10 Must-Haves in a 3PL Warehouse Management System

Today’s consumers want flawless e-Commerce experiences, putting pressure on third-party fulfillment centers to improve their processes. However, while fulfillment is the step to get products to the end user, your entire warehouse must operate with precision and integration to ensure nothing interferes with customer experience. A 3PL warehouse management system (WMS) is the easiest way to keep everyone happy. Here we provide 10 must-haves for the ultimate 3PL warehouse management system.

1. Smooth Functionality

Your third-party warehouse services are specific to your customer’s needs. What you offer determines the functionality required for your WMS. Functionality needs to optimize your operations so you become more efficient while reducing both your own and your customer’s bottom lines. Key functionality must provide real-time visibility for warehouse inventory from the moment of receipt to the moment the item leaves the warehouse. It should also make the following processes easier:

• Put aways
• Order allocation
• Inventory tracking and counts
• Picking, packing, and shipping
• Dynamic slotting for top sellers

You should be able to manage specific functions, whether you are a third-party warehouse for Amazon or for a single small manufacturing business.

2. User-Friendly Interface

You want to make your team’s job easier, not harder. A user-friendly interface creates a manageable learning curve so your team can begin reaping the benefits of the software sooner. Your WMS should provide an invaluable tool making day-to-day tasks easier while adapting to changing demands. Whether you have expanding inventory, are training temporary hires to manage order surges or are onboarding new vendors, everyone should find learning to use your WMS easy.

3. Easy Integration

Chances are you don’t intend to replace platforms you currently use just because you’re investing in a WMS. A good WMS integrates with the rest of your “tech stack” whether it is an ERP, transportation management system, order management system, or even the shopping cart and e-Commerce platforms used by your customers.

4. Scalability

With more opportunities opening for third-party logistics warehouses, your system must be scalable. You want to take full advantage of your growth potential with software that allows you to onboard new customers and expand existing inventories quickly. If your system provides analytics, you can make data-driven decisions allowing you to enjoy strategic growth.

5. Strategic and Real-time Labor Management

Your third-party warehouse services must remain responsive to meet customer demand. Whether you want to map out travel paths to improve picking efficiency, motivate staff to improve pick times, or gain insights to predict overtime or the need for hiring temporary pickers, an intelligent labor management feature helps set quotas, manage scheduling, and recommend appropriate picking methods.

6. Service and Support

You want a WMS provider not interested in simply selling software but also ensuring it suits your needs. Their job is to ensure seamless implementation and integration with training, guidance, and support. In other words, they should make life easier and meet the requirements of your team, company, and customers.

7. Paperless Technology

Your WMS should relieve you of paper and paper-related processes. When everything is digitized and automated, electronic bills of lading and signatures improve efficiency between you and your carriers. The pandemic has made contactless services a priority, and paperless operations support this expectation. When everything becomes digitized, you can offer real-time support and share critical information from one secure central storage system, improving customer service.

8. Analytics and Reporting

There is an expectation that your team will provide valuable data, whether it is order detail, product summary, or daily receiving logs for your customer reps; customized reports to satisfy your client’s unique reporting needs or proof of your efficiency through your own performance data. Analytics and reporting are key to making smart business decisions for your business and your customers.

9. Receiving

Receiving advanced shipping notices from suppliers allows you to plan for deliveries to improve the speed and efficiency of put aways using automated recommendations. You can also validate inbound inventory and record receipts to streamline the put-away process further. Every step is predicted, so you know each location as inventory arrives and reduce errors with inventory placement confirmation.

10. Shipping Integration

Shipping integration is a key component to search for in a warehouse management system. This enables you to ship out orders fast and simply without any delays and enables you to ship out more orders in less time without compromising quality or service. It also enables you to effortlessly integrate your warehouse management system with your shipping software.

To make sure that your customers can receive their orders swiftly and easily, your warehouse management system must interface with your shipping software. This will make it simpler for you to maximize productivity while ensuring top-notch client service.

These 10 must-haves will ensure you have a 3PL warehouse management system that optimizes performance across your entire warehouse. 

We’re Here to Help

Fulfillment software is designed to help you work smarter. It’s meant to take away some of the pressure of running a successful warehouse so you can focus on making the big decisions. 

At VeraCore, we believe in proactive planning, which is why we’ve made it a point to create a smart fulfillment platform that makes running a successful 3PL easier, not more complicated. Our solution gives 3PLs like yours the ability to plan proactively and automate your processes so that your software works for you and not the other way around.