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Has Your Business Become Too Big For Your Garage?

When starting a business it may be feasible to keep products in your garage or spare bedroom, however you might soon realise this isn't scaleable.

14 August 2023 | By

Pallets of goods in a storage warehouse for In this blog, we’ll help clarify things by explaining what LCL shipping is and taking a closer look at the advantages of LCL shipping for small businesses
This content has been reviewed for accuracy on 14/08/2023

Moving From Your Garage To A Storage Warehouse

Moving from your garage to having your own storage warehouse can be a big jump. It can be a tough decision when you’re not quite at the size of needing a warehouse of your own but your business has outgrown the spare space in your home!

If you’ve got to this stage, pat yourself on the back because you’re clearly doing great – It’s a good dilemma to have – that your house can no longer contain the size of your business!

This is where you may need to look into an alternative option such as a self-storage facility – we have our own warehouse based in Redhill where we can offer storage and dispatch solutions as an extension of our import service.

We know how daunting it can be starting a business, while having your products in your control and doing everything yourself is easier & cheaper at first, this can become stressful and time-consuming as your business grows.

We want to eliminate the risk and stress associated with picking and sending out cartons yourself (as well as the trip hazard those boxes may pose in your home!) so you have more time to focus on your growing business.

Contact Us For More Information

Self-Storage

A self-store facility can seem like the natural progression from your garage as you are increasing the space to store the products you are importing. Using a self-store facility you can send goods to Amazon via UPS. You can generate the carton labels through your seller central account and then book the collection with UPS, this is a quick and easy way of getting your stock replenished which won’t cost you handling.

Pros:

  • Cheapest option as you’re doing the handling yourself

Cons:

  • Picking the cartons yourself can be time consuming
  • Collections can be more difficult

3PL Facility

If you require more re-work such as product labelling or re-packing of products then a 3rd party logistics company (3PL) may be for you. They will do all of this for you and even send the goods out to your customers. If this is the route you’re looking to go down you may wish to find a company near you so you can go to their premises to see how they operate, it is a costly service so you’ll want to ensure you choose the right company.

Pros:

  • They can re-work your products at item level
  • Better equipped to send direct to customers

Cons:

  • Most expensive option as you’re paying for more services

Shippo Storage Solution

We have our own warehouse in Redhill (where Shippo HQ is also based) to offer the storage of your goods if your inventory on Amazon is limited or you just don’t have the space at home anymore. When picking your cartons, we offer a 2 day time frame (if picked before 12pm on day 1 we can have the goods dispatched on day 3) you’ll need to send us an email of the cartons you’d like picked (with the labels) and we’ll put this through the system – this may be easier than driving down to your storage facility and searching for the cartons you need.

Pros:

  • Easiest option as we take care of everything
  • Seamless service from China to Amazon

Cons:

  • We don’t offer re-work (only at pallet level e.g palletising to Amazon’s spec)
  • More expensive than self-storage

We can offer 3 types of deliveries into Amazon:

  • UPS, this solution allows you to send a few cartons into Amazon at a time if your stock is getting low, it is a fast solution as the products will usually appear on your seller central a few days later. You’ll book the collection with UPS and we’ll ensure the cartons are labelled and ready. This will be cheaper to do from your home if you can as you’re not paying for the storage and handling however, if you don’t have the space we can offer this option.
  • LTL (less than truckload) is the more common way to send goods into Amazon at pallet level, we palletise to Amazon’s specifications and book a delivery slot. This can take a couple of weeks depending on the location you’ve been allocated as some are busier than others.
  • FTL (full truckloads) if you have multiple SKUs or you have a high capacity at Amazon then you can take advantage of a single delivery on an FTL to avoid paying for multiple deliveries which becomes more cost effective – however, it’s worth comparing Amazon’s high storage costs with the cost of multiple deliveries first.
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We can also offer deliveries to your customers at pallet level, there won’t be anydetails added from our side regarding the supplier etc. (unless your supplier has added this themselves) other than our company logo and reference number.

Get In Touch

If you’re considering using our storage solution but not sure if it’s right for you, we can certainly run the numbers for you to determine whether you would benefit more from using a self-storage facility, delivering all of your stock into Amazon (if applicable) or storing with us based on the run-rate of your products vs the cost of delivery.

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