Shield’s growth skyrocketed to more than 2,000 monthly orders in the first six months. Initially, the team relied on their manufacturer as a 3PL. This solution, while simple, proved unsustainable.

The manufacturer lacked a cost structure suited for DTC fulfillment and quickly hiked prices — twice. After evaluating over 100 3PLs, Shield found none offering a desirable combination of competitive pricing and robust service-level agreements.

Initially, the Shield team spent dozens of hours reaching out to, setting up calls for fulfillment discussions, and reviewing price estimates, but Shield’s Founder and CEO, JP Milano, couldn’t get competitive and transparent price estimates from 3PLs, slowing down their fulfillment search. 

That’s when Fulfill stepped in to help JP and his team identify 3PL cost leaders with reliable service levels and customer service.

Right away, the Shield team had access to Fulfill’s entire network of 650 3PLs, allowing them to choose the ones that best fit their needs. And, thanks to Fufill’s free matchmaking service for brands, Shield could explore several options without financial commitment.

With Fulfill’s efficient matchmaking process, Shield no longer had to make multiple phone calls with hundreds of 3PLs only to get an accurate price quote at the very last call. Even better, Fulfill sent a shortlist of the cost-leaders in DTC lightweight order fulfillment with reliable SLAs.

JP says that since working with  Fulfill, his team has saved up to a week of work in finding potential fulfillment partners. This allowed Shield’s team to spend more time focused on product development, marketing, and sales.

By leveraging Fulfill’s expertise, Shield found a strong 3PL partner, Pitted Logistics, that streamlined its operations, allowing the brand to offer faster, cheaper shipping and reduce the total cost of fulfillment.

Leveraging Fulfill’s network and 3PL matchmaking service allowed Shield to streamline its fulfillment search, reduce the total cost of fulfillment (including pick & pack costs, storage costs, carrier shipping rates, receiving, and packaging costs), and offer improved shipping times to customers. Instead of dozens of unsuccessful 3PL calls, Shield spent less than a week honing in on their best-fit 3PL partner.

What’s more, Shield expedited its supply chain lifecycle as Pitted Logistics introduced Shield to a local manufacturer that specializes in supplement manufacturing, allowing for quicker product replenishment and optimized inbound freight costs.

Here are the overall results:

• 23% decrease in total cost of fulfillment
• $0.60 reduction in average pick and pack costs per order
• $2.00 improvement in carrier rates per order

Shield is now confident that, because of Fulfill's help finding and negotiating with Pitted Logistics, they can scale their business to significantly over the next few years.