Prioritize proximity to national highways, availability of cross-dock and staging yards, reliable local carrier networks, and intermodal links. Also assess on-site loading docks, container handling capacity, and redundancy in utilities to support continuous operations and predictable lead times.

Lower industrial land and labor rates typically reduce fixed and variable warehousing costs, but factor in transport distance to customer clusters, frequency of small parcel shipments, and seasonal labor scalability. Evaluate total landed cost, not just warehouse rent.

Require a trackable WMS with multi-node inventory visibility, reverse logistics processes, returns inspection workflows, and ability to segment inventory by channel. Confirm SLA commitments for picking accuracy, return disposition, and reconciliation timelines.

Choose sites near primary arterial roads and regional hubs to minimize dray time. Verify partnerships with national carriers and local last-mile providers, and review typical transit times to your top customer ZIP codes to model delivery windows and shipping costs.