12 Best US Fulfillment Companies in 2023

At CrowdCrux, our goal is to help you succeed on Kickstarter and beyond. A big part of doing that is fulfilling your Kickstarter on time and at a reasonable cost.

For that, you’ll need to find a trustworthy fulfillment company to work with. But where do you start?

Finding the right fulfillment company can be a daunting task, and to make matters more complex, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every company specializes in something different.

“Overwhelmed with your Shopify? Check out our free Shopify checklist. It lists everything you need to know to help you get started with Shopify”

Table of Contents hide

How to Find the Best Fulfillment Company for Your Business: 4 Important Factors to Consider

8 Ways to Vet an Order Fulfillment Company

12 Best US Fulfillment Companies in 2023

Fulfillrite

eFulfillment Service

ShipBob

Fulfillment.com

Rakuten Super Logistics

ShipMonk

Red Stag Fulfillment

IDS Fulfillment

ShipHero

ShipHype

Amazon FBA

FedEx Fulfillment

How to Find the Best Fulfillment Company for Your Business: 4 Important Factors to Consider

Picking a fulfillment company is not as simple as looking at price sheets and online reviews. Fulfillment companies have different advantages and disadvantages, so it is important to consider a few factors about your business first.

Here are four important factors you should consider before looking for a fulfillment company.

1. Item weight and size

One of the biggest factors in choosing the right fulfillment company for your business needs is the physical size of your orders. Most eCommerce packages fall under 10 pounds, so many order fulfillment services specialize in items of that size or smaller.

If your items don’t generally fit that profile, you may need to do some additional research.

Additionally, some fulfillment companies start putting restrictions on shipments above a certain size. An example of this may be a shipping center that charges extra for items with any dimension longer than 24 inches.

2. Order volume

Many fulfillment companies require that companies ship a certain number of orders in order to do business. This could be as low as 100 orders per month, or higher than 1,000 orders per month.

Other order fulfillment companies have no minimum order requirements at all. You can start shipping with them even if you have just a single order to ship every month.

As a general rule of thumb, if you ship a lot, order fulfillment companies with high minimums will give you lower prices. Otherwise, you’ll want to find a fulfillment company without strict volume requirements.

3. Number of SKUs

Each unique item you sell is an SKU. If you sell T-shirts, each different design, color, and size combination will be its own SKU.

Many fulfillment companies prefer not to work with companies that have a high SKU-to-order ratio because it makes storage more complicated. If you have a lot of SKUs or a high SKU-to-order ratio, you may need to do some additional research before settling on a fulfillment center.

4. Location of customers

As many as sixty-three percent of shoppers expected three-day delivery as standard in 2018. Expectations have only risen since.

The easiest way to meet the demand for fast shipping is to choose a fulfillment company with centers close to your clients. This will increase the number of people that you can reach within 2-3 days and also reduce the price of postage.

The key part here is figuring out where your customers live.

If your customers are in the northeastern US, a fulfillment company based in New Jersey makes sense. If your customers are spread across the country, a fulfillment company with broader coverage could be a better choice.

8 Ways to Vet an Order Fulfillment Company

Once you understand the kind of order fulfillment company that would best serve your business, it’s time to pick the best available option. However, it’s hard to tell which company is going to do a good job and the consequences of hiring the wrong company could be severe.

With this in mind, here are eight ways you can reduce the risk of teaming up with the wrong company.

1. Quality of reviews

As obvious as this may seem, online reviews are the easiest ways to gain insight into the quality of a fulfillment company’s service. Check Trustpilot, Google, and Shopify before requesting quotes, and you can find yourself saving a lot of time.

Fortunately, businesses that have had bad experiences with their fulfillment companies can be quite vocal online!

Don’t just look at stars, though. Read the reviews themselves and try to find out what the company does well and what it does not do well.

This not only helps you avoid companies that make egregious mistakes, but it can also help you identify companies that would not be a good fit.

2. On-time percentage

As mentioned above, one of the fastest ways to lose customers is to ship slowly. When outsourcing fulfillment to a third party, it’s important to make sure that your orders still go out on time!

If you can find clear statistics about fulfillment companies and their on-time shipping percentage, do so. Otherwise, check the reviews again and explicitly search for any indication of delayed order fulfillment.

3. Communication

Handing over your inventory to an order fulfillment company can save you a ton of time, but it can also be very stressful. As soon as you work with a fulfillment company for the first time, you will no longer be able to see and touch your inventory.

Make sure that whoever ends up holding the inventory is responsive by both phone and email.

Fulfillment is complicated, and no matter how straightforward your business is, you will probably end up contacting your fulfillment company at least once. You want to make sure that your fulfillment company of choice is responsive and friendly because you will need to contact them at some point.

4. Contracts

Some order fulfillment companies have long-term contracts. While the presence of a restrictive contract can help a fulfillment company manage risk and keep prices low, you can lose a lot of money in surprise fees if you need to switch to another fulfillment provider.

If the future of your business is relatively uncertain or you have highly variable order volume, it is probably best to avoid fulfillment companies with restrictive contracts. Otherwise, enter into a long-term contract with caution.

5. Fee structure

No matter how straightforward a fulfillment company tries to be, the pricing model for fulfillment is complicated. For example, a very straightforward fulfillment pricing model will include account fees, storage fees, picking and packing fees, postage, supplies, and receiving fees.

For this reason, if you don’t understand the fee structure of the fulfillment company you choose to work with, you can end up paying a lot without meaning to. To mitigate your risk, make sure you understand how pricing works and make sure there is no evidence of nickel and diming.

Your bill will inevitably have multiple line items and that’s OK. It’s when you don’t understand the line items that you have a problem.

6. Software

The vast majority of your interactions with your order fulfillment company of choice will be through their software. It needs to be powerful and easy-to-use.

Ideally, you want to make sure that you can monitor your inventory in real-time and see where specific shipments are.

See if you can find demos of the software or test it before signing on. That way, you can avoid signing up to use software you don’t like or can’t use.

7. Return management

As many as 30% of online orders are returned. Ask each fulfillment company you consider about their returns process.

It needs to be both cost-efficient and simple for your customers to use.

As a general rule of thumb, returns should cost about the same as outbound shipments. Be sure to ask what the company can do with returned items.

Do they throw them away or put them back into stock? Can they repair or refurbish items?

8. Sustainability

An emphasis on sustainable practices is a sure sign of a trustworthy fulfillment company.

Over the past few decades, it’s become increasingly important for businesses to operate in ways that safeguard the environment, and working with companies that prioritize sustainability is a great way to communicate to your customers that you hold strong values.

Sustainable practices also signify that a company puts a great deal of consideration into how their business decisions affect their customers, and according to the Green Business Bureau, there’s significant evidence to suggest that businesses with sustainable strategies tend to fare better in the long run.

When selecting a fulfillment company, be sure to evaluate its philosophy on sustainable business to determine how closely it aligns with your own.