For small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), choosing the right warehousing partner isn’t just about finding a place to store your products, it’s about finding a reliable extension of your business. The wrong partner can cost you time, money, customer satisfaction, and frankly, your sanity. The right partner, on the other hand, can help you grow, scale, and operate smoothly.

Before signing any contracts or moving any inventory, here are 8 key questions SMEs should ask when deciding on potential warehousing partners.

When I walked into Manifest, I knew my understanding of warehouses, warehouse operations, and warehouse tech was, at best, basic. But after attending, I quickly realized just how much more there is to learn. (Cue Aladdin’s A Whole New World playing in the background.) So, it’s time for another series, this one diving into warehousing, the challenges that come with it, the tech that’s available to help, and the operations behind it all.

“It is what it is.” That was the response from a large retailer when I pointed out their distribution center’s terrible reputation for driver wait-times. And it wasn’t just hearsay—clear data showed they averaged 7–9 hours for unloading, with some wait-times stretching over 12 hours. The person even admitted, “We have so much freight that carriers and drivers have to work with us, so fixing our wait-time issue isn’t really a priority.” On top of that, their procedure for paying detention fees was so riddled with bureaucracy, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d asked for a DNA sample from the driver.

Reputation in this industry is critical. Shippers with this “not-my-problem” attitude risk alienating reliable carriers and drivers, leaving themselves stuck with subpar options.