Compact warehouse solution: Save space and improve flow – without building new

Lack of warehouse space – a problem with a double cost

Traditional racking systems only utilize part of your building’s total volume. Goods are stacked at eye level, while meter after meter of unused ceiling height remains empty air. Expensive empty air—because you pay rent for it.

But lack of space costs you on two fronts. The direct cost is the easiest to quantify: you’re paying for square meters that don’t work for you. The indirect cost is harder to see in your accounts—but just as significant. Employees spend unnecessary time searching for items, navigating narrow aisles, and walking long distances to and from picking areas.

The result is twofold: your warehouse costs are higher than necessary, and your order processing is slower than it should be. The solution is not necessarily to hire more staff or expand your building—it’s to work smarter with the space and capacity you already have.

What is a compact warehouse solution?

A compact warehouse solution is a system that maximizes the use of your storage space—both horizontally and vertically. Instead of wide aisles and low shelving, the solution utilizes full ceiling height and minimizes the footprint required for daily operations.

The most effective compact warehouse solutions today are vertical storage systems. They operate on a simple principle: goods come to the employee—not the other way around. An automated goods-to-person system retrieves the correct item to a fixed workstation, where the employee performs the picking.

This provides four immediate benefits:

• No walking or searching for employees

• Compact floor footprint

• Full utilization of building height

• Integrated warehouse management that maintains overview automatically

→ ABC of warehouse automation – Concepts within vertical warehouse systems

EffiMat 4 – stable picking flow at high order volumes

EffiMat 4 is Effimat’s flagship product, designed for companies where capacity and flow are key priorities. It utilizes the full ceiling height of the building and delivers goods to a fixed workstation—with a stable picking flow, even at high order volumes.

EffiMat 4 is modular and can be adapted to your specific floor plan and ceiling heights. It can be connected to AMR robots and integrated with your WMS—without requiring you to replace your entire system.

See Effimat’s products: EffiMat 4 • E/Classic  • E/Porter
→ What does warehouse automation cost and when does it pay off?

From 2,500 m² to under 100 m² – what companies actually achieve

The best proof of a compact warehouse solution’s effectiveness is not rules of thumb—it’s companies that have already done it.

Sinful: 25x better space utilization
Sinful, Scandinavia’s largest online retailer of adult products, ships to more than 10 European countries. The company manages around 6,000 SKUs and up to 7,500 order lines daily with 45 warehouse employees.

With a solution consisting of 6 × EffiMat 4 and 4 × E/Classic, Sinful reduced its picking warehouse from 2,500 m² to under 100 m². That corresponds to 25 times better space utilization—and picking speed increased fivefold. The freed-up space is now used to scale other business functions.

“The investment in the warehouse and picking solution from EFFIMAT takes us from Sinful 1.0 to Sinful 3.0.” – Ibrahim Kara, Director of Logistics & Warehouse, Sinful

SkatePro: 300% more storage capacity in the same space
SkatePro, one of Europe’s leading action sports retailers with more than 100 employees, faced major space challenges and chose a solution with 4 × EffiMat 4 and 5 × E/Classic.

The solution optimizes the 6-meter ceiling height and has provided 300% more storage capacity within the same footprint. Today, 27% of all orders run through the system, with a target of 40%. The expected payback period is 2.5 years.

“The collaboration with EFFIMAT was good. I thought: This is something we do together.” – Carsten Schmidt, CEO, SkatePro

Ergonomics – the hidden bonus

Most discussions about compact warehouse solutions focus on space and flow. But ergonomics is just as important—and often the deciding factor for long-term employee satisfaction.

With EffiMat 4, all goods are delivered to a fixed workstation, eliminating three classic strain points in traditional warehouses:

• Bending and heavy lifting from floor level

• Reaching above shoulder height

• Repetitive walking with heavy picking carts

At SkatePro, the experience is clear: working posture is now optimal and ergonomically correct—without the physically demanding bending, stretching, and twisting typical of traditional warehouse work.

→ Warehouse Optimization: How Automation Delivers Better Operations and Less Waste

Is a compact warehouse solution right for your company?

A vertical storage system like EffiMat 4 is particularly relevant if several of the following apply:

• You have many SKUs with low to medium turnover

• Your ceiling height allows vertical utilization (EffiMat 4 optimizes even 6-meter ceilings)

• You experience space constraints but don’t want to relocate or expand

• You struggle with picking errors or slow order processing

• You expect growth in assortment or order volume within the next 2–3 years

The best starting point is always a concrete analysis of your current warehouse processes rather than a generic solution.

→ Automated warehouse: How to get started — step by step)

→ Warehouse Optimization: How Automation Delivers Better Operations and Less Waste