What is ecommerce logistics?
Ecommerce logistics is everything physical that happens around an online order. Product leaves a factory, crosses an ocean or a state line, gets counted into a warehouse, waits on a shelf, gets picked and packed when someone clicks buy, rides with a carrier to a front door, and sometimes comes back. E-commerce logistics, DTC logistics and ecommerce shipping logistics are names for the same chain, seen from slightly different ends.
Most brands do all of it themselves at first, from a garage or a small unit. The chain only becomes visible when one link starts to break: a container nobody can unload, a holiday backlog, a shelf of returns. This page walks through each stage, what it costs on our rate card, and where Alvy Logistics fits.
Stage 1: inbound freight and receiving
Most DTC inventory starts as a container or a pallet shipment. For brands importing through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the drayage carrier booked by you or your forwarder brings the container about 60 miles north to our dock in Valencia. We unload it, count cartons against your packing list, and report shortages and damage before the stock is released for sale. Container unloading is quoted per container, since a floor-loaded box takes more labor than a palletized one, and palletized freight is received from $12 a pallet.
Stage 2: storage and inventory
Once stock is received it is stored by SKU, on racked pallet positions or floor-stacked for bulky goods, and visible in the Logiwa client portal. Lot and expiry dates are tracked, and dated stock ships oldest date first. Pallet storage starts at $25 per pallet per month, and because terms are not annual-only, a brand that triples its stock for the holidays pays for the extra space only while it is there.
Stage 3: pick and pack
This is the part most people mean by fulfillment. Your store and sales channels connect through the Logiwa client portal (for example Shopify), so orders reach the warehouse without retyping. Each one is picked, packed to your spec with your inserts, and labeled, and you can follow it in the same portal. See pick and pack fulfillment for how a packing spec is written. Order processing starts at $5 an order; pick and pack labor is quoted once we see a sample of your real orders.
Recurring boxes follow the subscription box fulfillment workflow instead.
How do you calculate shipping costs for ecommerce?
Parcel carriers price each package on three things: billable weight, zone and service level.
- Billable weight is the greater of the actual weight and the dimensional weight, which is the box’s length times width times height divided by a divisor the carrier publishes. A light product in an oversized box pays for the box, so right-sizing cartons cuts cost without changing carriers.
- Zone is counted from the origin ZIP code to the destination. From Valencia, customers in California and the neighboring states sit in the nearest zones, and ground service reaches most of the West in 1 to 2 days.
- Service level is the speed you buy. Ground is usually the cheapest, and faster tiers cost more for the same box.
Postage is billed per parcel on top of the warehouse charges, so box size and service choices show up on every single order. Parcel carriers pick up at the Valencia dock, and international parcels ship from the same building.
Stage 4: the last mile for orders that do not fit a parcel network
Some orders should not ride in a parcel network at all: furniture, fixtures, large or fragile pieces, or a high-value order to a customer across town. For those, Alvy runs final mile delivery by cargo van or box truck across Los Angeles and Southern California, from $80 by van for the first 20 miles. Local deliveries are booked and followed in Alvy’s online shipper portal.
Stage 5: returns
Returns are easy to leave until last, and returns processing is part of the service. Returned orders come back to the warehouse, get checked against your rules, and either go back to stock or are set aside as damaged. Each one is reported as it is processed, and you decide on the refund or replacement. Write the returns rule down before launch: which items can be resold, which are set aside, and who signs off on exceptions.
See reverse logistics services for grading, restocking and return to vendor.
When DTC logistics meets wholesale
Many DTC brands add retail accounts as they grow. Wholesale orders leave by the carton or pallet instead of one parcel per customer, built to each retailer’s routing guide, with GS1-128 carton labels, advance ship notices and EDI. Holding both channels in one inventory avoids splitting stock between two warehouses. The B2B and wholesale fulfillment page covers carton and pallet orders in detail.
When to hand ecommerce logistics to a 3PL
A 3PL for ecommerce makes sense when the chain is costing you time or money you would rather spend on selling. In practice that tends to start at a few hundred orders a month. Below that, packing in-house is usually cheaper, and we will say so rather than take the account. If you are weighing a 3PL against leasing your own space, read 3PL vs renting warehouse space.
For a written quote, send a month of order history with units per order, your SKU count, how inventory arrives (parcel, pallet or container), and any packaging or insert requirements. Business clients are invoiced.
Our ecommerce fulfillment services page shows how that works day to day, and the Los Angeles 3PL page covers the location.
