When to Switch Apparel 3PLs

If several of these show up month after month, the warehouse is not set up for apparel at your volume. See signs your apparel brand has outgrown its 3PL.

Every apparel brand has a calendar of drops, seasonal launches, promotions and peak. Lay it out for the next six months and look for a stretch of a few weeks with no big event.

Surf and swim brands have their own calendar, with a summer peak. Their quiet window is often in the fall, before holiday gifting. Streetwear brands should plan around their own drop schedule rather than the season.

The cleanest moves happen when new production goes straight to the new warehouse. Instead of moving existing stock twice, you send the next container to us and move the remaining stock from the old warehouse in waves.

1. Find your next large inbound from the factory.
2. Plan to be live with us before it arrives.
3. Route that inbound to our Anaheim dock with an ASN.
4. Move existing stock from the old warehouse in waves, keeping enough there to cover orders in transit.
5. Switch daily orders over once stock is received and slotted.

See receiving apparel from factories and imports through LA and Long Beach.

Check your current agreement before you set a date. Many warehouse contracts include a notice period, minimum terms or fees for removing inventory. Plan the move so those costs are known up front.

• How much notice does your current contract require?
• Are there fees for pulling inventory out?
• Is there a monthly minimum that still applies during the notice period?
• Who owns the packaging and supplies stored there?

At OC3PL there are no order minimums and no long-term contract, so a future move would not be held back by one.

Most clients go live within five to ten business days, depending on complexity. Onboarding covers the store integration, SKU mapping and slotting, and your first inbound shipment, with a dedicated onboarding manager and progress in a shared milestone tracker.

See apparel 3PL onboarding for the step-by-step version.

If a warehouse is failing during peak or right before a drop, waiting for a quiet window may cost more than moving. In that case, move in a way that limits risk.

• Move your best sellers first, so the orders that matter most ship from the new warehouse.
• Keep slow sellers where they are until the busy period passes.
• Hold off on new promotions until the move is complete.
• Talk to your account manager daily during the move.

All client requests are acknowledged within two hours, and support is never outsourced.

A well-run move is invisible to customers. Two things help.

• Update your return address in your store and returns app as soon as the new warehouse is live, and have the old warehouse forward anything that still arrives.
• If shipping times will change for a few days, say so on your site.

After the move, watch your support inbox for "where is my order" questions for a couple of weeks. A spike usually points to orders caught between the two warehouses.

Before you start, write down what the current warehouse is costing you beyond its invoice. Apparel brands often find the hidden costs are larger than the fees.

Put rough numbers next to each. If they add up to more than the cost and effort of a move, the case is made.

1. Choose the new warehouse and confirm the go-live window.
2. Export on-hand inventory by SKU, size and color, plus open returns and open wholesale orders.
3. Collect your packaging specs, inserts and packing instructions.
4. List every integration: store, marketplaces, returns app, wholesale portals.
5. Set the date your next inbound will go to the new warehouse.
6. Then give notice, following your current contract.

Giving notice before the new warehouse is ready can leave you with nowhere to ship from. Line everything up first.

Every move is different. This is a common shape for an apparel brand doing a few thousand orders a month.

Most clients go live within five to ten business days of onboarding starting, depending on complexity.

If you ship to retailers, tell them about the move ahead of time. Some retailers need updated ship-from details, vendor setup or new EDI connections.

• List open purchase orders and their ship windows.
• Ship any purchase order that falls inside the move window from the old warehouse, or plan its transfer carefully.
• Confirm EDI and labeling requirements are set up at the new warehouse before the first retail shipment.

Retail and wholesale clients typically go live in under seven business days once integration and purchase order sync are complete. See apparel wholesale and retail fulfillment.

See the apparel 3PL checklist for the questions to ask before you choose.

Some brands switch not because the warehouse failed, but because they are about to outgrow it: a big retail account, a new marketplace, a jump in drop volume. In that case, move before the growth arrives, not during it.

One apparel brand on our results page grew from 500 to 5,000 orders a day over two years and moved into big-box retail without changing warehouses. Growth like that is easier to absorb in a warehouse set up for it from the start.

If a large retail order or a major launch is on the calendar, plan the move so you are live and settled at least a few weeks ahead of it.

• Your account manager watches the first days of orders closely, on site.
• Small mapping issues, like a variant that was named differently, are found and fixed quickly.
• Weekly reporting starts, covering service levels, shipping costs and inventory status.
• The first returns arrive and are processed within 48 hours.

By the time your first drop runs, the team knows your catalog, your packing and your customers.

1. Decide when the pattern of problems is clear, not after one bad day.
2. Map your calendar and pick a quiet window of a few weeks.
3. Line up the new warehouse, your inventory export and your next inbound.
4. Give notice under your current contract.
5. Go live with daily orders first, and move stock in waves.
6. Run your first drop once the new warehouse has your catalog down.

If you want help mapping the calendar, call us. We will walk through it with you and tell you honestly when the right window is.