When you’re searching for a fulfillment company, location matters. Should you choose a 3PL warehousing and fulfillment company near you? Is it better to locate your outsourced warehousing service near the closest inbound port or near your highest concentration of customers? While some regions may offer cost savings over areas that have higher rent and labor rates, the best way to choose a location for your warehouse is to take a strategic look at ALL of your fulfillment needs.
We specialize in helping businesses find order fulfillment companies all throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. If you already know the best location yourself, simply choose the area below to learn more about the best fulfillment centers in local areas and get connected for price quotes:
- Find Warehousing Companies Near Me in the United States
- Find Fulfillment Companies Near Me in Canada
- Find 3PL Warehousing Companies Near Me in Europe
If you don’t know what location is best for your business, keep reading and we’ll help you understand the most important factors when making this crucial decision.
Inbound and Outbound Freight Affect Whether a Fulfillment Center Near Me is Best
The location of your supplier and/or manufacturer has a direct impact on the best location for your fulfillment center. Any movement from your supplier or manufacturer to your warehouse adds costs to your overall business model, unless of course your supplier will ship free freight to anywhere you select (this isn’t very common, unfortunately). Therefore, minimizing any inbound transportation costs (cost to ship your product from production facilities to your warehouse) is important because less inbound freight expense will need to be passed on to your customers in the form of higher product costs.
For example, if you sell your products throughout the US and production is in the US, there may be a benefit to selecting a warehousing partner near your production facility. This isn’t always true, however, because you also have to consider your outbound freight dynamics as well as some other factors. Alternatively, if you produce your product overseas in the Far East, such as Vietnam or China, then locating a warehouse on the West Coast US will minimize inbound freight costs, as it is the closest location for inbound freight from overseas. If you bring in product from Europe, east coast and eastern US 3PL warehouses are closest, and if you produce your product in the Middle East (such as India), then either east coast or central US (for example, Houston, Texas) might be best.
Outbound freight costs are the costs to get your products shipped from your warehouse to your end customers. Sometimes, end customers will ship product on their own account and/or will pay for the outbound freight and aren’t as particular about minimization of costs. However, most of the time, outbound freight costs can directly impact your sales. Especially in the case of e-commerce fulfillment of orders, potential customers may drop out of the online shopping cart if shipping charges are higher than they are willing to pay. In the case of Canada, Vancouver offers the closest port to the Far East, and the Middle East and Europe will find inbound freight cost savings by bringing in product into Montreal or the Greater Toronto area (GTA).
When e-commerce companies ship products all throughout the US, then choosing a central US pick and pack company will help streamline outbound costs and delivery times throughout the country. For Canada, the GTA is a great option because it is the most highly populated area of the country. However, if your company ships to a very concentrated regional area, locating a third party warehouse in that particular area could be best.
If you have data on where your end customers are located, then you can draw conclusions on the best location for your fulfillment center. For example, if your sales are highly oriented towards the Northeast, then you will benefit from an outbound shipping perspective to choose a warehouse in the Northeast. However, if your sales are scattered throughout the US, or if you expect to sell throughout the US but don’t know where the sales will take place specifically, then locating in the central US could be best.
Multiple Location Fulfillment Providers Could Be Better Than Warehousing Near Me For Some
Sometimes, choosing a warehouse with multiple locations is best for your business. When you have a high volume of sales that justify split locating your inventory, if speed to delivery (less than 2 day ground shipping), or if you have another specific requirement such as the need to comply with Amazon Prime shipping status, having more than one location might be a requirement.
But for most businesses, using a multiple location warehousing companies is overkill and requires carrying additional stock – the cost of which will likely not outweigh the cost savings in shipping. Furthermore, multiple location fulfillment centers tend to focus on high volume clients, and therefore have much higher monthly minimums – either a minimum monthly spend or a very high monthly order volume requirement. If you sell a low volume of orders, your customers have no time sensitivity for product deliveries by customers, and your product isn’t temperature or climate sensitive, then using a single, regional fulfillment company is best.
The few examples where a multiple location fulfillment center is best are as follows:
- High monthly order volume spread throughout the country
- Climate controlled and temperature sensitive products (such as cold or frozen food products)
- Other products that have a high degree of delivery sensitivity, such as medical grade products
Environmental Factors Could Impact Your Ideal Warehouse Locations
Environmental disasters, such as hurricanes and tornadoes, as well as geographic climates, such as cold areas or extremely warm areas, could have an impact on the choice of warehouse location. If it’s important to you to avoid natural disasters, choosing a location that doesn’t have as many throughout the year is important. For companies with heat sensitive products might be best suited to avoid southern locations that experience higher normal temperatures and companies with products that cannot freeze might want to avoid northern warehouses. That being said, many warehouses offer climate controlled conditions to help mitigate some of the risk.
A 3PL Company Near Me Could be Best
In some cases, there could be other factors that impact the ideal warehouse fulfillment center location. For example, if you need to have more oversight over operations and/or wish to maintain a more direct relationship with your fulfillment center, locating a company near your physical location could be beneficial. Another benefit to hosting your fulfillment locally is the ability to visit your inventory and the people who manage it. To keep tabs on what you have, what you need and build a relationship with the people representing you and your business.
WarehousingAndFulfillment.com provides a comprehensive list of pre-screened fulfillment companies that can help you achieve all your fulfillment needs in any given region. Whether you need inventory at one central location or many, we can help you find it.
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Birmingham Fulfillment Centers
Anchorage Fulfillment Centers
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Tucson Fulfillment Centers
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Los Angeles Fulfillment Companies
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Minneapolis Fulfillment Centers
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Jackson Fulfillment Centers
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Billings Fulfillment Centers
Omaha Fulfillment Centers
Lincoln Fulfillment Centers
Manchester and Concord Fulfillment Centers
Newark Fulfillment Centers
Trenton Fulfillment Centers
Edison Fulfillment Centers
Albuquerque and Santa Fe Fulfillment Centers
Las Vegas Fulfillment Centers
Reno Fulfillment Centers
Charlotte Fulfillment Centers
Raleigh Fulfillment Centers
Fargo and Bismarck Fulfillment Centers
Cleveland Fulfillment Centers
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Columbus Fulfillment Centers
Oklahoma City Fulfillment Centers
Tulsa Fulfillment Centers
Portland Fulfillment Centers
Pittsburgh Fulfillment Centers
Philadelphia Fulfillment Centers
Rhode Island Fulfillment Services Companies
Charleston Fulfillment Centers
Greenville Fulfillment Centers
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Nashville Fulfillment Centers
Memphis Fulfillment Centers
Knoxville Fulfillment Centers
Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) Fulfillment Centers
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Alexandria Fulfillment Centers
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Virginia Beach Fulfillment Centers
Washington Fulfillment Services Companies
Seattle Fulfillment Centers
Tacoma Fulfillment Centers
Charleston Fulfillment Centers
Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay Fulfillment Centers
Cheyenne Fulfillment Centers
Companies to Consider in the United States
Medallion Fulfillment
Chatsworth, California
Sweetwater Logistics
Charlotte, North Carolina
Alberta Fulfillment Services Companies
Calgary Fulfillment Centers
Edmonton Fulfillment Centers
Manitoba Fulfillment Services Companies
Winnipeg Fulfillment Centers
New Brunswick Fulfillment Services Companies
Newfoundland and Labrador Fulfillment Services Companies
Nova Scotia Fulfilment Services Companies
Halifax Fulfillment Centers
Toronto (GTA) Fulfillment Centers
Ottawa Fulfillment Centers
Saskatchewan Fulfillment Services Companies
Regina and Saskatoon Fulfillment Centers
Companies to Consider in Canada
Distributors' Choice, Inc.
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Established: 1993
Clients: 30
Retention rate of customers: 96.7%
Annual order volume: 103,500
Order rate: 99.7%
Shipping rate: 98.0%
Inventory accuracy rate: 95.0%
Bulletproof Logistics
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Established: 2008
Clients: 500
Retention rate of customers: 95%
Annual order volume: 2,000,000
Order rate: 99%
Shipping rate: 99%
Inventory accuracy rate: 99%
Ireland Fulfillment Services Companies
Dublin Fulfillment Centers
London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham Fulfillment Centers
The Netherlands Fulfillment Services Companies
Amsterdam and Rotterdam Fulfillment Centers
Companies to Consider in Europe
Flostream Limited
United Kingdom
Established: 1998
James and James Fulfillment
United Kingdom
Established: 2010
