Article Overview
- Outsourcing order fulfilment helps businesses save time, reduce costs, and scale more efficiently.
- 3PLs offer access to warehousing, tech, staff, and carrier networks without upfront investment.
- Businesses outsource when in-house fulfilment becomes inefficient or limits growth.
- Common benefits include better delivery speed, fewer errors, and improved customer experience.
- With the right partner, outsourced fulfilment becomes a long-term growth enabler.
Why outsourcing fulfilment is a strategic move
Order fulfilment takes time, space, staff, and systems. As your business grows, these requirements quickly stretch internal capacity. Picking and packing in-house works at low volume, but it’s not built for scale.
That’s why so many businesses turn to third party logistics providers (3PLs) – specialists in managing storage, order processing, shipping, and returns at scale.
Rather than investing in warehouses, equipment, and staff, brands outsource their fulfilment to partners like 3PL, gaining flexibility and freeing up internal resources to focus on product, marketing, and growth.
Common signs it’s time to outsource
- You’re spending more time packing than selling
- You’ve outgrown your current space
- Order errors or delays are increasing
- Returns and customer service are hard to manage
- You want to expand to new sales channels or regions
Outsourcing isn’t just about offloading tasks – it’s about creating a professional logistics backbone that can support your brand’s ambitions.
What 3PLs bring to the table
Warehousing and storage
No need to lease or manage your own warehouse. 3PLs store your inventory, with systems that track SKUs, shelf life, and inbound deliveries.
Pick, pack and despatch
When an order is placed, the 3PL picks the product, packs it according to your specifications, and ships it via the best courier option.
Integration with your systems
3PLs like 3PL integrate directly with Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, TikTok Shop and more. Orders flow automatically, and inventory updates in real time.
Returns and reverse logistics
Customers can return items with ease, and your fulfilment partner processes, restocks or discards based on your rules – reducing admin for your team.
Performance data and support
Access dashboards, reports and service level tracking – so you can optimise performance, stock levels, and shipping costs.
The business case for outsourcing
Time savings
You stop spending hours each day printing labels, packing boxes, and chasing couriers. Your team can focus on what they do best – selling and scaling.
Reduced costs
While 3PLs charge for services, you avoid fixed overheads like rent, wages, utilities and fulfilment software. Many brands see cost parity or savings within months.
Greater accuracy
With barcode scanning, trained staff, and structured workflows, fulfilment accuracy improves. Fewer mistakes mean fewer returns, better reviews, and higher retention.
Faster delivery
3PLs ship thousands of orders daily and have priority access to courier networks. Your customers get faster, more reliable shipping – including same-day despatch and next-day delivery.
Easier scaling
When order volumes spike, you won’t be left scrambling. A good 3PL can flex warehouse space and staff to match your growth.
Real-world example: subscription brand going national
A wellness subscription brand started by packing orders from their studio. At 300 boxes per week, fulfilment took two full days.
After switching to 3PL:
- Orders synced from their Shopify store into Fusion
- Inventory was stored and tracked centrally
- Pick and pack operations were handled daily with 99.9% accuracy
They now ship over 1,200 boxes per week with no extra staff, and have launched into Ireland and mainland Europe.
When outsourcing isn’t the right fit
Outsourcing isn’t for everyone. If your volume is very low (under 100 orders/month), or if you sell highly bespoke or fragile items requiring specialist handling, in-house may be more cost-effective.
But for most growing ecommerce businesses, outsourcing makes sense once fulfilment starts to slow down other parts of the business.
Free your time and scale with confidence
If fulfilment is taking up too much of your time, outsourcing could be the solution.
Speak to 3PL about building a tailored fulfilment operation that scales with your growth.
Speak to 3PL about your order fulfiment
It’s time to supercharge your business and overtake your competitors. Speak to 3PL today and find out how we can take your ecommerce and B2B fulfilment to the next level.
