2021 Starts With 2020 Returns. Are You Ready?

Are you among those many businesses that forget the difficulties when the holiday season ends? It’s been a busy December and you’ve enjoyed the time to relax after the Christmas rush… but do you forget until the last minute about the returns imminent? Pallet racking solutions in the West Midlands is the best solution for a more organised business year.

Many businesses ended their 2020 getting prepared for January sales but those customer returns are always hanging there ready to take up space. Returns also have a propensity for requiring actioning a lot faster than their initial delivery. Maybe they were not the right product, maybe a duplicate purchase or it just didn’t work out. Their focus is getting a replacement or getting their money back. Yours is where you are going to store it along with everything else coming into the warehouse.

The nightmare scenario of rapidly running out of space is about to hit most warehouse areas hard.

Dedicated Space

Most businesses have an area dedicated for returns within their compound, but what happens when that space has more put on it than the rest of the year combined?

Ideally, you need enough commercial shelving and industrial storage racks to take this inventory on and to keep it away from fresh inventory to avoid confusion and processing errors. By installing these storage solutions as close to the shipping and receiving areas you not only prevent long travel times but you also fully reduce any risk of mixing up inventories.

Clearly Labelled Shelving

When taking back larger numbers of returns than usual, you are bound to have mistakes happen even with the most diligent new starter in the company.

In order to reinforce the difference between new and returned stock, you can make employees aware by having all warehouse storage equipment clearly labelled. This helps your employees steer clear of any potential mixup as they will be trained to understand the difference.

This is not much in the way of changing your processes in the workplace as it’s a simple notification to staff that ensures accurate measures are being taken with this stock and they have their own place in the warehouse.

By identifying current confusions with employees over certain areas that need clearer and more identifiable help, you can also look to streamline current work processes and allocate more room for what is important and required. By potentially overhauling your current pallet racking you could create more space for manoeuvrability and perfect sectioning of the product.

For more information on allocating space and solutions for January returns, contact Monarch Shelving for pallet racking solutions in the West Midlands.