{"id":11076,"date":"2024-02-02T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shipbob.com\/au\/blog\/virtual-warehouse\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T18:50:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T18:50:40","slug":"virtual-warehouse","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.shipbob.com\/au\/blog\/virtual-warehouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Virtual Warehousing: Benefits & Use Cases for Ecommerce\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Table of Contents<\/p>

** Minutes<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

What is virtual warehousing? <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advantages of virtual warehousing <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlocking a virtual approach to warehousing <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ShipBob: pioneering virtual warehousing solutions <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtual warehouse FAQs <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Imagine this: your ecommerce business is thriving, and you decide to expand into a new warehouse. But once you do, you realize that you don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on with half of your stock. How are you supposed to monitor your inventory levels<\/a> if you can\u2019t be in two places at once?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this situation, a virtual warehouse can help. By creating and using a virtual warehouse, growing brands can achieve a holistic inventory view, and track and manage inventory across all their warehouses and channels in just a few clicks.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we\u2019ll discuss what a virtual warehouse looks like, its advantages, and how to implement one in your own inventory management.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is virtual warehousing? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A virtual warehouse refers to a digital representation of inventory that\u2019s physically located within warehouses or storage facilities.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtual warehouses enable growing ecommerce businesses to maintain a single, holistic view of their inventory, even as they store stock and fulfil orders from multiple physical spaces or across multiple channels.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While physical warehousing processes only deal with the inventory that\u2019s present in the warehouse, virtual warehouses allow brands to manage their entire inventory. Physical warehousing involves physical activities (such as unloading pallets and storing products), virtual warehousing leverages technology to record data, provide real-time analytics, and deliver actionable insights that brands can use to optimise their overall inventory operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advantages of virtual warehousing <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Having a virtual warehouse offers brands a lot of benefits, many of which positively impact your entire supply chain. Here are some of the most prominent advantages of digital inventory warehousing for ecommerce<\/a> brands.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better inventory control<\/a>\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When you can see all your inventory at once through a virtual warehouse, it is much easier to balance inventory levels across locations. This helps you allocate inventory more strategically to meet customer demand and avoid costly stockouts<\/a> and deadstock<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lowered shipping costs and transit times <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Distributing inventory<\/a> is a crucial part of keeping shipping costs and times low \u2013 and with a virtual warehouse, your brand can manage these locations more easily.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your customers are geo-dispersed, storing inventory and fulfilling orders from one warehouse forces some customers to endure high shipping costs and long wait times. By splitting your inventory across multiple strategically located warehouses, your brand can place inventory closer to customers and minimise shipping costs and lead times.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A virtual warehouse not only allows you to manage inventory across all your locations, but can also provide you with insights on what to store where. For example, ShipBob\u2019s dashboard offers brands a tool that uses order data to calculate the most strategic distribution across our fulfilment centre network to keep costs low.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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Real-time analytics and insights <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Tracking inventory data and pulling insights manually for one warehouse is hard enough, let alone multiple. Virtual warehouses will automatically track key metrics (such as SKU levels, storage costs, and days on hand<\/a>), saving you the time and effort of calculating them yourself.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best virtual warehouse software solutions will update these metrics in real-time. ShipBob\u2019s dashboard, for example, offers on-demand inventory level tracking, as well as up-to-date information on fulfilment and shipping KPIs.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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This provides you with the most recent data, which in turn helps you make even better decisions regarding your inventory.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Optimised storage <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A virtual warehouse provides a comprehensive understanding of your entire inventory\u2019s movement, which you can use to optimise your storage for operational efficiency and cost.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if you discover that one of your SKUs is turning over very quickly at a particular warehouse, you can allot more storage room for that SKU and keep more units on hand. You can also move the SKU to a more accessible storage location to make it easier for workers to pick units during fulfilment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtual warehousing solutions like ShipBob\u2019s dashboard also give you the data and insights you need to track storage costs, improve demand forecasting<\/a>, calculate reorder points<\/a> to further optimise storage.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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Unlocking a virtual approach to warehousing <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve never used a virtual warehouse before, you might feel lost on how to implement one. Here are some actionable steps for introducing a virtual warehouse into your operations.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Assess your current warehousing infrastructure <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Start by taking a look at your current physical warehousing operations, and determine what inefficiencies or problems you want a virtual warehouse to solve. Some common areas for optimisation include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n