As we discussed in our last blog, this pandemic situation has really given a boost to the current ecommerce industry. The more this situation worsened, the more our dependency on the online mode increased. This is perhaps the reason why the ecommerce business holders earned so much profit, while the other businesses were drowning in loss. With the boom in the ecommerce industry, their dependency on warehousing services has increased a lot. This had led to the set up of multiple warehouses in different cities, specially the metro cities. The Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities have the largest number of warehouses at this point. This has further led to the growth of this booming warehouse industry, as well as the smooth functioning of the ecommerce industry.
Establishment of the warehouses in the major cities ensures that the economic growth of the country is rightly assisted, and online operations require more storage. Packaging, manufacturing, storing and shipment of the goods would have taken much longer, if it was not for the warehouses being located in a closer proximity. The way to explain this is to understand the basic demand and supply chain of economics. That is more of a practical understanding as well. Greater the demand, greater is the supply. This pandemic situation has made all of us to depend more on online platforms, for the smallest things like groceries, stationeries, and other consumer goods which are the most integral part of our daily lives. Running out of butter? Order online!
Thus, it is quite obvious that the ecommerce industry would grow, and thus efficient placement of the warehouses is also quite necessary. Now, when we are talking about this, we would also like to mention that the online platforms which sell groceries and food items grew the most during the year 2020. As we all know, the government restrictions continue to be in action, which restricts the people to go out at certain timings. Though the restrictions have now been eased a lot, earlier, when the pandemic situation was worse, the restrictions caused quite the inconvenience for people. The markets were open only up till a certain time and thus, a chunk of the population found it easier to just order online. Even in the Tier 3 cities, online shopping was growing rapidly. This was the easier and safer option, given the circumstances. Thus, establishing more and more warehouses in every major city was a must.
With that being said, let us introduce you to the concept of micro warehousing, which was opted by many of the ecommerce platforms, for regular shipment of goods. This concept stands for setting up of many small warehousing units all over the city, so that every town is connected to the ecommerce platforms. This will ensure faster delivery. To be honest, the customers want fast delivery. They are even ready to pay extra for fast delivery. After all, desperate situations require desperate measures! Micro warehousing is one of those. A robust warehousing system ensures the delivery within a few hours. Of course, that takes a very high demand and higher shipment charges.
This concept even makes sure that the distance is shortened between the consumer and the goods. The logic behind this is, the more the distance between the goods and consumers, the more will be the amount of transits, and this will cost much higher, in terms of money, time and effort. Thus, a network between the warehouses will just make the whole process much easier, and smooth. The supply chain optimization is increased, and the process becomes much less hectic.
This new concept has been heavily in practice since last year, and it will surely grow into something bigger and better. Here’s to hoping for an advanced warehousing network, which will benefit the whole economy, and the population.