Fulfillment for Small Ecommerce Brands
Fulfillment for small ecommerce brands should be measured the way you already measure your business: in orders shipped. Marketplace Prep picks, packs and ships ecommerce orders on ShipHero from Fort Worth, TX, for brands still packing orders at home and creators moving proven merch off print-on-demand.
- Orders run on
- ShipHero
- Volume counted in
- Orders, with no ceiling
- Ships from
- Fort Worth, TX 76177
When to hand fulfillment to a 3PL
Your own time and accuracy usually set the moment. Order count matters less than whether packing is crowding out the work only you can do.
Most small brands start by packing orders themselves. It keeps cost visible, it keeps the founder close to the product, and at a handful of orders a week it is the right call. If that describes you today, keep doing it and come back when the orders move.
A third-party logistics provider (3PL) takes over receiving, storage, picking, packing and shipping. Your inventory moves out of the spare room and into a warehouse, your store sends orders straight to the warehouse system, and you stop touching most of them. In exchange you take on a cost per order and a handoff: inventory has to be sent in, and your store has to be connected and tested.
That trade starts to pay when the hours you get back are worth more than the fulfillment bill, or when mistakes in counts and packing start costing you customers. For most brands the moment shows up as a pattern well before it shows up as a number.
Signs you have outgrown packing orders yourself
None of these is a fixed order count. They are the patterns that tend to appear first, and one or two of them is usually enough to start the conversation.
Packing sets your schedule
The day gets planned around the carrier drop-off or pickup, and product, marketing and sourcing work moves to evenings and weekends.
Stock lives in several places
Inventory is split across a spare room, a garage and a storage unit, and filling one order can mean checking all of them.
Counts stop matching the shelf
The quantity your store shows drifts from what is physically on hand, so you either oversell or hide items that are in stock to be safe.
A second channel arrives
Adding Amazon merchant-fulfilled orders to your own store means two order lists drawing on one shelf, and a manual count cannot keep both honest.
A launch would break the setup
A drop, a preorder or a holiday week would produce more orders in a few days than your packing table can clear before customers start asking where their order is.
How we size a small brand: orders, not units
DTC fulfillment at Marketplace Prep is counted in orders, and the order count is only one part of the fit. The rest is whether you ship steadily and how much space your catalog needs.
Counted in
Orders shipped each month. An order with three items in it is one order. Units are how FBA prep is measured, and that yardstick does not apply to your store orders.
The fit check
About 30 orders a month. It is a check that you are shipping, not just storing inventory with us. It is not a capacity limit, and it is not a quota you are billed against.
Ceiling
None on orders. What actually limits a client is the storage footprint the catalog needs against the space we have free, which we look at on the discovery call.
Slow months
Billing follows the work: orders packed, the storage your inventory occupies, supplies used, and a daily connection for each store you link. A quiet month costs less to run, but storage and store connections keep running. Storage runs as long as stock sits, so a brand that ships in one season and stores for the rest of the year is not a fit.
Catalog shape
A modest SKU count relative to orders is the profile we run well. Thousands of slow-moving SKUs against a small order count is the profile any 3PL struggles with.
How each line of a fulfillment bill works is laid out in how much DTC fulfillment costs, and how pricing works is laid out on our fulfillment page. If your off-season question is about Amazon’s capacity limits on FBA inventory rather than a 3PL, that is covered in our restock limits guide.
Moving merch off print-on-demand
We store and ship finished goods. We do not print, so the move fits designs that have already shown they sell.
Print-on-demand lets a creator or brand test a design without holding inventory, because each item is printed after it is ordered. Once a design sells steadily, many creators have it produced in a batch and stocked instead, which gives them control over the blank, the packaging and what the customer sees when the box opens.
Stocked merch then needs somewhere to live and someone to ship it. That is the part we run. Finished goods arrive at our Fort Worth warehouse, are received into ShipHero, and ship as orders come in from your store. Branded packaging you supply and inserts can go into each order as custom work on request.
Many creators keep testing new designs on print-on-demand and move only the proven sellers into stock. If your merch is mostly apparel, our apparel fulfillment page covers how garments are handled.
What a small brand gets from us
The same DTC operation every client runs on, scoped to your catalog and order pattern.
Pick, pack and ship
Orders flow from your store into ShipHero, are picked and packed to your documented spec, and shipped from Fort Worth, TX 76177.
Shopify and WooCommerce
Your store connects through ShipHero, and the integration is tested before go-live.
Amazon merchant-fulfilled orders
If you also sell on Amazon and ship those orders yourself, we pick, pack and ship them from the same stock as your store orders.
Kits, bundles and subscription boxes
Bundles are set up as virtual kits in ShipHero, so availability follows the components on hand. More on kitting and bundling.
Returns
Returned orders are received and condition-checked, sellable units go back into stock, and damaged units are flagged for your decision. More on returns processing.
How onboarding runs
Every brand goes through the same six steps, in order. Nothing ships until the integration has been tested.
01
Discovery call
We look at your catalog, your order pattern, the storage your stock will need and how inventory will arrive.
02
Signed agreement
Scope and service levels are written into the agreement for your engagement. We do not make blanket turnaround promises.
03
Prepaid wallet
Work runs on a prepaid wallet, funded before work begins, so fulfillment and shipping draw from a balance you can see.
04
Your WhatsApp group
We create a dedicated WhatsApp group for your brand. Day-to-day questions go there, and email is kept for agreements and other formal documents.
05
Specs and integration
Packing specs are documented, your store is connected to ShipHero, and the connection is tested before go-live.
06
First inbound
We coordinate your first shipment into the warehouse. Clean case packs are received at no charge, and orders start shipping once stock is on the shelf.
Who this is built for
Small brands that ship steadily and are ready to stop packing orders themselves.
A fit
- Brands shipping steadily from their own Shopify or WooCommerce store who are ready to hand off packing.
- Creators with merch designs that have proven they sell, moving from print-on-demand into stocked inventory.
- Brands adding Amazon merchant-fulfilled orders to their own store who need one count across both.
- Packaged, standard-size goods, with a SKU count that is modest relative to orders.
Questions we get from small brands
How many orders do I need before using a 3PL?
There is no single number that fits every brand, because the decision turns on your time, your accuracy and how many channels you sell on. At Marketplace Prep the fit check is about 30 orders a month, which tells us you are shipping steadily rather than storing inventory. Below that, packing orders yourself usually costs less than the handoff. Above it, there is no ceiling on orders.
Do you charge a penalty if my orders drop in the off season?
We do not bill against a monthly order minimum. The roughly 30 orders a month is a fit check when we onboard you, not a quota. Fulfillment is billed on the work done and what stays in place: orders packed, supplies used, the storage your inventory occupies, and a daily connection for each store you link. A slow month costs less to run, but storage and store connections keep running in a month with few or no orders. Because storage runs while stock sits, it pays to bring in less inventory ahead of a quiet season. A brand that ships in one season and stores for the rest of the year is not a fit.
Can I move my merch off print-on-demand to you?
Yes, once a design is produced as finished, stocked inventory. You send the finished goods to our Fort Worth warehouse, we receive them into ShipHero, your store connects and is tested before go-live, and orders ship from stock as they come in. Many creators keep testing new designs on print-on-demand and move only the proven sellers into stock.
Do you print products?
No. We do not print or embroider products. We receive, store, pick, pack and ship finished goods. Branded packaging you supply and inserts can be added to your orders as custom work on request.
Is there a maximum order volume?
There is no ceiling on orders. What limits a client is the storage footprint the catalog needs against the space we have free, and we look at that on the discovery call. A brand that starts small can keep growing order count here without hitting a cap.
How do I know if I should keep packing orders myself?
Keep packing if you ship a handful of orders a week, sell on one channel and your counts and accuracy are holding. Hand it off when packing is setting your schedule, your store counts drift from what is on the shelf, you add a second channel, or a launch would produce more orders than your packing table can clear.
What does onboarding look like for a small brand?
It starts with a discovery call about your catalog, order pattern and how inventory will arrive. Then comes a signed agreement, a prepaid wallet funded before work begins, and a dedicated WhatsApp group for your brand. We document your packing specs, connect your store to ShipHero and test the integration before go-live, then coordinate your first inbound.
Ready to stop packing orders yourself?
Tell us your store, your order pattern and what your catalog looks like. If you are a fit, we will build the onboarding plan with you. If you are not there yet, we will say so.
Keep reading
DTC Fulfillment
Pick, pack and ship on ShipHero, how pricing works, and how an engagement gets scoped.
What DTC fulfillment costs
How a fulfillment bill is built, line by line, and which lines move with your order count.
Switching 3PL providers
Already with a 3PL that does not fit a brand your size? How a move is planned so orders keep shipping.