How does 3PL pricing work?
3PL pricing looks harder to compare than it is, mostly because few 3PLs publish their rates. Every quote, ours included, is built from the same handful of lines:
- Storage. What it costs to keep inventory in the building each month, billed per pallet, per square foot, per bin or shelf, or per cubic foot.
- Receiving. Handling inbound freight, billed per pallet, per carton, per unit or per container.
- Fulfillment. Picking, packing and processing each order, billed per order, often with a per-item charge for extra units.
- Labor and projects. Kitting, relabeling, rework and anything that is not a standard order, billed per hour or per job.
- Shipping. Postage and freight, billed separately from the warehouse work.
On the Alvy Logistics 2026 card, storage starts at $25 per pallet per month, or $2.50 per square foot per month for dedicated space. Receiving or shipping a pallet starts at $12, order processing starts at $5 per order and project labor starts at $38 an hour. Container unloading is quoted per container. Pick and pack labor and kitting and assembly are quoted per job, because they depend on what is in each order.
Our 3PL services page lists what each line covers.
How much does a 3PL cost each month? A worked example
Take a brand that stores 50 pallets, ships 1,000 ecommerce orders a month, receives 4 pallets of new stock and sends 2 pallets to a wholesale customer. That month has no container unloads and no project hours.
| Line | Math | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Pallet storage | 50 pallets × $25 | $1,250 |
| Inbound pallets | 4 × $12 | $48 |
| Outbound pallets | 2 × $12 | $24 |
| Order processing | 1,000 orders × $5 | $5,000 |
| Rate card lines | $6,322 | |
| Pick and pack labor and packaging | Quoted per job | Not included |
| Postage | Billed separately | Not included |
That is $6,322 ÷ 1,000 orders, or about $6.32 per order for storage, pallet handling and order processing at the starting rates. It is not the full cost of fulfillment. Pick and pack labor is quoted per job after we see a sample of real orders, because a one-item order in a mailer and a five-item order with inserts are different jobs. Packaging is quoted with it, postage is billed separately, and special projects such as relabeling start at $38 an hour.
How do you calculate fulfillment cost per order?
Add every warehouse charge for the month, not just the order fee, and divide by orders shipped. Storage belongs in the number: slow-moving stock costs the same each month whether or not it sells.
In the example above, storage is about a fifth of the rate card lines ($1,250 of $6,322). Cut the stock to 30 pallets and storage falls to $750 (30 × $25), the same lines total $5,822, and the figure drops to about $5.82 per order. Add your pick and pack labor, packaging and average postage per order to that, and you have the real answer to how much fulfillment costs you.
See how orders move through our ecommerce fulfillment services.
How does storage fit into a 3PL bill?
If you are billed per pallet, the rate is the cost: from $25 per pallet per month on our card. If you are billed per square foot, you have to convert.
A standard 48 by 40 inch pallet covers about 13.3 square feet of floor (1,920 square inches ÷ 144). At $2.50 per square foot, $25 buys 10 square feet. So 1,000 square feet of dedicated space is $2,500 a month, the same as 100 pallets at $25, yet it holds at most 75 single-height pallets with no aisles at all, and fewer once you leave aisles to reach them. For pallets stored one high, per-pallet pricing wins. Stack pallets two high and the square-foot price can come out ahead. Dedicated space also suits fixtures and bulky goods that are not on pallets, or when you want a footprint held for you. See pallet storage for how positions are set up.
For the per-pallet arithmetic, see how to calculate storage cost per pallet.
What are the 3PL pricing models?
| Model | How it works | Fits | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per pallet per month | Each pallet stored is billed monthly | Palletized stock, wholesale, steady inventory | How partial or oversized pallets are counted |
| Per square foot per month | A footprint is reserved for you | Stackable or non-palletized goods, longer terms | You pay for aisles and empty space |
| Per order, plus per item | A fee per order shipped, with charges for extra units | Ecommerce brands with steady orders | Add-on fees for inserts, packaging and kitting |
| Per bin, shelf or cubic foot | Small items billed by location or volume | Many SKUs with few units each | Location counts creep up as SKUs grow |
| All-in per order | Storage and handling folded into one order fee | Simple budgeting | Hard to compare, and storage is hidden in the fee |
We price storage per pallet or per square foot, handling per pallet, and order processing per order, as separate lines, so you can see which part of the job costs what. Order handling is covered on the pick and pack fulfillment page.
What drives each line of a 3PL quote?
| Line | What pushes it up | What brings it down |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | Slow-moving SKUs, overstock, oversized or unstackable pallets | Smaller reorders, clearing dead stock |
| Receiving | Floor-loaded containers, mixed SKUs per pallet, counts by unit | Palletized, labeled freight with a packing list |
| Order processing and pick and pack | Many units per order, inserts, custom packaging, retailer routing guides | Standard packaging and a consistent order profile |
| Projects | Relabeling, rework, kit building | Labels applied by the vendor, kits built at the factory |
| Shipping | Oversized boxes, long zones | Right-sized boxes, shipping from near your customers |
Which 3PL fees are easy to miss?
The fees that surprise brands after signing are rarely the headline rates. Ask every 3PL, us included, about setup or onboarding fees, monthly minimums, long-term storage surcharges, receiving billed per unit instead of per pallet, packaging markups, returns processing, and charges for inventory counts. A good quote lists each one in writing before work starts. Ours lists every line.
Why is my fulfillment cost so high?
The usual causes are stock that is not selling but still paying rent, boxes larger than the product, many units per order billed per item, and minimum fees spread over too few orders. Volume matters most. Below a few hundred orders a month, a 3PL rarely beats packing in-house, and a coordinator will say so. Our warehouse suits brands shipping a few hundred to several thousand orders a month, plus wholesale accounts that move stock by the pallet.
What does location add to a 3PL quote?
The warehouse rate is only part of the landed cost. Ours is a single 58,000 sq ft building in Valencia, ambient and dry, on the I-5 in the Santa Clarita Valley: about 40 road miles north of downtown Los Angeles and 60 to 65 from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Parcel carriers pick up at our dock, and ground service reaches most of the West in 1 to 2 days. If your containers land at the ports, add the cost of trucking them to each warehouse when you compare 3PLs, so you weigh whole costs and not just the monthly pallet rate. The 3PL in Los Angeles and 3PL in California pages cover lanes and coverage, and 3PL vs renting warehouse space compares a 3PL with a building of your own.
How to get an exact 3PL quote
Send your SKU count, pallets on hand, monthly orders, average units per order, a month of sample orders, how inventory arrives (containers, pallets or parcels), any packaging rules, and whether you need returns processing, lot and expiry tracking or retailer compliance (EDI, GS1-128 labels, advance ship notices). With those, a coordinator can price every line in a written quote, including pick and pack labor. To get yours, request a quote or phone the office during business hours.
