Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Understanding What is Multi Warehouse Management
3. Needs and Challenges For Multi-Warehouse Management in Malaysia
- Order Routing
- Fragmented Inventory
- Inefficient Order Fulfillment
- Increased Operational Cost and Complexity
4. Solutions for Effective Multi Warehouse Management
- Implementing Robust Inventory
- Efficient Automated System Integration
5. Let’s Sync Your Multi-warehouse Set Up!
The numbers in the e-commerce ecosystem are always on the rise. Malaysia is the 24th largest market for e-commerce and one of the most dynamic digital economies in Southeast Asia, as it records a constant increase in mobile commerce. Like any other third-world country, this modernization has exponentially grown and encouraged people to buy more and more.
Consumers who accepted a single popular product a few years back now have innumerable choices to choose the same product from different marketplaces. The competition lies in who can make that product the fastest available with the best pricing. Hence, sellers are now focusing on delivering to their consumers as quickly as possible. This approach demands multiple touchpoints to sell and store.
If you sell in multiple geographies, you’ll need to stock your product in several warehouses. This will guarantee two things: fast delivery to your customers as their order will be processed from the nearest warehouse. Second, low logistics cost: you don’t need to cover extreme distances. Let’s try to understand this through an example:
For instance, you sell Product A in Malaysia and Singapore. But you only have one warehouse in the country’s northern part. If you process all the Singapore orders from that warehouse, the hefty logistics cost will minimize your profit margins. Moreover, the consumer base in Singapore might not appreciate the longer delivery times. Then why not store your inventory at two places and process your orders accordingly?
This drives us to the question of how you will manage multiple warehouses located at different places. Let’s explore the answers to this question in more detail and the potential of how technology can streamline the multi-warehouse workflow for businesses in Malaysia.
Understanding What is Multi-Warehouse Management
To put it in simple language, selling on multiple touchpoints has become essential in Malaysia which involves:
- Inventory control at a larger scale
- Central management of the operations
- Implementing robust logistics to handle the complexities of shipping both nationally and internationally
All these requirements are closely linked to warehouses. However, streamlining the workflow and logistics in such a scenario can be challenging. Here comes the Multi Warehouse management!
In technical terms, it is a practice of distributing and managing inventory across multiple storage locations. In descriptive terms, it is a central system that manages all the operational parts of the warehouse from one single central place. This includes the management of inventory, whether it’s stocking in or selling out. To optimize the storage, which is a very important part in the case of parent and child warehouses. The parent warehouse is the one that receives and stores the inventory and sends it to the child warehouses which are the distribution point for further operations.
For instance, marketplace warehouses like Shopee or Lazada have to be present in the central part of the country, Kuala Lumpur. Still, their presence is also essential near Singapore. This creates a challenge at different levels to manage and optimize logistics, inventory, order fulfillment, and shipping.
Challenges For Multi-Warehouse Management in Malaysia
1. Order Routing
One of the most basic needs of having a central system for multiple warehouses is to position your inventory closer to your customers. Other than Kuala Lumpur, if the order is received from the north or south extreme of the country, the processing shall be automated according to the proximity of the inventory available.
This is one of the key benefits for Malaysia, where marketplaces have coined the rule of processing orders within 24 hours of receiving them. This works effectively for faster deliveries and ensures order fulfillment along with happy customers.
2. Fragmented Inventory
Maintaining stock levels across different places manages the real flow of order fulfillment. Track your inventory right from receiving it in the warehouse and maintaining the stage of inventory replenishment. If you can see all the processes from one platform, managing the operations becomes ten times easier.
For instance, you have a parent warehouse in Kuala Lumpur, and the child warehouse in the north region has run out of SKU1 inventory. According to the cycle count, you will be notified accordingly before the inventory runs out. Additionally, you will be able to see all the products sold, to be sold, good or bad inventory, and the returned and damaged ones. Hence, you won’t have to get stuck into the calls and run after the record-keeping by people to get the updates.
3. Inefficient Order Fulfillment
In the game of selling, two elements are at its nucleus: inventory and accuracy. Most times, when an order is not fulfilled, the reasons are either related to the unavailability of the inventory or something is wrong with the accuracy of information. Accuracy plays a crucial role in the game of e-commerce selling, whether it is related to fetching order details or the number of inventory in your warehouse.
If you are not able to see the right alignment of your orders and inventory in the different warehouses, this can create everyday hassles and unsatisfactory customers.
4. Increased Operational Cost and Complexity
Business is about making profits and spending your costs smartly. When operations costs increase, it directly affects profits. Coordinating logistics, inventory, and order processing among multiple warehouses is challenging.
There is a very rare chance that you can maintain a similar workflow at different warehouses. If the inventory is at the parent warehouse, it is ordered from the southern corner. This happened because of the unavailability of the product at the child warehouse in the south. Then, people working there will communicate the instance to the parent warehouse if you are not able to see the centralized orders. Finally, the order will be processed with the additional cost of transportation and the extra time that the whole process took, along with the complexity.
Solutions for Effective Multi Warehouse Management
1. Implementing Robust Inventory
With the implementation of the multi-warehouse management system comes access to robust inventory in your warehouse. The main function of the warehouse is to maintain the inventory and process it according to the orders. And the good part is you have control of all of it. With one click, you can prevent the overstock of our stockouts. No more hide-and-seek with the products, locked with utmost accuracy and security.
You can ensure harmony in the warehouse with real-time tracking, cutting down on manual errors, and optimizing the space with no room for chaos, all despite your location. Sounds amazing, right?
2. Efficient Automated System Integration
This one is a secret weapon that propels the operations to the next level. The functioning of the e-commerce world relies on smooth communications among the different parts related to inventory, logistics, and order processing. Let’s say you can capture accurate orders and create a picklist according to the different categories like SKU, single or multiple products, priority-wise, etc. When the system communicates with the right packaging and logistics provider, it requires an efficient system.
You don’t need to worry about each step of the process, as your different systems are integrated well and function smoothly, reducing your operational costs and boosting your business’s efficiency.
Let’s Sync Your Multi-warehouse Set Up!
Finally, the booming Malaysian e-commerce market needs something that is not just trendy but a necessity of the times. By investing in the right solutions, you can master the art of operations in a few seconds.
Whether scaling locally or venturing into new countries and regions, a robust multi-warehouse strategy keeps your logistics smooth and efficient. Nothing like daily hassles would affect your business flow. Ready to conquer the e-commerce world? Get your warehouses in sync, streamline your logistics, and watch your business flourish! Happy selling!
Read More:
- Best E-commerce Inventory Management System in Malaysia
- Best E-commerce Order Management System in Malaysia
- Best E-commerce Warehouse Management System (WMS)
- Key Challenges and Opportunities in Malaysia’s Retail Sector
- Top E-commerce Marketplaces in Malaysia to Sell Online
- Key E-commerce Challenges & Opportunities in Malaysia