How to switch 3PL after peak season
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If your warehouse didn’t hold up during peak season, the first quarter is a good time to consider a switch. The numbers from the peak are still fresh, and you have time to move before your next campaign. This guide shows you how to tell a heavy week from a lasting problem, what to demand from your next warehouse partner, and how to move your inventory without interrupting sales.
Signs that your warehouse isn't keeping up
Peak season puts pressure on every warehouse. The question is not whether it was busy, but whether the warehouse delivered what you agreed on. Look for these five signs.
Delays. Orders received before the cut-off time were not shipped the same day. Check how many orders shipped later than agreed, and how many days the delays lasted.
Picking errors and complaints. Customers received the wrong item, the wrong quantity or missing items. Count the customer service inquiries about errors in the package. Compare with the same period last year.
Stock levels that don't match. Your online store sold items that didn't exist, or showed items as sold out even though they were in the warehouse. This means the warehouse's stock levels and your store's stock levels were out of sync.
Failing integration. Orders weren't transferred to the warehouse, or tracking numbers didn't make it back to the customer. Every time this happens, someone on your team has to follow up manually.
Slow or unclear communication. You didn't know who to call, or you couldn't get an answer while the problem was ongoing.
A heavy week or a lasting problem?
A single day of delays right after Black Friday isn't necessarily a reason to switch. Ask yourself these three questions:
- Did the problem last beyond the peak? If delays and errors continued into December after volumes dropped, capacity is too low for normal operations as well.
- Did you get an explanation and a plan? A warehouse that tells you what went wrong and what it's changing is in control. A warehouse that can't explain the deviations is not.
- Has it happened before? The same errors two seasons in a row is a pattern, not an exception.
If you answer yes to the first or third question, or no to the second, you should start your evaluation now.
What to demand from your next warehouse partner
Ask for written answers to these five points, preferably with numbers. A warehouse that can't give you concrete answers exposes you to the same risk next peak season.
Peak capacity. Ask how many orders the warehouse shipped on its busiest day last year. Ask how they scale capacity in November and December: more shifts, more people or automation. Ask how long orders waited before shipping on the busiest days.
Measured accuracy. Ask for the warehouse's error rate, and ask what is being counted. Is accuracy measured per order or per order line? An order with three items has three order lines. Errors per order line give a lower figure than errors per order for the same warehouse.
Cut-off time. The cut-off time is the time by which an order must be received to ship the same day. Ask whether the cut-off applies every day the warehouse is open, including during peak season. Ask what happens to orders that come in after the cut-off.
Integration with your online store. Ask whether the warehouse has a ready-made integration with your platform, or whether one needs to be built. Ask how often orders, stock levels and tracking are synchronised.
Contact person. You should know who to contact about what. Ask who that is, how to reach them and who covers when they're away.
You can see how warehousing, picking and packing work with us.
Wondering whether a 3PL pays off? Read what a 3PL costs compared with your own warehouse.
The switching plan step by step
A switch is safest to carry out during periods of lower activity. How much this matters naturally depends on the size of your inventory. Below is a step-by-step switching plan.
- Read the notice period in your current agreement. The notice period determines how early you can move without paying for two warehouses. Also check what the agreement says about releasing goods and data when it ends.
- Choose your timing. Based on the point above and your upcoming activity plan, find the window where a switch makes sense. Unless you have a limited number of products, we rarely recommend moving during peak season.
- Clean up your product register. Every product must have a correct and unique barcode in your online store. Remove discontinued products and duplicates. The new warehouse scans goods on arrival, and barcode errors or missing information on purchase orders will at worst bring goods receiving to a halt, and at best make it inefficient.
- Clean up your inventory. We recommend selling off as much slow-moving stock as possible, along with products that don't fit the new warehouse's storage strategy. Most 3PLs today use AutoStore, so products should fit in a 60x40x30 cm bin.
- Choose how to move your goods. You have two options:
- Gradual: New purchases, or parts of your inventory, are sent to the new warehouse while the old warehouse sells down its stock. The remaining stock is moved last. This carries the lowest risk, but means two warehouses for a period.
- All at once: The entire inventory is moved in a single transport run, often over a weekend. This requires more planning, but shortens the period with two warehouses.
- Count your goods before and after the move. Ask the old warehouse for a stock count before the goods are shipped. The new warehouse counts on arrival. Discrepancies between the two counts show whether anything is missing.
- Connect your online store to the new warehouse. The integration transfers orders, stock levels and tracking. We recommend setting up the integration with 360 Logistics as early as possible, so we can test that everything transfers as it should. If you use Shopify, this is a very efficient process: it can take as little as a few days from signing the agreement until your store is connected and the first order has shipped.
- Decide on your shipping options. We see that a wide range of shipping options increases customer satisfaction and can help boost conversion. 360 Logistics offers everything within e-commerce shipping.
- Send test orders. Place a few orders yourself before opening to customers. Check that the order reaches the warehouse, that the package is correct and that tracking flows back to your online store.
- Notify suppliers and customers. Give all suppliers the new delivery address in writing and in good time. If you expect brief pauses in shipping, let your customers know in advance.
What switching to 360 Logistics looks like
A switch to us follows the plan above. Here's what you can expect from us along the way.
Who you'll work with. You'll have a dedicated onboarding manager who guides you through every step. Our onboarding process is predefined and follows a standard task list, so you get a seamless experience as a customer.
The first few weeks. Your onboarding manager guides you through the first few weeks. We receive your goods, scan them in and store them in our AutoStore warehouse. Inventory is managed in Ongoing WMS, which shows stock levels and status in near real time. Gradually, once all processes are running as expected, responsibility for your account is handed over to operations. We have team leaders in every department, who become your point of contact for general inquiries.
The Shopify connection. Shopify is the integration most of our customers use. It's activated in just a few clicks. The connection does three main things:
- Orders: When your customer places an order, it's automatically transferred to our warehouse.
- Stock levels: We fetch product information from Shopify and send stock levels back to Shopify. You don't need to update two registers.
- Tracking: Once the package has shipped, Shopify is updated with the number of items delivered per order line and the tracking number.
The integration uses the Shopify REST Admin API. Most functions run every 15 minutes. Read more about how Shopify connects to the warehouse.
Accuracy and cut-off time. We pick using barcode scanning. Our error rate is below 0.1 percent, measured as the number of errors we are responsible for divided by the number of outgoing orders.
We work seven days a week, and mostly around the clock, so we can ensure lightning-fast deliveries.
Want to know what a switch would look like for your store? Book a walkthrough of the switch.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to switch 3PL?
The connection itself is the shortest part. At 360 Logistics, it typically takes from a few hours to a couple of days from signing the agreement until your online store is connected to our system. After that, orders can ship quickly, depending on how much stock we need to receive and the quality of the delivery.
How much does it cost to switch warehouse partner?
The cost consists of three or four parts: transporting the goods, packing at your current warehouse, receiving the goods at our warehouse and, if needed, external consultants for the integration (usually not necessary with a standard Shopify setup). We don't charge for the administrative part of onboarding.
Can you switch during peak season?
It's possible, but we don't recommend it. A switch always involves a period of stock counting, receiving and testing. That period should fall in a quiet week with time for planning.