How to Choose a 3PL: 10 Questions to Ask Before You Sign
Choosing a third-party logistics provider is one of the most consequential decisions a growing ecommerce brand will make. Get it right, and you unlock faster shipping, lower costs, and the operational headroom to scale. Get it wrong, and you’re dealing with delayed orders, surprise fees, and the logistical nightmare of switching providers mid-stride.
The problem is that most 3PLs are very good at selling themselves. The pitch decks look polished, the account executives are responsive, and the pricing quote seems reasonable — until you’re three months in and your invoice looks nothing like what you were shown.
This guide gives you the 10 questions you should ask every 3PL before you sign anything. Ask them all. Compare the answers. The differences will tell you everything.
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1. What Are ALL the Fees — Including the Ones You Don’t List on the Quote?
The pick-and-pack rate is what every 3PL leads with. But the real cost of fulfillment is buried in the line items: account setup fees, receiving fees per unit (not just per pallet), long-term storage surcharges, kitting fees, special handling fees, fuel surcharges, after-hours fees, and return processing fees.
Ask for a complete fee schedule. Better yet, send them your last 90 days of invoices from your current provider and ask them to build a side-by-side comparison. Any reputable 3PL should be able — and willing — to do this.
What Shipo does: No setup fees. No minimums. No long-term contracts. Send us your current invoice and we’ll compare it line by line and match or beat it. [Book a free cost audit here.](https://cal.com/ophir-schultz-zy75de)
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2. Where Is Your Warehouse Located, and What Does That Mean for My Customers?
Location is not just a logistics detail — it’s a customer experience decision. A warehouse on one coast ships 3-5 day ground to the other, which means you’re either paying for air freight or disappointing customers with slow delivery times.
Ask specifically: what percentage of your customer base will receive 2-day ground? 3-day? What zip codes are outside that window? A good 3PL will have data on this, not just a vague claim that their location is “strategically positioned.”
Why it matters for Shipo: Our facility in Wilmington, Delaware puts 40% of the US population within 2-day ground shipping range. For East Coast-heavy DTC brands in particular, this meaningfully reduces shipping costs without requiring premium air freight.
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3. What Is Your Same-Day Shipping Cutoff?
This one question separates serious fulfillment operations from everyone else. A 2 PM cutoff sounds fine — until you realize your customers are placing orders at 2:30 and those don’t ship until tomorrow.
Ask what the cutoff is. Ask whether it’s consistent or whether it varies by carrier or day of week. Ask what happens to orders that come in at 2:31. The answers will reveal how operationally mature the warehouse actually is.
Shipo’s cutoff: 3 PM EST, daily. Orders received before 3 PM ship same day.
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4. Which Platforms Do You Integrate With — and How Deep Are Those Integrations?
Shopify integration can mean anything from a basic webhook that pushes orders to a real-time bidirectional sync that updates inventory levels, tracks order status, and handles cancellations automatically. These are very different things.
Ask whether the integration is native or built on a third-party middleware. Ask how inventory levels are synced and how frequently. Ask what happens when an order is cancelled after it’s already been pulled. Ask whether they support multichannel selling if you’re on Amazon, Walmart, or other platforms.
Shipo integrations: Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, WooCommerce, eBay, and Wix — all with real-time inventory and order syncing.
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5. What Does the Onboarding Process Look Like, and How Long Will It Take?
This question reveals a lot about how a 3PL actually operates. If the answer is “6-8 weeks to get started,” that’s a red flag — either they’re understaffed, their systems are complex, or they’re managing a long queue of new clients.
Ask for a week-by-week onboarding timeline. Ask who your point of contact is during onboarding. Ask what they need from you and when. Ask whether there will be any gap in fulfillment during the transition from your current provider.
Shipo’s transition promise: We get brands switched in under 10 days with zero gap in fulfillment. You don’t miss a single order during the move.
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6. What Happens When Something Goes Wrong?
This is the question most brands forget to ask — and the one that matters most once you’re operational. How does the 3PL handle lost packages? Damaged inventory? Mis-picks? Who files carrier claims? Who eats the cost of errors?
Ask for their error rate. Ask what their SLA is for resolving disputes. Ask how they handle peak volume periods when errors tend to spike. A good 3PL has clear answers because they’ve thought through these scenarios systematically.
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7. How Does Inventory Visibility Work?
Real-time inventory visibility isn’t a luxury — it’s a requirement for running a competent ecommerce operation. You need to know what’s in stock, what’s in transit, and what’s reserved for open orders at any given moment.
Ask whether there’s a client portal. Ask how often inventory counts are updated. Ask how they handle discrepancies between their system and what’s physically on the shelf. Ask what audit processes they have in place.
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8. Do You Have Experience With Brands at My Volume?
A 3PL optimized for brands shipping 500 orders/month is not the same as one built for brands shipping 15,000 orders/month. The staffing models are different, the picking processes are different, and the technology stack is different.
Ask specifically about brands in your volume range: 5,000 to 30,000 orders per month. Ask how they handle volume spikes during promotions or peak season. Ask what their surge capacity looks like.
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9. What Are Your International Shipping Capabilities?
If you have any international customer base at all — or plan to — this question is essential. Not all 3PLs are built for cross-border logistics.
Ask which countries they ship to. Ask how they handle customs documentation. Ask whether they have duty and tax calculation built into their system or whether that’s manual. Ask about dimensional weight pricing for international shipments.
Shipo ships to 200+ countries. International expansion doesn’t require finding a different provider.
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10. What Does the Contract Lock You Into?
Long-term contracts benefit the 3PL, not the brand. If a 3PL requires a 12-month minimum commitment, ask yourself why. If their service is genuinely good, customers stay. If they need a contract to keep you, that’s a signal.
Ask about notice periods for termination. Ask about volume minimums and what happens if you fall below them. Ask what the exit process looks like and how long it takes to transition inventory out.
Shipo’s model: No minimums. No long-term contracts. No setup fees. You stay because the service is worth staying for.
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The Bottom Line
Choosing a 3PL is not about finding the lowest pick-and-pack rate. It’s about finding a partner who can actually deliver on what they promise — consistent shipping times, transparent pricing, and operational support that scales with your business.
Ask these 10 questions. Compare the answers honestly. And if a 3PL can’t answer them clearly, that tells you something important about how they operate.
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Ready to see how Shipo compares to what you’re paying now?
Send us your current fulfillment invoice and we’ll do a free line-by-line audit — no obligation, no sales pressure. We’ll show you exactly where you’re overpaying and what it would look like to move.
[Book a call with our team](https://cal.com/ophir-schultz-zy75de) | [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) | 302-442-2343