Putting inventory into your virtual warehouse is a fantastic way to ensure that order fulfillment and inventory management remain under control. In fact, virtual warehousing is a business opportunity, and it simply makes good sense to take advantage of it. Just make sure that the virtual warehouse you choose offers integration with your ERP. 

What is a virtual warehouse?

If you want a 360-degree view of your available inventory, then using a virtual warehouse is key. This fulfillment and distribution center allows you to store inventory, which will be distributed to third-party companies as needed. Furthermore, virtual warehouses offer a way to get a quick digital representation of your entire inventory, regardless of where each piece is physically located.  

As an example, let’s say that you stock and sell A-line skirts. Using a traditional warehouse setting would only allow you to see how many skirts are available in one warehouse. With a virtual warehouse, you’ll be able to quickly determine how many skirts are left across every distribution center. Therefore, it’ll be much easier and faster to fill orders, and you’ll also have a much better idea of when you need to reorder supplies.  

Benefits of virtual warehousing

There are many benefits to virtual warehousing, which is the primary reason that so many companies have already made the switch. After all, doesn’t the idea of instantly knowing exactly what your inventory looks like sound like a great idea? 

Reduces Shipping Costs and Transit Times 

If you’ve ever noticed how many different distribution centers Amazon has, then you should also understand that they’ve built their extensive network of warehouses to save money. Rather than shipping all their A-line skirts from one location, for instance, they’ve split up their stock across the country. This helps customers receive their orders faster, and it also brings the cost of shipping down. In return, their customers are more satisfied and are more likely to shop at Amazon again. 

Improves Inventory Control 

A powerful benefit of virtual warehousing is being able to peruse your entire inventory at once. Let’s say you notice that a specific item happens to be overstocked at your Southern warehouse but it’s understocked at your Northern warehouse. This instantly gives you the opportunity to reallocate your stock appropriately, so you can better meet customer demand and avoid problematic deadstock and stockouts. 

This is especially important when you sell your stock to retail stores. Any impediments in the chain could cause retail stores to be unable to move your products. For example, what happens if your Southern warehouse can’t meet the demand for your new line of swimming suits? By the time you reroute them from the Northern warehouse to the Southern one, you might have missed the swimming suit buying window for most shoppers. If you had a virtual warehouse, however, it would have been easier to notice and correct this issue right away. 

Optimizes Storage 

As pointed out above, optimizing your physical storage is key. If one SKU ships way more units from your Northern warehouse, it’ll make perfect sense to ensure that particular warehouse stores the bulk of that SKU. 

Virtual warehouse vs. traditional warehouse

A traditional warehouse is where your items are physically stored. Meanwhile, a virtual warehouse allows you to leverage technology to deliver actionable insights, provide real-time analytics, and record data. Basically, if you have more than one traditional warehouse and/or distribution center, you’ll be able to get a lot out of having a virtual warehouse as well. 

Key features of a virtual warehouse

Your virtual warehouse should include many key features such as: 

• Complete view of your inventory 
• Real-time analytics and insights 
• Convenient scalability 
• Reduces your overhead costs 
• Boosts customer satisfaction 

Each of the preceding features will help increase your profit margin without having any ill effects on your customers. Instead, your customers will appreciate receiving their items more quickly and for a lower shipping cost. 

Virtual warehousing software and tools

Although virtual warehousing software provides a good start, it’s also necessary to have a solid enterprise resource planning (ERP) option. Why is this needed? Because your virtual warehouse cannot solve your existing distribution and/or inventory management issues on its own. 

When you’re deciding on what type of virtual warehousing software to utilize, be sure to verify that it can fully integrate with your chosen ERP. Otherwise, it’ll become too cumbersome to use both effectively. By selecting an ERP like the one available from N41, you’ll have the power to integrate the tools that truly matter, including processing UPS invoices with just one click!  

N41 provides America’s leading apparel and fashion ERP solution. We have a 99% client retention rate and 16+ years of industry experience. In other words, if you’re in the market for an ERP that can integrate with virtual warehousing software, then look no further! Request your free demo today to learn how N41 can help you grow your apparel business.