Your Customer’s Live
Finding where your customers mainly live can help you narrow down the approximate location that would be best for your warehouse. Knowing where they are can help you to know where you need to be in order to reach them all. Depending on where they are and how many are in each area, it might be smart to use two warehouses. Having the two locations will help with the cost of shipping your product.
How to Get Your Product to Your Warehouse
Knowing how your product will get to you is necessary. This not only will help you know the process its going to take to get to you. It will also help you to find an area to try and reduce the miles they must travel. You don’t want to pay an absurd amount of money just to get your product to your warehouse.
How Much Inventory Space Will You Need?
Knowing how much inventory you plan on having in your warehouse will help you know how big of an area you will need. Whether it is your own warehouse or space in a 3PL knowing the amount of product you want on the shelve will help you know what you are looking for and the amount of space you need.
Lease and Labor Costs
As everything gets narrowed down, you have to keep in mind the cost of the warehouse. This is not just the lease. This also has to do with the cost of labor. The cost changes depending on your location. Having all of this in mind will help you decide where you would like to have your warehouse.
Keeping all of this in mind, Launch Fulfillment is a perfect place to have your fulfillment and inventory management be at. We have two large warehouses. One in American Fork, UT and the other in Louisville, KY. We can keep shipping costs low while working hard at fulfilling your orders each day.