Outrun your competition using WMS

In our previous article about WMS systems, we showed you what these tools are all about. In short, their purpose is to make your online store more effective on more than just one front. Today, we want to concentrate on that. We will show you four crucial ways a good WMS system can help you outrun your competition.

What is a WMS system?

This acronym stands for Warehouse Management System. It’s a tool that helps online retailers, distributors, and manufacturers manage all their warehouse-related procedures. The most advanced WMS systems help you prepare orders, ship them, and even manage complaints and returns (which are common, especially in fashion e-commerce). 

However, many people wonder if such a system is truly necessary. That’s a question especially small store owners ask. And we have to be upfront here; if you sell several dozen products a month, you probably don’t need a WMS system. This solution is for medium-sized and large stores that ship at least 500 parcels a month. For small e-commerce businesses, WMS is just an unnecessary investment. When you get to the point where you ship several hundred packages each month, everything changes, and your WMS platform starts making a case for itself. In four different ways, to be precise.

Improved effectiveness

First off, when you use a WMS platform, your store becomes much more effective. Almost every store struggles with order mix-ups and delays, especially during high seasons (e.g., Black Friday or Christmas). Thanks to a Warehouse Management System, you don’t have to worry about that. The platform informs you what products need to go to a specific order. Additionally, it guides your warehouse workers so that they can locate all the necessary items more quickly. As a result, your store ships more parcels daily, and the UX of your customers goes up because they get their orders quickly and without any mix-ups. 

Time savings

Running a warehouse storing tens of thousands of products is time-consuming. With a WMS platform, you can automate many warehouse-related procedures and activities. And those that cannot be fully automated are significantly streamlined. As a result, you save a lot of time and can concentrate on growing your business and testing new marketing/sales ideas.

Easier scalability

E-commerce is one of those market sectors that enable relatively easy scalability. You can start selling new types of products, sell them abroad, or even start a brand-new store altogether. The procedures and necessary assets are exactly the same. As a result, many online stores think of different ways of scaling their businesses. However, at some point, your warehouse becomes an issue. If your internal procedures aren’t optimized, scaling can be difficult, if not impossible. Having a WMS system deals with this problem, at least partly. With such a platform, you can optimize everything that happens in your warehouse, including:

• Goods inbound
• Organizing items in the warehouse
• Managing warehouse workers
• Picking and packing orders
• Managing your business partners, including carriers and vendors

When all of your logistics procedures are optimized, you can scale your business with ease. It takes less time to grow, too.

Cooperation with a 3PL company

Of course, WMS itself is not a miracle cure for everything. After all, you can’t expand your warehouse endlessly. This is where cooperation with a 3PL company can be a very useful solution. Such companies, frequently referred to as logistics operators or fulfillment centers, support clients in everything related to logistics. That’s why cooperation with a 3PL company is usually known as logistics outsourcing. If scaling your business becomes difficult, and you don’t want to hire tens of warehouse workers and buy or rent more and more warehouses, you should consider working with a fulfillment center. This way, you don’t have to worry about storing and shipping orders – it’s all in the hands of your 3PL company.

What is the role of a WMS system here? Such a platform is simply necessary for such cooperation. Some logistics operators provide clients with their own solutions, but others require access to the client’s warehouse management system. If you already have such a system in your company, starting cooperation with a 3PL operator will be quick and hassle-free.

Summary: Opt for a WMS system and outrun your competition!

If you run a mid-sized e-commerce business, having a WMS system will pay off in no time. With it, your online store operates and grows much more effectively. The only thing you have to do now is select the optimal WMS platform. Take a look at this post, where we compare five proven WMS platforms, both for small and enterprise-grade companies. 

And if you need help with implementing a WMS system in your store – we are at your service!