Keep your warehouse or move to a 3PL? Run it on your own orders

What does fulfillment cost you per order today?

Ask your bookkeeper for each line from last year’s books.

Your worksheet	Last 12 months
Warehouse rent, utilities and insurance
Wages and payroll costs for everyone who receives, picks, packs and ships
Boxes, mailers, tape, fill and inserts
Shipping labels, after carrier adjustments
Software, scanners, printers, shelving
Owner and manager hours spent on the warehouse
Total ÷ orders shipped = your cost per order

Why is the comparison easy to get wrong?

3PLs charge by activity, and a quote built on averages hides the activities that cost the most.

• Many fee lines. ShipBob’s published pricing page lists separate charges for implementation, receiving, warehousing, picking, packing and shipping, custom services such as kitting, wholesale orders, returns, and storing your own branded packaging.
• Units per order. A rate card with a per-order fee plus a fee per extra item treats a one-item and a five-item order very differently.
• Slow sellers drive storage. Storage is charged on what sits on the shelves.
• Box size. UPS’s 2026 daily rates guide says that for the services it covers, billable weight is the greater of actual and dimensional weight.
• Peaks. A quote priced on an average month says nothing about December.
• Wholesale. ShipBob’s page notes extra charges for larger wholesale orders, such as labeling, prepaid shipping, pallet preparation and freight quotes.

How do you run the numbers yourself?

1. Export a year of orders from Shopify. On the Orders page, select Export, choose orders by date, and pick CSV. Shopify emails exports of more than 50 orders, or exports by date, to you and the store owner. The file includes Lineitem quantity, Shipping Zip, Shipping Province, Shipping Method and the shipping you charged.
2. Build an order profile. Orders in your peak and average months, how many have one, two, three or more units, and where they ship by state.
3. Build an inventory profile. Active SKUs (stock-keeping units), average units on hand, and roughly how many shelves or pallets your stock fills. Mark the slow movers.
4. Note box sizes and weights for your top sellers and common combinations.
5. Ask two or three 3PLs for their full rate card, not just a quote. Send each the same order file with names and addresses removed, keeping only ZIP codes. Ask for any monthly minimum, setup fee and contract term.
6. Price every order under each rate card. One row per order: pick and pack, packaging and shipping to that ZIP. Add monthly storage, receiving for each inbound shipment, and returns.
7. Add the cost of moving: shipping inventory to the 3PL, implementation, and a month or two of running both.
8. Compare month by month, not just the yearly total.

What can’t the numbers tell you?

• Control. In your own space you can fix a packing mistake the same afternoon. With a 3PL, you work through its support process.
• Capacity. Can your space handle next year’s peak? Can the 3PL’s?
• Customer experience. Custom packaging, notes, kitting and same-day cutoffs all cost something at a 3PL, and some may not be offered.

What are your options?

Option	What you get	What to watch
Do it yourself	The spreadsheet above	Time, and falling back on averages
Buy a tool	A 3PL marketplace or quote-comparison service	Who pays them, and whether they price your real orders
Hire a freelancer	An operations consultant who runs the comparison	Whether you keep the model to rerun it
Bring in an outside team (Reports & answers)	The comparison run on your order history, with a written answer	The model and data handed to you, with every assumption written down

FAQ

Is a 3PL always cheaper once you pass a certain number of orders? No single order count settles it. Your units per order, product sizes, destinations and storage needs decide it.

What should I send 3PLs to get an accurate quote? Order history with names and street addresses removed, keeping ZIP codes and items per order, plus your SKU count, product dimensions and weights, and expected inbound shipments.

Why do 3PL invoices often come in higher than the quote? Usually because the quote assumed an average order and average storage, and real months include extra items, slow stock, special packaging, returns and peaks.

Should we move everything at once? Not necessarily. A split, such as keeping wholesale or bulky items in-house and moving online orders, is also an option. Price it the same way, order by order.