Tips For Choosing An Outsourced Distribution

Many small-scale businesses are looking for third-party distribution and warehousing partners. This is sensible, as warehousing is not your core business. 

You should consider outsourcing this task. You can navigate to this site to get more information about the 3pl warehouse in Canada.

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The best way to make the right decision is to make both operational and customer-centric considerations.

1. Should the Warehouse be Close to Our Office?

Not necessarily. If the job of the warehouse is to receive inventory, store it and ship it for order fulfillment, then consider why office staff should ever really need to visit the warehouse.

Of course, you will require visits for auditing and maintaining a relationship with the vendor and those handling your products, but these should be infrequent.

2. Does the warehouse have to be close to highways and airports?

It depends on where your product is going. Being close (or just off) to major highways is always advantageous for getting your shipments on the road quickly. If you're never or infrequently ship by air then there is no need to be close to an airport. 

3. We fulfill orders by courier and often ship directly to customers. How does that affect our decision?

This is important as couriers operate using zones across the country. If a larger percentage of your orders go to one particular zone then it may make sense to locate within that zone. 

Look for Value Added Services. Many operate their own transportation brokerage which means they can source the best deals for freight forwarding.