Are you over paying for your 3PL

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Most ecommerce founders don’t know if they’re overpaying for fulfillment.

Not because they’re careless.
But because 3PL pricing is designed to look simple… while hiding cost creep in 10 different line items.

This is how you tell — quickly.

If you’re only looking at your monthly 3PL bill, you’re already blind.

What matters is:

Total monthly 3PL spend ÷ total orders shipped

That number should feel boringly predictable.

🚩 Red flag:
If your cost per order jumps month to month without a clear reason (volume spike, heavier products, new SKUs).

Every 3PL bill boils down to:

If you can’t clearly explain what % of your bill sits in each bucket, you’re likely overpaying.

🚩 Red flag:
“Misc fees,” “handling adjustments,” or charges that don’t map cleanly to orders shipped.

This is where silent overcharging hides.

Typical structure:

What founders miss:

🚩 Red flag:
Your average items per order is stable, but pick & pack cost keeps rising.

Storage fees punish bad inventory management.

But they shouldn’t punish efficient brands.

Ask yourself:

🚩 Red flag:
Storage is a growing % of revenue, not a shrinking one as you scale.

More volume = better rates. In theory.

In practice:
Some 3PLs keep the spread and pass you “almost” the savings.

🚩 Red flag:
Your shipping cost per order hasn’t improved after 6–12 months of growth.

These rarely show up in the sales pitch:

Individually small. Collectively painful.

🚩 Red flag:
You discover fees only after asking why the bill looks higher.

You’re probably overpaying if:

A good 3PL should make costs boringly transparent.

If you want the full breakdown of common 3PL fees, benchmarks, and pricing models, Fulfill put together a deeper guide here →
👉 https://www.fulfill.com/3pl-pricing

Read it when you want the numbers.
Use the checklist above to know today if you’re getting ripped off.

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