Make Warehouse Plans Now for the Holiday Rush

The holiday buying season may be months away, but for businesses and e-commerce, now is the ideal time to make warehouse plans to handle the holiday rush. Although Brendamour Warehousing, Distribution & Services has four large public warehouses, space fills up quickly as the holiday months draw closer. But if you start making storage and distribution plans now and lock in your warehouse space, you’ll have less to do and worry about when the holiday rush hits.

Your Warehousing and Distribution Holiday Checklist

- *Coordinate with Suppliers –* Check with your manufacturers, wholesalers, or suppliers to see how they address high demand during the peak shopping months of November and December. Determine where your stock will be warehoused and set policies for distribution centers when stock is out. Evaluate how well the supply chain system worked last holiday season and what improvements can be made to it so you don’t face out-of-stock situations and lose customers to the competition.
- *Evaluate Inventory Space –* If you’re bringing in more products to meet holiday demand or expanding your product line, you’re going to need space to store it ahead of time so it’s ready to go when orders start coming in. Now is the time to decide how much more storage space will be needed and whether your existing space is sufficient or if a third party logistics provider (3PL) would be more efficient in handling the demand.
- *Plan a Delivery Strategy – *Determine whether your distribution network is capable of handling your extra business. Evaluate distribution efficiency in terms of product handling, correct shipment of orders, optimal loading and routing, and shipping and delivery times.
- *Forecast Labor Needs –* Evaluate whether you need to add temporary staff to handle increased orders or manage more products or product lines. Take into consideration recruiting, hiring and training times.

Make Brendamour Part of Your Holiday Preparations

One of the many advantages of a 3PL like Brendamour is our services are available on an as-needed basis. You pay only for the services you use for the period of time you use them. During the holiday season, we help businesses of all sizes and types meet customer demand by performing various supply chain management functions. If you take a look at our services, you’ll see that we do much more than public warehousing and distribution.

Here are just a few ways Brendamour can help you during the busy holiday season:

- *Coordinate with suppliers.* We work with the originator of your goods to schedule their arrival in our warehouse based on inventory levels and customer demand. Because our inventory control is completely automated, including barcoding abilities, we can tell you which products are getting low and when reorders should be placed with manufacturers or wholesalers.
- *Meet your volume levels.* We have the extra capacity to warehouse your increased volume of goods. Not only do we store your merchandise, we also have a state-of-the-art automated warehouse management system that tracks where your goods are every step of the way, from inventory to delivery. And you receive real-time status 24/7 using web-based access.
- *Provide the staff you need.* We eliminate your need to hire additional staff to handle the backend of your operations because we already have experienced employees who know how to manage inventory controls and handle orders, shipments, receipts and returns. With our advanced computerized systems, all stages of your logistics are handled quickly, efficiently and accurately.
- *Efficiently handle multi-channel distribution.* Our experience, combined with our computerized systems, allow us to move your goods through one or more distribution channels. Whether we’re shipping to stores, regional distribution centers, other businesses, or direct to the consumer, our transportation partners follow automated shipping protocols that outline the most cost-effective and time efficient route to take or transportation method to use. This efficient distribution system saves you money and gets the items to your end customer quicker, increasing customer satisfaction.
- *Provide other holiday support.* With our diverse services, we can serve as a backup to your company’s operations. Our outsourcing services are available on an as-needed basis and include processing, packing and assembly work services, just to name a few.

Let’s Talk Holidays

If you’d like to hear more about how we can help you this holiday season, get in touch and we’ll be happy to talk with you or schedule an in-person visit to one of our warehouse facilities. Don’t let logistics be the reason why customers were denied your products. Let’s start planning together now for the holiday rush so you can enjoy a happy and prosperous holiday season.