3PL Goods-In - Best Practices

3PL Goods-In - Best Practices

Overview

At Expandly, we aim to ensure that your products are handled efficiently, accurately, and safely when they arrive at our warehouses. Following our Goods-In Gold Standards helps us receive and process your goods quickly, reducing delays and additional costs.

By aligning your shipments with these standards, your stock can be booked in quickly and you will only be charged for stock accuracy, not additional handling.

1. Ensure All Goods Are Barcoded

All products must be barcoded at the:

  • Unit Level

  • Inner Level

  • Case Level

Why this matters: Our warehouse uses hand-held scanners to manage stock movement. Goods cannot be processed in our system without barcodes.

  • If items arrive without barcodes, we can barcode them for you, but this will incur additional costs and may result in delays.

Proper barcoding ensures faster stock processing and accurate inventory management.

2. Load Goods onto Standard Pallets

Goods should be shipped on the correct pallets for your warehouse:

  • UK Warehouse: UK Standard Pallets

  • NL Warehouse: EUR Standard Pallets

Benefits of using the correct pallets:

  • Avoids the need to re-palletise goods on arrival

  • Saves on pallet purchase and creation fees

  • Maximises space efficiency

Tip: Loose goods can be placed on top of loaded pallets, but these will be consolidated into full pallets upon arrival.

3. Keep Pallet Size and Weight Within Limits

To ensure safe handling, pallets should:

  • Be under 1.5 metres in height

  • Weigh less than 500kg

Loose items can be placed on top of pallets, and our team will consolidate them upon arrival. This ensures safety, efficiency, and ease of storage.

4. Use Single SKU per Pallet Where Possible

Whenever possible, each pallet should contain only one SKU.

Why: Our warehouse stores goods in single SKU locations. If pallets arrive with mixed SKUs, we will need to create new pallets, which may incur additional handling fees.

Summary

By following the Goods-In Gold Standards:

  • Your goods can be booked in on the same day

  • Stock accuracy is maintained

  • Additional handling costs and delays are minimised

We recommend sharing these standards with your shipping and packing teams to ensure smooth delivery into our warehouse.

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