Quick answer
A useful 3PL RFP describes the work before asking for the price. Give every provider the same SKU, order, destination, seasonality, return, service, and integration assumptions. Require line-item answers and state what remains excluded.
Before outreach
Prepare the operating profile first
Document recent monthly orders, units per order, SKU dimensions and weights, storage footprint, receiving pattern, destination zones, service mix, returns, B2B work, and peak weeks. Include a 12-month forecast, but label it as a forecast rather than a commitment.
Ask providers to quote a normal month, a low month, and a peak month. This exposes minimums and surcharges that an annual average can hide.
Copy this into your RFP
Fulfillment requirements and commercial questions
01☐ Order profile: monthly DTC and B2B orders, average and maximum units per order, and order-edit/cancellation patterns.
02☐ SKU dimensions and weights: current and forecast SKU count, packed dimensions, actual weight, lot/expiry needs, and regulated handling.
03☐ Volume and seasonality: average month, low month, peak week, promotion spikes, launch events, and forecast tolerance.
04☐ Destinations: country and region mix, residential and commercial share, zones, and cross-border volume.
05☐ Service-level agreements: same-day cutoff, receiving time, ship time, delivery commitments, exclusions, measurement, and credits.
06☐ Receiving: appointment rules, billing unit, container/pallet/carton/unit fees, turnaround SLA, discrepancy process, and prep requirements.
07☐ Storage billing unit: pallet, bin, shelf, cubic foot, unit, or DSKU; daily/monthly method; seasonal rates; aged-inventory rules; and minimums.
08☐ Pick logic: first-item fee, additional-item fee, multi-SKU logic, inserts, packaging, and custom packaging treatment.
09☐ Carrier markup and rate visibility: services available, negotiated-rate visibility, markup, dimensional weight, zones, fuel and accessorial charges, and audit rights.
10☐ Returns: label and carrier costs, processing unit, inspection, restocking, quarantine, disposal, and return-to-vendor.
11☐ Kitting: labor basis, minimum increments, materials, assembly instructions, turnaround, approval, and quality control.
12☐ B2B / EDI: routing guides, retailer compliance, pallet/case picks, ASN/EDI support, appointments, and chargeback responsibility.
13☐ International: facility network, duties/taxes, cross-border shipping, importer responsibilities, and local return options.
14☐ Insurance and liability: coverage, exclusions, declared value, claims process, carrier liability, and merchant requirements.
15☐ Shrinkage and errors: inventory-accuracy target, cycle counts, shrinkage allowance, mis-pick and loss policy, claims, credits, and audit access.
16☐ Monthly minimum: formula, qualifying charges, shortfall billing, ramp period, and treatment during stockouts or low months.
17☐ Peak surcharge: dates, services affected, carrier pass-through, warehouse surcharges, capacity reservation, and notice period.
18☐ Implementation and onboarding: fee, integration work, receiving plan, testing, timeline, launch owner, and acceptance criteria.
19☐ Contract term: initial term, renewal, price-change process, service changes, volume commitments, and assignment rights.
20☐ Termination: notice, early-exit fees, final invoice timing, transition obligations, and access during wind-down.
21☐ Inventory removal: pick and preparation fees, palletization, outbound freight, disposal, timeline, and discrepancy handling.
22☐ Data export: order, inventory, billing, claims, tracking, and event history formats plus access after termination.
23☐ API and integrations: storefront, marketplace, and ERP connectors; limits, webhooks, retries, reconciliation, testing, and ownership.
24☐ Support and escalation: hours, named contacts, incident severity, response targets, peak coverage, root-cause review, and executive escalation.
Response format
Require a comparable response
Ask each provider to state the unit, rate, minimum, included services, excluded services, assumptions, and source document for every fee. Request a sample invoice using your order profile and a copy of the service-level, shrinkage, claims, and termination terms.
Then enter each response into the fulfillment cost calculator. The output is an educational model, but using one formula prevents different quote structures from obscuring the comparison.
Current coverage
Research before the sales call
Review the editorial overviews for ShipBob, ShipMonk, and Flexport Omni-Channel Fulfillment. The fulfillment desk explains the comparison framework; the cost guide explains normalization.
These providers remain editorial overviews. BestStorefront has not completed hands-on warehouse, inventory-accuracy, billing, support, or SLA testing. See how we research and test.