Affordable Fulfillment Services
It’s common for online brands to think outsourcing fulfillment to a 3PL is an additional cost, so they stick with in-house fulfillment.
In reality, a tech-enabled 3PL like ShipBob can turn your fulfillment strategy into a revenue driver.
With access to a growing international fulfillment network and best-in-class technology, you can hand logistics off to the experts without investing all your time and money into logistics operations.
Learn more about ShipBob’s affordable fulfillment services.
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Fast, affordable 2-day shipping
Partnering with a 3PL that has fulfillment centers in across the world can be vital to making sure your customers’ expectations are met through affordable, timely shipping. If fulfillment centers are only located on a coast, or in rural locations, you won’t be able to create a truly strategic geographic footprint.
ShipBob can help you optimize your shipping with the ability to store inventory in multiple locations, so you can offer faster, affordable 2-day shipping options for qualified customers.
Negotiated carrier rates
Since 3PLs partner with thousands of brands, they offer discounted shipping rates for their merchants.
ShipBob offers different combinations of standard and expedited shipping for both domestic and international destinations, and work with both major global carriers and even regional parcel carriers to optimize the last-mile delivery.
Saves on time
Time is money. With ShipBob, you can delegate time-consuming tasks to the experts, so you and your team can focus on growing your business. You can still maintain control and make supply chain decisions with full visibility into operations from ShipBob’s dashboard.
“You should spend time doing what you do best, and fulfillment is an easy task to take off your plate. Plus, we really couldn’t do it ourselves. Our order volume has seen ebbs and flows, and ShipBob has fulfilled over 10,000 shipments per month for us.”
Gerard Ecker, Founder & CEO of Ocean & Co.
Transparent pricing
Many brands learn early on that there are hidden costs to self-fulfilling orders and managing a warehouse, and that partnering with a 3PL like ShipBob is a smart investment that can save you time and money. ShipBob provides clear, transparent pricing so there’s no surprises.
If you have unique needs, such as custom packaging, kitting and bundles, custom packing slips, etc., ShipBob can accommodate your business at an additional cost. Quotes are customized to fit each merchants individual needs.
Free data and analytics
ShipBob’s technology offers a free advanced data and analytics reporting tool. It offers visual data and deeper insights to help you with everything from year-end reporting, to better supply chain optimization and decision-making.
You can use the analytics reporting tool to allocate inventory accordingly, forecast demand, and track fulfillment and shipping performance.
“ShipBob’s advanced software helps us quickly understand shipping costs and how to improve shipping times and costs by being closer to where our customers are.”
Andrea Lisbona, Founder & CEO of Touchland
Read on to learn more about how ShipBob works.
Affordable fulfillment from ShipBob
ShipBob’s regional fulfillment locations, transparent pricing model, and proprietary technology platform provide merchants a way to help reduce cost and speed up delivery performance. ShipBob’s advanced analytics and Inventory Placement Program allow merchants to make more timely business decisions with cost comparisons for more afforsable fulfillment options.
With ShipBob, you get cost savings through best-in-class logistics to power your operations and accelerate growth across infrastructure, software, and continuous optimization. Check out ShipBob’s case studies or request a pricing quote from ShipBob today.
Affordable fulfillment FAQs
Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions about how brands keep fulfillment affordable.
What are some of the more affordable fulfillment services out there?
The right fulfillment service that’s affordable for your unique brand will depend on many factors, as exact pricing will vary across order volume and types, locations, your product’s weights and dimensions, and more.
For bigger mid-market merchants, ShipBob’s prices are very affordable and can help you save through not only their competitive rates, but Inventory Placement Program, technology and analytics, and global network to streamline your supply chain.
How can I make fulfillment more affordable?
At a high level, whether you’re outsourcing fulfillment or not, there are a few ways to help make it a more affordable process:
- Choose your fulfillment center location(s) strategically to reduce the distance your packages travel.
- Optimize product packaging and external packaging to reduce your dimensional weight.
- Simplify your product and storage by retiring unprofitable SKUs.
- Get better shipping rates or find an optimization-focused 3PL.
- Consider changing fulfillment methods (moving to in-house, outsourced, or hybrid models).
- Make labor productivity improvements by adopting WMS technology.
Does ShipBob have any hidden fees and additional charges like other fulfillment providers?
ShipBob seeks to simplify fulfillment costs as part of its Pricing and Billing structure. Additionally, ShipBob offers detailed analytics and insights into pricing so you get very transparent billing breakdowns at the line item through its Billing Summary page and Billing Overview Page.
It’s something referenced often in ShipBob’s cost-savings case studies.
The core fees to work with ShipBob are for receiving inbound inventory, storage, and fulfilling each order.
For all potential fees (such as value-added services), please see ShipBob’s pricing per country of fulfillment:
Does ShipBob offer affordable fulfillment services?
Yes, through ShipBob’s negotiated carrier rates, distributed inventory capabilities, zone skipping, and analytics that help you identify cost-saving opportunities, their fulfillment services are very affordable. And the more volume you fulfill through ShipBob, the better the discounts you get.
For a breakdown of ShipBob’s DTC order fulfillment services by country of fulfillment, view the links below:
- Australia Fulfillment Center B2C Pricing
- Canada Fulfillment Center B2C Pricing
- EU Fulfillment Center B2C Pricing
- UK Fulfillment Center B2C Pricing
- US Fulfillment Center B2C Pricing
Request a pricing quote from ShipBob here.
What makes ShipBob’s fulfillment services affordable for small and mid‑market brands?
ShipBob offers affordable fulfillment through a strategic network infrastructure so brands can reduce their average shipping zones and costs, in addition to its numerous technology investments.
This approach provides enterprise-grade fulfillment capabilities without the enterprise-level investment.
What pricing tiers and volume discounts are available at ShipBob?
ShipBob provides customized pricing rather than predefined tiers. Our pricing structure is designed to be simple and transparent, covering three main fees: receiving inventory, warehousing products, and shipping each order. Your custom quote is influenced by your monthly order volume.
ShipBob offers batch pricing for high volumes of identical orders, which can lower operational overhead and pass savings on to you. This structure allows the pricing to scale with your business’s growth.
Additional services such as kitting, handling B2B/wholesale orders, and managing returns are available for an extra charge, with detailed pricing available by country. You can also achieve significant cost savings by distributing inventory across ShipBob’s global network, which reduces shipping zones and transit times. For example, Our Place saved $1.5 million in freight costs using this strategy.
Can brands start with low volume and scale without locked‑in costs?
Yes, ShipBob accommodates brands at various growth stages, but there is a minimum monthly spending requirement for fulfillment and minimum order volume requirements.
You can start with even just a thousand orders monthly and qualify for better pricing as you scale. This flexibility prevents overpaying during slower periods while ensuring your fulfillment partner can support rapid growth during peak seasons or after marketing campaigns.
What hidden fees should businesses be aware of in fulfillment pricing?
When evaluating fulfillment pricing, watch for hidden charges like account setup fees, software or integration fees, receiving charges per item vs. per hour, long-term storage penalties, packaging materials markups, and order minimums with penalties. Other potential costs include system integration fees, returns processing charges, special project rates for kitting/assembly, and peak season surcharges. Request a comprehensive rate card that outlines all possible fees before signing.
What flexibility do SMBs have in contract duration and service levels?
Some 3PLs offer SMBs flexible month-to-month agreements rather than requiring long-term contracts. This approach allows businesses to adjust service levels based on changing needs without penalties.
You should have options to select different shipping speeds, customize packaging, and scale services up or down seasonally. The best providers offer this flexibility while maintaining consistent performance metrics regardless of your size.
More ways how ShipBob helps keep fulfillment affordable
Distributed inventory
With ShipBob’s network of fulfillment centers, you can strategically split your inventory across our locations to get your products from point A to point B more quickly and affordably. Storing inventory near your customers helps reduce the shipping zones and costs associated with shipping orders to faraway destinations.
Distributed inventory also helps you stay competitive by offering fast shipping to your customers. When an order is placed, ShipBob’s algorithm automatically selects the warehouse and carrier that will give you the quickest turnaround at the best price. This strategy has helped our merchants bring 13% savings to their bottom line.
100% Coverage Across the Contiguous US
If you’re looking to expand into the United States, ShipBob has 2-Day Express Shipping that provides 100% coverage in the contiguous US from even just one fulfillment center.
You can also distribute your inventory across ShipBob’s fulfillment centers across all regions of the United States. We leave it up to you to decide where you want us to store your inventory.
Order management
At ShipBob, we track your orders from A to Z. Filter orders by status, search for specific orders, see a quick timeline view of where your order is in the fulfillment process (e.g. when an order is picked, packed, or shipped), easily find shipping-related information (e.g., weights, dimensions, or carrier service), and get a quick snapshot of any orders that require action.
With order management software for your direct-to-consumer and wholesale shipments, you can manage subscriptions, make changes to your orders post-purchase, map your store’s shipping options to ShipBob, and automatically share tracking information with your customers.
Inventory management
At ShipBob, we empower merchants to manage their inventory with the right tools and guidance. It’s easy to view the status of inventory and quantity on hand across locations at any point in time, identify slow-moving inventory with high storage costs, and gain insights into the performance of units sold over time by channel.
Our inventory management software helps you set reminders to proactively replenish inventory with reorder notifications, bundle your products for promotions, make inventory transfer requests, and much more.
Reporting and analytics
To provide you with visibility into our operations and performance, and also hold ourselves accountable, ShipBob’s free analytics tool is packed with charts to help you with everything from year-end reporting, to better supply chain decision-making.
Data can be a competitive advantage, and our reports show an analysis of which fulfillment centers you should stock, days of inventory left before you run out, impact of promotions on stock levels, each shipping method’s average cart value, shipping cost, and days in transit, your fulfillment cost per order, storage cost per unit, and much more.
End-to-end customer experience
We care about the customer experience as much as you and strive to be an extension of your team. From custom branded boxes to free plain packaging, ShipBob works with you to provide the unboxing experience you want. We also help you offer the fastest, most cost-effective shipping options to meet your customers’ expectations.
As soon as an order ships, tracking is pushed back to your store. We also offer return management services, allowing customers to generate return shipping labels and track returns, while getting your products processed and back into your available inventory as efficiently as possible.
