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Whether your company is currently experiencing a growth spurt in orders, or you've been handling a high volume for quite some time, it's likely time to reevaluate your shipping strategies for more efficient and effective solutions. Here are a few to consider to maximize warehouse optimization.

If you are still using a carrier or third-party shipping system that has a shipping screen, why? Perhaps you’ve never considered this question, but redesigning your system to remove the need for a shipping screen could lead to significant cost savings, so it is worth evaluating your warehouse technology.

This is a tough question. Shipping system cost depends on the functionality of the solution and its implementation. Are you interfacing it to a host system? Is it a complex integration? How much support do you have from your internal IT staff? What carriers and special services do you use?

The reason for asking this question is completely understandable, but the short answer is, "It's complicated."

Since 2010, the number of warehouses in the United States has risen 6.8 percent. Clearly, warehouse management is becoming more important to many businesses and to the economy in general.

And you know that a seamless flow of products through your warehouse is critical to business efficiency. However, common issues such as inventory inaccuracies, poor space utilization, unnecessary manual processes and picking inefficiencies can cause major workflow slowdowns.

Here's how to stop these problems and start your warehouse optimization initiative.

For the coming year, the average rate increase will be 4.9% across the board. As usual, lower weight and shorter zoned packages will be increased more than 4.9% and particularly hard hit are residential shipments in these lower weights and zones.

Effective January 22nd 2018, FedEx has announced it will be changing the SmartPost service from weight-based to dimension-based rating. As you may recall, several years ago they changed the majority of their services to dimension-based rating.

Do you know about the recent change to the way USPS handles their parcel package processing. I think it is good information for anyone who ships with large volumes whether you are using USPS now or looking to leverage this option in the future.

Yes, it’s mid-August and the temperatures are hovering steady in the 90s but the busy season and carrier rate updates will be here before we know it. Here are some warehouse management items to keep in the back of your mind as we wind down summer time.

Online sales represent an increasingly important source of revenue for many businesses, making the need for affordable shipping more critical than ever. Many budget-savvy, high-volume shippers are turning to mail consolidators to reduce the cost of shipping while still providing reliable delivery.

When your business was first launched, they probably chose a free shipping system from a carrier like UPS or FedEx. But now as your business has grown, you may find that these carrier-provided systems no longer meet your needs.