Warehouse management demos are all impressive. The system that fails is rarely the one with fewer features — it is the one that assumed conditions your warehouse does not have.
Connectivity is the first reality check. Warehouses have metal racking, concrete and dead zones. A system that requires a live connection for every scan will stall in the aisles where coverage drops. Ask what happens offline, and insist on seeing it rather than hearing about it.
Scanning hardware matters more than the software's interface. Rugged handheld terminals cost more than phones and survive being dropped onto concrete daily. If the plan is to use phones, budget for replacement and for cases, and test the scanning speed with actual barcodes on actual cartons rather than clean printouts.
Returns are where Indian e-commerce warehouses differ most from the textbook. Return volumes can be a substantial share of outbound, each returned item needs inspection and a grading decision, and the system needs to route it to resale, refurbishment or write-off. Systems designed for distribution rather than e-commerce handle this badly.
Integration scope is usually underestimated. The system needs to talk to the marketplace or storefront, the accounting system, the transporters, and — for compliance — the e-way bill and e-invoice infrastructure. Each of those is a project. Ask which are pre-built and ask to speak to a customer using that specific connector.
Finally, plan the cutover around a physical stock count. Going live with inventory numbers you do not trust means every subsequent discrepancy is blamed on the software, and the team loses confidence in it during the exact weeks when adoption is decided.
