Putting two fulfilment quotes side by side is harder than it looks. One charges per pallet, the other per cubic metre. One has a low price per order but charges for every extra item, the other has a higher base rate with more included. If you only look at the price per order, you're comparing apples and oranges.
The building blocks of a fulfilment price
Almost every fulfilment partner charges for the same components, just packaged differently:
- Receiving: receiving, counting and booking in your stock. Per pallet, per carton or per hour, or included.
- Storage: per pallet space, shelf, bin or cubic metre, usually per month.
- Picking: a price per order, often with a surcharge per extra item or order line.
- Packaging: boxes, filling material and tape. Included or charged separately.
- Shipping: the transport cost per parcel or pallet, depending on weight, size and destination.
- Returns: per return, sometimes with extra costs for inspection or repacking.
- Integrations and onboarding: one-off costs to connect your webshop, marketplace or ERP.
- Extra work: kitting, labelling, building displays. Per piece or per hour.
Where the surprises are
The biggest differences between quotes rarely lie in the price per order. They lie in what is not in it:
- Minimum billing: a fixed monthly amount, even if you have few orders.
- Surcharges: fuel surcharges, peak surcharges during the holidays, surcharges for heavy or large parcels.
- Storage for slow movers: some partners charge extra for products that sit for a long time.
- Change costs: connecting a new retailer, a new label, an extra shipping option.
- Exit costs: a notice period of months, or fees to take your stock and data with you.
Calculate with your own figures
The only fair comparison is a calculation based on your own profile. Take a normal month and a busy month, and write down:
- 1The number of orders per channel: webshop, marketplace, B2B and retail.
- 2The average number of items or order lines per order.
- 3How many pallets or locations your stock takes up.
- 4How many pallets or cartons you receive per month.
- 5The number of returns.
- 6How your shipments are split per country and per weight class.
Ask every partner to calculate their price on exactly this profile, including all surcharges. Then you'll see what you really pay per month.
Look beyond the price
A cheap partner that sends your retailer a wrong label ends up being expensive. So also ask:
- Who is my contact person, and how quickly do I get an answer?
- What's the cut-off: what's the latest time an order can come in and still ship the same day?
- How quickly is stock booked in, and how are differences reported?
- What happens when mistakes are made: who pays for a wrongly shipped order?
- How easily can I leave?
At Sendwit you get a fixed price list tailored to you, with booking in, your contact person and standard packaging material included. You can see how our price is made up on the pricing page.