Surf Brand Fulfillment

Most surf brands run three businesses at once. There is the website, where customers buy boardshorts, tees and hats one or two at a time. There are the independent surf shops, which order prepacks before their season and reorder when something moves. And for some brands there are bigger retail accounts with routing guides, labels and ship windows of their own.

Each of those wants something different from the warehouse. The website wants speed and accuracy on small orders. The shops want the right sizes in the right ratios, shipped on time for their season. Retail wants paperwork done exactly to spec. A surf brand’s 3PL has to do all three from one inventory without one starving the others.

Then there is the calendar. Demand builds into spring and summer, gets a second lift from holiday gifting, and slows in between. Every brand is different, so plan from your own sales history. Read surf apparel seasonality for how to think about it.

If your catalog mixes apparel with boards and other hardgoods, we handle those too. Send dimensions and volumes before the first shipment so storage and carriers are planned before anything reaches the dock.

Spring and summer lines tend to arrive in volume ahead of the season. The warehouse needs to receive them quickly so they are sellable when demand starts, and it needs room to hold them through the peak.

Storage is by pallet, shelf or bin, based on the space your inventory actually uses, and pro-rated daily. Invoices are weekly. There is no committed footprint, so a seasonal catalog can expand and contract without paying for empty space in the off-season.

The flip side is that slow stock still costs money every day it sits. Review leftovers against sell-through every month, not once a year. Read dead stock in apparel for how to find and clear it.

A simple seasonal rhythm

1. Late winter: confirm production dates and the size mix for summer lines.
2. Early spring: inventory arrives with advance shipping notices and is slotted within one business day.
3. Spring: surf-shop prepacks and early wholesale orders ship ahead of their season.
4. Summer: peak DTC volume. Fast sellers sit closest to packing. Restocks go to the front of receiving.
5. Late summer: review what did not sell. Decide what to hold, mark down or move.
6. Holiday: hoodies, hats and gift sets. Bundles built ahead.

A surf shop that gets the wrong sizes, a late delivery or a carton it cannot match to its order does not reorder with enthusiasm. Getting wholesale right is as much about trust as speed.

Small wholesale orders can ship as parcels, and larger ones as palletized freight. Tell us how each account likes to receive: prepacks by size ratio, folded or bagged, labeled by style, with or without a packing list in the carton. We write it down per account so it is done the same way every time.

For larger retail accounts, purchase orders are reviewed and routed per retailer, with retail-compliant and GS1 labels, advance shipping notices, EDI for major retailers and palletized freight. Weekly reporting includes a fulfillment and service-level review, so compliance issues surface early instead of as a chargeback.

Read running surf-shop wholesale alongside DTC and how surf brands sell wholesale for more.

Fit returns are a normal part of selling boardshorts and swim online. Customers order two sizes and keep one, or try a cut that does not suit them. What matters is how quickly the return is inspected and the exchange goes out.

Returns are processed and logged within 48 hours of receipt, and many are handled the same day. Each item is inspected and restocked, discarded or donated by the rules you set.

You set the rules. Condition-based workflows decide whether an item is restocked, discarded, donated or sent back to you. Refunds can be triggered on receipt or held until inspection. An optional branded return portal keeps the experience consistent with your store, and our integrations directory includes Loop, Happy Returns, AfterShip Returns, Narvar and ReturnGo.

Monthly return reports show reasons by SKU. If one boardshort length keeps coming back, that is a size chart or a product photo problem you can fix. Read why apparel gets returned.

Surf brands send product to team riders, to contest and event partners, and to creators. Those shipments are small in number but matter for the brand. They should not be packed from memory by whoever is free.

Seeding and PR kits can be built to stock ahead of time, with your inserts and packaging. Kits can be built to stock ahead of time or to order as orders arrive. Most builds are completed within 24 to 48 hours, depending on volume. Read influencer seeding and PR kits and apparel kitting.

For events, tell your account manager what is leaving and what is expected back, so your online inventory stays right while stock is away.

Our fulfillment center is in Anaheim, Orange County. It is twenty-five miles from the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, so imported production gets to the shelf quickly, and it sits near major carrier sorting hubs, so packages can be handed off later in the day and still make that night’s outbound.

Your account manager works on site at our Anaheim fulfillment center, in the same building as your inventory. When something is urgent you call and talk to a person who can walk to the shelf and fix it. Call anytime. We are here. We got you.

All client requests are acknowledged within two hours, and support is never outsourced. When a shop calls you about a missing carton, you call us and get an answer from someone who can go and look. Read more about on-site account management.

San Diego brands use us too. See an apparel 3PL for San Diego brands.

For the full list, read the apparel 3PL checklist. For what the invoice looks like, read apparel fulfillment pricing.

1. Talk to us about your catalog, channels, monthly order volume and seasonal peaks. You speak with the people who would run your account.
2. We connect your store, map every size and color, and run test orders before any inventory moves.
3. You send inventory with an advance shipping notice. It is received, photographed and slotted within one business day.
4. Website orders switch over first. Wholesale accounts follow once their packing rules are written down.
5. Your account manager sends weekly reporting on service levels, shipping costs and inventory status.

If you are moving from another warehouse, plan the switch for a slow stretch, not right before summer. Read when to switch apparel 3PLs.