A first consultation about warehousing or distribution usually goes one of two ways. Either you arrive with a clear picture of your stock volumes, order patterns, and delivery areas, or you spend the first twenty minutes trying to recall basic numbers from memory. The second approach costs time and leads to vague recommendations. This post covers the specific information worth gathering before you sit down with a logistics partner, and why each item matters for the outcome.
Start with your current order profile. How many orders do you process per day or per week, and how does that number shift across the month? Retailers in South Africa often see a clear spike around month-end and during promotional periods. If you can describe that rhythm, the consultant can talk about staffing, pick-and-pack capacity, and whether you need overflow space. Without it, the conversation stays generic.
Next, list your product categories and their storage requirements. Ambient goods, temperature-controlled items, and bulky or fragile products each need different handling. A simple table with product type, approximate pallet count, and turnover rate gives the consultant enough to assess racking, cold storage needs, and whether cross-docking could reduce your handling costs. You do not need exact figures for every SKU, but rough ranges help.
Delivery geography is the third piece. Write down the suburbs, towns, or regions you currently serve, plus any areas you plan to add in the next six months. This directly affects route planning and whether consolidated deliveries make sense for your volumes. A business delivering only within Johannesburg has different options than one covering multiple provinces. Being specific about your delivery footprint prevents recommendations that look good on paper but do not fit your actual routes.
Finally, bring a summary of your current pain points. Is it stock visibility, order accuracy, late deliveries, or storage costs? Rank them in order of urgency. This helps the consultant focus the first conversation on what will actually change your operation, rather than walking through a standard checklist. If you are unsure which problem to prioritise, say so. A good consultant will ask the right follow-up questions, but a clear starting point makes the session far more productive.
If you want to see how a typical engagement works before you prepare anything, have a look at the service format guide or read what other clients say about their first consultations. Otherwise, gather the four items above and you will leave the meeting with a concrete plan instead of a list of open questions.
Practical articles on warehouse operations, route planning, and distribution decisions for South African retailers and e-commerce teams.
Before you sit down with a logistics partner, you need a clear picture of your current stock flow. This post walks through the documents and questions that make a first consultation useful: recent order volumes, slow-moving lines, storage constraints, and delivery complaints. It explains why a warehouse manager asks about cycle counts and barcode coverage, and what you should bring to get a realistic proposal rather than a generic quote.
Not every business needs the same distribution setup. This article compares shared warehousing, dedicated floor space, and cross-docking as separate formats with different trade-offs. It looks at order volume, product turnover, and how far your delivery radius stretches. The goal is to help you match a service format to your actual operation, not to the largest option on the price list.
Starting with a new logistics provider raises practical questions: who handles damaged goods, how often are stock reports shared, and what happens during peak weeks. This post collects the questions that come up most often before a contract begins, with straight answers about SLAs, system access, and handover procedures. It is written for operations managers who want fewer surprises after the first pallet arrives.