With such rapid growth in eCommerce, warehousing has become an important aspect for all sorts of online businesses. While it isn’t always given the importance that it deserves, it literally has an impact on everything right from the time you procure your raw materials to the time your orders are sent to the customers.
Warehousing is more on-demand than ever before and thanks to the world of online shopping, its importance and demand are ever-growing. If you wish to know warehouse meaning then you have arrived at the right place. Here is a complete on warehousing by NimbusPost, a one-stop logistics solutions empowering businesses.
Warehouse Meaning
In simple terms, a warehouse is nothing but a place where goods are stored to be distributed later. It helps to keep the products safe as well as in an orderly manner.
Whereas, warehousing involves storing the goods, maintaining and handling them, and more. Each and every business in which manufacturing or transporting goods is involved is bound to require a warehouse.
There are many benefits that come with having a warehouse. You don’t just get a centralized storage location for all your products but your order fulfillment and other processes are also streamlined better.
Warehousing Meaning
Basically, warehousing is nothing but the process of storing goods in a warehouse. However, that doesn’t just end here.
Warehousing also means tracking and maintaining your inventory, and ensuring that your goods are kept safe. Warehousing gives you an idea of the stock of products that you have, its quantity, how long you have had the stock when it arrived, and a lot more. A company can either lease a warehouse or entirely outsource its logistics to a third party in order to use its warehousing facilities.
This is what a warehouse and warehousing mean in a logistics system.
Functions of Warehousing
1. Works as a Central Storage Location
The main function of a warehouse is obviously to store your products or goods. It means that you have a central location for receiving, storing, as well as distributing your products.
In fact, it also serves as a place where you can store any surplus goods. And it is always convenient to have a centralized location instead of using your garage/ spare room as a warehouse.
2. Better Inventory Management
There is no doubt that warehouses help you manage your inventory better. Warehousing will ensure that your inventory gets tracked better which, in turn, will ensure that it is managed better.
This will help you keep track of your products better as you will know the products that are in stock, the products that have gone out of stock, and more.
Without warehousing, it is very difficult to keep a track of your products.
3. Price Stability
A warehouse also functions in ensuring price stability. When you have plenty of supplies of something, its prices are reduced and vice versa.
Similarly, the demand for a certain product might also depend upon the season and it might change as the season changes. So, with a warehouse, you can store all your goods for a later date instead of selling them at cheaper rates off-season.
4. Enhanced Order Processing
If you are wondering what else having a warehouse will do for you, it will enhance the way you process your orders. Whenever a customer places an order with you, the least that he/ she expects is a smooth and timely delivery process.
With warehousing services, you will notice that your order processes are streamlined better and work much smoother.
5. Improved Customer Service
Having a warehouse will ultimately contribute to improved customer service. After all, owning a business means keeping your customers satisfied and happy.
Having warehouse services will ensure that your overall product distribution services are better optimized and your deliveries are timely.
Warehousing Types
Now that you know warehouse meaning, let us take a look at types of warehousing.
1. Private Warehouses
As the name suggests, a private warehouse is built and owned by a business and is used solely by that business. As it is solely owned by the business only, such a warehouse is not meant for use by any other commercial entity.
2. Public Warehouse
Also referred to as a duty-paid warehouse, such a warehouse is usually owned by a government or a semi-state body. The purpose of such a warehouse is to let businesses use it for a fee or charge.
Since most new businesses or small to medium businesses cannot afford a private warehouse, they make use of such public warehouses.
3. Co-Operative Warehouse
A co-operative warehouse is owned by a co-operative. Such a warehouse can be rented out by a private firm or organization to store goods.
Elements of Warehousing
There is a lot more to warehousing than just the storage of goods. A warehouse has a lot of different elements and a few of them are noted below.
- Complete storage system including shelving and racks to ensure that there is maximum storage and easy access to it at all times.
- A system for climate control for special goods that require cold or warm environments.
- An inventory management software to help keep track of the products that come in or go out of the warehouse.
- Complete security to protect the stored products.
- Transportation to bring products in or get them out of the warehouse.
Warehousing Benefits
- Significantly reduced risk as products stored in a warehouse are usually insured so they are protected from theft, fire, damage, etc.
- Most warehouses will also provide you services such as picking, packing, shipping, etc. which is always an added benefit.
- With warehousing taken care of, you can spend your time focusing on the other aspects of your business.
- You get a number of facilities with warehousing that help run your business smoother.
Conclusion
Here, we talked about warehouse meaning, its elements, functions, as well as benefits. We hope this article cleared your doubts on what warehousing is and how it can be beneficial for your business.
