A 3PL (third-party logistics) is a company that runs the warehouse and the picking and shipping of another company’s orders. The carrier moves the box; the 3PL fills it. An e-commerce fulfillment provider is a 3PL specialised in online stores.
Published · Vialog Fulfillment
Carrier: collects and delivers parcels (GLS, Correos Express, UPS). Freight forwarder: arranges international freight, containers and customs. 3PL: stores your stock, prepares orders and hands them to the carrier. 4PL: coordinates several 3PLs and carriers for you. Dropshipping: no stock of yours, the supplier ships directly.
Store integration, real-time stock, barcode verification, inspected returns, same-day dispatch and itemised pricing. The rest (warehouse size, years in business) matters less than those six things.
They are levels of logistics outsourcing. 1PL: the company runs its own logistics. 2PL: it outsources only transport to a carrier. 3PL: it also outsources the warehouse, picking and shipping of orders. 4PL: it hands a third party the coordination of several 3PLs and carriers. Most growing online stores move from 1PL to 3PL.
You turn the warehouse, staff and packaging into a variable cost that grows with your sales, gain capacity for peaks without hiring and get back the time you spent packing orders. In return you depend on its accuracy, which is why it matters that the 3PL lets you see stock and orders in real time.
Yes, in the case of an e-commerce 3PL: it receives the returned parcel, matches it to its order, inspects it and, depending on what you decide, puts it back into stock or sets it aside as a write-off. At Vialog every return reaches your portal with photos of its condition and you decide what to do with it.
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Why Vialog
In-house software, video of every order and a complete client portal.
Would you rather we did it for you?
Tell us what you sell and how many orders you ship a month: within one working day we tell you what it would cost and how we would start.