It’s time for some truth telling about these top 3PL fulfillment companies lists you see around the internet. For the most part, they’re bogus. Just about all of them.
We say that even though we’ve landed on some ourselves.
Being listed as a top fulfillment 3PL can involve one (or more) of the following:
Finding the right 3PL for your needs is like car buying. You’re not looking for the top cars in the generic sense, you’re looking for the top car for your specific needs and lifestyle.
So, how do you find the top 3PL fulfillment companies for your business? It starts by looking inside, not outside. What characteristics would your perfect fulfillment 3PL have? Here are some hypothetical requirements that may or may not apply to you.
Any good dating app starts by getting you to describe the kind of partner you seek. When looking for a long-term fulfillment partner, that’s a good place to start, as well.
Once you create your “ideal partner” description, share it with colleagues or others who know the market well and can steer you toward proven partners that match your criteria. Making the wrong choice of fulfillment partner can severely damage your brand, so direct referrals can help to reduce your risk.
Google can be your friend, as well. Armed with your key criteria, you can begin a series of very well-defined searches for partners that match needed capabilities. Once you’ve identified a list of potential partners, you can start digging into their websites and further vetting the companies in order to arrive at a short list of companies to receive your fulfillment RFP.
Buyers of fulfillment services are pretty smart. They know how much is at stake and tend to do the research and vetting required to connect with the right partner. So it makes sense for 3PLs to be candid about what they’re good at – and not so good at – because, if they are the wrong fit, they won’t win the business anyway.
In reality, most fulfillment 3PLs cast a very wide net when marketing, seeking to talk to as many prospective customers as possible. Consequently, it’s hard to figure out what they’re great at because they want you to believe they’re great at everything (even though you know, and they know, that’s impossible).
What if 3PLs were less concerned with landing on a generic top 10 list and more concerned with helping brands solve problems and find a great-fit partner? There would be a lot more truth telling.
At Staci Americas, for instance, we fulfill a lot of vitamins, supplements, cosmetics and other health and wellness products that are small in size. We’re not focused on, and hence less efficient with, larger-sized consumer products like bicycles and furniture.
Our customers tend to ship at least 10,000 orders per month. Brands that don’t ship in these kinds of volumes would hit up against our minimum charge threshold and, therefore, pay a higher fulfillment cost per unit.
While our nationwide fulfillment center network allows 1–2 day fulfillment to 95% of the U.S., that network is not global (though we’re heading there), so we’re not yet a good fit for brands that want to maintain inventory globally.
The point is that generic top 10 lists and overstated 3PL claims about capabilities do little to match brands with best-fit partners.
While consulting a list of the top 3PL fulfillment companies sounds like a promising shortcut to arrive at a short list of potential providers, in reality it can be a time-sucking detour. Start your search process by documenting what an absolutely perfect partner would look like, then use your professional network and the research tools available to find the right match.