How pricing works
The cost model, before the quote
Every fulfilment quote is different because every catalogue is different. Rather than a rate card that won't fit you, here's exactly what a price is built from, so you can budget, sanity-check and self-qualify before you talk to us.
The building blocks
What a fulfilment price is made of
You pay for what you actually use, no bundled overhead for capacity you don't touch. A quote combines these components against your real volumes.
Intake & receiving
Unloading your container or pallets, checking quantities against the packing list, and booking stock in, usually priced per pallet, per hour or per container, depending on how goods arrive.
Storage
Charged per location per period, a pallet place, a shelf or a bin, per week or per month. You pay for the space your stock occupies, so lean inventory costs less.
Pick & pack
The core of e-commerce fulfilment: typically a fee per order plus a small fee per extra line or item. Single-item orders are cheaper than deep multi-line baskets.
Packaging materials
Boxes, mailers, filler and tape, either at cost or as a fixed per-order rate. Bring your own branded packaging and we'll use it.
Value Added Logistics (VAL)
Anything beyond standard pick-and-pack: labelling, bundling, kitting, gift notes, quality checks, relabelling for a market. Priced per action or per hour.
Shipping
The carrier rate for each parcel, driven by weight, dimensions and destination zone. We pass on negotiated carrier rates and pick the best carrier per shipment.
A word on surcharges
Carriers add surcharges that any 3PL passes on, fuel, peak-season, oversized or heavy parcels, remote-area delivery and address corrections. Returns handling is priced separately, per returned order. We flag these up front so nothing shows up as a surprise on the invoice.
What moves your number
The five things that set the price
If you want to lower your cost per order, these are the levers. They're also exactly what our quote and saving check ask for.
- 1Order volume. Higher, steadier volumes earn better per-order rates.
- 2Order profile. Lines per order and units per line drive pick time.
- 3Weight & size. The biggest driver of the shipping line on every order.
- 4Destinations. Domestic parcels cost less than pan-EU or far-zone ones.
- 5SKU count & turnover. Slow-moving SKUs tie up storage; lean ranges are cheaper.
Turn the model into your number
Run the saving check for an instant indicative range, or send your volumes for a real, itemised quote across storage, pick, pack and shipping.