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What to Consider When Moving to a New Warehouse

As most business owners and upper management will know, good decision-making is essential for staying ahead. For those working in fast-paced industries such as eCommerce and fashion retail, the ability to make quick and informed decisions is more important than ever.

That said, some decisions require more consideration than others. For example, choosing a new warehouse space isn’t a decision that should be rushed. Your premises are integral to your business and should be treated as such.

While a lack of floor space or a diversification of products might make the decision to move warehouse feel like a time-sensitive one, it’s always helpful to take a step back and evaluate your needs more carefully. The good news? We happen to have plenty of advice on this subject!

To help you make a better decision for your business, here’s our tips on what to consider before making the move to a new warehouse:

1. How much additional space does your business need?

Before committing to a new warehouse, evaluating just how much additional space your business needs is important. For eCommerce and fashion-based brands, having the ability to stock everything your customers want is vital — but is square footage really the issue?

When it comes to evaluating your current facilities, ask yourself:

  • Are we making full use of the space we already have?
  • Could our storage solutions be optimized to support additional stock?
  • Can we create floor space in our current building by adjusting the layout?
  • Are we forecasting based on accurate data?

2. Are you in full control of your inventory management system?

For businesses that deal with a high volume of stock every day, it can be easy for certain products to slip through the cracks. Particularly in a warehouse setting, it’s easy for unlabelled boxes to pile up and never make it into the system (or be removed from it!).

This is why, before deciding to move to a new warehouse, getting your inventory management system in order is essential. This will help make the moving process easier and ensure your move to a new warehouse starts off on the right foot.

In some cases, better inventory management can even highlight that a move isn’t necessary. A win-win scenario!

To get started:

  • Consider cutting slow-moving inventory from your selection
  • Put a team in charge of going through unopened, unlabelled, or ‘miscellaneous’ boxes and establishing their contents
  • If you’re having issues with inaccurate inventories, it might be time for a complete system overhaul (don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it sounds!)
  • Ensure there’s no leftover stock in your warehouse that your business doesn’t carry anymore
  • Recognize that there’s more innovative ways to manage inventory than to just set minimum stock levels — we live in a time where technology is thriving, utilize it!

3. Is your inventory visibility as good as it could be?

When things aren’t in good order, it can be easy to feel like you’re low on space or that your stock can’t be managed correctly until you move premises.

The trouble is, a disorganized business in a larger space will still be disorganized — you’ll just have more room to compound the issue.

To ensure better visibility across your warehouse:

  • Improve your labeling/SKU code systems to ensure products can be identified quickly and easily by all staff members
  • Divide stock into logical sections, ensuring they can be accessed quickly and safely
  • Protect stock from damage with storage solutions that are secure but still allow contents to be clearly identified
  • Ensure inbound and outbound processes are streamlined to avoid warehouse overcrowding

Particularly true across the eCommerce and fashion retail sectors, better visibility will help you determine what your current warehouse is lacking and what a new space might offer. Alternatively, it can also help clarify that your current warehouse might work better than you thought with better management systems in place!

4. Are there any areas of your warehouse that could benefit from automation?

For many businesses, evidence of growth has traditionally been indicated by a need for larger facilities. However, with today’s technology, this doesn’t have to be the case.

Everything from order picking to managing your stock can take up valuable time, physical space, and resources. This is where automation might be useful.

With automation systems having developed significantly in recent years, there’s no better time to evaluate how automation can transform your facilities and help boost your business. From robotic product movement to integrated software, the answer to optimizing your warehouse might lie in new technology.

How Pio’s automated warehouse system can help:

Have you considered that maybe the answer to scaling your business the right way, is to scale your business in a new way? As discussed, sometimes the solution to finding more space is to just optimize the space you already have.

At Pio, we’ve developed an automated warehouse system that enables brands to create smoother and smarter warehouse fulfillment processes. Designed with the future in mind, Pio can be tailored to your exact business needs. As your business grows, Pio can adapt and grow with it.

If you’re not feeling ready to move your business or would like to adapt to a new and improved way of managing your stock, Pio gives you the time to focus on making more informed decisions.

With up to 10 times better storage capacity and a design that can be fully optimized to your space, Pio makes it fast and easy to keep your warehouse in-house. And, even if you still decide to move to a new warehouse, Pio can move with you!

Wondering what other benefits of Pio there are? You can book a demo of our warehouse system and find out exactly what Pio means for you. With Pio, you can work smarter now and determine your next move later.