Warehouse management is a critical aspect of any business that deals with physical products. It involves overseeing the storage, movement, and tracking of inventory within a warehouse or distribution centre. However, warehouses often face a host of challenges that can hinder their efficiency and productivity.

From inventory inaccuracies to inefficient picking processes, these issues can lead to costly delays and errors. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the most common challenges warehouses face and explain why warehouse management software is the solution.

Inventory Management Challenges

One of the biggest challenges that warehouses face is managing inventory accurately. Inventory inaccuracies can occur due to a variety of reasons, such as misplaced items, incorrect data entry, or theft. This can lead to stockouts, overstocking, and delays in order fulfilment. Warehouse management software can help address these challenges by providing real-time visibility into inventory levels and locations. This enables warehouse managers to make informed decisions about inventory replenishment and avoid stockouts or overstocking.

Inefficient Picking Processes

Another common challenge that warehouses face is inefficient picking processes. Picking refers to the process of retrieving items from inventory to fulfil customer orders. Manual picking processes can be time-consuming and error-prone, leading to delays and mistakes. Warehouse management software can help optimise picking processes by providing real-time data on item locations and order priorities. This enables warehouse staff to pick orders more efficiently and accurately, reducing the risk of errors and delays.

Limited Visibility and Control

Warehouse managers often struggle with limited visibility and control over warehouse operations. This can make it difficult to identify inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement. Warehouse management software can help address this challenge by providing real-time visibility into warehouse operations, from inventory levels to order fulfilment. This enables warehouse managers to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies and make data-driven decisions to improve warehouse performance.

Lack of Integration and Automation

Many warehouses rely on manual processes and disparate systems to manage their operations. This can lead to data silos, inefficiencies, and errors. Warehouse management software can help address this challenge by integrating with other systems and automating key processes. This includes integrating with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, barcode scanners, and shipping carriers. Automation can help reduce the risk of errors and improve overall efficiency.

Warehouse Management Software (WMS)

Warehouse management is a complex process that requires careful oversight and attention to detail. However, warehouses often face a host of challenges that can hinder their efficiency and productivity. These challenges include inventory inaccuracies, inefficient picking processes, limited visibility and control, and lack of integration and automation.

Warehouse management software can help address these challenges by providing real-time visibility into inventory levels and locations, optimising picking processes, providing real-time visibility into warehouse operations, and integrating with other systems to automate key processes. By implementing warehouse management software, warehouses can streamline their operations and improve overall efficiency and productivity.

WMS Company

Code Galaxy is a bespoke software development agency; our warehouse management software is available to businesses that need to improve their supply chain efficiency. For a demo of our warehouse management software, please get in touch!

To improve your search engine ranking, you have been told by marketing experts to use keywords and key phrases across your website. Why? Because these are the terms being keyed into search engines by users. By playing your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) cards well with the right keywords and phrases, your website can climb the rankings like a pro.

Well, that’s all pretty straightforward then! So you just need to plant loads of the same keywords and phrases on repeat across my website. Yes?

No! That’s ‘keyword cannibalisation’.

Confused? Let us explain.

The dangers of keyword cannibalisation

Keyword cannibalisation is when too many identical or similar keywords are spread across your website. This confuses search engines because they don’t know which page to rank more highly. Effectively you are cannibalising your search engine results by splitting your click-through rates (CTR) along with your links, content and potential conversions.

When you split the impact of your keywords, you are diminishing your reputation with Google and other engines, which like to rank websites that show true authority and knowledge. The search engine might also give a higher ranking to a web page that is less important to you than another.

It’s also important to note that modern search algorithms look harshly upon deliberate ‘keyword stuffing’ where it’s obvious that the content is simply playing the SEO game of using a plethora of keywords and phrases just to improve the web page’s ranking.

How to avoid keyword cannibalisation

Here are some options for avoiding keyword cannibalism.

Consolidate pages

By redirecting old, outdated pages to a priority page, or combining multiple pages into a new page, you can improve the organic performance of your website. Either option will consolidate ranking signals, such as backlinks and internal links, into one targeted page rather than having the impact diluted across multiple pages.

Delete old or irrelevant content

Not unlike having a good clearout, deleting content might sound a bit extreme (particularly to those of us less enamoured by the prospect of housekeeping!), but irrelevant content could be holding your SEO aspirations back. Business priorities change, so it’s good to refresh and remove content regularly.

Review your internal links

For effective SEO, links are really important. They establish importance. If you link a landing page to another page, you are telling search engines that the linked page is important, so they might rank it more highly.

Change your internal links so that less important content is linked to the pages you want to prioritise.

eCommerce 301 redirects

On eCommerce websites, a product page that is serving little purpose can cannibalise important keywords. Here you can use a 301 redirect to take a user to a more ideal page without losing authority or traffic. 301 redirects are useful on eCommerce sites simply because product offerings are prone to change.

Get in touch

Code Galaxy is a software development and website design consultancy. For more information on keyword cannibalisation or for other help with your website or software, contact us using our online form.

Let’s start on a cheery note. No business is safe from a cyberattack. According to the 2021 Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 39% of businesses and 26% of charities reported cyberattacks in the preceding twelve month period. Online businesses that hold sensitive customer data are particularly vulnerable.

What is cyber security and why do you need it?

Cyber security is technology used to protect systems, programs, data, networks and devices from hackers who want to steal information or harm the company.

Without cyber security, businesses are vulnerable to attack. Cyber security gives an online company the protection it needs from harmless looking emails, download buttons and links that unleash malicious viruses and malware into your software. Unfortunately, human intervention and vigilance are not enough to protect your business.

Small online businesses are at risk of cyber attack

If you think about it, while larger online brands may seem attractive to hackers because of all that juicy data and pandemonium they can cause, such companies have teams of vigilant IT experts policing their online protection. They’ll also have the most robust security systems and antivirus and anti-malware software in place to keep the hackers out.

Smaller businesses have to be more hands-on and use whatever resources they can to prevent cyberattacks from happening. But with a proactive approach, smaller businesses can look after themselves against the bullies of the internet!

Here are 4 tips for keeping your online business secure

1. Choose strong passwords and change them regularly

Passwords for systems and individual users should be strong and regularly changed. Don’t incorporate a standard word or name. Instead, use upper and lower case letters, numbers and special symbols. The more random and difficult the password is, the harder it is for a hacker to crack.

We would recommend that all passwords are changed at no less than 90-day intervals and different passwords are used for different platforms.

2. Install and regularly update antivirus and anti-malware software

This applies to all devices, not just office PCs and internal systems. With more people working remotely on different devices, all users should have the appropriate software on every device they use to access a company’s systems.

Once installed it is essential that any antivirus and anti-malware software is regularly updated by enabling automatic updates and responding to update requests.

3. Install SSL encryption on your website

SSL encryption is security technology that provides an encrypted link between a server and a client. This is typically for keeping the connection between a website and a browser secure.

SSL encryption is particularly important for online stores, where customers expect to be protected at checkout. SSL encrypts each page, protecting the customer’s personal information and avoiding a security breach and associated legal implications for the company.

4. Educate staff on cyber security

Staff should be educated on the threat of cyberattacks and how to be vigilant when clicking on links in emails, social media, websites and apps. Once they understand the implications of cyberattacks they are more likely to be careful in online activity and proactive in alerting the company and colleagues to potentially harmful activity.

Get in touch

Code Galaxy are a software development and website design consultants. For more information on how we can keep your online business secure, contact us using our online form.