When people think about a 3PL, they often think about the three basics:
- Storing products
- Packing orders
- Getting orders shipped
But there’s another detail that can have a surprisingly big effect on your business: where the warehouses are actually located.
Say most of your customers live on the West Coast, but all your inventory is stored thousands of miles away. Every order has to make that long journey. Shipping could cost most. Deliveries might take longer. And you’ll have less room to deal with delays.
That’s why businesses typically look for a logistics partner with warehouses in place that makes sense for their customers. A provider like WSI, for example, may be able to give businesses access to strategically located facilities – all without requiring them to build and run those warehouses themselves.
Keep reading on below to learn why location makes such a major difference.
Lower Shipping Costs
Shipping products a long way usually costs more. That’s not particularly exciting. But it could become a serious expense when you’re sending out hundreds or thousands of orders.
If you have inventory in warehouses closer to your customers, each package may have less distance to travel. That brings down transportation costs. And when you’re running a business, even relatively small savings per order add up over time.
Lower shipping costs also give you more options. You might be able to offer customers more reasonable delivery rates. You might even be able to absorb some of the cost without cutting too deeply into your margins.
Of course, warehouse location isn’t the only thing that affects shipping prices. Package size, weight, carrier rates, and service levels… They all matter as well. But distance is one part of the equation that businesses should not ignore.
Faster Deliveries
Everyone has been there: you order something online, then see that it won’t arrive for another week.
That’s fine – sometimes. Other times, it makes you wonder whether you could have bought the same product somewhere else and gotten it much sooner. After all, that’s what shoppers want.
Customers have become increasingly aware of delivery times. They don’t necessarily expect everything to arrive tomorrow. However, they do appreciate getting their orders without an unnecessarily long wait.
When products are stored closer to where they’re needed, they often get moving soon and travel fewer miles.
There will always be things you cannot control, though. Bad weather happens. Carriers get busy. Packages occasionally take an unexpected detour. Starting closer to the customer, though… That gives the delivery process a better chance of going smoothly.
Better Business Growth
A single warehouse might be all you need when your business is small. Then things change.
You begin getting more orders from different parts of the country. Shipping becomes more expensive. Delivery times become harder to keep competitive. Suddenly, the warehouse setup that once worked perfectly well is starting to feel a bit restrictive.
Opening and operating your own facilities in new locations is a major commitment. It means more property, more equipment, more employees, and more overhead.
Working with a 3PL gives a growing business another option. Instead of building a new warehouse operation from scratch, you might be able to use an existing network and expand as demand changes.
To conclude, strategically located warehouses are really about common sense. Your business reaps the benefits with just one change – cheaper and faster deliveries being the primary one.
So, you should begin researching your options now to reap the rewards.
