Scaling up Your Small Business with Warehouse Fulfillment Services

Warehousing is an essential service for most supply chains, especially with the widespread adoption of e-commerce models by many modern businesses. However, properly maintaining a warehouse is a different business altogether. For small businesses especially, managing inventory while handling loading, and shipping can take too much time, effort and money that would have otherwise been spent on business expansion.

While different businesses have different outsourcing needs, most of them can find plenty of value in warehouse fulfillment services to boost their scaling efforts. We will dive into the basics of warehouse fulfillment services, who uses them and how they can support your business growth.

What are Warehousing and Fulfillment Services?

Warehousing and fulfillment companies receive and store the products of other businesses on their behalf. By outsourcing your warehousing and fulfillment needs to such a company, you can have your products delivered or shipped out elsewhere after giving them details such as the products that need to be delivered, where they need to go and when they should go.

Which Businesses Require Warehousing and Fulfillment Services?

Any company, regardless of size, can find this service valuable to its operations as long as it holds inventory. In fact, many online businesses currently use warehousing and fulfillment services to meet their shipping and storage needs.

How Can Small Businesses Scale-up Using Warehousing and Fulfillment Services?

Small businesses stand to gain significantly from warehousing and fulfillment services. For instance, small businesses can use these services to store documents, raw materials, finished products or even handle order fulfillment. Here are some ways small businesses can scale up using warehouse fulfillment services.

Increased Order Fulfillment Capacity

By partnering with warehousing operations in different countries or cities, small businesses can quickly and affordably penetrate new markets. For instance, a business in Georgia interested in pursuing opportunities in California could partner with a warehouse fulfillment company based in California.

Rather than shipping products from Georgia to clients in California, this business can notify its warehouse and fulfillment center to handle the delivery. This will not only increase the business’ capacity for order fulfillment but also reduce the costs involved and shorten the lead-time.

Controlled Overhead Costs

Essentially, warehousing and fulfillment agreements involve renting out portions of space in warehouses, with the occasional shipping services. Businesses that enter such agreements end up spending far less than they typically would staff, equipment, warehouse rent, and utilities needed to store and deliver products by themselves. Such savings are crucial for small businesses since they can invest them in areas more essential for their growth.

Scaling According to Deman

Businesses that rely on warehousing and fulfillment services never underutilize their storage and logistical capacity. Matching business growth to current demand becomes easy by scaling down during low seasons and scaling up during high seasons. Such flexibility assures your small business of extra warehouse space on demand without the costs of running a warehouse.