Do you have a clean facility to store your inventory?

If not, it’s time to get the old broom and mop out!

A clean and organized environment is a critical factor to help maintain a healthy eCommerce business. Although e-commerce stores by definition operate online, many still use traditional warehouses to store and ship their products. Because of this reason, facilities still require a certain level of maintenance to maximize safety, efficiency, and merchandise quality.

Below, we’ll discuss how an unhygienic facility could potentially compromise your e-commerce business.

Condition of your Stock

If the items in your warehouse are being stored too long, they can be susceptible to bacteria and mold. Over time, clothes, in particular, will also absorb the smell of any odors they come into contact with.

A dirty product will make for bad customer service, resulting in a higher return rate of merchandise as customers won’t accept filthy products. For this reason alone, many e-commerce stores hire cleaning services regardless of cleaner cost, helping to ensure merchandise remains in perfect condition. 

Similarly, if you own a retail store on the high street, cleanliness is even more important. Like a beautiful home for sale, where real estate agents will suggest presentation is everything, your store will also need to be spick and span.

Reduces Employee Productivity

It’s not just a dirty building that you have to worry about either! If your warehouse is full of clutter and items are in disarray, it’s difficult for employees to find specific products quickly or efficiently. When this happens, more time gets wasted, which means higher labor costs – not good!

A clean facility enables employees to find products faster, allowing them to provide better customer service.

It’s Unhygienic for Your Staff Members

It’s not just about you and your customers! A filthy facility also means that employees are at risk for infections when they contact bacteria or mold spores on surfaces like shelves, tables, clothes, and other items stored/handled in the warehouse.

When employees get sick, the company suffers from high labor costs, and the employees themselves are not able to fulfill their duties.

Tips for Maintaining a Clean Facility

Making an effort to clean your facility certainly pays off and will positively affect several aspects of your business. Here are a few cleaning tips you can do today to make a difference.

Hire a Cleaning Service

If you have a small staff who are overworked, it may not be easy to perform regular cleaning duties. Alternatively, it can be a great idea to hire an external cleaning service. A professional company will come in and clean your facility regularly so that you don’t have to worry about doing the grunt work yourself!

Cleaners are also trained for specific purposes such as sanitizing surfaces or dusting shelves – both of which freshen up your facility. In addition, they’ll leave you with more time to focus on other aspects of running your business while they take care of these tasks for you.

Organize your Products

A chaotic warehouse is highly inefficient! If your products are hard to find, employees will have to search through the clutter, which means they’ll be wasting time, and that’s not good for business.

Your first step should be to gather all the items from your facility and sort them into categories such as clothes, shoes, products to be shipped out, and those waiting for cleaning. Afterward, divide each category into separate piles based on size or type of product (for example, shirts vs. pants). This will help you know which pile is going where items don’t get lost in a cluttered warehouse.

Use Eco-friendly Cleaning Materials

Don’t worry about sparing the Earth! And it’s not just your customers who will benefit from using eco-friendly cleaning materials either. 

Chemicals like bleach can negatively affect animals, plants, and your employees – so it may make more sense to use an all-natural solution instead. In addition, there are various plant-based or chemical-free cleaners available that do not contain any harmful chemicals, which is worth considering for both your peace of mind and safety in general.

Once you invest in some green products, you’ll also be doing your part in helping clean up the environment!

Provide Cleaning Responsibilities to Your Staff

It’s not just you who should take care of the cleaning duties! If your staff have free time on the job, it may be a good idea to delegate some of their responsibilities to complete basic tasks such as sweeping or dusting shelves.

You can also ask employees to help with general tidyings, like removing items from other warehouse parts and sorting them into categories. This may feel tedious at first, but over time they will get used to how everything is organized, which means less work for everyone in the long run!

Final Thoughts

Whether you have a traditional store or an eCommerce store, the facility that holds your inventory is crucial to the success of your business. There are many ways you can maintain a clean facility that will benefit both yourself and your customers in various ways, so it’s worth considering these tips today!

How Maintaining a Clean Facility is Vital for Your eCommerce Business

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