Described herein is an apparatus and method for selecting a storage location for an item. The method includes obtaining order information for a plurality of previously fulfilled orders, wherein each order includes at least one item. Based on the obtained order information, one or a combination of an affinity value of the item and a popularity value of the item are computed. The method determines available storage locations in a plurality of storage racks, each rack including at least one shelf. Further, the method computes for each available storage location, one or a combination of an affinity score and a popularity score of the storage rack with respect to the item. The method selects the storage location from the available storage locations based on at least one of the calculated affinity score and the calculated popularity score, and instructs a vehicle to store the item at the selected storage location.