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3PL Questionnaire Summary
Choosing the right 3PL partner for your growing business is a crucial step towards success. If you are looking for a 3PL partner, you have likely put in an immense amount of effort to scale your business up to this point. However, without the perfect 3PL partnership to help you complete the job, and deliver your products to your customers, all of your previous efforts will be lost.
Fulfill.com has countless experiences in navigating the journey of finding the right 3PL and knows this realm better than most. Our founder, Joe Spisak, is the creator of several table top board games. Hundreds of hours spent interviewing 3PLs and a few failed partnerships led Spisak to create his own 3PL company. Now, Spisak has created Fulfill.com to help D2C customers find their ideal 3PL partner. We’ve gone through the tedious and mundane part of building a vast 3PL network in hopes to make your life easier and your partnerships seamless.
We have created a questionnaire based on our experiences interviewing 3PLs and building our network of fulfillment providers. This questionnaire covers areas such as, 3PL capabilities, pricing, support, etc. and will be able to give you an idea of what goes into finding a 3PL, as well as provide insight to your own team on areas that matter most to you in a fulfillment partnership.
Foundational Information
What are your goals in finding a 3PL partner?
Is your company growing and you need help with your fulfillment? Are you looking for a physical location in a certain geographic area? Is your current 3PL partner not a great match for your company?
What products does your business sell?
Will you require your 3PL to have any unique storage features (bulky items, fridge or freezer space)?
3PL Capabilities
How many different SKUs can your company handle from one business?
How many different product lines will you be storing and shipping from your 3PL, are they able to handle however many different product lines you have?
What is your minimum monthly order volume?
Is there a minimum number of packages you need to be shipping each month to utilize their company?
Do you provide print on demand services?
Do you need your 3PL to have the capability to print on demand, in house, so that you do not need to outsource this service?
What do you do with products that arrive at the warehouse that may be damaged or broken?
How is the damage reported? Do you have surveillance or a way to trace the source of the damage?
Do you provide services such as custom boxes, kitting, labeling, inserts?
Will you be able to customize my orders?
Do you offer return processing services?
How fast are these returns processed? Will inventory be tested before being put back into the inventory shelf?
What are your 2-day and international shipping capabilities?
What percent of the country can be reached with two day shipping? What countries are they able to ship to outside of the USA?
Do you offer FBA services?
Is the warehouse able to manage Fulfillment by Amazon orders?
How quickly can my inventory be sent out once it is received?
How long does it take to process and ready my products before they are able to be shipped from the warehouse.
Do you offer multiple shipping carrier options?
FedEx, UPS, DHL, USPS, etc.
Support Offerings
If at all, how do you offer customer support?
Over the phone responses? 24/7 support ticket system? Slack channel?
How is a carrier contacted if they were to lose a parcel after it leaves the warehouse?
Who is responsible for handling this?
Do you have web based reports?
Is there a way you can monitor your current inventory and order statuses? Automatic reorders. Notifications for when inventory reaches a certain level.
Do you have a technology team?
Do you rely on in-house support or an outside company?
Pricing
What is your policy on lost or damaged inventory?
Are you entitled to compensation? Oftentimes there is a fine print outlining that 3PLs are not liable for any lost or damaged inventory.
What are your pricing plans and can they be adjusted based on my company's needs?
Do they have stricts pricing structures?
Do you offer account setup and account management?
Is this an additional cost or part of the deal?
Do you offer systems integration?
Ongoing fee or charge?
Does any of your pricing change during the holiday season?
Does the pricing increase during the busier seasons?
Do you have “no hidden fee” policies?
Are you made aware of all new and changing and nothing that comes up unexplained on the invoices?
What does your inventory storage pricing look like?
How do you price a partially sold pallet, how do you price non-palletized items?
Is there room for discussion on pricing changes as my company grows?
Is this possible? At what point of growth will we have this conversation?
Protection
Is there a 24hr monitored security system?
Where are all of the cameras located? Is the footage recorded and stored, and is there a time frame that they hold onto camera footage?
Do you have cyber security?
Is your company's information and data protected in your system, what measures are they taking to protect it?
Are you able to stop by the location for visits?
How often? Do we need to schedule an appointment? What is the best way to do that?
Do you offer any guarantees?
Do you offer guarantees on inventory accuracy, order accuracy, order processing time, data loss?
All in all, finding the right fulfillment partner is a time consuming yet crucial step while scaling your business. We are here to help you ask the right questions and even take charge in negotiating and asking these questions for you! Click here to contact us
