A public warehouse is a space in a storage facility that a company leases to other businesses. Most follow a pallet-based billing, where customers pay per pallet stored monthly or yearly.
Initially, renting space from a public warehouse is cheaper than owning a warehouse, as there is no cost for construction or ongoing maintenance of the building itself.
However, this means you have less control over your inventory since it is housed off-site and managed by a third party rather than your staff.
A public warehouse is still the most practical option for ecommerce businesses that are just starting to expand internationally, particularly for startups or seasonal businesses with limited resources to establish foreign operations themselves.