The short version
- Use these questions to understand how a provider will handle your work, support your team, and plan the move.
- Use your own order and inventory data when comparing options.
- Agree the details with your provider before work begins.
Before you shop: is switching actually the fix?
Start with what you want to improve: service, capacity, retail capabilities, cost visibility, or communication. Use those priorities to guide the conversations.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column
| Symptom | Most common actual cause | Does switching fix it? |
|---|---|---|
| Orders ship late in bursts | Inventory arrived late, or wasn’t received and putaway in time | Only if the 3PL’s receiving is the bottleneck |
| Inventory counts are wrong | No cycle count program, or receiving variances never reconciled | Yes, if the new 3PL counts on a location basis and publishes variances |
| The bill keeps surprising you | A fee structure you never mapped against your real order mix | Sometimes. Often the same fees exist, just named differently |
| Retail chargebacks | Routing guide compliance: labels, ASNs, pallet configs, delivery windows | Yes, if the new 3PL already ships to that retailer’s standard |
| Nobody answers when something breaks | Account coverage ratio and escalation path | Yes. This one rarely improves in place |
| Rates feel high | Order profile mismatch: your orders are heavier or more complex than their book | Usually, if you find a 3PL whose existing mix looks like yours |
How to run this list so you get real answers
Send the questions ahead of your meeting and ask for examples. Keep the answers in one place so your team can compare providers on the same basis.
Group 1: Capability and fit (questions 1–3)
Ask about customers with similar products and order patterns. Confirm both everyday handling and any specialist work before agreeing on fit.
Group 2: Cost and contract (questions 4–6)
Compare the full cost and the agreement behind it. Clarify minimums, extra work, rate changes, and the process for moving inventory in or out.
Group 3: Operations and service standards (questions 7–9)
Ask how the team measures receiving, accuracy, and shipping performance. Agree what the reports include and how issues are followed up.
Group 4: Technology and visibility (questions 10–12)
Walk through an order, an inventory update, and a shipment notification. Ask what your team can see and how connection problems are handled.
Group 5: Implementation and transition (questions 13–15)
Agree how product data, test orders, inventory transfers, and launch approvals will be managed. Assign a contact on each side.
Group 6: People and escalation (questions 16–18)
Confirm your day-to-day contact and the route for urgent questions. Ask how recurring issues are reviewed and resolved.
Group 7: Peak and growth (questions 19–21)
Share your busiest periods, launches, and new-channel plans. Ask what information the warehouse needs and how far ahead it needs it.
Sequencing the transition around your sales calendar
Build the transfer around your sales calendar, inventory availability, and system testing. Agree the launch stages and any warehouse overlap before setting the date.
- 01Read your current contract and model the exit cost. Notice period, auto-renew date, removal charges, surviving minimums, data return format. Do this before you sign anything new.
- 02Sign the new agreement with the implementation plan attached as an exhibit, then give notice to the incumbent. Never in the other order.
- 03Reconcile inventory while it is still standing still. A full count at origin, agreed in writing, is the baseline everything else gets measured against.
- 04Build and test integrations while inventory is still at the old site. Orders, inventory sync, tracking write-back, returns, and the billing feed. Nothing has to move for this work to happen.
- 05Move in planned stages. Agree which products transfer first and how both warehouses will keep orders moving.
- 06Cut over one channel at a time. DTC first if it is simplest, retail last if it carries chargeback exposure. Never cut everything on one weekend.
- 07Run parallel briefly. Keep a small buffer of top SKUs at the old site for a week or two after cutover so a bad day has a fallback. Then close it deliberately, with a final count.
- 08Reconcile again at 30 days and audit the first two invoices line by line against the quote. Fee drift starts in month one and is far easier to correct then.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column
| Phase | What happens | Gate before the next phase |
|---|---|---|
| Contract review | Read exit terms on the current agreement, model removal and minimum costs | You know your exact notice date and exit cost in dollars |
| Award and notice | Sign the new agreement with the plan attached, then notify the incumbent | New agreement executed, named implementation owner in place |
| Baseline count | Full count at the origin site, signed by both sides | Counts agreed per SKU and locked as the transfer baseline |
| Integration build | Orders, inventory, tracking, returns, and billing feed built and tested | Every order type passes test, including invoice line items |
| Wave 1 transfer | Top-moving SKUs transferred and received | Receipt variance reported and resolved within tolerance |
| Channel cutover | One channel routed live, the rest still at origin | Seven consecutive days at target ship rate and accuracy |
| Remaining transfers | Slow movers and remaining channels move | Origin site holds only the agreed buffer |
| Parallel close | Buffer consumed or transferred, origin site closed out | Final count signed, data export received, storage stopped |
| 30-day audit | Reconcile inventory and audit the first invoices against the quote | Variances closed, fee lines match the agreed rate card |
The 21 questions at a glance
Use this checklist as a conversation guide. A clear example of how the work runs is more useful than a simple yes or no.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column
| Question | What it tests | Bad answer signal |
|---|---|---|
| 1. What share of your volume looks like ours? | Whether the process already exists for your order shape | "We handle everything" |
| 2. Which channels have you shipped to a compliance standard? | Retail chargeback exposure | "We can do EDI through a partner" |
| 3. Can your warehouse handle our product sizes and storage needs? | Real capacity versus square footage | "We have plenty of space" |
| 4. Will you price our actual 90-day order file? | Whether the quote survives contact with your data | A per-order price before seeing data |
| 5. What fees exist that are not on the rate card? | Invoice surprises in month two | "Everything is in the rate card" |
| 6. Term, notice, minimums, and who pays removal? | Your leverage for the whole relationship | "We can work out the details later" |
| 7. Cutoff time and same-day rate by month? | How the provider calculates the performance rate | "99.9% same day" with no definition |
| 8. Accuracy figures, method, and remedy? | Whether accuracy is measured or asserted | Crediting the pick fee for a lost customer |
| 9. How quickly is inventory received, and how are problems handled? | How long your paid-for inventory sits unsellable | "A couple of days, depending" |
| 10. What warehouse software do you use? | Roadmap risk and system maturity | Hesitation, or an unnamed homegrown system |
| 11. Who builds and maintains the integration? | Who to contact when an update fails | "We connect to anything" |
| 12. What can we see and export without asking? | Whether you can run your own analysis | "We send a weekly report" |
| 13. Who owns implementation and what are the gates? | Whether onboarding is a project or a handoff | "We will pass you to onboarding" |
| 14. How is inventory reconciled at cutover? | The most common cause of a bad first 90 days | "We will receive what shows up" |
| 15. What is the test plan before live orders? | Whether failure modes get found before customers do | Test orders the week before go-live |
| 16. Who is our contact and how many accounts do they carry? | Coverage ratio, the best predictor of service | "Dedicated" with no name and no ratio |
| 17. Escalation path and after-hours response? | How urgent questions are handled during peak season | "Email support" |
| 18. Labor model, turnover, and temp training? | Whether accuracy holds when volume triples | "We staff up for peak" |
| 19. Last peak week by week, and what broke? | Whether they measure their own operation | "Peak went great, no issues" |
| 20. At what volume do we outgrow this building? | Whether the next three years fit here | "We will figure it out" |
| 21. What changes if we add a channel in six months? | The cost structure of your own growth | "We would quote that separately" |
What good looks like after you sign
Keep the first receiving and shipping reviews close together after launch. Check the data, discuss exceptions, and agree the next actions as a team.