7+ Best 3PL Companies For Ecommerce Logistics (Top 3PL Providers Ranked and Reviewed)

A reliable and competent 3PL company is one of the things you need to drive efficiency in your supply chain. But with the numerous 3PL companies in the market, choosing the best for your business becomes difficult. This article, '7+ Best 3PL Companies For E-commerce Logistics (Top 3PL Providers Ranked and Reviewed),' will review the top 3PL companies, what stands them out, and how you can choose the best 3PL provider for your business.

3PL companies, as they are commonly known, are businesses that assist e-commerce companies with the various stages of logistics and delivery. Therefore, business owners must determine which 3PL companies can provide the services they require and, more importantly, which companies can partner with them at reasonable prices. Business owners often spend hours researching listed companies only to discover that none fit their requirements.

Additionally, Because many e-commerce businesses only handle online sales, their owners must hire companies to handle the other aspects of online sales, like packaging and delivery. This handling is where a 3PL company comes into play, especially for a growing business.

What Is a 3PL Company?

7+ Best 3PL Companies For Ecommerce Logistics (Top 3PL Providers Ranked and Reviewed) www.paypant.com

3PL Companies are third-party logistics companies that provide a platform that enables the storage and fulfillment of your orders.

Third-party logistics companies provide solutions such as inventory management, international logistics, order fulfillment, distribution, and more. Outsourcing your logistics operations to a 3PL company as an online seller will reduce your operating costs and increase your business's efficiency.

What Do 3PL Companies Do?

3PLs in tandem with product fulfillment services handle a wide range of fulfillment services on behalf of sellers in their fulfillment centers, including DTC and B2B order fulfillment, by utilizing technology, automation, and expert pickers and packers.

Some 3PLs specialize in specific product categories (for example, apparel or refrigerated items), have merchant-facing technology that can integrate with a wide range of sales channels, and even offer value-added services to streamline the supply chain further.

The following are the most common services provided by 3PLs:

- Introducing their technology to e-commerce merchants

- Inventory receipt and storage

- DTC and B2B order picking and packing

- Negotiating carrier rates and scheduling pickups to facilitate expedited and standard shipping

- assembling and preparing items

- Branded boxes, inserts, and gift notes are examples of customization.

- Returns processing

- Inventory movement and cross-docking

- Inventory distribution (allowing brands to split their inventory across the country or globe)

- Setting up the warehouse, hiring fulfillment associates, and training employees

What Is the Difference Between 3PL and 4PL Companies?

And now that you know what a 3PL company is, you might wonder what a 4PL company is.

So, what are the differences between 3PL and 4PL firms? A 4PL company, on the other hand, does everything a 3PL company does, plus a lot more! 4PL firms also manage resources, technology, and infrastructure. They may even manage external 3PLs and assist those companies in meeting their objectives for the benefit of the e-commerce merchant.

How Does 3PL Work?

The different third-party logistics companies (3PL) work differently. There is no specific way that 3PL logistics companies function. However, below is how a 3PL provider works:

Step 1: Choose a 3PL Company

After researching a 3PL company, register your brand on the platform.

Step 2: Connect your e-commerce store to the 3PL platform

Provide every piece of information needed by the 3PL company, and send in your inventory.

Step 3: After providing details about your business, the third-party logistics company will store your inventory in its warehouses or fulfillment centers.

Step 4: When s customer places an order, the 3PL company ships the item from the nearest fulfillment center to the customer's location.

7+ Best 3PL Companies (Ranked and Reviewed)

1. ShipBob(Best 3PL Company for Order Fulfillment & Importing)

ShipBob is a DTC fulfillment company that works with e-commerce companies of all sizes. ShipBob assists merchants in managing inventory, forecasting demand, packing orders, reducing transit times, and meeting customer expectations. This 3PL company has the best fulfillment technology and a 99.95% accuracy rate when delivering orders.

ShipBob integrates with Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, Walmart, and other major eCommerce platforms and marketplaces you may use.

Features: ShipBob 3PL Services

Warehouses: ShipBob has warehouses all over the US and other countries, so your packages can get to customers faster than ever. ShipBob's global network of fulfillment centers, which is growing every year, lets you distribute your inventory smartly, lowering your overall shipping costs. You can start with one warehouse and add more as your orders increase or as you move into new markets.

Inventory Management: ShipBob provides you with a free cloud-based account that enables you to manage your inventory and orders. With this account, you can easily track your inventory, forecast demands, and do more.

Software and Analytics:

ShipBob tracks the activities performed by your account to provide data and metrics that could impact the decisions you make. For example, this tool lets you view your billing breakdown, daily history, storage costs, quantities ordered by a state, promotional impact, and more.

Order Fulfilment and Freight Shipping:

With its multiple warehouses in different parts of the US, ShipBob enables your orders to reach your customers quickly. ShipBob also partners with shipping carriers like DHL, USPS, FedEx, ShipStation, UPS, and more.

2-day Shipping: Due to its multiple fulfillment centers and partnership with shipping carriers, ShipBob provides a two-day shipping service. As a result, ShipBob supports businesses of all sizes. It also enables you to have control over the services offered by ShipBob.

ShipBob has been awarded an FDA certificate that enables it to ship FDA-regulated goods like medical equipment, cosmetics, beverages, and more. It also provides temperature control equipment that prevents damage to goods that are heat sensitive.

Pros

- Two-day discounted ground shipping anywhere in the continental United States, with same-day delivery options.

- An extensive fulfillment network exists, with 23 warehouses in the United States and seven in other countries.

- Import freight management services from start to finish

Cons

- High storage costs: Not recommended for slow-moving items or businesses with low sale-to-SKU ratios.

- Amazon SFP (Seller-Fulfilled Prime) orders cannot be fulfilled.

- There will be no refrigeration or frozen warehousing to ensure cold chain compliance.

ShipBob Fulfillment 3PL Service Costs

ShipBob has a significant advantage over other fulfillment companies in terms of billing transparency. Client bills are assessed and updated daily, and all charges are displayed in an itemized format from your dashboard. In addition, you can toggle shipping details in the same tab to estimate variable order costs.

ShipBob charges a single order fulfillment fee that includes pick and pack (up to four items), basic packaging materials, and shipping costs.

ShipBob Reviews

ShipBob gets positive reviews online, especially on Trustpilot, where 75% of nearly 500 users rated their experience as "excellent." In addition, the two-day express shipping option reduced many users' shopping cart abandonment and shipping costs. Other reviews praise the software and customer service.

ShipBob has few negative Trustpilot reviews but many more on other sites. For example, 19 of 43 G2 reviews give a 1-star rating, citing lost inventory, billing disputes, and unreliable couriers.

2. WhiteBox (Best 3PL Company for Hands-off Amazon & Multichannel Management)

WhiteBox best 3PL company www.paypant.com

WhiteBox is an eCommerce marketplace that offers fulfillment technologies. It is a good option if you aim to reduce logistics costs and generate more sales for your eCommerce store.

WhiteBox provides order fulfillment services and marketing solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. The 3PL provider tailors their services to Amazon sellers, DropShippers, Multipreneurs, and Brick-and-mortar stores.

The pricing structure for Whitebox is undisclosed, but Whitebox offers pricing plans that come in the form of an all-in fulfillment fee.

Features: WhiteBox 3PL Services

MarketPlace Management:

Whitebox integrates with multiple online marketplaces and provides solutions that sell and fulfill goods orders on your behalf. With Whitebox, you can easily promote your store, generate sales, and manage your order fulfillment process.

Whitebox offers list creation, customer support, marketing, copywriting, and more. In addition, its technology provides valuable insights that drive sales to your store.

Support: Upon creation of your account with Whitebox, WhiteBox analyzes your store and assigns a content manager to your store who monitors and tracks activities such as sales performance, customer trends, competitors, and more.

The content manager uses this data to optimize your store for more sales. For example, it tells you the best price to sell your products, keywords for product descriptions, and much more.

Software and Analytics:

WhiteBox offers a feature called Omnifi software. This software provides advanced analytics that gives insight into a customer's journey with your brand, new products, best marketing strategies, geographic sales trends, and more. The Ominifi software incurs additional costs, but it is a free service for clients who meet a set billing requirement.

Post Sales Servicing: WhiteBox uses the Fulfillment by Amazon service (FBA). This service handles customer inquiries and issues that may arise after the fulfillment of your customer's order.

2-Day Shipping: Whitebox partners with shipping carriers such as DHL, UPS, USPS, and FedEx to deliver a 2-day shipping service. Other services provided by WhiteBox include International logistics, kitting, advanced inventory management, bundling, product selection testing, reverse logistics, subscription box fulfillment, and more.

Pros

- 99% of the continental United States receives two-day shipping.

- A full-service marketplace management platform handles your listings.

- Forecasting, advanced reporting, and analytics

Cons

- Order minimums are prohibitively high.

- A monthly levy fee for the software.

- Inadequate pricing transparency

Whitebox 3PL Service Costs

Whitebox's pricing is split between marketplace management and fulfillment. Clients pay a monthly "all-in fulfillment fee" for all fulfillment processes except storage and software. Whitebox provides custom fulfillment quotes. Additionally, its growth agency charges a percentage of client sales as a commission.

The 3PL full-service platform charges marketplace and FBA fees, which significantly impact the client's bottom line. Whitebox is ideal for high-margin product manufacturers and sellers. Whitebox's comprehensive turnkey services make it the ideal and ne of the best 3PL full-service partner.

3. Red Stag Fulfillment (Best for Special Product Handling)

Red Stag Fulfillment is one of the best 3PL logistics companies that offer services such as inventory management, order fulfillment, e-commerce fulfillment, shipping, and return processing. These services are mainly geared towards small and medium-sized businesses.

Red Stag fulfillment stands out for its impressive customer support, 100% inventory accuracy, same-day fulfillment service, and 100% order accuracy.

Features: Red Stag Fulfillment 3PL Services

Software: Using Red Stag Fulfillment gives you access to its RSF OPS – a cloud-based but mobile-friendly warehouse management system that provides advanced reporting on inventory planning, demand forecasting, shipping statistics, and more. With this software, you can do the following:

- Create & modify products/SKUs

- Create advanced shipping notice

- Create, edit, and pause existing customer's order

- Create return merchandise Authorization

Order Fulfillment at Discounted Price:

Red Stag Fulfillment provides services that enable your products' special handling, packaging, and shipping. This 3PL company accepts fragile, heavy, high-value items and everything in between. Red Stag works with five shipping carriers; Amazon, UPS, FedEx, OnTrac, and USPS. They all offer discounted shipping prices.

Same-day Fulfillment: Red Stag offers a same-day fulfillment service that enables you to fulfill and ship an order on the same day. This service is only available for warehousing orders made before 5 p.m. Red Stag also offers two-day shipping and cross-docking services.

Return Processing: Red Stag efficiently manages your returned products. It inspects them for damages and restocks them when no issues are found. When they find damage on a product, Red Stag creates an SKU for it and subsequently sells it at a discounted rate.

Other services include advanced integrations, customer support, onboarding solutions, kitting, international shipping, reverse logistics, custom-dimensional packaging, and more.

Pros

- Outstanding operational transparency and service assurances

- We offer quick turnaround times for oversized items with low shipping and handling costs.

- Order minimums are low, and there are no long-term contracts.

Cons

- Only two warehouses—are inadequate for inventory distribution.

- The dashboard and user interface are unfriendly.

- Expensive pickup and delivery fees

Red Stag Fulfillment 3PL Service Costs

Red Stag Fulfillment's pricing is straightforward. Its fee schedule clearly outlines storage, order, and per-item fees, and add-on fees are calculated hourly or per project. When you start with Red Stag, the only unknown fees are shipping costs, though clients benefit from Red Stag's low, discounted rates.

Red Stag Fulfillment Reviews

ShipBob has few negative Trustpilot reviews but many more on other sites. For example, 19 of 43 G2 reviews give a 1-star rating, citing lost inventory, billing disputes, and unreliable couriers.

4. FedEx

FedEx is a third-party logistics(3PL) company that provides services such as order fulfillment, shipping solutions, warehousing, and integrations for multi-channel sellers and small/medium-sized businesses.

This 3PL company is a FedEx Corps subsidiary with thirteen US fulfillment locations and two international fulfillment locations. It integrates seamlessly with eBay, Shopify, Walmart, and other popular online marketplaces.

Features: FedEx 3PL Services

Advanced Shipment Tracking: FedEx offers advanced tracking solutions that enable you efficiently manage and track multiple shipments. It has a centralized and customizable dashboard that gives at-a-glance reports of all your shipments. In addition, you can create a custom view of your dashboard, access tracking data of a consignment, notify others of shipment status, and more.

Temperature Control System:

FedEx has a temperature-controlled system that stores sensitive goods.

FedEx 3PL also offers temperature-controlled services such as frozen shipping, cold shipping, re-icing, Gel pack replenishment, Cold storage, and more. In addition, FedEx provides multiple transportation services for different temperatures sensitive items and various temperature-controlled networks.

Order Fulfillment:

FedEx uses automation and technology to provide you with a 100% accuracy rate in order fulfillment.

Multi-Channel Capabilities: Irrespective of the multiple sales channel you adopt, FedEx provides a dashboard that enables you to manage your sales from one place efficiently.

Billing Solutions: The different shipping solutions offered by FedEx come with varying billing solutions. The different billing types offered by FedEx include:

- Offline billing

- Electronic Data Interchange,

- Automatic billing paper invoices,

- FedEx billing online, and more.

These billing solutions allow for the accurate management of your accounts.

Two-Day Shipment: FedEx 3PL doesn't partner with other shipping carriers; rather, its subsidiary, FedEx fulfillment, offers services that enable a two-day shipment. These services include warehousing, reverse shipping, knitting, bundling, international logistics, custom packaging, customer support, and more.

Pros

- Nationwide delivery is quick and inexpensive.

- An extensive fulfillment network allows for high volumes, efficient distribution, and limitless growth.
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