5 Best Third-Party Logistics (3PL) Companies for Small Businesses

Third-party logistics (3PL) companies deliver various outsourced, end-to-end logistics services such as inventory management, order fulfillment, shipping, freight distribution, and import/export.

3PLs aren’t reserved only for enterprise-level businesses with large budgets. Many startups and small businesses find it more efficient and economical to outsource fulfillment and freight logistics to 3PL companies.

If you’re searching for the perfect 3PL company for your operation, we recommend starting with the logistics matchmaker WarehousingAndFulfillment.com. This free service matches your needs to more than 500 prescreened 3PL companies to find the perfect fit for your business. Get free 3PL quotes by visiting their site today.

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How We Evaluated the Best 3PL Companies

Best 3PL Companies Compared

	Visit ShipBob	Visit Red Stag Fulfillment	Visit NTG (Formerly FreightPros)	Visit redhawkglobal	Visit Whitebox
Ecommerce Parcel Fulfillment	✔	✔	N/A	N/A	✔
Ecommerce Freight Fulfillment	N/A	N/A	✔	✔	N/A
Batch Fulfillment	✔	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
International Shipping	✔	✔	✔**	✔**	✔
International Warehousing	✔	N/A	N/A	N/A	✔
Amazon Prime or Seller-Fulfilled Prime (SFP) Fulfillment	N/A	✔	N/A	N/A	✔
Freight Discounts	N/A	N/A	✔	✔	N/A
Freight Storage and Distribution	N/A	N/A	✔	✔	N/A
Import/Export Freight	N/A	N/A	✔**	✔**	N/A
Full-service Marketplace Management	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	✔

As the table shows, no small-business-friendly 3PL company fills every logistics need. Some focus on ecommerce fulfillment and offer related specialties such as ShipBob’s batch fulfillment and Whitebox’s marketplace management services. Others offer various freight-focused services.

Of our five top contenders, only two—NTG (Formerly FreightPros) andRedHawk Logistics—cover both distribution and freight logistics arenas.

Which 3PL Logistics Company Is Right for You?

Not sure which 3PL company is right for your business? Take this four-question quiz for our personalized recommendation (you won’t be redirected to another screen):

ShipBob: Best 3PL Company for Startups & Batch Shippers

ShipBob is a 3PL company delivering functional and efficient fulfillment services from its global network of 27 fulfillment centers. Plus, with no monthly order minimum on its small business “Growth Plan,” ShipBob is the most startup-friendly distribution service in its class. ShipBob also offers batch fulfillment on a per-project basis for crowdfunding campaigns and product launches, whereas many 3PL fulfillment companies solely focus on daily shippers.

See our detailed ShipBob review here.

ShipBob Fulfillment 3PL Service Costs

ShipBob customizes each fulfillment program and fee structure to the specific needs of its clients.

One major advantage ShipBob has over other fulfillment companies is the billing transparency it provides. Clients’ bills are assessed and updated daily, and all charges are visible in fully-itemized format from your dashboard. In the same tab, shipping details can be toggled to estimate variable order costs.

ShipBob Fulfillment 3PL Services & Fees

ShipBob Fulfillment 3PL Features

One standout feature of ShipBob’s fulfillment service is its large, nationwide warehouse network. This puts your stock within a one- to two-day shipping time to most locations throughout the US, which is something not many small business fulfillment companies can boast. They also have three international warehouse locations for streamlined global distribution.

ShipBob’s 3PL fulfillment services meet every point on our review criteria:

• Range of services: Ecommerce order fulfillment is ShipBob’s focus, along with batch fulfillment and kitting services ideal for subscription boxes, crowdfunding, and product launches.
• Customer service: ShipBob clients get a dedicated account rep as the main point of contact for onboarding and ongoing account oversight.
• Cost and value: ShipBob’s quoted pricing includes all-inclusive order fulfillment fees and volume-based storage. This lets you compare costs among other services and against your own in-house fulfillment operation to determine the best value.
• Startup-friendly and scalability: With no order minimums and the resources to support unlimited growth, ShipBob is happy to work with businesses of all sizes.
• Simple onboarding: Your ShipBob dedicated rep will devise a startup or migration plan to move stock and order management into its system without downtime.
• Integrations: ShipBob integrates with top ecommerce shopping carts, seller marketplaces, and crowdfunding platforms to download orders and upload tracking data.
• Management systems: See everything that’s happening with your stock, sales, and orders, regardless of where they originate, in ShipBob’s centralized client dashboard.

ShipBob excels in serving startups and batch shippers. That’s not all ShipBob can do, though—which is why ShipBob is a close second in our overall list of best 3PL companies.

What ShipBob Fulfillment Is Missing

As an ecommerce fulfillment 3PL company, ShipBob is missing nothing. It delivers competitive fulfillment rates to ecommerce sellers and occasional batch shippers, plus a great set of added kitting services.

Unlike Whitebox and Red Stag, ShipBob does not offer Amazon Prime-certified shipping. It does integrate with Amazon, but your products won’t qualify for the sales-driving Prime badge. A workaround for sellers who want the Amazon Prime edge while also cost-effectively servicing their other sales channels is to partner with ShipBob for fulfillment and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) prep services.

ShipBob isn’t a combined distribution and freight 3PL company like Red Hawk Logistics; however, it can help with some freight management.

What Users Think About ShipBob

Online user reviews for ShipBob are largely favorable, though you will find some complaints online. Some users rave about ShipBob while others report being disappointed in its service. This isn’t uncommon in the world of fulfillment since business needs vary so widely. Many disappointments seem to be caused by a partner mismatch. Others likely stem from operating issues connected to ShipBob’s fast warehouse expansion (which have since been smoothed out).

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Red Stag Fulfillment: Best at Special Product Handling

Red Stag Fulfillment is another small-business-friendly 3PL company that focuses on ecommerce fulfillment. Red Stag specializes in products that need special handling—this includes oversized, heavy, bulky, and fragile goods, as well as high-value luxury items.

Red Stag Fulfillment 3PL Service Costs

Red Stag Fulfillment is transparent with its pricing. Storage, order, and per-item fees are all clearly outlined in its fee schedule, and add-on fees are figured hourly or per project. The only unknown fees when you start with Red Stag are your shipping costs, though clients benefit from Red Stag’s low, discounted rates.

Red Stag Fulfillment 3PL Services & Fees

Red Stag Fulfillment 3PL Features

Red Stag Fulfillment focuses its 3PL services on clients with products that require special handling. Packing and shipping high-value, heavy, oversized, and/or fragile merchandise is Red Stag Fulfillment’s specialty—making it a great match for retailers dealing in luxury goods like jewelry and watches, hefty appliances and furniture, or delicate electronics such as computer monitors and other equipment.

From video-tracked facilities to extensive training and high packaging standards, Red Stag strives to deliver zero-loss services. It even offers a zero-shrink guarantee, plus a $50 payment to the client for any mistake made on Red Stag’s part (in addition to standard reimbursement).

Red Stag Fulfillment is another 3PL company that hits every point of our review criteria:

• Range of services: Specialty ecommerce fulfillment is Red Stag’s focus, and this is where it passes the rest with zero-loss practices and guaranteed on-time shipping. There is some assistance with occasional freight needs, but this is not the focus.
• Customer service: Red Stag offers exceptional client services and specialized stock storage and tracking procedures for its specialty sellers. Assistance is just a phone call away—seven days a week.
• Cost and value: Compared to ShipBob and FedEx Fulfillment, Red Stag can be a more expensive fulfillment solution since it delivers specialized services. It may be overkill for simple storage and shipping needs.
• Startup-friendly and scalability: Red Stag Fulfillment is another 3PL company that works with startups as well as companies shipping hundreds of orders daily.
• Simple onboarding: Red Stag plans your startup or migration to its systems, plus offers a 30-day free trial (excluding shipping costs) to ensure it’s the right fit.
• Integrations: Red Stag integrates with top ecommerce shopping carts, seller marketplaces, and order management for order processing and shipment tracking.
• Management systems: Red Stag Fulfillment’s client portal lets you monitor stock levels, order status, and fulfillment success rates based on Red Stag’s 100% on-time fulfillment guarantee.

If you sell products that require special handling, then Red Stag Fulfillment is an excellent third-party logistics option for you. With a low and flexible minimum requirement of 200 orders per month, Red Stag is a suitable solution for startups and mature ecommerce businesses alike.

What Red Stag Fulfillment Is Missing

Red Stag is not optimal for shipping small or standard-sized, easy-to-ship goods—you’ll spend more than you need to on nonspecialty items with this company. For those types of goods, FedEx Fulfillment and ShipBob are more economical options.

Red Stag has fewer warehouse locations than FedEx Fulfillment and ShipBob—just two nationwide. This was previously an obstacle for efficient distribution, but they’ve now dialed-in their network and processes to achieve two-day shipping to almost all of the continental US. Two additional US warehouses are expected to open later in 2021.

A map of Red Stag’s warehouse locations and shipping speeds. (Source: Red Stag)

Also, Red Stag doesn’t offer standardized freight or LTL shipping solutions. Its forte is large, heavy, and high-value parcel shipping— for these purposes, it’s a top fulfillment choice.

What Users Think About Red Stag Fulfillment

User reviews for Red Stag Fulfillment make it clear that customers really enjoy working with this fulfillment provider. Online reviews show that Red Stag delivers on its zero-shrink, 100% on-time fulfillment as well as its proper packaging guarantees.

The company has a 4.6-star rating on Google, with the only less-than-perfect reviews coming from previous employees rather than clients. The only criticisms on other review sites revolve around outdated issues that Red Stag has now improved on—such as shipping carrier restrictions and customer service limitations. It has since expanded to working with four carrier partners and offering dedicated client-support representatives.

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NTG (Formerly FreightPros): Best 3PL Company for Small Business Freight

NTG (Formerly FreightPros) is a freight-focused 3PL service that saves you money and time on inbound, outbound, and point-to-point freight shipments. Using NTG, you get access to discounted rates for over 100 truck, LTL, and rail carriers, along with a suite of tools to manage shipments yourself. If you prefer a more hands-off approach, NTG experts can schedule, book, and track shipments on your behalf.

NTG Freight 3PL Service Costs

NTG’s fees are built into your freight rates. You select the freight carrier and shipping rate, and that’s what you pay—there are no added service fees or upcharges to FreightPros. Plus, there’s no cost to open an NTG account. Added services, such as freight spend analysis, are available and generally free for regular clients too.

How Freight Rates Work

Freight prices are commodity-based and change daily due to factors like the carrier’s open truck capacity, fuel prices, shipping lanes, and even the weather. Therefore, it’s impossible to say which freight 3PL delivers the lowest rates on any given day. To learn more about how freight 3PL and broker fees work, visit our freight brokers buyers guide.

NTG Freight 3PL Features

NTG is an enterprise-level logistics provider that recently acquired FreightPros, a small freight broker that delivers impressive industry expertise in a small-business-friendly package. The combined staff simply know the business—they’re skilled at classifying freight for the best pricing with no audit surprises and can manage as little or as much of the process as you wish.

NTG meets every point of our 3PL company review criteria:

• Range of services: Schedule LTL, partial, and full-truck freight for standard or specialty loads needing time-critical delivery or temperature-controlled transit and storage. Or, check out the savings that intermodal rail freight offers.
• Customer service: You’ll have a dedicated account rep who will set up your account, train you on the online rate and booking tools, or handle freight management on your behalf.
• Cost and value: You always know what you’re paying when you ship with NTG. With experts who understand the intricacies of freight classes and load insurance, all of your bases are covered and there are no billing surprises.
• Startup-friendly and scalability: If you’ve never shipped before, ship freight just once or twice a month, or ship regularly, NTG can handle your volume.
• Simple onboarding: Your NTG account rep will walk you through your dashboard features, cover classification and other key designations, as well as scheduling, booking, and bill-of-lading (BOL) creation tools.
• Integrations: NTG ecommerce platform integrations show real-time freight rates in your checkout if you sell in bulk and ship orders via freight.
• Management systems: Manage freight rate shopping, booking, and tracking yourself in the NTG management dashboard or let account pros handle some or all of the booking and tracking for you—it’s up to you.

A major benefit of using a freight 3PL service is the expertise working on your behalf. NTG reps know how to spot savings opportunities through flat-rate freight classification and negotiated dimensional rates to reduce your freight spend. They also know how freight insurance works and ensure your loads are properly covered.

What NTG Freight Is Missing

NTG is not an order fulfillment or parcel shipping service like FedEx Fulfillment, ShipBob, and Red Stag Fulfillment. Its freight-focused services include warehousing and bulk distribution, but it doesn’t offer inventory management, parcel shipping, or order fulfillment services.

What Users Think About NTG

NTG’s online reputation is largely negative, with many user ratings containing 1-star reviews.

FreightPros, on the other hand, has a much healthier reputation— including a 4.3-star rating on Trustpilot from 240+ reviews.

NTG’s acquisition of FreightPros kept the original staff and infrastructure intact, so it’s hopeful that this recent change will lead to an improved NTG customer experience.

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RedHawk Logistics: Best 3PL Company for Freight Distribution

RedHawk Logistics—formerly RedHark Global—is a small-business-friendly 3PL company that provides freight shipping, warehousing, and distribution services across the US, Canada, and Mexico. In point-to-point freight shipping, it competes closely with NTG. However, RedHawk Logistics pulls ahead with added 3PL bulk freight storage and distribution services that appeal to manufacturers, wholesalers, and importers.

RedHawk Global Freight 3PL Service Costs

For shipments, RedHawk Logistics’ fees are built into the fees that you pay per shipment. When you select a bid on a shipment, that’s what you pay. In comparing LTL freight costs across top broker services, RedHawk Logistics is extremely competitive and generally delivers low rates, even for occasional and low-volume shippers.

Larger accounts can receive volume freight or class-based discounts too. RedHawk Logistics also offers expanded 3PL freight project oversight, ongoing account logistics management, and warehousing and distribution services. For advanced management services—often called 4PL services—RedHawk Logistics provides quotes based on your specific needs.

RedHawk Logistics Freight 3PL Features

RedHawk Logistics offers an array of freight shipping services, from moving a single pallet to multiple containers, anywhere within North America. As usual in the freight industry, RedHawk Logistics taps nationwide and regional carriers to move shipments. But it neatly ties oversight of all of your freight logistics within a single streamlined management system.

RedHawk Logistics’ complete freight 3PL services meet all of our review criteria:

• Range of services: RedHawk Logistics moves all types of freight, including LTL, intermodal rail containers, climate-controlled, flatbed, and cross-border import and export. It also offers managed 3PL services like freight storage, distribution, and sort-store-repack services.
• Customer service: Small accounts can self-manage freight or use an account rep to assist as needed. Turnkey 3PL management services are also available with dedicated reps.
• Cost and value: Like NTG, most of RedHawk Logistics’ fees are built into freight shipping and service rates. Advanced needs, such as distribution, are quoted.
• Startup-friendly and scalability: If you ship just a few LTL pallets each month, you can use RedHawk Logistics, and it can meet all of your freight needs as you grow.
• Simple onboarding: RedHawk Logistics’ eFreightLine freight booking portal is free to use and intuitive, and account reps will walk you through the portal’s booking and tracking system when you set up your free account.
• Integrations: Like NTG, RedHawk Logistics offers ecommerce platform integrations to show real-time freight rates in your checkout for online order shipping via freight.
• Management systems: Its eFreightLine portal lets small shippers rate shop, book, and track shipments, or oversee freight movement if account reps handle the day-to-day booking and scheduling tasks.

RedHawk Logistics’ experts are also helpful in spotting savings opportunities. They’ll identify the correct National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC) numbers to help lower your freight class and look for carriers that negotiate volume rates, waive dimensional weights, or ship under a flat class to help reduce your freight spend.

What RedHawk Logistics Is Missing

Like NTG, RedHawk Logistics isn’t an ecommerce parcel fulfillment service—its focus is on freight. However, with freight storage, distribution, sort, store, and repack services, it can help with bulk order fulfillment. This is a useful 3PL service for business-to-business (B2B) enterprises like manufacturers, wholesalers, and importers who don’t want to manage their own distribution.

What Users Think About RedHawk Logistics

Online reviews of any large, multitier 3PL logistics provider are hard to pinpoint. Most users are on an enterprise scale and, unlike smaller entrepreneurs, not inclined to review services online. However, the eFreightLine portal, which is RedHawk Logistics’ small business tool, has largely positive online reviews on aggregate sites like Uship and Google reviews.

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Whitebox: Best 3PL Company for Amazon & Multichannel Sellers

Whitebox is the easiest, most hassle-free way for small manufacturers and private-label brands to sell Prime-eligible items on Amazon. This turnkey 3PL company lists items on Amazon and other sales channels for you, manages stock and shipping via Amazon’s FBA on your behalf, then pays you profits, minus fees, for products sold each month.

Whitebox Amazon Fulfillment 3PL Service Costs

Whitebox’s pricing structure is different from other 3PL companies, and it has two components—fulfillment and marketplace management (also called its “growth agency” services).

Rather than charging for each fulfillment process individually, clients pay a monthly “all-in fulfillment fee” that covers all related charges—except storage and software, which are billed additionally.

Its growth agency service is charged on a commission basis, assessed as a fixed percentage of the client’s sales.

With this full-service platform, you’ll also be paying marketplace and FBA fees, so the total impact on your bottom line can be substantial. Because of this, we recommend Whitebox for product manufacturers that have large markups of 250% or more. For these sellers, Whitebox can be the ideal full-service partner due to its extensive and well-developed turnkey services.

Here are things to consider when you look at Whitebox’s price tag:

• Whitebox markets your products: Whitebox markets your goods via listings on Amazon and other sales channels—like eBay and your own shopping site. This includes profitability studies, professional product photography, and SEO-targeted descriptions.
• Whitebox manages Amazon FBA: Whitebox sets up Amazon FBA logistics and oversees the day-to-day tasks like tracking sales, assessing restock needs, and tracking costs.
• Whitebox pays you: Once your products start to sell, Whitebox pays you. Whitebox tracks sales, receives payments, and deposits revenues into your account each month—less your fees.

Whitebox’s free quote calculator gives you an accurate idea of your total costs per sales channel. Just provide them a few details to instantly get cost and profit estimates as seen in the image below.

The free fulfillment cost calculator shows you the profitability of products you sell via Whitebox.

Whitebox Amazon Fulfillment 3PL Features

Whitebox leverages FBA’s system as its own distribution network. Amazon’s FBA is a powerful fulfillment tool that makes your products Prime-eligible, which is a major Amazon sales driver. However, overseeing Amazon listings and FBA stock efficiently can be a full-time job—and that’s where Whitebox’s turnkey 3PL services make an impact.

Since Whitebox differs from the other services on our list, we adjusted our criteria review to clearly examine the unique 3PL fulfillment services that Whitebox provides:

• Sales forecasting: During onboarding, Whitebox forecasts product demand and uses these numbers to determine the initial stock needed to launch.
• Amazon FBA stock preparation: Receives, counts, and examines your stock for any damage or quality issues before sending it to Amazon FBA, and correctly packages and distributes it into Amazon’s warehouse system per FBA requirements.
• FBA stock maintenance: Reviews stock needs regularly to maintain proper levels in Amazon FBA without excessive storage fees.
• Creates and manages sales channel listings: Professionally photographs your goods and creates SEO-targeted product listings on Amazon, eBay, your website, or other specified sales channels.
• Market products and improve listings: Monitors listing search results on sales channels and organic search, and improves listings to optimize rankings and brand exposure.
• Sales servicing: Deals with all customer service questions and returns across all channels.
• Lets you focus on your business: In a nutshell, Whitebox is a 3PL company that lets business owners focus on development, production, and other profitable areas instead of dealing with direct-sales headaches.
• Provides transparency: Whitebox provides payout statements as well as sales channel and inventory reporting via a client portal.

When you boil it all down, Whitebox is simply an Amazon seller that optimizes FBA to sell and fulfill goods on your behalf. This is illustrated in the Whitebox client listing below, showing an item “sold by” Whitebox Inc. and Fulfilled by Amazon.

Whitebox promotes and sells your brand under its highly rated Whitebox Amazon seller account.

By using Whitebox, a business isn’t building its own seller identity on Amazon—which is not necessarily a disadvantage. Amazon shoppers have little loyalty to listed sellers; what they do have is loyalty to brands. This is what makes the Whitebox 3PL fulfillment model work.

Whitebox is the seller, but your brand is what shoppers (especially repeat shoppers) are seeking. The listed seller doesn’t matter as long as it boasts good reviews, which Whitebox has in spades. What definitely does matter is flaunting a Prime badge on your listing, which comes along with Whitebox’s FBA fulfillment model.

What Whitebox Amazon Fulfillment Is Missing

Whitebox’s high minimum requirement of 1,000 orders per month makes it incompatible with many young businesses and startups. It also doesn’t offer batch fulfillment services for crowdfunding ventures, which is a convenient option offered by ShipBob.

Whitebox isn’t geared for business-to-business (B2B) distribution. You’ll have to manage wholesale freight shipments to your resellers in-house or via a freight storage and distribution 3PL company like RedHawk Global.

What Users Think About Whitebox

Amazon seller ratings are the best place to judge the success of Whitebox. Its 5-star seller rating proves it delivers on its promises to buyers—and it can’t do that without handling FBA efficiently.

The company’s well-established seller account boasts 97% positivity on 6,500+ reviews, which not only speaks to its functionality, but also increases listing visibility and buyer confidence.

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Alternatives: 8 More Third-Party Logistics Companies

We’ve already told you all about the five best 3PL companies, but there are plenty more options on the market. Here are additional solutions for more specific needs:

Bottom Line

There are thousands of 3PL companies that can take the burden of managing supply chain and order fulfillment off your shoulders. Whether you need ecommerce fulfillment, freight solutions, or both, finding the perfect fit takes time. It’s always best to review many options as you make this important decision.

We recommend starting your search for the ideal 3PL partner with FulfillmentCompanies.net. This free matchmaking service assesses your needs against more than 600 prescreened 3PL companies to find you the perfect fit. Click here to get started.

Visit FulfillmentCompanies.net

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