What Does 3PL Warehouse Mean?

You are in the right place to know what 3PL warehouse means. Though there were warehouses from the ancient civilizations for storing goods, 3PL warehouses started only in the last fifty years. 3PL or third-party logistics warehouses store products received from many manufacturers or distributors for delivering at the customers’ doorsteps.

Hence, the 3PL warehouse means storing goods for eCommerce companies and others temporarily. In this technology-driven world, 3PL warehouses use automation to process orders to deliver them to the customers quickly.

So check out all about 3PL warehouse meaning and its many types for the eCommerce business to skyrocket worldwide.

What Does 3PL Warehouse Mean?

3PL or third-party logistics provides storing and packing goods received from manufacturers and others to deliver to retailers and customers. But to store and pack goods, it needs enormous spaces and workforce for packing, boxing, and carting the goods. And these places on the outskirts of a city or town to receive, store, Pack, and transport to the many customers is the 3PL warehouse meaning. With two-day and same-day delivery becoming the marketing strategy of eCommerce companies to outsmart each other, 3PL warehouses’ needs are increasing worldwide.

The Increasing Importance Of 3PL Warehouses

Since the 1970s third parties providing logistical solutions to many companies exist because of its many benefits. Because of not having enough time, cost, effort, resources, and other reasons, many companies hire 3PL logistics companies for transporting their goods.

With eCommerce business flourishing in the last two decades, so is the need for 3PL companies. eCommerce companies receive goods from many manufacturers for storing them in one place to distribute them to the customers in a specific city worldwide. That particular place is the 3PL warehouse, which increases its importance every year.

Evolution Of Warehouses To 3PL Warehouses

Warehouses were the successors of the granaries used by ancient civilizations to store food grains for surviving cold winters and avoiding famine. The Romans built the first warehouse evidence 2,200 years ago near the Tiber river with 140 rooms sprawling around 225,000 square feet. Apart from the public’s grain, it stored many imported goods like clothing, food, and wine to help Roman invasions. Warehouses were built near ports first and then shifted to near railway stations as trains transported goods. And now the trucks are the lifeline of logistics and warehouses, the storing, packing, and distributing hubs.

It is the 3PL warehouses that are part of today’s supply chain process to unpack and store with appropriate facilities to pick and repack again for delivering to their new various destinations.

Types Of 3PL Warehouses

Gone are the days when the 3PL warehouse meaning was a dusty and dark building filled with boxes, crates, and racks on the city outskirts. Today’s 3PL warehouses are clean, bright, and a hub of activity using robots and software for automating the entire process. 

There are many technological innovations in its operations, primarily automated. It reduces human errors and increases the speed and quality of delivery and service. Many 3PL warehouse types include, among others.

Distribution Centers

The words warehouse and distribution center are interchangeably used in many places. But unlike warehouses, it stores products only for a short period, and various products are coming and going out of distribution centers. Also, they are typically located near the end-users or customers for receiving the products fast, safe, and in good shape. Like 3PL warehouses, they also offer value-added services like packaging, cross-docking, etc.

Pick, Pack & Ship 3PL Warehouses

In pick, Pack, and ship, 3PL warehouses enable execution of the orders from eCommerce or retail stores with automated systems. It reduces human errors in picking the right product fast and efficiently for packing and sending it for delivery at customers’ doorsteps quickly.

On-Demand Warehousing

Many on-demand warehousing services include multi client facility, contract warehousing, spare parts management project warehousing, open yard management, cross-docking, KPI-based management, in-plant logistic management, refurbish and rework management. These 3PL warehouses have state-of-the-art facilities with all essential equipment for quickly handling the goods to pick and pack for delivery.

Smart 3PL Warehouse

Warehouses using technology for increasing production and decreasing errors with complete automation are called smart warehouses. Using related technologies and automation systems enables them to keep precise inventory counts for developing the business exponentially.

Online 3PL Warehouse

With the skyrocketing eCommerce business, the need for online 3PL warehouses also increased in recent years. These online warehouses receive the customer’s order as soon as the click add to cart and pay for the product. Moreover, these online warehouses provide dashboard access to clients, GRPS or sim-based tracking systems, bar-coding and scanning facilities, and others for them to maximize output and efficiency.

Cold 3PL Warehouse

Warehouses with the facility to control temperatures are cold 3PL warehouses or cold storage. They help store medicines, plants, artwork, perishable goods, and others to be safe for a long time. Also, they use refrigerated inbound and outbound shipping for the goods to be under cold conditions even during transit.

Bonded 3PL Warehouse

Also known as custom 3PL warehouses, bonded 3PL warehouses store imported goods and do manufacturing processes without paying duty for five years from the date of acceptance. Hence these warehouses save a  lot of money by not paying the high duties levied by the governments on imported goods.

Shared 3PL Warehouses

Since eCommerce reaches most of the places worldwide, having warehouses in all of them is expensive. Hence many logistic companies use shared warehouses which is a win-win situation for all the concerned stakeholders. But it is essential to have an effective system with automation to store, pick, and deliver the right products to avoid errors.

Conclusion

The above facts and types will enable you to know the 3PL warehouse meaning. Only the best 3PL company has all types of warehouses that can store most products, including cold storage. And with automation, they help reduce errors and increase the productivity for developing the businesses to new levels.