This SMB Warehouse Benchmark establishes a baseline for the operational requirements, pain conditions, and technology gaps affecting small and medium-sized warehouse operations.

Established frameworks have advanced how the industry measures warehouse performance each with a specific focus. Gartner classified warehouse complexity into five operational levels. The Association of Supply Chain Management (ASCM) codified performance dimensions through the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model. The Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC) has benchmarked best-in-class accuracy, cycle time, and throughput across 37 operational metrics for twenty consecutive years. These resources were designed primarily for enterprise operations. In the 2023 WERC DC Measures study, 94% of respondents reported annual revenue above $100 million.

According to the SBA Office of Advocacy’s 2025 Small Business Profile, more than 844,000 small businesses operate in manufacturing and wholesale distribution combined, while 2.1 million operate in retail trade across the United States. A benchmark built from enterprise data does not always translate directly to this segment, which is what this report sets out to address.

 

 

The Sample: 100 Warehouse Management System Evaluations Across 22 Industries

The sample used in this report features 100 companies operating on NetSuite ERP that identified the need for a warehouse management system to address operational gaps and deployed in further investigative research online.

The dataset analyzed in 2026 spans 22 industries across North America, with companies ranging from single-digit annual revenue managing 10 SKUs to those approaching $150M+ managing 50,000 (Table 1).

These 100 companies represent the evaluating population, not the entire market. Companies operating under similar conditions without actively seeking a solution are not represented here. The sample also excludes many advisor-led and partner-led evaluations, which may be more common among higher-volume or more complex operations.

Table 1. Demographics of Sample