August 10, 2021 
eCommerce platforms and solutions have very much reshaped the consumer buying behaviour, and their expectations from the brands, and businesses across the globe. Just meeting the customer’s expectations is no longer cutting the chase. Customers aspire to be delighted, avail of consistent, omnichannel, and hyper-personalized brand experiences, interactions, and the ease to navigate the buying stages.
Warehousing is deemed the most crucial business function, especially for brands into product offerings. It paves the way for business expansion, enhancing ROI, building meaningful engagements with customers. It is the cornerstone of the entire brand-customer journey. Thus, warehouse management is something that brands have to approach in a strategic, and well-thought manner to streamline and enhance the holistic efficacy of their logistic chains.
Now, let’s understand why warehouse management is important.
Inventory Control and Management
Taking stock of the inventory in the warehouse, and having access to real-time data is crucial for businesses in the logistics industry. An inadequate inventory data may lead to inappropriate order cycles and delayed order fulfillment, which may ultimately impact the business productivity as well as customer experience. Warehouse management when done correctly by leveraging a robust Warehouse Management System (WMS) will assist businesses in streamlining their inventory control, and management processes.
Centralized Location
Imagine your products are lying across different warehouse locations, and you had to spend an inordinate amount of time ascertaining the ground details. You won’t have real-time information about which product is where, which ultimately impacts the order fulfillment process. A WMS ensures that inventories are stored in one centralized location, which helps accelerate the fulfillment process.
Enhanced Production Quality
With the delay in the order fulfillment process is taken care of, as a business, you will get more time and resources to invest in understanding what the consumers want, and their perceived feedback on your products. This will help you gain great control over the entire product lifecycle, validate the raw material, and end-product quality, and stay compliant with the requisite guidelines.
Cater to the Changing Demands
Customer demands fluctuate across the seasons. And, thus maintaining accurate inventory at all times is crucial. A robust, resilient, and scalable WMS makes it possible for businesses to cater to the changing demands without compromising the inventory.
Here are the key benefits that a WMS offers to businesses in the logistics industry.
Process Optimization
Warehousing is not only about stocking the inventory. It includes a host of processes, from bar code tracking to equipment automation. A robust WMS will enable businesses to streamline and automate the inventory management processes as much as possible to ultimately align the operations with the set business objectives. It can help establish KPIs and gather data-driven and actionable insights into the real-time warehouse operations.
Nurture Supplier-Customer Relationships
In the business ecosystem, it’s all about relationships, trust, and reliability. A WMS helps businesses understand the specific requirements of the suppliers as well as their end customers, and then align their operational strategy and execution to achieve the desired results. With the WMS’s assistance, businesses can effectively monitor buyer behavior, fluctuations in demand, and reduce the delivery lead time. There is no scope for friction between the involved stakeholders.
Balanced Inventory
Having the right amount of inventory or Just-In-Time inventory is crucial for business success, and customer satisfaction. Enabled by centralized inventory storage location with a WMS, businesses can have greater control over the product quality, and quantity at all times. A balanced inventory equates to efficient warehouse operations, and greater business revenues.
Actionable Reporting
Most WMS solutions are cloud-based and offer cutting-edge reporting, and real-time analytic solutions, which helps the key stakeholders in their informed decision-making endeavors. And, the best part about a WMS is that it offers businesses the much-desired cost efficiency, which is derived by eliminating the infrastructure, development costs, manpower costs, and other overheads.
Aspects to Consider While Opting for a WMS
Warehouse management systems need no introduction, and most businesses are aware of their significance, and efficacy for achieving their short, and long-term objectives. Considering the wide-scale demand, and popularity of tech-enabled WMSs, the market is replete with an endless variety of WMS solutions, differing in some attributes, pricing, etc. Businesses have to have a clear understanding of why they need a WMS, what are features are most desired, and how to go about the long-term execution, maintenance, and support.
Here are some of the key aspects or features to look out for while opting for a WMS.
Functionality
As a logistics business, you would want your warehouse operations to be streamlined, productive, and efficient. While you are weighing your options, do look for features that are geared towards enhancing your overall operations. Try to look for a WMS that comes equipped with automation capabilities to reduce manual workload so that employees can invest their time and energy in their core competencies.
Flexibility
You might be a business just making its foray into the vast logistics sector. But you are eyeing to expand your operations and reach new heights. So, you would need a WMS that scales as your business grows. And, at the same time, you don’t need a lot of features at the present. So, the WMS should be flexible enough to accommodate your business requirements.
Integration
You would want to get a WMS that can be seamlessly integrated with your existing warehouse functions, and optimize them in the long run to achieve the desired results. Look for a highly configurable, customizable warehouse management system that is adept at following due diligence.
ROI
Next to customer satisfaction, profit maximization is one of the ultimate goals for businesses. The WMS that you are checking out must be in alignment with your current budgetary requirements. You can also base your decisions on the other key factors such as productivity, storage, customer service, and tracking, improved pick and dispatch quality of WMSs.
Do connect with the experts at Vinculum today to avail one of the most robust, cutting-edge, and scalable SaaS-based WMS. And, you are assured a streamlined supply chain, success, and overall profitability.
