Quick answer
Never compare 3PLs on pick fees alone. Compare the modeled cost of your actual order profile—including storage, shipping, minimums, returns, projects, seasonality, and exit costs.
Quote anatomy
Map every cost family
Inbound and storage
Receiving method, appointment or container fees, pallet/carton/unit handling, storage billing unit, Q4 rates, and aged inventory.
Order handling
First-item pick, additional-unit picks, packaging material, custom packaging, inserts, and order-level fees.
Transportation
Carrier service, zones, dimensional weight, fuel or peak surcharges, markup, address corrections, and delivery area fees.
Returns
Label cost, carrier charge, processing by carton or unit, inspection, restocking, disposal, and return-to-vendor.
Projects and channels
Kitting, relabeling, prep, special projects, wholesale, B2B routing guides, EDI, retail compliance, and chargebacks.
Commercial floor and exit
Monthly minimums, implementation, software, contract term, termination, inventory removal, disposal, and data export.
Receiving
Inbound appointments, unloading, counting, prep, discrepancies, and time to available inventory.
Storage
The billing unit, measurement period, location minimums, seasonal rates, and aged inventory.
Pick and pack
The base order or first-item charge, included labor, cutoff rules, and split shipments.
Additional units
Same-SKU and mixed-SKU pick charges, bundle treatment, and volume tiers.
Packaging
Included cartons and dunnage versus custom materials, inserts, labels, and material markup.
Shipping
Carrier service, provider markup, fuel, delivery-area, address-correction, and other accessorial charges.
Dimensional weight and zones
The divisor, measured carton size, billed weight, inventory placement, destination mix, and service level.
Returns
Label, carrier, processing, inspection, restocking, quarantine, disposal, and return-to-vendor.
Monthly minimums
What counts toward the floor, shortfall charges, ramp periods, and low-volume months.
Peak surcharges
Seasonal warehouse, storage, carrier, and capacity charges and their effective dates.
Kitting and special projects
Labor increment, materials, setup, relabeling, assembly, quality control, and minimum charge.
B2B and wholesale
Case or pallet picks, routing guides, EDI, appointments, ASNs, compliance, and chargebacks.
Inventory removal and exit
Termination notice, removal labor, outbound freight, disposal, final billing, data export, and transition support.
Method
Normalize the quote
- Give every provider the same monthly orders, units per order, SKU dimensions and weights, destination mix, seasonality, returns, and special-project profile.
- Translate each line into a monthly amount. Keep one-time onboarding separate from recurring cost.
- Apply the monthly minimum after calculating usage. If the minimum is higher, the minimum governs.
- Calculate cost per order as monthly recurring fulfillment cost divided by monthly orders.
- Calculate annual recurring cost from representative months—not only an average month when Q4 storage or peak surcharges differ.
Use the fulfillment cost calculator to run the same formula for each quote.
Clearly hypothetical
Worked merchant example
This merchant and every rate below are hypothetical. They illustrate normalization and are not a provider quote or market benchmark.
| Input | Hypothetical assumption | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| 500 DTC orders | $2.50 first pick | $1,250 |
| 1.4 units/order | $0.50 additional-item pick | $100 |
| Shipping | $7.00/order | $3,500 |
| Storage + receiving | $400 + $250 | $650 |
| 20 returns | $3.00 each | $60 |
| Platform + projects | $100 + $150 | $250 |
| Modeled usage | Before minimum | $5,810 |
| Monthly minimum | $6,000 floor | $6,000 charged |
The normalized recurring cost is $6,000 per month, or $12.00 per order, because the minimum exceeds $5,810 of modeled usage. Annual recurring cost is $72,000. A hypothetical $1,500 onboarding fee stays outside that recurring total.
Additional units = 500 × (1.4 − 1) = 200
Usage = $1,250 + $100 + $3,500 + $650 + $60 + $250 = $5,810
Monthly recurring = max($5,810 usage, $6,000 minimum) = $6,000
Annual recurring = $6,000 × 12 = $72,000
Cost per order = $6,000 ÷ 500 = $12.00
Stress test
Costs that appear after the easy quote
Ask how dimensional weight and zones change shipping, how Q4 or carrier peak surcharges are passed through, and whether rate visibility includes carrier markup. Model slow months against minimums and fast months against peak pricing.
Then price the awkward work: kitting, relabeling, wholesale routing guides, EDI, return inspection, damaged goods, aged inventory, and inventory removal. A low first-pick rate can be overwhelmed by these lines.
No ranking
Research the operating models
ShipBob and ShipMonk require merchant-specific quotes. Flexport Omni-Channel Fulfillment publishes rate-card mechanics, but exact account cards can differ. Compare ShipBob vs ShipMonk and ShipBob vs Flexport, then take the same profile into each sales process.
Hands-on warehouse, billing, support, inventory-accuracy, and SLA testing remains pending. See how BestStorefront tests.
First-party pricing references, verified Sep 28, 2026: ShipBob pricing, ShipMonk pricing, and Flexport fulfillment pricing.