Independent 3PL or large fulfilment network: which suits a brand doing a few hundred orders a month?

Two quotes come back in the same week. One is from a national fulfilment network with sites across the country, the other from an independent warehouse with a single building and a phone number that goes to someone you've met. At around 300 orders a month the per-order prices can be close enough that the spreadsheet doesn't decide it, which leaves you choosing on things the quotes don't show.

We're an independent, so read this with that in mind. We've tried to be straight about where the big networks are the better choice, because for some brands they are.

How a large fulfilment network sees a brand doing 300 orders a month

To a network built for very high volumes, 300 orders a month is a small account. There's nothing wrong with that. Their operation runs on standard processes applied the same way across hundreds of clients, and that standardisation is a large part of why they can price the way they do.

The trade-off shows up when you need something non-standard, like a kit build for a launch or a hold on one SKU because a batch looks wrong. In a large operation those requests usually go through a ticket or a shared account team, and how quickly they're handled depends on where you sit in the queue.

When is a large fulfilment network the better choice?

If you need stock held in more than one country, a big network is the sensible answer. An independent with one site in Sheffield can ship to Europe and beyond, but it can't put your stock in a warehouse in Germany so EU customers get it next day without customs in the way. The same goes for brands whose volume jumps from a few thousand orders a day to many times that around a launch, and for brands selling into retailers whose buyers want a provider they already work with. Large networks have the capacity and the systems for that, and the cost shows up in flexibility as much as in price.

If none of that describes you yet, the choice comes down to what you need from the people handling your stock week to week.

Who picks up the phone when something goes wrong?

At some point a parcel goes missing, an integration stops syncing, a return comes back damaged or a delivery arrives with the wrong barcodes on the cartons. What matters is how many people you have to get through before someone who can fix it is looking at it.

When Filamentive moved its fulfilment to us, the timeline was tight and getting their WooCommerce store talking to our platform took longer than anyone wanted. Ravi Toor, the founder, said afterwards that what carried it through was that the phone always got answered. Four years on, a lost parcel goes to Sam and her team, and he usually has a full answer for his customer inside 24 hours. The whole story is in the Filamentive case study.

Every Cloud9 client has a named contact. Ask any provider you're considering who yours would be and who covers them when they're off.

Contract length, minimums and what happens if your volume drops

This is the easiest difference to check, because it's in writing. New brands at Cloud9 start on a six-month rolling term. We don't set a hard minimum; the guideline is around five orders a week for each pallet space you take, and new brands get 90 days before even that applies, since the first few months after a launch rarely look like the forecast. Whoever you talk to, ask for the minimum term, the notice period, any monthly minimum charge and what happens to your rates if you fall below the volume they quoted on. A low per-order price on a long contract with a minimum spend can cost more over a year than a slightly higher price you can walk away from.

Can an independent 3PL cope with your peak?

It's a fair worry, and the answer depends on the warehouse rather than the label. Ours is 21,000 sq ft across three connected units at Parkway Link in Sheffield, and we ship with Royal Mail, DPD and DHL.

Size isn't the whole answer at peak for anyone. Most carriers limit how much they'll collect from a site in November and December, and the limit depends on the contract, so a bigger building doesn't guarantee your parcels leave on time. The useful question for either kind of provider is what volume they've planned for you and what happens if you go past it. There's more on that in our piece on the small things that break peak.

What to compare when the two quotes look the same

Price per order is the easiest number to compare, so put these next to it:

• Who your day-to-day contact is, by name.
• The minimum term and the notice period.
• Any minimum monthly spend, and what happens to your rates if volume dips for a quarter.
• How a change gets made, such as a new insert or a kit build for a launch, and how long it takes.
• What happens when they pick an order wrong. Ours is simple: pick it wrong, we cover the reship.
• The despatch cut-off. Ours is 2pm on a working day.

Then ask each of them for a client of a similar size you can phone, and ask that client what happened the last time something went wrong.

‍