The rise of the hyperlocal warehouse, if nothing else, is emblematic of where the warehouse industry has been trending in recent years.

There’s been no denying the rise of ecommerce over the past decade or so. Online ordering, ship-to-store options, and even in-store order pickup has become the backbone of retail operations throughout the country, in many cases serving as the sole source of income for certain retail businesses.

With this rise in ecommerce, however, came increased demand for fast shipping options. Long gone are the days where we’d order something from a catalog, read our credit card number over the phone (or, in the case of places like eBay, sending a money order, can you imagine?), and waiting 4-6 weeks for our item to arrive. Instead, retail giants like Amazon and Walmart have, over time, begun to heighten expectations among customers for when they can expect their items to arrive.

This expectation has begun to trickle down to retailers of all sizes, no matter what they stock or where they’re located. Ecommerce stores all across the country, from toys to clothes to everything in between, have needed to adjust their shipping times to stay competitive – particularly in a marketplace still largely dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Enter the hyper-local warehouse.

What is a hyper-local warehouse?

Hyper local warehouses are any kind of warehouse that is intended to only serve a given geographical area.

These warehouses are often used as buffers to a larger, centralized distribution hub. In most cases, hyper-local warehouses serve as the final step on an order’s journey, taking it from the initial distribution center to a smaller, regional warehouse where it can be sent out more immediately for delivery via courier. These couriers carry individual orders in smaller amounts to get them to their destination more quickly – picture something like those ubiquitous Amazon Prime vans and you’ll be in the right place.

It’s no surprise that these warehouses have grown in popularity over the past few years, to say nothing of their growth during the pandemic. Businesses using hyperlocal warehousing have been able to serve their customers better and process orders even more quickly, and have been able to help curb some of the demand experienced for certain goods during the pandemic.

Can you offer hyper-local warehousing?

Hyperlocal warehouses don’t need to be a dedicated facility. Due to their nature, they tend to store a smaller number of products, and keep them around for less time than usual – as a result, they don’t need as much space as a larger distribution center would.

This has led to many warehouses attempting to offer up space for hyperlocal warehousing to help clients fill their orders more quickly. Yours can get in on it to, so long as it meets a few criteria:

• Proper location near a major urban/suburban area
• Enough space for extra goods
• Enough warehouse racking, metal shelving, and commercial wire shelving to spare

By being able to offer these services to potential customers, you can create a hyperlocal warehouse location perfect for taking some of the burden off a retailer that just might need your help.

Even as we reach the end of the pandemic as we know it, isn’t that what we all want?