Why data matters when shopping for a new 3PL

By Sara Abrons

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When searching for a new 3PL, most e-commerce brands tend to focus on the usual high-level questions:

• Where are the warehouses located?
• What sales channels and product types does the 3PL specialize in?
• What services are offered?
• How good is the tech?
• What’s the pricing?

Brands that have gone through this process before — or who know what they’re doing — usually add a few more things to the list:

• Will we have a dedicated account manager who’s onsite where our inventory is?
• Have we checked real customer references?
• Have we visited the warehouse in person?
• Have we vetted reviews or asked other brands about their experience?

But there’s one critical factor that often doesn’t get checked, and it’s missing from many “how to vet a 3PL” checklists:
👉 The availability and transparency of operational and billing data.

📄 How to Evaluate a 3PL’s Data Transparency

To get a real sense of a 3PL’s data practices before you commit, you should do the following during the sales process:

• Ask to see example invoices.
  How detailed are they? Do they break down line items or are they vague?
• Request an export of order data.
  If the 3PL has a customer dashboard, ask for login access to see what’s visible to clients.

Way too often, brands only discover how limited the data is after they’ve already moved in and received their first invoice.

🧾 What Bad 3PL Invoices Look Like (and Why It Matters)

It’s not uncommon for a 3PL invoice to be a single-page PDF showing only high-level line items:

• Services
• Storage
• Receiving
• Packaging

No breakdowns. No granularity.

This usually isn’t because the 3PL is hiding anything — it’s often because they haven’t upgraded their technology to support more detailed reporting. But that’s not great for customers. Without better data:

• You can’t audit your invoices to ensure you’re being charged accurately.
• You can’t analyze your fulfillment or shipping costs, which limits your ability to optimize or reduce spend.

📦 Why Shipping Data Transparency Is Essential

Even if you're purchasing shipping through your 3PL, you should still be able to see a full breakdown of shipping expenses for every order — just like you’d get on a FedEx or UPS invoice. Unfortunately, many 3PLs don’t offer that level of detail.

Without it, you have no way of understanding what’s driving your shipping costs, and no way to take meaningful action to improve them.

💡 What You Could Discover with Better Data

Here are a few examples of insights you could uncover — and cost-saving steps you could take — if your 3PL gives you detailed, exportable data:

• Dimensional Weight Surprises
  Your packages may be billed at 2x their actual weight due to the DIM factor. By investing in custom packaging to reduce cubic volume, you could drop below dimensional thresholds and save enough to pay for the packaging — and still come out ahead.
• Surcharges from DAS/EDAS Zip Codes
  If many of your packages go to these surcharge zones, switching to USPS may actually save you money — even if base rates are slightly higher — because you eliminate DAS/EDAS fees.
• Unnecessary Expedited Shipping
  You may find the 3PL is using Overnight or Two-Day services when the destination is close enough for Ground shipping to get it there just as fast — at a much lower cost.

✅ What to Ask During the Sales Process

When evaluating a 3PL, don’t just ask about rates and service tiers. Ask:

• Can we see a sample invoice?
• What kind of order data exports are available?
• Can this data be exported to spreadsheets, or is it only available in PDFs?
• What does the customer dashboard look like, and how much visibility do we have?

These questions will help you avoid costly surprises and ensure you have control and clarity over your operations.

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What We Do at Fetch Fulfillment

At Fetch Fulfillment, we’ve invested significant time and money — and continue to do so — in building technology that supports better data access and transparency. We believe every brand should have the visibility they need to understand, audit, and improve their logistics.

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About Fetch Fulfillment

Fetch Fulfillment is a New Jersey-based 3PL for brand owners who want direct-to-consumer fulfillment to be the least stressful part of their business. Most 3PLs are good at one thing, like shipping on-time, or having modern tech, or picking up the phone. What makes Fetch unique is that it's stellar at all 3: it provides high-end boutique-grade customer service -- as seen in its glowing reviews and +92 net promoter score -- combined with its real-time cutting-edge tech and well-managed operation, with 99.2% same-day shipping and 99.95% order fill-rate. The Fetch team lives by its motto: they are Your Brand's Best Friend.