3 Factors to Consider When Choosing a Warehouse Location

As your business expands and your customer base grows, choosing an additional warehouse location is a natural next step. Whether you are a national brand or a hyper-local business, selecting a new location for your warehouse is a significant decision that can make a big impact on multiple parts of your business.

Choosing the right warehouse location can make all the difference in your shipping. Consider the following factors when you are selecting a location to surprise and delight your customers with quick, accessible shipping.

1- Carriers

How close is it to your carriers? Having your warehouse close to your carrier connections can make it even more cost-effective on your bottom line. Having a carrier commute only 15 minutes from their location or hub helps you get your shipments in the carrier's truck quicker and off to their destination with less time spent waiting for pick up.

2- Space

Will the space have ample room to grow as your business continues to grow? While on the hunt for a new warehouse location, it’s important to know the reality of your needs as well as your growth potential. If you are growing at 20% year-over-year, it’s important to remember that as a factor when scouting out locations. The building itself might be the right fit for right now but is there room to expand the building within your lot if the need arises?

3- Workforce

Does this area have the workforce needed to support your new location? Regardless of the size of the warehouse, a new building requires more employees. Are their competitive business’ around that would make it difficult to gain new steady employees? With the rise of minimum wage for certain states and companies such as Amazon, it’s imperative that you consider all your options when trying to decide if a warehouse location is right for the area you are seeking. Sometimes, moving out of the inner-city can save you money but just make sure that there are people to hire in the surrounding areas. While purchasing a building in a remote location may be cheaper, make sure you can support a full staff with the population locally.

Your business is growing

These are just a few things to consider when hunting for your next warehouse facility. It’s an exciting time to know your business is growing enough to need more space. Just make sure you have vetted your options and weighed the pros and cons. You want your business to profitable and your shipping costs to remain low. Having your warehouse close to your carrier hubs can enable quicker turn-around times for shipping that will delight your customers. That's just another way to surprise and delight new customers then potentially turn them into long-term advocates of your brand.

It’s time to make shipping your competitive advantage and your warehouse location is just one of the ways you can have an edge up.