Warehouse storage facilities are essential for most businesses, whether that business produces a physical product or not. If a business does not want to build and maintain a storage warehouse on-site, there are many warehouse storage services that can fill the gap.

Working with warehouse storage services is a vital part of accessing the products you store in the facility, whether you're shipping the products to customers or to your own retail stores. But there are other issues that pertain to the working relationship between your business and warehouse storage services, including:

1. What services the facility offers to help you keep track of inventory.

2. How the warehouse storage business coordinates shipping to and from the facility.

3. Whether the business offers comprehensive third party logistics (3PL) services that can streamline your operation and improve your bottom line.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find warehouse storage facilities that offer information on shipping

Shipping is one of the most important details to consider when choosing storage facility. A business that uses this service must be confident that it can ship to and from a warehouse facility in a timely, efficient manner. Some warehouse services also offer their own transportation solutions, which is something to consider.

I recommend: VendorSeek.com provides a tool that helps you choose the right warehouse storage service anywhere in the country. You can specify what services you need, including shipping, and find a company located near you. Exxtra Express is a warehouse storage facility that also offers transportation services for your products.

Locate a warehouse storage business that can help you track inventory

Inventory is a major asset of any business, whether it's your product inventory or machine inventory. To keep organized with a warehouse storage service, consider a warehouse storage business that can also provide inventory services.

I recommend: Empire Warehouse is a storage facility that offers all businesses a custom inventory solution to track inventory. J-Jak offers a complete or customized inventory management system for all warehousing through its facilities.

Choose a warehouse storage business that offers 3PL services

3PL services are another way to take care of your storage and transportation needs with one company. 3PL services range from simple warehousing and distribution up to full service packing, tracing and tracking. Hiring a 3PL service can save a lot of money and time on finding the separate solutions for transportation, packaging and distribution services.

I recommend: Third Party Logistics offers a range of 3PL services, including information, freight and vendor management. Inbound Logistics offers a tool for companies to find the right 3PL services to match their needs.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  To get the most from a storage warehouse, make sure to ask about all the different services it can provide. Because you will work closely with a storage warehouse service, you should approach the decision making process as though you were hiring an employee.

Warehouse storage services vary widely from one company to another. To find a storage service that meets your business needs, you'll need to narrow down your options.

1. Make a list of the storage warehouse services that are most important to you.

2. Search for facilities in the area you would like your merchandise stored.

3. Narrow your options by looking closely at what each warehouse storage business offers.

If fast delivery is your main goal, find a warehouse storage business that offers fast shipping. Look for 24-hour turnaround times. Check each facility's inventory control methods. Find a company with assembly, shipping, receiving and docking options that work with your business.

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Get warehouse storage quotes

Getting quotes is a good first step in finding warehouse storage solutions for your business. Ask for quotes that include the services you need such as shipping, order fulfillment, docking capabilities, facility management, assembly, packing and more.

I recommend: Use Vendor Seek to request quotes from several warehouse storage facilities at one time. You'll get quotes within a few hours of filling out the request form, and it's free. You are not obligated to accept any of the quotes you receive.

Find warehouse facilities with assembly options

If you have a product that requires assembly before delivery, find a warehouse storage service that will provide assembly and kitting.

I recommend: Dependable Logistics Services offers kitting and assembly. Warehouse storage facilities across the country offer light to heavy assembly options. Find a warehouse in a location that suits your shipping and receiving needs that offers assembly service as well.

Use a warehouse storage service with inventory capabilities

Keep your business running smoothly by incorporating your inventory records right through the warehouse storage service you choose to use.

I recommend: Find warehouse facilities, such as Action Freight Services, with inventory control that meets your needs. Capacity LLC also keeps good inventory using a warehouse management system.

Warehouse storage and services for foreign trade

If your company does a lot of business overseas, it makes sense to utilize a warehouse to meet your foreign trade zone needs.

I recommend: Smart Logistics offers locations throughout the country. They provide customs bonded public and private locations with foreign trade zones that include ports and air/cargo locations.

Centrally located warehousing

When fast shipping is your top priority, find warehouse locations that offer a centralized location and fast shipping capabilities.

I recommend: Avra Warehousing, located in Michigan, offers full service warehousing and distribution with fast turnaround. Kansas City Warehouse is a centrally storage warehouse that also offers the ease of foreign distribution.

Warehousing for special products

Find warehouse storage services for special products such as cold food or hazardous materials. Not all warehouse facilities have the capabilities to handle these products.

I recommend: The International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses has an online directory of warehouses throughout the world. For hazardous materials, contact Evans Distribution Systems. They offer warehouses for hazardous chemicals.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Look for warehousing services that can process your orders within 24 hours.
• •  Ask for references. Most warehouse storage facilities will provide you with a list of current or prior tenants you can contact before making your decision.

The warehouse storage business covers a wide range of services these days from simple storage units to complex distribution centers that offer order systems including assembly, pick and pack, fast delivery and customer service. Whether your company needs simple or complex warehouse storage services, there are always ways to watch your overall costs and save money.

Find warehouse storage facilities that offer discounted long-term lease options, and sign long-term leases only after making sure the company can offer what you want and has a good reputation for its services. Other ways to save money when paying for warehouse services include making sure you aren't paying for options you don't need, finding services that are centrally located or near your business and looking for warehouse options that you can combine with your current logistics solutions. Start saving money on warehouse storage services by:

1. Spending time reviewing different warehouse companies and their options.

2. Saving time when comparing warehouse storage services by finding many prices and quotes in one place.

3. Combining services and looking for reduced logistic costs.

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Research warehouse and distributions storage options online

Find out about warehouse options and storage services provided by doing some research before coming up with a warehouse plan for your business. Look for online educational resources to get a good understanding of what's available in warehouse storage.

I recommend: Get information from the International Warehouse Logistics Association including tools and articles on warehouse service options. Read articles at Logistics Management online addition to find out more about storage solutions.

Compare many storage warehouse prices in one place

Make your search go quickly by finding a good website to compare your storage service options online. Before you start, make a list of storage warehouse options you are considering, and make a note of your budget objectives. Look for comparable services, prices, warehouse locations and lease options.

I recommend: Use the tools and resources at Vendor Seek to get several warehouse storage service quotes at one time. Choose the options you are considering and narrow your choices down easily. Use the industrial directory of ThomasNet to sift through many logistics service companies that provide warehouse storage.

Find a warehouse storage facility with the options you need at a good price

Look for discounts, but watch out for prices that hook you for the first few months or year, then sock you with much higher costs or hidden fees in the long run. Find national organizations to save money. Storage companies that offer nationwide service with locations across the country can usually offer lower overhead costs. Once you have a contract, review it regularly to make sure you aren't paying for extras you aren't using.

I recommend: Look for value-added warehouse services (VAS) like assembly and packaging options that can be added at a lower cost than you can outsource separately such as at United Facilities. Warehouse storage service Jacobson Companies also offers quality storage services nationwide with many logistics options to customize.

Warehouse storage services can save you a lot of money if you are a small to medium sized business and you can’t afford to add space to your already existing facility. The types of storage options vary from simple units all the way to complex distribution centers that can help you with assembling parts, delivering them and then helping with customer service. As you explore your options there are some terms that you will want to understand.

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Kitting

Kitting refers to the process of packaging individual items into one unit. Some warehouse storage services offer kitting to their clients.

I recommend: Go to BusinessDictionary.com for another description.

Pick and pack

Pick and pack refers to taking small to large quantities of a product from large quantities and dissembling them by picking the pertinent product for a specific destination and then re-packaging it with a shipping label and invoice included. As you do your research, you will find warehouse storage services that offer pick and pack to their clients.

I recommend: CaseStack describes how they do pick and pack.

Cross docking

Cross docking refers to the process of receiving shipments in large or small quantities that have arrived by rail, air, trailer or container and then processing them by unloading and staging them for reshipment while incurring only minimal storage time. There are warehouse storage services that can do cross docking.

I recommend: Dependable Logistics Services defines this term for you.

Bar code, barcode reader

A bar code (or barcode) is an optical machine-readable depiction of data that is made up of lines and spacing. They can also come in patterns of dots, hexagons, squares or other geometric patterns. Warehouse storage services can provide bar coding as part of what they do for clients to make finding and tracking what is being stored easier. A barcode reader is necessary to read the barcode.

I recommend: TechTarget defines these terms as well.

Reverse logistics

Reverse logistics is a term that is used to describe all the processes related to the reuse or disposal of products and materials. Some warehouse storage services offer reverse logistics to their clients.

I recommend: 12Manage describes reverse logistics.

EDI

EDI is an acronym for electronic data interchange and refers to the transmission of data between organizations electronically. Documents are transferred from one computer system to another. Warehouse storage services often use EDI for large transactions.

I recommend: See WebMediaBrands for more information.