National Distribution

Shared Warehouses

Shared warehousing or Multi-client warehousing often involves a far more flexible contractual agreement, typically on a month-to-month or year-to year basis. Multi-client warehousing involves the 3PL provider owning the facility which is typically equipped with infrastructure and systems including WMS, RF/RFID technology, racking and materials handling equipment.

If you're searching for a warehouse to complete your supply chain needs, you may have some reservations about your product sharing space with other products in the same building. However, the advantages of sharing a space far exceed the disadvantages.

Here are the five advantages of a shared warehouse space:

Reduced Costs - By sharing warehousing space, costs are shared by all clients, which can potentially reduce your expenses. Your company only pays for the space you need.
Shared resources - In a shared warehouse (or multi-client) environment, resources are typically shared between the tenants of the building. This includes labor content, material handling equipment, racking, material handling equipment and IT solutions (i.e. warehouse management system. These shared resources can offer a controlled cost fulfillment solution.
Industry knowledge - It's not uncommon for a logistics provider to focus on particular industries. A 3PL with shared warehousing has employees with specific industry knowledge on order profiles, inventory controls, warehouse efficiencies, and shipping details related to your industry. This knowledge can prove to be valuable in building synergies and efficiencies within your supply chain.
Flexibility - A shared warehouse can be the perfect solution to scale your business. If you are a middle-market company or fast-growth focused business a shared environment will provide you with a flexible warehouse environment to "grow into the space". For example, say you have a need for 80,000 sq ft today but have a growth plan of 10-20% over the next 24 months. A muli-client warehouse gives you the ability to increase your footprint as your business evolves.
Terms - Shared warehousing contract terms can be designed with shorter duration (1-3 years) as compared to a dedicated facility. The shorter contract terms can provide you with the flexibility to evolve your operation and scale your supply chain.

With a shared warehouse the costs are spread more equally across the companies using the facility. Multiple clients share the space as well as capital equipment and labor. Most importantly many of the costs become variable and move with the volume and activity levels of your business at a given time.

Multi-client warehousing usually involves a blend of transactional-based pricing described above, fixed storage charges for space used, and "pallet-in-pallet-out" charges for each pallet (or any unitized load) of product that is handled. Value-added services typically are much the same as in the dedicated model, though they may not be as specialized overall as they must be performed for many individual customers.

These services include:

Bulk packing
eCommerce order fulfillment
Cross-docking services
Inspection services
Kitting
B2B and B2C pick/pack and order fulfillment
Order consolidation
Packaging services
Returns processing
Assembly and light manufacturing
Reverse logistics

For businesses choosing a multi-client model, things like leveraging existing warehousing infrastructure and ability to quickly ramp up in new customer markets are top of mind.

Click here to enquire about our Shared Warehouse Services.