Reducing Your Warehouse Costs

If you manage your own fulfillment with your own warehouse space, there are endless things to consider about how to manage this process most effectively.  You must set up the various systems to handle order and inventory management.  There are racking and equipment considerations that tend to be quite expensive. Then, of course, there are complex personnel requirements.  How many employees will it take to ship your orders on time, process returns rapidly, and handle customer service with a smile?  Can your personnel handle rapid fluctuations in order volume?  The number of people you need on Mondays, during promotions, and around the holidays is probably different than what is needed on other days.  And don’t forget the space requirements – how much space do you need?  When you have a fixed amount of space, you pay the same amount whether it’s overflowing or half empty.  Are there adequate contingency plans to handle the temporary need for extra space? 

All of these are things to consider if you manage your own fulfillment.  Of course, there is an easier way, such as outsourcing your order fulfillment to the professionals at FSI.  We manage all of these decisions for you.  Our clients only pay for the amount of personnel they need to fulfill the orders they have as volume fluctuates.  They also only pay storage for the space they need as their inventory levels fluctuate.  Outsourcing fulfillment allows our clients to focus on what they do best, selling their product, while FSI focuses on our core competencies, which are order fulfillment and kit packing. 

Still, some companies manage this process themselves, and for those who do, there are some tips that can be learned about reducing your warehouse costs.  A recent article featured in Multichannel Merchant magazine from fulfillment industry expert Curt Barry, helps highlight some of the ways that fulfillment companies like FSI or those handling fulfillment internally can help reduce their warehouse costs through labor measurement, slotting and bar coding.

http://multichannelmerchant.com/opsandfulfillment/reducing-warehouse-costs-0901/index.html