How to Choose a 3PL: 5 Mistakes E-Commerce Brands Make

Getting it right may feel like a lot of work at first. But getting it wrong can slow your growth, and you often won't notice it until much later.

This blog covers where most brands go wrong when choosing a 3PL partner, as well as the questions you should ask before you sign anything.

Why Choosing a 3PL Gets Harder as Your Brand Grows

When your brand is doing around $1M in revenue, most 3PLs will work fine for you. Orders ship, customers receive them, and there are few complaints.

Things start to change once you cross $5M. You are sending a lot more inventory across more channels, and the timelines are getting tighter. If your fulfillment setup is not optimized, small issues start turning into real delays.

For example, your Amazon shipments may sit at the warehouse for weeks before check-in. This usually happens when shipping plans are still being created manually, and the team can't keep up with weekly replenishment. Some logistics teams now use AI logistics software to take this kind of repetitive work off their plate.

You may also start seeing placement fees on your invoices without knowing why. This happens when inventory is not being split across Amazon fulfillment centers.

Retail can bring its own problems, too. If Walmart and Costco compliance guides were not part of the original setup, your retail routing requests may get sent back.

So, having more volume does not always mean your brand is scaling well. The 3PL that worked for you at $1M may start slowing things down at $10M.

That is why choosing a 3PL needs more thought than most brands give it the first time around.

5 Mistakes Brands Make When Choosing a 3PL

Here are the five most common mistakes brands make when choosing a 3PL:

1. Thinking DTC and Amazon fulfillment work the same way
2. Prioritizing price over communication standards
3. Not thinking about multi-channel support
4. Not looking at the full cost
5. Ignoring regional carrier access

1. Thinking DTC and Amazon Fulfillment Work the Same Way

Amazon has its own set of rules, and they are quite different from Shopify's. The labeling, case pack requirements, and inbound windows are different, too. Amazon also keeps updating these requirements.

Some 3PLs work mostly with DTC brands, so Amazon may not get as much of their attention. When that happens, your shipments can end up waiting 2 to 3 weeks before they get checked in. You may also see placement fees cutting into your margin, and a lot of back-and-forth emails just to get shipping plans sorted out.

AMZ Prep's Middle Mile program was created to solve this problem. It moves your inventory along freight lanes that already serve Amazon fulfillment centers every week.

With this, check-in time drops from 2 to 3 weeks to just 2 to 4 days. Placement fees go down to zero with 5-way split routing. Shipping plans are also created automatically and sent straight to the warehouse, so there is no need for back-and-forth emails.

If Amazon brings in more than 30% of your revenue, this is not a small operational issue. It can directly limit how fast your brand grows.

2. Prioritizing Price Over Communication Standards

Many brands pick the 3PL with the lowest per-unit rate, thinking it will save them money. But the per-unit rate does not always show you the full cost.

Fees for receiving, unit handling, returns, and long-term storage are often not clear at the start. Once your inventory starts moving, these fees can add up quickly.

Communication is another cost that many brands overlook. If every issue has to go through a support ticket, even a small problem can take days to get fixed.

For example, a missing SKU on an inbound shipment can turn into a two-week delay if no one takes ownership of it.

Ask any operations lead what they'd rank higher next time, and communication usually lands near the top. The vendors offering Slack access, weekly execution calls, and named account owners tend to hold on to their clients longer for a reason.

3. Not Thinking About Multi-Channel Support

Most 3PLs are good at one or two channels. Some are built for Shopify DTC, while others focus mainly on Amazon.

Very few 3PLs can handle Amazon, Shopify, TikTok Shop, Walmart, retail, and B2B from the same facility.

This becomes a problem when your brand starts selling on a new channel. For example, a new retail account may need EDI compliance that your current 3PL does not support.

In that case, you may need to bring in a second 3PL. Your inventory then gets split between two providers and two systems, and your finance team has to track the same SKU across two warehouses.

437, an apparel brand, runs its DTC omnichannel fulfillment with AMZ Prep from one setup. All its channels use the same inventory pool, integration, and operations team.

So when 437 wants to start selling on a new channel, it can plug it into the same setup without moving to a new warehouse.

Not every 3PL is equally good at every channel. Before you choose one, check how well they support the channels that bring in most of your revenue today.

4. Not Looking at the Full Cost

When you look at a 3PL's rate card, the base pick fee is usually the one that stands out. But that is only one part of the cost.

You also need to consider the receiving fee, additional pick-up fees, return processing fees, and long-term storage charges. These fees are usually what make the biggest difference to your total cost.

Fulfillment costs have been going up as a share of order value over the last five years. Brands that check their invoices line by line are usually the ones that catch this early.

Before you sign, share your real SKU data, order volume, and channel mix with the 3PL and ask them to calculate your total cost. Also, ask what your cost will look like if your volume doubles.

A 3PL with flat-rate freight pricing or fixed per-case fees will make it easier for you to plan your budget. This matters most during peak season, when costs can fluctuate widely.

5. Ignoring Regional Carrier Access

If your inventory is stored in just one warehouse, a lot of your US customers will end up in shipping zones 6, 7, or 8. That means orders take longer to arrive, and you pay more to ship them.

A 3PL with multiple warehouses and regional carrier partners can help with both. Many brands save 20-30% on parcel costs this way, which is a significant savings for a brand doing $10M a year.

Ask specifically which carriers the 3PL runs, how live rate shopping actually works in their system, and which regional carriers they can tap beyond UPS and FedEx.

What to Look For in a 3PL (Real Selection Criteria)

Flip the mistakes into a positive checklist, and here's what to look for in a 3PL:

• Direct Amazon expertise, not Amazon bolted on as an afterthought
• Named account owners with Slack or equivalent access
• Genuine multi-channel fluency across DTC, Amazon, retail, and B2B
• Transparent full-schedule pricing with modeled scale scenarios
• Multi-node network with regional carrier depth
• Real-time inventory visibility across channels
• Compliance capability for retail routing guides
• Reverse logistics that match your actual return rate

10 Questions to Ask a 3PL Provider Before You Sign

A sales call will usually show you the best side of a 3PL. To understand how they actually work day to day, it helps to ask more specific questions like these:

1. What was your average Amazon check-in time in the last quarter?
2. How do you deal with placement fees, and do you use split routing?
3. Who will be managing my account, and how fast do they usually reply?
4. Which sales channels do you support directly, and which ones need an add-on?
5. Can you share your full fee schedule, including receiving, storage, and returns?
6. Which carriers do you work with, and how do you compare shipping rates?
7. What has your on-time shipping rate been over the last 90 days?
8. How will my pricing change if my order volume doubles or grows 5x?
9. Which retail compliance guides have you worked with before?
10. How do you plan for extra orders during peak season?

The answers separate 3PLs that will scale with you from those that quietly cap out around $10M.

Top 3PLs for E-Commerce Brands to Evaluate

Any real shortlist depends on your channel mix, order volume, and where fulfillment needs to physically sit. Six providers' e-commerce brands commonly evaluated are below, each with a different specialty. This isn't a ranking. It's a starting map for building your own comparison.

Each of these providers serves a real segment of the market. The right pick depends on where your channel mix lives today and where you expect it to live in 24 months. A brand at 60% Amazon and 40% DTC evaluates this list differently than one running 90% Shopify DTC with a small retail account on the side.

The shortlist isn't about picking the biggest name. It's about finding the closest fit to your operational reality.

How to Structure the 3PL Selection Process

A clean 3PL selection process has 4 stages:

Stage 1: Understand Your Channel Mix

Start by writing down where your revenue comes from today and where you expect it to come from in the next 12 months. This will help you decide which factors matter most when you compare 3PLs.

Stage 2: Shortlist Based on Fit

The biggest 3PL is not always the best choice for your brand. Look for 3PLs with real experience in your top two sales channels and add them to your shortlist.

Stage 3: Test With Your Real SKU Data

Share your actual order data with each 3PL on your shortlist and ask them to calculate your total landed cost. Comparing these numbers will give you a much clearer picture than comparing rate cards.

Stage 4: Make Sure Your Contract Has Exit Terms

Before you sign, check that your contract has clear SLAs and a notice period. It should also explain how your inventory will be moved if you ever decide to switch 3PLs. Most experienced 3PLs are happy to include these terms, so ask for them early.

The Selection Decision Behind the Selection Decision

Most of the mistakes above happen for the same reason. Brands compare 3PLs only on features and pricing, forgetting that a 3PL also plays a big role in how quickly the brand can grow.

The right fulfillment partner can help you start selling on new channels and protect your margins during peak season. It also gives you more time to focus on growing sales for your brand.

The wrong one quietly caps everything your marketing team is trying to build.
Choose accordingly.

Frequently Asked Questions

About the Author

Arishekar N VP of Marketing at AMZ Prep

Arishekar N is VP of Marketing at AMZ Prep, where he works with growth-stage brands figuring out the operational side of scaling on Amazon and beyond. He writes on fulfillment strategy, inbound logistics, and the ecommerce decisions most operators get wrong before the cost shows up on a P&L.

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