How Warehouse Location Systems Are Changing The Game

Unlock the full potential of your warehouse — without having to add a single square meter of extra space!

That’s right. There are a range of tactics you can use to optimize your warehouse locations, storage, and picking workflows to get the most out of the space you already have.

We’ve helped customers to increase their daily output by 50-60% while reducing overheads by 80%! 

A cloud-based Warehouse Management System like CartonCloud’s WMS is equipped with essential features like mobile barcode scanning direct from your smartphone, with a range of specific workflows built for whatever your warehouse services are, so you can easily manage your entire operation from end-to-end.

With workflows taken care of for you, let’s look at how to maximize your warehouse space to streamline your warehouse locations, improve storage efficiency, and enhance your picking workflows — all while setting up smarter storage pricing through smarter WMS location system management.

In this blog, you’ll learn:

• What a warehouse location system is and how it works & mobile workflows for fast and efficient picking, as well as;
• Best practice tips for setting up and managing locations in your WMS system, including location naming, how to make scannable warehouse location barcodes, and how to assign your stock for smarter storage. 

Let’s take a closer look at how a warehouse location system works — and how you can use it to boost efficiency, save space, and simplify your day-to-day operations.

What is a Warehouse Location System?

Think of a Warehouse Location System as the GPS for your warehouse. It helps you assign exact storage locations, track inventory in real-time, and quickly locate stock when it’s needed — no guesswork required.

You can use your cloud-based warehouse management system (WMS) like CartonCloud to optimize warehouse storage, streamline inventory putaway and order picking, and ensure you make the most of every available inch of storage space.

Your WMS warehouse locations act like a digital map — showing you where stock is stored, how much space is available, and even what storage rates apply for each client. 

Boost operations with a Warehouse Inventory Location System 

Warehouse location features in WMS systems like CartonCloud are changing the game, not only allowing you to allocate a location for incoming stock for easy picking and packing, but you can also manage stock locations for smarter storage and pricing. 

Your WMS — your digital Warehouse Location System— provides a map of your entire warehouse and where all of your inventory is located. This helps direct pickers to the right stock faster and gives you full visibility through detailed stock movement reports.

“We have the locations that are already on our racks. If there was any question of what item is in that specific location, it’s as easy as scanning that barcode, and it pops up on your CartonCloud app.” — Jimmy Skodras, Vice President of Operations and Logistics at Rockstar 3PL

It also acts as a powerful tool for quick and accurate stock takes, based on location data — perfect for generating customer reports and making the most of your warehouse space.

How to optimize your warehouse storage locations

A warehouse location system like CartonCloud provides real-time warehouse inventory mapping and tracking, allowing you to assign warehouse locations for incoming stock, locate inventory for picking orders and manage storage capacity for incoming orders — which means you can get more from your warehouse space!

“[CartonCloud] shows where everything is stored. CartonCloud’s able to direct us when we are picking for orders to pick the right item.” — Cass Strunk, Founder of Core Logistic Services 

There are a few ways to optimize your warehouse locations, depending on your size, inventory type, and customer needs. 

Using your WMS for accurate data analysis and automation, you can optimize warehouse locations to;

• Track inventory locations and levels,
• Manage and record stock movement,
• Plan for incoming stock putaway,
• Plan replenishment and locate fast-moving inventory close for easy order picking,
• Record storage rates and automate invoicing,
• Manage Inventory locations based on needs like temperature zones, storage length, etc.,
• and much more!

Review warehouse stock levels 

Using your WMS data, you can also review stock levels to help guide other areas for optimization. This might be consolidating pallet storage as inventory levels fluctuate, planning ahead for stock intake and movement, and ensuring all items are stored in the right conditions — such as temperature-controlled zones.

Manage warehouse storage conditions 

Certain inventory requires specific storage conditions such as dry storage, temperature zones (cool storage), or outdoors; while other inventory can be easily stored in a range of different warehouse locations. 

“For supplements, it’s really important that we are keeping them in a temperature controlled location. We have many different areas in our warehouse that have ambient temperature, but also temperature controlled. [CartonCloud] allows us to see what type of space we have available for the customer, and directs us exactly where to place them within the warehouse.” — Cass Strunk, Founder of Core Logistic Services 

Ensure you have real-time warehouse data 

As orders are processed and stock is dispatched throughout the day, your warehouse stock levels fluctuate and change, so it’s important for your team, partners, and customers to have access to real-time data, anytime they need it.

Empower your staff to locate and access stock with ease — and automate data management through your WMS to ensure records remain up to date. 

Having your WMS Warehouse Management System inventory location data accessible at your fingertips is a game changer for those who want to plan ahead, anticipate storage movement, and make room for new intake and new business. 

What makes a good inventory tracking system? 

Your WMS warehouse inventory tracking should give you the ability to:

• Assign locations based on warehouse space and storage conditions, 
• Easily locate inventory with maximum efficiency, 
• Update inventory data on the go,
• View current stocktake and inventory levels,
• Use data oversight to plan for future intake.  

See how our WMS Warehouse Management Software helps to simplify warehouse location planning and other workflows, using powerful automation and features that are built by logistics people, for logistics people!  

Setting up your warehouse locations — an essential step 

Your warehouse inventory system can completely change the way you do business. Identifying locations within your warehouse, assigning a location numbering system and location zones, allows you to create a map of your warehouse location options and assign inventory data to the area it is currently stored. 

Check out these #WarehouseHacks on labelling your warehouse locations and racking to locate stock faster for easy and accurate picking!

With Carton Cloud, you can set up your warehouse locations in 3 ways: 

1. Bulk location (a single warehouse location if you have multiple warehouses)
2. Racking locations
3. An entire warehouse set of locations (for multi-warehouse management).

Depending on your business and stock intake needs, your warehouse locations may be pallet storage, floor space, a cold room or rack. With the ability to set up and manage your own locations, you can provide additional information on each stored on the location system and accessible through scanning the location label barcode (see steps below). 

Your setup will depend on how your warehouse operates and what your business needs. Not sure where to start? No worries — just reach out to our expert team! We’re here to chat through your setup and show you how a warehouse location system can work for you in a free demo. 

Using WMS Warehouse location numbering systems

Warehouse location numbering systems are simply a way of numbering warehouse rack and storage locations, to identify exact pallet locations, rows, levels, or boxes to assist in assigning locations for incoming inventory and locating current stock for picking and packing. 

With warehouse management location systems like CartonCloud, these location numbers will have unique barcodes that can be scanned with a mobile barcode scanner, to confirm the location and the current inventory located at this particular location.

This feature makes locating warehouse storage and inventory faster and easier, and provides greater accuracy in picking and packing. 

“Stock comes in and we create a purchase order for an item. Once that purchase order is created, we enter it into the system and we separate it based on how many pallets it involves.”

“Once we have those pallets, we print a label, a scannable label that has all the information that we just input on the initial purchase order and once that's in place, we allocate those two locations. We use a handheld scanner to scan the barcode on the pallet and whoever's putting it away just goes to the location and marries it to that location. It's that simple.” — Jimmy Skodras, Vice President of Operations and Logistics at Rockstar 3PL

Creating Warehouse Location Labels 

To create a scannable barcode label for your warehouse numbering system, CartonCloud includes an easy-to-use feature to print warehouse labels on the move from your own office A4 printer. 

Your warehouse location label acts as the physical touchpoint at each location. With a scannable barcode to access the warehouse location system inventory database, you can not only confirm warehouse locations, but also update the inventory stock there as you store or pick for orders. Simply scan the label and input the stock movement, addition or removal as you go.

This ensures your stock inventory data is up to date, allowing you to manage space and incoming/ outgoing stock, as well as view inventory levels and provide stocktake reports to clients on demand. 

Learn more about barcode labelling here.

WMS Location Management Systems are changing the game

Adopting cloud-based warehouse location and inventory management systems is changing the way we work, and manage warehousing operations — allowing greater oversight and planning potential, increasing efficiency in picking and locating inventory and providing greater customer service to clients and customers. 

• Make the most of your warehouse space.
• Know where your inventory is located. 
• Provide real-time stock take to clients with no hassle. 
• Identify storage consolidation opportunities, to free space for new orders. 

Want to know more?

Check out our full YouTube playlist to explore how mobile scanning can streamline your entire workflow, end-to-end here. 

You can also book a free demo with our team to see how our Warehouse Location Management features can streamline your warehouse flow and supercharge your operations.

Updated May, 2025