Warehouse management systems (WMS) help manage inventory and coordinate actions throughout a warehouse, storage, or distribution center. A WMS makes it possible for businesses to coordinate inventory actions throughout a warehouse, storage facility, or distribution center.
We’ve evaluated a handful of options on the market, and after independent review have found the best options oversee workflow, control stock, schedule labor, generate bills, analyze reports, and coordinate deliveries with retailers and customers. Compare a few of the top WMS products we’ve reviewed to find the one best suited to your needs:
1 Logiwa WMS - Best Overall
Logiwa WMS is a top-rated warehouse management software designed for wholesalers, distributors, and 3PLs, particularly those focusing on direct-to-consumer fulfillment methods. We found the software to be highly versatile, integrating with over 240 eCommerce, shipping, and accounting platforms such as Amazon, eBay, and Shopify.
Logiwa WMS offers numerous features like intelligent automation, robotics, and smart order routing, making it an excellent choice for 3PLs, wholesalers, distributors, fulfillment networks, online sellers, and B2B shippers.
While Logiwa WMS excels in warehouse automation and order fulfillment, we feel it is not suitable for companies with manufacturing needs or small businesses that do not consistently handle high volume fulfillment or shipping. The software is scalable and configurable to adapt to growing businesses and comes with multiple pricing plans to accommodate various business types and stages.
Despite some minor drawbacks, we recommend Logiwa WMS as an ideal solution for businesses looking to optimize and automate their picking and packing processes while ensuring seamless integration with popular eCommerce platforms and carriers.
2 Körber - Best for Distributors
Cloud-based Körber, formerly HighJump WMS by Accellos, delivers a powerful, scalable and flexible real-time warehouse management platform for distributors. This software acts as the central hub of your supply chain solution, capable of integrating with accounting, order, and shipping software systems, in addition to electronic data interchange (EDI) systems and Crystal Reports software. Track your inventory through radio frequency and barcode hardware, and speed up operations with warehouse automation equipment.
3 Fishbowl Inventory - Best for Inventory Management
Fishbowl Inventory software tracks the location and status of every item you have in stock across your warehouses, whether that means a single location or multiple ones. A variety real-time tracking modules throughout Fishbowl Inventory provide all the information you need with only the push of a button.
The Today View tool brings all your in process functions onto one screen. At a glance, you’ll see the sales orders and purchase orders waiting to be received, which inventory needs to be picked, and what on-hand material is ready to be shipped.
4 Blue Yonder Luminate - Best Supply Chain Planning
Blue Yonder Luminate, previously known as JDA Demand Planning, is a supply chain planning software with an emphasis on warehouse management, along with transportation, labor, and distribution networks. This end-to-end execution platform that helps organizations to unify logistics operations, optimize transportation with warehouse and labor, and provide real-time visibility into operations. Blue Yonder Luminate focuses on various aspects of Planning, Logistics, and Commerce.
5 ShipHero - Best for eCommerce
ShipHero is a cloud-based warehouse and fulfillment software for D2C supply. Deliver the best eCommerce experience by syncing channels, optimizing shopping, and simplifying operations. This software addresses all the specifics of eCommerce logistics. Includes tools for inventory and order management, along with mobile pick & pack capabilities.
Since switching to ShipHero, we’ve reduced our fully-loaded costs by 35%. At the volumes we move, that’s huge. User Brittany Stewart at BURST
6 3PL Warehouse Manager - Best for 3PL
3PL Warehouse Manager by 3PL Central is a third-party logistics software for warehouse owners that charge customers for inventory storage space and the services they provide. This platform can handle your entire inventory, billing and shipping needs with customized charges to suit each customer or product. Send invoices seamlessly to your accounting package in programs like QuickBooks or Peachtree.
3PL Warehouse Manager makes it easier to manage inventory, automate tasks, and provide visibility to customers.
7 Veeqo - Best Inventory Control
Veeqo gives complete control of your inventory across all of your warehouses, regardless of sales channels. Product management tools ensure your stock-related tasks are all completed to help you keep the necessary stock on-hand to meet customer demand. Veeqo also includes shipping functionality.
8 SAP Business One - Best ERP
SAP Business One is an ERP which offers advanced modules for warehouse management, which includes stock transfer management; bin location tracking; pick and pack management. Additional tools allow you to transfer inventory between multiple warehouses as needed, using the latest warehouse data to inform your decision-making.
What is Warehouse Management Software (WMS)?
Warehouse management systems (sometimes referred to as “warehouse management software” or just “WMS”) makes it possible to manage and coordinate inventory and actions throughout a warehouse or distribution center. In order to oversee warehouse operations, WMS software gives warehouse managers powerful tools to design a warehouse’s workflow, control stock, schedule labor, generate bills, analyze reports, and coordinate with shipping yards and docks.
In order to make the supply chain run at maximum efficiency, key warehouse management systems must be in place to control product distribution and fulfillment in real-time. Software automates how stock is logged, received, put away, picked-and-packed, shipped, and reported upon by this software. By using WMS to streamline these complex tasks, it helps control costs by ensuring items get to the correct place at the lowest possible price without mistakes.
Key Features
- Inventory management: Keep track of all information about the items your company builds, buys, stores or sells
- Pick-and-pack optimization: Create specific routes to pick products from storage to reduce excess traveling during retrieval
- Order management: Capture, track, and fulfill orders across multiple sales channels by connecting inventory data to sales orders, creating shipping schedules, tracking fulfillment, and creating reports
- Shipping management: Calculate shipping costs and estimated delivery times; create accurate shipping labels
What are the Benefits of a Warehouse Management System?
The features of the best WMS software make it possible for a warehouse to operate at its maximum efficiency by making complex tasks easier. If you’re seeking the best for your warehouse, look for these key benefits offered by top WMS software solutions:
| Benefits | Functionality |
|---|---|
| Higher accuracy of order fulfillment | For an optimized omnichannel experience, WMS software makes order management possible through any sales channel. The result is a solution that makes it easier and faster for customers to receive your goods, ensuring fewer missed shipments and customer chargebacks. |
| Optimized picking and shipping | Identify what is needed to fulfill an order. Comprehensive picking tools can define steps for preparing, packaging, and provisioning goods from anywhere within the warehouse. Specific instructions can be set to optimize moves and transfers to help ensure efficiency. |
| Faster delivery times | Streamlined warehouse operations and increased transparency into inventory levels make it possible to speed up delivery. As soon as products have been packed, invoices and packing lists can be automatically generated by WMS software to inform other locations of pending deliveries. |
| Efficient labor management | Labor management tools make it possible to measure the efficiency of warehouse employees through key performance metrics. Combined with lot zoning and task allocation, employee workflows can be streamlined in order to define and carry out their work. WMS software can also track labor expenses and minimize employee theft. |
| Increased visibility of an order’s status | With WMS software, inventory and order status can be tracked with greater real-time accuracy. Automated data collection through barcoding or radio frequency identification (RFID) scanning, can show users the status of their orders, which is particularly valuable for tracking through 3PL warehouses. |
| Optimized storage space | WMS offers ways to design a warehouse’s material handling, picking logic, and bin slotting by ensuring space is being optimized for storage and retrieval. |
| Minimized inventory movement | Because of the sheer scale of a warehouse operation, inventory needs to be stored correctly to prevent misplacement and loss. |
| Improved yard management | Manage the movement of vehicles as they come and go from yards or loading docks. Real-time tracking lets you see where shipments are, allowing employees to prepare for loading and unloading. Cross-docking can also be managed with some WMS solutions to cut down on storage time. |
What WMS Does Your Business Need?
Choosing the right WMS software for your warehouse depends on the size and structure of your warehouse operations. It’s important to fully understand your warehousing and supply chain management needs in order to determine the correct solution:
- Startups and small businesses can benefit from web-based WMS software for small companies, placing warehousing operations in a supply chain solution with warehouse management modules. For growing businesses, cloud-based WMS software platforms provide the flexibility to customize the experience as needed.
- Medium-sized businesses often outgrow manual or simple warehouse processes, requiring standalone WMS software that can better assist and provide additional flexibility in order to track inventory and ship goods with greater accuracy.
- Large warehouses deal with complex tracking requirements like serial numbers and the need for retail compliance laboring. When a warehouse also uses transportation management software (TMS) or legacy solutions, it is important to choose WMS software that fully integrates with existing operations set by a 3PL warehouse manager or enterprise resource management tools.
- eCommerce businesses often need accurate inventory information to prevent overselling products. Many eCommerce companies work through 3PL warehouses and need WMS with inventory tracking which can be integrated with third party logistics.
With the right WMS software, a warehouse can improve operational efficiency, resulting in better delivery times and customer satisfaction. If there are budgetary concerns, remember many of these management features can be included as part of fully-integrated distribution software or supply chain management systems. Additionally, standalone 3PL software solutions can integrate with management systems for third party warehouses which are not directly controlled by your company but still impact your supply chain.
Warehouse Management Software Buyer Trends
The development of cloud-based systems has allowed WMS software to keep up with evolving market trends and meet all the capabilities users demand. For example, 3/4ths of WMS buyers want barcoding. Our recent Warehouse Management Software Buyer Trends report found that barcoding was far and away the most-used scanning tech in warehouses. It also found that over half of WMS buyers are looking for a system that can manage multiple warehouses.
Top challenges warehouse managers want software to address include:
- Integration with an existing logistics operation: Depending on the scale of the operation, an improved WMS software package may need to work well with transportation management systems or order fulfillment applications already in use.
- Ease of use: Because WMS software can offer complex functionality, it’s important that solutions offer users clear interfaces that are easy to understand. Solutions that workers can adapt to are crucial to maximizing overall efficiency.
- Improved order picking methods: Plenty of order picking methods are available that can optimize your inventory picking methods, like discrete, batch, zone, wave, and hybrid.
How Much Does Warehouse Management Software Cost?
The cost of warehouse management software will differ based on a number of factors, including deployment method (on-premise versus cloud-based), number of users, level of support included, any additional services provided by their vendor. As WMS is generally a more complex style of inventory management software, it will generally be more expensive than most inventory control options.
WMS systems can start at subscription-based pricing models or perhaps have bulk pricing that lets you purchase users in tiers. SaaS costs for anything but basic WMS functionality would average between $3,000 and $4,500 per concurrent user for on-premise, with professional services being between 75% to 100% of the software costs, plus between $5,000 to $25,000 for integrations into ERP systems. Optional upgrades, of course, increase the total price.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Costs
RFID tracking is more and more common in WMS options. While RFID does have many beneficial uses in today’s age, RFID driven processes generally have to do with asset management at multiple locations in order to reduce mistakes along the supply chain. However, RFID hardware is more expensive than what most WMS companies offer in terms of the cost of the software alone, as scanners can cost from $2,500 up to $4,000 each. Combined with tagging, companies will need to be prepared to spend upwards of $50,000 for the hardware of a small 5-user system.
Can Other Software Integrate with WMS?
Warehouse management systems are data intensive software suites. In a live environment, data moves in and out of the WMS software in real-time. The data can then be used in multiple ways:
- Order entry software passes information on what goods need to be sent to which customer.
- The warehouse communicates with the purchasing department.
- Delivery instructions may need to be sent to logistics or supply chain management (SCM) software.
Because of the cross-functional movement of data, enterprise resource planning (ERP) providers like SAP, Epicor, and NetSuite offer warehouse management software as a component of the system. Still, stand-alone WMS systems are popular as well. Not every company can switch its ERP system to one including WMS functionality. Also, unique functional requirements may be better served by a particular stand-alone WMS.
If you need to track, manage, and identify other problems in your supply chain, consider looking into these related, standalone software categories:
- Supply Chain Management: Manages the flow of goods and services for manufacturers, logistics companies, distributors & suppliers, and retailers
- Inventory Control: Tracks information about items or assets your company stores, builds, buys, or sells. If you don’t need to optimize picking methods, inventory control software will be a more affordable option.
- Procurement: Tracks order information including vendors, quantities, item or service purchased, payment terms, costs, and delivery timeframes.
