What to Send a 3PL for an Accurate Quote

1. Order volume and shape

• Orders per month for the last twelve months. A quote should cover your quiet months and your busy ones, not only an average.
• Units per order. Two brands can ship the same number of orders and pay very different pick fees if one averages one item per order and the other averages four.
• Your busiest days: launches, drops, promotions and holiday peaks, with a rough order count for each.
• Where orders go. An export with ship-to ZIP codes or states lets a 3PL work out your real mix of shipping zones instead of assuming one.
• Order channels: your own store, marketplaces, wholesale or retail orders and subscription renewals. Each can come with its own packing and labeling rules.

2. Products and packaging

• Your full SKU list, with every variant counted. A shirt in five sizes and four colors is twenty SKUs to store and pick.
• Dimensions and weight of each product as it ships, not as it is photographed. If you do not have them, measure your best sellers first.
• How orders are packed today: poly mailer or box, branded packaging, tissue, inserts, gift notes.
• Anything fragile, oversized or heavy, and any product that needs lot numbers or expiration dates tracked.
• Bundles, kits and subscription boxes, and whether they are built ahead of time or as orders come in.

3. Inventory and receiving

• How inventory arrives: parcel cartons, pallets or full containers, and how often.
• Where it comes from: a domestic supplier or an overseas factory.
• How many units you keep on hand, by SKU if you can, so storage is estimated from the space you will really use.
• Whether products arrive labeled and barcoded, or need labels applied.

4. Returns, extra services and systems

• Your return rate, and what should happen to a returned item: restock, inspect, discard or donate.
• Any recurring extra work, such as kitting, relabeling, inserts or special projects.
• The platforms you sell on and the apps that need to connect, such as subscription or returns tools.
• If you are switching, a recent invoice from your current provider. It shows every line you pay today, so a new quote can be checked line by line.

Your ecommerce platform’s order export gives you order dates, line items, quantities and ship-to addresses. Pull twelve months if you can. If your brand is newer than that, send what you have and your forecast for the year ahead.

Your product catalog export gives you SKUs and variants. Many catalogs are missing weights and dimensions, or carry the numbers from the product listing instead of the packed item. A scale and a tape measure on your top sellers closes most of the gap.

If you work with a 3PL today, its invoice is the most useful document you can send. It shows your real activity: what was received, how much space you used, how many orders and items shipped, and every extra charge.

If your data is not clean yet, say so. An honest estimate with a note on what is uncertain is better than a precise-looking number nobody trusts.

Leave out customer details

You do not need to send customer names, email addresses or street addresses to get a quote. Order dates, line items, quantities and ship-to ZIP codes are enough. Remove personal details from the export before you share it with any provider.

Units per order

Pick and pack is usually charged per order plus per item, so the number of items in each order matters as much as the number of orders. A quote that assumes one item per order will be wrong for a brand that sells sets. Pick and pack fees explained shows how the per-item charge adds up.

Storage

Storage depends on how much space your inventory takes and for how long. A quote based on a guessed pallet count can be off in either direction. Units on hand plus product dimensions let a 3PL estimate the space you will really use. Understanding 3PL pricing covers the common storage models.

The work that does not happen on every order

Kitting, inserts, relabeling and returns are often left out of a first quote and show up later on an invoice. List them up front so they are priced before you sign.

Then send the same data to every provider and compare the quotes line by line. How to compare 3PLs side by side walks through it.

OC3PL does not publish a rate card. We build a custom quote from your SKUs, order volume and workflow, and walk you through it line by line. Every line falls into one of four categories:

• Activity charges: receiving, charged per unit, case or pallet (whichever your delivery qualifies for, never all three), plus one fee per order and one fee per item shipped.
• Storage, quoted as a monthly rate so you can compare it with other providers, and billed on the space you use, pro-rated daily.
• Recurring tools and integrations, each quoted as a weekly amount.
• Value-added services such as kitting, relabeling, special projects and returns handling, each priced on your quote before you sign.

OC3PL invoices weekly. Storage is based on the space you use and pro-rated daily, and the monthly storage rate on your quote is there only so you can compare us with other providers. There are no order minimums, no volume thresholds and no long-term contract. The full structure is on how OC3PL bills.

Shipping apparel? The apparel 3PL RFP template adds the size-run, drop and retail-compliance detail an apparel quote needs.