How Much Does DTC Fulfillment Cost?
Asking how much does DTC fulfillment cost is really asking how a 3PL builds its quote, and most quotes are built the same way. This is a line-by-line guide to a direct-to-consumer fulfillment quote, from a Fort Worth, TX 3PL that runs DTC orders on ShipHero.
- The short answer
- There is no single price per order. A DTC quote stacks separate lines for pick and pack, storage, receiving, supplies, postage and custom work, and your total moves with items per order, how fast your catalog sells and how inventory arrives.
Why two brands get two different numbers
Two brands with the same order count can receive very different quotes. One ships a single item in a mailer from a lean catalog. The other ships three items in a branded box from hundreds of slow SKUs.
A 3PL prices the work your orders create, and that work comes from a handful of sources: how many items get picked per order, how much shelf space your inventory holds while it waits to sell, how the stock shows up at the warehouse, what goes into the box, and how far the parcel travels.
That is why a per-order figure quoted before anyone has seen your SKU list tells you very little. The useful comparison is line by line, against your own order profile. The table below is how we read a quote, and how we build ours.
The lines on a DTC fulfillment quote
Each line covers a different piece of work, and each one is moved by a different part of your business.
Pick and pack
Pulling each order from its bin location, verifying it, and packing it ready for the label. We charge per order for the first item, plus a smaller charge for each additional item in the same order.
Orders per month and items per order.
Storage
The space your inventory occupies, measured by bin, shelf or pallet and prorated by the day. Our storage rate does not step up as inventory ages.
Catalog size, product dimensions, and how fast each SKU sells.
Receiving
Counting inbound stock and putting it away. Clean case packs are received free. Floor-loaded containers and completely unsorted product carry their own charge.
How your supplier packs and ships the inventory.
Packaging and supplies
Mailers, boxes, dunnage and labels, billed at our cost plus a markup for sourcing and handling, for only what your orders use.
Product size, fragility, and your pack spec.
Postage
The carrier label on every parcel, drawn from a prepaid shipping wallet that is funded before work begins.
Package weight, dimensions, destination and carrier service.
Store connections
Keeping each connected sales channel synced to ShipHero, so orders flow in and inventory counts stay current. Billed per connected channel.
The number of channels you sell on.
Returns
Receiving the return, checking condition, restocking sellable units, and flagging damaged units for your decision. Billed on the same basis as pick and pack.
Return rate, and whether units need testing, cleaning or repackaging. If they do, we will work with you to evaluate rates.
Custom work
Kitting, bundles, subscription boxes, printed inserts, marketing collateral, packaging you supply, unit-level customization and launch fulfillment.
Components, steps and spec. Quoted with you before it runs.
Our standard rates for the published lines are on the fulfillment page. For postage, our shipping quote tool estimates a label from your own product dimensions.
The pricing models you will see across 3PL quotes
The lines above get packaged in a few common structures. Knowing which one you are looking at makes two quotes comparable.
Activity-based
Each touch is priced on its own: per pick, per pallet, per unit received. The bill tracks the work your orders actually create, so it rises and falls with volume and catalog behavior. It takes more reading, and it is the easiest structure to check against your own order history.
Flat or subscription
A fixed monthly fee, sometimes in tiers. It is predictable when volume is steady. When volume swings, you are paying for capacity you did not use in a slow month, or moving into a higher tier in a busy one.
Cost-plus
The 3PL passes through what something actually costs and adds an agreed margin. It works where the underlying cost moves around and the buyer can reason about the basis, which is why it is common for packaging materials.
Hybrid
A base fee combined with per-transaction charges. Read the base carefully: it tells you what you pay in a month when nothing ships.
Storage-based
The bill is built mainly around the space your inventory occupies, with handling folded in. It suits slow-moving catalogs and does not penalize low order counts, but the cost of a quiet month is the same as a busy one, and it grows with every SKU you add.
How Marketplace Prep structures it
Our DTC fulfillment is activity-based on the core lines, cost-plus on standard supplies, and postage sits in its own prepaid wallet. Custom work such as kitting and inserts is quoted per project. Every line is its own entry, so you can see which part of your operation the money goes to.
When a fulfillment quote is worth getting
A fulfillment quote favors brands whose inventory moves every month. A catalog that mostly sits is billed mainly for storage.
Keep shipping it yourself when
- You ship fewer than about 30 orders a month, so the inventory mostly sits.
- Hundreds of slow SKUs against light order volume, where storage becomes the bill.
- The store cannot integrate with ShipHero.
The numbers tend to work when
- Orders are steady every month and inventory turns, so storage stays small next to the order work.
- Your supplier ships clean case packs, which keeps receiving free.
- You sell on Shopify, WooCommerce or Amazon merchant-fulfilled and can connect the store to ShipHero.
- You run kits, bundles or inserts and want them assembled to one spec on every order.
Questions about DTC fulfillment cost
What fees does a DTC fulfillment quote include?
A DTC fulfillment quote is built from separate lines: pick and pack for each order, storage for the space your inventory occupies, receiving, packaging and supplies, postage, a connection charge for each sales channel, returns, and any custom work. At Marketplace Prep each line is billed on its own, so you can see which part of your operation is driving the total.
Why is postage paid from a prepaid wallet?
Postage is usually the most variable part of a DTC bill, and it is owed to the carrier the moment a label prints. Marketplace Prep keeps it separate from the fulfillment fee in a prepaid shipping wallet that you fund before work begins. Each label draws from the balance, and the wallet replenishes when it reaches your threshold, so orders do not stall waiting on an invoice.
How are packaging and supplies billed?
Standard supplies such as mailers, boxes, dunnage and labels are billed cost-plus: our cost, plus a markup for sourcing and handling, and only for what your orders actually use. Branded or custom packaging that you supply is handled as custom work and quoted with you up front.
Is receiving free?
Receiving is free when inventory arrives in clean case packs, or in mixed cases where each SKU is bundled together and the quantities are labeled. Floor-loaded containers are hand-unloaded and carry a separate charge. Product that arrives completely mixed and unsorted needs hands-on sorting that is billed as its own line, and we plan that with you on a call before it arrives.
What does subscription box or kitting work add to a quote?
Kitting, bundles and subscription box assembly are quoted as custom work, because the labor depends on the number of components, the pack spec and any inserts. We set kits up in ShipHero so the components are tracked as inventory, then quote the assembly once we have seen the parts and the spec. The quote is agreed before the first box is built.
Is there a minimum order volume for DTC fulfillment?
Marketplace Prep counts DTC volume in orders, not units. The working floor is about 30 orders a month, because we are a fulfillment partner rather than a storage unit and the inventory needs to be moving. There is no ceiling on orders. The practical limit is storage footprint, which we scope with you on the first call.
How do I get a quote for my store?
Schedule a call. We ask for your SKU list, orders per month, typical items per order, how inventory will arrive, your packaging, and the channels you sell on. Your store connects to ShipHero, which handles Shopify, WooCommerce and Amazon merchant-fulfilled orders. We quote after the scope is defined, then move to a signed agreement, a funded shipping wallet and your first inbound.
Reading any DTC fulfillment quote
Use these on our quote or anyone else’s. They are the places where two quotes that look alike stop being alike.
The unit of the pick fee
Is it charged per order, per item, or both? Run it against your real items per order, not a single-item example.
How storage is measured
By bin, shelf, pallet or cubic foot, and whether the rate climbs as inventory ages. Your slowest SKUs decide this line.
Postage on its own line
Ask to see postage separate from the fulfillment fee. Bundled together, the two cannot be compared.
Custom work priced before it runs
Kitting, inserts and returns handling should be quoted up front, not discovered on the first invoice.
Marketplace Prep runs DTC fulfillment on ShipHero from Fort Worth, TX 76177. Send us your SKU list and order profile and we will build the quote line by line with you.
Keep reading
DTC Fulfillment
Our standard fulfillment rates, the onboarding steps, and what is quoted as custom work.
Fulfillment for small ecommerce brands
When a growing store is ready to hand off orders, and what the first month looks like.
Kitting and bundling
Virtual kits in ShipHero, subscription box assembly, and how that work gets scoped.
Multichannel fulfillment from one inventory
Selling one product on several storefronts from a single stock pool, without overselling any of them.
Switching 3PL providers
What to ask a 3PL before you sign, and how to move inventory without losing orders.