Prioritize road connectivity to primary corridors, dock and staging capacity, secure racked storage, and ties to national carriers and regional couriers. Assess WMS compatibility, EDI/API integrations, and night/weekend pickup windows to ensure consistent SLA performance and predictable lead times.

Lower land rents and competitive local labor rates typically reduce fixed and variable warehousing costs, improving margins for bulky or long-tail inventory. Evaluate the trade-off between lower occupancy cost and potential increases in overland transit time to major demand centers when modeling cost-to-serve.

Require a modern WMS with cycle counting, barcode scanning, and real-time inventory visibility; reliable pick-and-pack and returns handling; value-added services like kitting; documented SLAs for accuracy and lead time; and integrations with your order management and carrier platforms.

Use KPIs such as dock-to-door transit time, on-time delivery, pick accuracy, order cycle time, and labor productivity (lines or picks per hour). Map customer density vs. carrier routes to determine optimal warehouse placement and evaluate scenarios for single-node vs. multi-node networks to balance cost and service.