Apparel Fulfillment 3PL for Clothing Brands

Marketplace Prep is an apparel fulfillment 3PL in Fort Worth, Texas, for clothing brands selling through Shopify. We keep every size and color as its own SKU in ShipHero, pick and pack orders that carry several sizes, add your branded packaging, and take returns back in.

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A rack of dark denim jeans hanging in a row from white hangers

Variants tracked in: ShipHero
Returns: Checked, restocked or flagged
Shipped from: Fort Worth, TX 76177

What apparel changes in a warehouse

One style in six sizes and five colors is 30 SKUs. Apparel fulfillment is mostly the work of keeping those 30 counts right.

A clothing brand thinks in styles. A warehouse has to think in variants. Every size and every color is a separate item on the shelf with its own count, so a catalog of a few dozen styles can become several hundred SKUs before the next season adds more. A miscount on one variant shows up as a customer who ordered a size the store said was in stock.

We run apparel the way we run every DTC account: on ShipHero, with each variant as its own SKU matched to the variant in your Shopify store. In a live Shopify apparel account we fulfill today, every size is a separate ShipHero SKU mapped to its Shopify variant. That mapping is what lets inventory, orders and returns all land on the right size.

Returns are the other half of the category. Industry estimates put US online return rates for apparel and footwear at about 23% in 2025. That is a market figure, not ours, but it is why we treat returns as part of an apparel account from the first call rather than an afterthought. Apparel returns often take more handling than other categories, so we agree on that process, and its rate, with you before it runs.

Every size and color is its own SKU. An order for a medium in black picks that one variant and lowers only that count, so the other 29 stay right.

How we run an apparel account

Six steps, from the first SKU mapping to the return that comes back a few weeks after the order shipped.

01

Set up every variant as its own SKU

Each size and color combination becomes a SKU in ShipHero, matched to the variant in your Shopify store. One style in six sizes and five colors is 30 SKUs. The mapping is set before the first order so a variant sold in the store is a variant the warehouse can find.

02

Receive stock by size and color

Inbound cartons are received and counted against each variant, not against the style. A carton of mixed sizes is fine when each size is bundled and its quantity labeled. Clean case packs are received free, and stock that arrives completely unsorted needs hands-on sorting that is billed as a separate line, and we plan it with you on a call first.

03

Connect the store

Your Shopify store connects to ShipHero, so orders flow in and inventory counts flow back by variant. When the last medium in black sells, the store sees that variant at zero while the other sizes keep selling.

04

Pick and pack orders with several sizes

An order with two sizes of the same style, or a top and bottom in matching colors, is picked line by line by SKU and packed as one shipment. The packer works from the order, so the size on the order is the size in the box.

05

Add your branded packaging

Branded tissue, printed inserts and mailers that you or your supplier send us go into orders to the spec you document at onboarding. This is custom work on request, scoped alongside the account.

06

Take returns back in

Returns are received, checked for condition, restocked to the right variant when they can be sold again, and flagged to you in your WhatsApp group when they cannot. The decision on a damaged unit is yours.

Who this is built for

Apparel fits our warehouse when orders are moving across the size run and the brand wants returns handled with the same care as outbound orders.

A fit

Clothing brands selling through a Shopify store, with each size and color set up as its own variant.
Brands whose customers regularly order more than one size, and who need the right size in every box.
Brands with branded tissue, inserts or mailers produced by their own printer or supplier.
Brands that want to agree on the returns process and its rate before the first return arrives.

Questions clothing brands ask us

How do you handle sizes and colors as separate SKUs?

Every size and color combination is its own SKU in ShipHero, matched to the variant in your Shopify store. One style in six sizes and five colors is 30 SKUs, and each one is received, counted and picked on its own. When an order comes in for a medium in black, the medium in black is what gets picked, and the count for that one variant is what goes down.

Do you process apparel returns?

Yes. We receive each return, check its condition, restock the units that can be sold again and flag damaged or unsellable units to you for a decision. Apparel returns often take more handling than other categories before an item can go back on sale, so we review that work with you up front. If your returns need extra handling, we’ll work with you to evaluate rates, and you see the quote before anything runs.

Do you handle exchanges?

We do not run a separate exchange workflow. At our warehouse an exchange is two pieces of work: the item coming back follows our returns process, and the replacement size ships as a new order once it reaches ShipHero from your store. How the exchange is offered and approved stays in your store and your returns policy.

Can you add branded tissue or inserts to orders?

Yes, as custom work on request. You or your supplier send us the branded tissue, printed inserts, cards or mailers, and they go into orders to the spec you document at onboarding. We do not design, print or source packaging. Each added piece is another step at the pack station, so it is scoped against your actual order mix.

Do you work with small clothing brands?

Yes, if orders are already moving. Our fit check is about 30 orders a month, because we are set up to ship orders rather than to store inventory that is not selling. There is no upper limit on order count. A brand with a deep size and color range and few orders per variant should talk to us first, because a wide catalog takes up shelf space whether it sells or not.

Can you also ship apparel orders from my Amazon store?

Yes. We pick, pack and ship Amazon merchant-fulfilled orders from the same Fort Worth inventory as your Shopify orders. We do not run Seller Fulfilled Prime, so those orders ship without the Prime badge. If you also send apparel into Amazon’s fulfillment network, we handle FBA prep in the same building.

Moving your clothing line? Let’s scope it.

Send us your style and variant count, the stores you sell through, roughly how many orders ship and come back each month, and what goes in the box besides the product. We will walk through how your catalog would run in ShipHero and what it takes.

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