Finding the right warehousing services has a crucial effect on making or breaking your business. According to studies, a timely delivery experience fosters your chances of repeat business by 79%, while a delayed shipment reduces your chances by 87%.
Understanding warehousing and its nuances can empower businesses to make informed decisions that optimize efficiency and decrease costs by enhancing inventory management and speeding up product delivery.
This guide covers all aspects of warehousing services, including the purpose and main types to help manage well-planned storage solutions.
What is Warehousing?
Warehousing doesn’t only mean storage. It refers to a range of activities and systems that are vital in supply chain management, from the moment goods leave the factory to when they get to the target consumer.
Warehousing includes the storage, management, and transport of products within a physical facility to ensure they are easily available for sale or more distribution. In the warehousing process, a storage acts more than a warehouse. In fact, it is the center where goods are received, processed, and distributed.
Why is warehousing important?
Warehousing is a vital part in the supply chain for the businesses that deal in physical goods. It allows retail and ecommerce businesses to:
- Bulk purchase of wholesale goods that may not fit in a retail store, or not be yet bought by a final consumer online.
- Large orders in bulk that let businesses negotiate lower prices with their supplier, so fostering their margins when selling to customers.
- Keeping inventory available while demand changes to ensure goods stay in storage.
- Reducing delivery time and costs of shipping by warehousing goods in strategic geographic areas.
Importance of Warehousing Services in China, Iran, and Canada
In China, which is recognized as one of the largest production and export hubs in the world, warehousing services allow companies to manage their inventory effectively and ensure the smooth shipment of goods globally. In Iran, due to its strategic location and the need for facilitating imports and exports, these services are essential for companies involved in the transportation of goods to and from various countries. Similarly, in Canada, a key destination for global trade, warehousing services are necessary not only for storing goods but also for managing inventory and conducting international transactions.
Types of Warehousing Services
Understanding the various types of warehousing services and how they can benefit your operations is essential when you want to use professional warehousing services.
Here is a list of some of the most common standard warehouse services:
Inbounding and Receiving
This type of warehousing services includes the process of receiving inventory at a stock. When the goods are sent, the warehouse team receives an Advanced Shipment Notice (ASN), which is usually sent through an Electronic Data Interchange ( EDI).
They allocate the right amount of space and staffing based on ASN. This helps to ensure all goods are correctly accounted for and stored, setting the stage for efficient inventory management.
Inventory Management
Inventory management includes tracking warehouse levels, handling regular audits, and enhancing stock rotation to reduce costs of holding and ensure availability.
Pick and Pack
This involves picking items off the shelves from a pick list and packing them for shipping. Pick and pack are one of the most important parts of fulfilment services.
Order fulfillment
This type of warehousing consists of effectively picking, packing, and shipping customer orders. Warehousing providers conduct order processing, guarantee right order assembly, manage packaging needs, and correlate with shipping carriers to simplify on time delivery.
Shipping
Shipping is another type of warehousing services. It focuses on finding the most suitable carrier in terms of lower rate and shorter delivery time for each order. An efficient shipping helps you save your money and shorten your lead time.
Additionally, Shipping your products efficiently ensures a positive customer experience that drives brand affinity and repeat purchases. Partnering with a fourth-party logistics provider (4PL) like PITCO Shanghai can facilitate this process considerably.
Cross Docking
Cross docking involves receiving products directly from incoming trucks, labelling, and moving them to the shipping dock. This shortens storage time and minimizes handling costs. Cross docking, in fact, is a smart method for products that need to move rapidly through the supply chain.
Returns Processing
Returns processing, or reverse logistics, consists of complete inspecting, sorting, and deciding the fate of each returned product. Making the right decision about returned products is very critical, especially when dealing with high-value items.
Your third-party logistics (3PL) must inform you about the condition of returns. So, you’ll be able to determine whether it can be placed back into stock or disposed of.
Kitting
Kitting is a handy technique that pulls together multiple products into a new package to be sold together. This is an effective method when items are often bought together. Because it increases the average order value (AOV), and consequently, your sales boost.
Kitting also causes the entire fulfillment process smoother and faster. By partnering with a skilled third-party logistics (3PL) provider, you can use custom kitting and bundling services that add value.
7 Functions of Warehousing
Knowing the different functions of warehousing help us understand the vital role of warehousing services.
1. Storage
The key function of warehousing is providing a safe and secure stock space for inventory, equipment or other items. This helps businesses store their goods when they do not need them, and avoids storage wastage. Storage may be planned or extended.
In planned storage, the storage function is carefully estimated to meet steady customer demand. The reasons for extended storage are various factors such as promotional campaigns, demand seasonality, or speculative purchases.
2. Protection
Warehousing protects goods and products from damage, theft, and other risks. This includes doing something to keep quality and integrity of store items like humidity levels or controlling temperature.
3. Moving goods
Moving goods consists:
- Inbound activity: uploading and receiving goods
- Transporting activity: goods movement into the stock area
- Order selection: Choosing items based on the shipping order
- outbound activity : Loading goods for shipping
4. Sorting and Grading
One of the vital functions of warehousing is sorting and grating goods based on size, quality, or weight. This facilitates the process of distribution and ensures the products are delivered to the right place.
5. Packaging and Labeling
Packing and labeling services involve re-packing the products in safer and smaller trucks, or barcoding the products for inventory process and tracking.
6. Transportation
Storages may be used as temporary stock places in order to better logistics planning and more efficient movement.
7. Information Management
Information management refers to overseeing order fulfilment, track inventory levels, and quick update of shipping statutes.
Benefits of Warehousing Services
With the multitude of functions that warehousing fulfils, working with a professional storage services, offers significant benefits, including:
Minimize business risk
Storing goods offers secure warehousing solutions that can protect products against demand fluctuations. Implementing reliable warehouse management empowers companies to have a better control on their inventory levels. In this way, the risk of stock outs or overstock situations reduces.
Additionally, products keep their quality and integrity over time by the safe goods storage. The companies can store additional products within warehouses to be ready for any unforeseen disruptions in the supply chain, such as delays in production or transportation
Opportunity to expand
Out sorting your warehousing services, you are not restricted by the need to store all your inventory at your manufacturing facility. You’ll be able to use the current space for product development and process involvement.
Production Support
You can safely store your inventory until you need it within warehouses. Then, you can get your merchandise whenever you require. This helps to minimize your lead time.
Close to Target Market
Placing warehouses near to main markets allows businesses to respond quickly to fluctuations of market demands or consumer preferences by offering them a vital competitive benefit. Such responsiveness is necessary for getting consumer satisfaction and improving operational flexibility. Additionally, this proximity helps businesses reduce transportation costs.
An organized warehouse arranges goods systematically and simplifies the process. This helps businesses improve the entire workflow of logistics operations, and minimizes errors.
Plus, awell- planned storage that has an efficient tracking system lets companies gain deeper insights into their labor needs. Businesses can hire, schedule, and train staff more effectively by knowing and handling times of inventory.
5s in Warehouse Management
5S is a Japanese method in warehouses and factories, based on the application of five basic principles (Sort, Setting in order, Seaton, Shine, Standardize, Sustain )
The purpose of 5s in a warehouse is to use the places in a suitable manner, organize spaces and production lines, and take benefits of the narrow spaces in a proper manner.
7S in Warehouse Management
7S is the extension of 5S with an additional 2S (safely and Spirit). This storage technique is designed for storage to ensure safety while maintaining quality and improving productivity.
Conclusion
Warehousing services in business play an important role in the global supply chain. There are various kinds of storage services based on technology and warehouse location. However, storage, inventory management, and order processing are standard for any type of warehousing services. Other specialized warehouse services help improve supply chain operations.
At Persian International Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, we provide warehousing services in three countries: China, Iran, and Canada. These services allow businesses to store their goods in secure locations across these regions with precise oversight and easy access at different times. We use cutting-edge technologies for warehouse management and inventory control, and as an international company, we are equipped to coordinate and manage operations across these three countries.
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Warehousing services refer to a set of activities related to managing and storing goods, allowing companies to keep their products in secure locations with precise oversight until they are ready to be delivered to their final destination. These services include storage, packaging, internal transportation, distribution, and inventory management. In international trade, warehousing plays a crucial role in optimizing business processes, helping businesses operate more efficiently and at a lower cost.
1.Cost Reduction, 2. Increased Efficiency and Speed, 3. Minimization of Risks and Damages, 4. Inventory Management, 5. Support for International Trade and 6. Coordination of Purchases from Multiple Sellers and Single Shipment.
At Parsian International Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, we offer warehousing services in three countries: China, Iran, and Canada. These services allow businesses to store their goods in secure locations across these regions with precise oversight and easy access at different times. We use cutting-edge technologies for warehouse management and inventory control, and as an international company, we are equipped to coordinate and manage operations across these three countries.
Pitco is an Iranian-Chinese company that operates in the field of export and import from three countries: Canada, China and Iran. Our company’s full name is Parsian International Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. We have been operating in the field of export and import for more than 14 years. To learn more about us and our services, you can connect with us through social networks.