3PL Fulfillment
Third-party logistics fulfillment — outsourcing the receiving, storage, picking, packing, and shipping of ecommerce orders to a specialized provider rather than handling fulfillment in-house.
What 3PL fulfillment includes
A typical 3PL handles the entire post-purchase logistics flow:
- Receiving — accepting bulk inventory from your supplier, scanning and counting it, and placing it in storage.
- Storage — pallet, shelf, or bin storage with inventory tracking that syncs to your store(s).
- Pick, pack, ship — when an order comes in, the 3PL pulls the items, packs them per your spec, and hands the package to a carrier.
- Returns — receiving customer returns, sorting them (restock vs damaged), and updating inventory accordingly.
When 3PL is the right fit
Most ecommerce brands hit a fulfillment crossroads around 3,000–5,000 monthly orders. Below that, in-house fulfillment from a garage or small warehouse is usually cheaper. Above it, a 3PL almost always wins on per-order economics, peak capacity, and operator focus.
Three signals you've outgrown in-house:
- Your founder or COO is doing pick-pack instead of running the business.
- Peak season (BFCM, viral moments) breaks your operation rather than capitalizing on it.
- Multi-channel inventory is out of sync between Shopify, Amazon, and your own count.
3PL vs FBA
Amazon FBA is a 3PL — Amazon handles fulfillment for orders sold on its marketplace. The difference: a general-purpose 3PL handles your non-Amazon channels (Shopify DTC, B2B, retail-ready) while you can still use FBA for Amazon volume. Most brands $3M+ in revenue run both: a 3PL for DTC + B2B, FBA for Amazon, with the same inventory pool fed by the 3PL.
What to look for in a 3PL
Beyond price, the questions that matter:
- Pick-pack accuracy — industry baseline is ~96%. Specialists hit 99.5%+.
- Order cutoff — same-day shipping for orders before what time?
- Compliance posture — for supplements (cGMP, FDA), beauty (MoCRA), or food (FSVP).
- Integrations — does it sync natively with your stack (Shopify, ERP, ad platforms)?
- Service model — dedicated account manager vs ticket queue.
How Launch handles 3PL fulfillment
We specialize in beauty, supplements, wellness, and DTC ecommerce — categories where compliance and accuracy matter most. Our 99.8% accuracy, <24hr cutoffs, and cGMP/FDA-ready operations are built for brands $3M–$50M scaling past in-house fulfillment. See our 3PL fulfillment service or get a custom quote.