Warehousing Services
We have a wide network of state-of-the-art warehouses strategically located around the world.
These warehouses provide secure storage for our wide range of products.
What Are The Different Types Of Warehouses?
There are three types of warehouses: fulfillment, storage, and distribution. Many of these facilities don’t fall strictly into only one of these categories.
Fulfillment
A fulfillment warehouse provides third-party logistics services. ECommerce companies ship inventory to the facility. Warehouse services include storage and order fulfillment. Many fulfillment warehouse companies offer additional services such as inventory management and product customization. Logistics warehouses receive products and ship out orders. Most 3PL warehouses serve multiple clients.
Storage
A storage warehouse is primarily for the storage of materials and goods. A government agency might use a storage warehouse to hold seasonal equipment when it’s not needed. A law firm could send old paper files to a storage warehouse for archiving. A storage warehouse may have one client or many.
Distribution
Distribution warehouses receive goods in bulk. A distribution warehouse may be a transfer point in multi-modal transport. Some distribution centers redistribute the products they receive. Grocery chains use regional distribution centers to receive bulk deliveries from suppliers. The distribution center packs assortments of products onto outbound trucks for delivery to individual supermarket locations. A distribution center may service just one company or many.
What Are The Primary Warehouse Activities?
Different types of warehouses provide different services. In a 3PL warehouse, the primary warehouse services include receiving, picking and packing, order fulfillment, and shipping. Your warehousing providers should be experts at these core processes.
Receiving
Receiving, or inbound shipping, is the process of checking-in and unloading your items when they arrive by container or tractor-trailer. This is a crucial, often-overlooked, warehouse service. Fast, accurate receiving can mean the difference in having products in stock on your website and ready to sell or unavailable, lost, or on backorder. Once your products have been logged into inventory and placed on the shelves, they are ready for the warehouse team to pick and pack them.
Whether your goods are coming from overseas or across the states, the Global Box Distributors inbound shipping team is ready and waiting to receive and log them as quickly and accurately as possible. You want your products in inventory and ready for picking and packing — and we do, too. That’s why we have accuracy guarantees — like our 2-day dock-to-stock guarantee — and reward our team members for swift, error-free receiving.
Picking & Packing
When your customer places an order on your eCommerce website, the information goes directly to your 3PL warehouse. A picker will find the items for the order, each in a designated space on the shelf. A packer will find the perfect-sized box and add infill around your products so they can ship safely.
Accurate picking and packing is the foundation of a successful eCommerce business. Global Box Distributors was founded by eCommerce entrepreneurs, so our company was built to provide the best fulfillment services in the industry. We pick and pack orders the same day we receive them, with a cutoff as late as 5:00 pm. If we mis-pick or mis-pack an order, we pay you $50. Fortunately, our experienced warehouse staff has a near-perfect accuracy record.
Order Fulfillment & Shipping
The final stage of order fulfillment is shipping. After your order is packed and labeled, it moves to the shipping station. At specific times each day, FedEx, UPS, USPS, and other carriers may stop by the warehouse to pick up outbound shipments. Once a package leaves the warehouse, the carrier is responsible for getting it safely to your customer.
Global Box Distributors services extend beyond the warehouse dock. We have relationships with the major carriers that allow us to negotiate favorable rates and better dimensional weight factors — which can save you money on shipping. And we move heaven and earth to keep your orders going out. In a crunch, when carrier capacity limitations slowed down shipping for other warehouses, we found creative solutions so our clients experienced almost no delivery delays.
Specialized Warehouse Services
Many 3PLs provide specialized warehousing services. These are just a few of the services that Global Box Distributors offers.
Kitting
Kitting and un-kitting products gives you the flexibility to maximize your sales while minimizing your inventory. You can offer both kitted and individual versions of the items. With just-in-time kitting services, your 3PL warehouse can put together the perfect mix you need to fill your orders. Global Box Distributors’ experienced staff can kit and un-kit your products to meet your needs.
Inventory Management
Inventory management is the fine art of having just enough stock on hand, but not too much. A proficient warehousing services company can help you manage your inventory. At Global Box Distributors, we work with our clients to optimize their inventory management based on information that includes sales, seasonality, reorder timing, and other factors.
Cross-Docking
Cross-docking is a method for turning orders around quickly. This process is beneficial for products on backorder. Your warehouse doesn’t waste a day or more putting items on the shelves that will immediately go out again. Global Box Distributors can often turn around a shipment in a day using cross-docking.