Inventory management can be a challenge for an e-commerce company. Many companies start out small and have limited space. They might want to offer large product lines to their customers, but it’s a challenge to store the products at their location.

If your company is taking off or you want to expand your product offerings, but you’re facing the challenge of limited space, you might be considering finding a warehouse or switching to a larger one. Off-site inventory management is the perfect solution to this problem. This method can have many benefits for an e-commerce company, including the following:

1. You can avoid the hassle of a warehouse.

When your company manages inventory itself, you have to cover the cost of the warehouse space, the overhead costs of running the warehouse and the employees for the warehouse. As your company expands and as time goes by, you have to manage all of those aspects in addition to your office and your own company’s staff.

By managing your inventory off site, your company won’t have to deal with all the work and expenses involved with a warehouse. J.M. Field Marketing explains that instead of handling the inventory management yourself, you can trust another company to take care of that work for you. You will only have to pay inventory management of the products that are ordered, instead of all those upfront costs to get started and the ongoing costs associated with running your warehouse. Plus, you can rely on a company that is experienced with inventory management.

2. Maintain control over your inventory.

You don’t have to completely hand over your inventory management to another company and have no idea what’s going on with it. Your company will still have control over your inventory, so that you can manage your business. You will be able to track the purchasing and the inventory in stock at the off-site location. This way, you can follow trends of your business and understand any changes you need to make to stay successful and to grow.

3. Your company will be able to handle ordering fluctuations.

One of the challenges of an e-commerce business is handling extra orders during busy seasons or when the business is growing quickly. A reputable, outsourced fulfillment service can handle these changes, without your company needing to worry about it. It should be a positive for your company when you are getting extra orders, not a dreaded challenge to overcome. Off-site inventory management can turn it into a profitable experience.

4. Your company can focus on other areas of the business.

When you take inventory management off the plate of your company, you are freeing up your time, resources and efforts to focus on other things. Your company can focus on retaining customers and marketing to attract new customers.

You won’t have to worry about your marketing efforts growing your company too quickly, because your off-site inventory management services will be prepared for the growth. Instead of managing both an office team and a warehouse team, your company will be able to focus its efforts on just one and rely on another company for the warehouse side.

5. Cut down on the cost of shipping.

Since inventory management is the specialty of inventory fulfillment companies, they are able to engage in bulk shipping. This can greatly reduce the shipping costs of products. Another way these companies often cut shipping costs is by choosing more affordable alternatives, such as shipping parts and assembling them on site. These shipping savings can be passed onto your company and to your customers, which can make them more likely to purchase, to become repeat customers and to be happier overall with their buying experience.

About the author
Don Amato is Vice-President, Sales of Chicago Tag & Label in Libertyville, IL. Chicago Tag & Label custom forms, labels and tags help streamline processes in many industries including retail, industrial, manufacturing, distribution and medical environments.