2022 FedEx Fulfillment Review: Fulfillment Services, Pricing & Alternatives
Meaghan has provided content and guidance for indie retailers as the editor for a number of retail publications and a speaker at trade shows. She is Fit Small Business’s authority on retail and ecommerce.
Katie-Jay aims to put answers in the hands of small business owners by leveraging over 10 years of retail and hospitality experience. With a background in gemology, she specializes in jewelry and luxury ecommerce.
This article is part of a larger series on Retail Management.
FedEx Fulfillment, a subsidiary of the FedEx Corp., provides third-party logistics (3PL) services—including warehousing, order fulfillment, and shipping. The platform appeals to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with low order minimums, cost-effective services, and a ramp-up onboarding period.
In our 23-point evaluation of the best order fulfillment companies, FedEx Fulfillment scored 3.29 out of 5. The operation taps into the parent company’s well-established network of services to provide comprehensive, end-to-end supply chain solutions that make it a good fit for growing ecommerce businesses.
FedEx Fulfillment
Overall Score: 3.29
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Fast, low-cost nationwide delivery
- Large fulfillment network supports high volumes, efficient distribution, and unlimited growth
- Sophisticated product and order tracking technology
What's Missing
- Inconsistent client support
- Cannot fulfill Amazon Prime orders
- Difficult to start service
- Limited integrations
When to Use FedEx
- Ecommerce retailers: It is designed for DTC and B2B ecommerce fulfillment.
- Small, lightweight goods: Its last confirmed product restrictions only work for goods under 50 pounds with dimensions less than 18x14x8 inches.
- International sellers: FedEx leverages a well-developed logistics network with a wide, global footprint.
When to Use an Alternative
- High-value, heavy, fragile, or oversized products: Red Stag Fulfillment is more economical for special-handling needs
- Amazon-focused sellers: We recommend FBA or another Prime-eligible provider .
- Health products, food and beverage, cosmetics, and medical goods: ShipBob offers FDA-certified storage and handling
FedEx geared its fulfillment operation in favor of SMBs, making it ideal for growing ecommerce ventures and brick-and-mortar stores expanding online. Its vast logistics network supports unlimited growth and accessible international fulfillment.
Since Our Last Update
Despite consistent outreach over the past year, we have been unable to source any reliable information about FedEx Fulfillment—including accurate pricing, available services, and client support structure. From our efforts and interactions, it seems as though FedEx is highly reluctant to disclose the details of its fulfillment operation. As a result, it is no longer one of our recommended 3PL solutions.
We gathered the information in this review from previous FedEx Fulfillment sales personnel and clients and third-party online sources. While we’ve done our best to deliver the most comprehensive review, some of the details surrounding FedEx Fulfillment’s services may have changed.
Previously, it required an order-to-SKU ratio (daily orders shipped vs number of unique SKUs in stock) of 4:1 and has only been able to accommodate products under 50 pounds with dimensions less than 18x14x8 inches. Although we weren’t able to confirm whether these restrictions currently apply, the company has been known to only be a good fit for high-volume businesses selling small, lightweight products.
FedEx Fulfillment isn’t Seller-fulfilled Prime (SFP)-eligible, so it’s not the best choice for Amazon sellers. It also lacks special handling capabilities, FDA certifications, and programs for crowdfunding fulfillment.
FedEx Fulfillment Deciding Factors | |
|---|---|
Supported Business Types | SMBs, startups, ecommerce stores, retail stores, DTC sellers, B2B sellers, subscription box services |
Standout Features |
|
Minimum Order Requirement | 400 orders per month |
Setup and Onboarding Fees | None |
Pricing |
|
Contract Length | None |
US Warehouse Locations | 30+ |
International Warehouse Locations | 1 |
Shipping Partner Options | FedEx |
Customer Support | Via phone, email, and live chat; hours of availability unknown |
FedEx Fulfillment Alternatives
 |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
Best for: Ecommerce fulfillment for small–midsized, lightweight goods | Best for: Oversized, heavy, high-value, or fragile items | Best for: On-demand services, labor & space for scaling in-house fulfillment | Best for: Amazon fulfillment for small and manageable goods |
Monthly minimum: None | Monthly minimum: ≈200 orders | Monthly minimum: None | Monthly minimum: None |
Since many fulfillment companies offer pricing on a custom-quoted basis, we couldn’t fairly compare the specific costs of each provider. So, our evaluation of the top fulfillment companies considered pricing transparency, billing transparency, and billing predictability.
FedEx doesn’t publish fulfillment pricing, and we’ve had trouble verifying current rates—so we were unable to award any points for pricing transparency. However, its online billing platform does provide billing transparency, and the service’s pricing structure is straightforward and predictable.
We based the figures provided in this article on past information from the company and credible online reviews. Because of this, we recommend contacting FedEx at FSC-Leads@fedex.com for a direct quote.
Historically, the company charged the below fees as a baseline cost and incorporated additional volume discounts. Here’s a look at FedEx Fulfillment’s last confirmed prices—but note that inflation and fuel surcharges have likely increased the provider’s current fees.
FedEx Fulfillment Itemized Pricing
Service | Cost | What It Covers |
|---|---|---|
Setup | $0 | Onboarding and account setup is free |
Inbound Shipping | Discounts available | Discounted rates available with FedEx shipping and freight |
Receiving | $0 if shipments meet standard requirements; $35–$40/hr. otherwise | Inbound stock receipt, unpack, and check-in |
Inventory Storage | $8–$15 per pallet/month | Storage with climate-controlled option, security, and inventory management |
Pick and Pack | 40 cents/unit, including standard packing materials | Picking items from inventory and packing them for shipment |
Shipping | Discounted FedEx rates | Shipping costs vary depending on the size, weight, and destination of your goods |
Returns | $2.50 per order | Return processing, quality check, and restocking |
FedEx Fulfillment is backed by FedEx’s well-developed infrastructure and shipping resources—giving it a highly competitive edge in the Quality & Functionality category. But its limited pre-built integrations, undisclosed error rate, and prohibitive shipping carrier network brought the company’s score down significantly.
Click below to expand on the features that contribute to FedEx Fulfillment’s Quality & Functionality score.
Fulfillment Software
The FedEx Fulfillment online platform combines inventory management, processing, distribution, transportation, logistics, reverse logistics, and order information. This allows sellers to monitor every mission-critical piece of the fulfillment process.
As a part of logistics giant FedEx, the company can provide detailed shipment tracking insight with advanced capabilities through its dashboard. It also comes with sophisticated reporting features, enabling analytics that go beyond standard stock-level management.
Although its turnkey integration offerings aren’t top-tier, FedEx’s software integrates with all major ecommerce platforms, plus other selling tools. Multichannel sellers can manage all of their orders on a unified dashboard or refine by sales channel.
Online Billing Platform
FedEx Fulfillment uses its parent company’s robust Billing Online platform. By logging in on the FedEx portal, clients can access a comprehensive and highly customizable overview of their account activity.
This includes archived invoices and recent bills, which can be exported or sent to other users registered on the platform. The primary account holder can receive, review, pay, and dispute invoices from the secure portal.
Charges can be grouped by time range to get a customized snapshot of your fulfillment expenses. As another option, shipping costs can be itemized to show detailed factors for each shipment—including sender information, recipient information, shipment details, duty/tax costs, charge details, reference information, and proof of delivery.
Fulfillment Network
FedEx Fulfillment has a network of 30+ fulfillment centers that enable sellers to distribute stock according to their customer base(s)—minimizing delivery time and cutting down shipping costs. The primary facility is FedEx’s Global Distribution Center (GDC) in Memphis. It’s the largest and most-equipped US warehouse, accessible 24/7 year-round. Plus, it’s fully temperature-controlled and monitored with a compliant temperature recording system.
FedEx also has a European Global Distribution Centre that provides efficient access to the company’s centrally located worldwide hubs. In addition to its collection of fulfillment centers, FedEx has 130+ warehouses equipped for bulk storage and distribution. This impressive infrastructure dovetails with FedEx’s other logistics branches to create a seamless supply chain experience for sellers and customers alike.
Shipping Options
Through its well-developed parent company, FedEx Fulfillment is able to deliver orders nationwide within two days. Plus, a variety of other shipping options are available, from urgent delivery to economy ground. FedEx can even deliver seven days a week in many cases, and through FedEx Fulfillment, you’ll receive deeply discounted rates.
Integrations
A comprehensive list of FedEx’s turnkey integrations isn’t available online, but multiple reviews report that the catalog is pretty limited. An advanced API, called FedEx Web Services, is available to create custom integrations for your ecommerce tools. According to FedEx, the API is geared toward two-way connectivity and touts a low barrier of entry—meaning it can be developed in any coding language by even beginner developers.
Here’s a list of FedEx’s published direct integrations:
- Ecommerce platforms and marketplaces: Shopify, Magento, Walmart, Etsy, eBay, WooCommerce
- Accounting, tax, and financing: QuickBooks, Square, Xero
FedEx Fulfillment offers the standard special services that many businesses need—such as kitting, bundling, reverse logistics, and international shipping. It also boasts a handful of hard-to-find features, which we explore below.
These services earned FedEx Fulfillment a high score in the category, but it was docked for being incompatible with Amazon SFP sales. This means users must either sell on Amazon via the non-Prime Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) program or use FBA in addition to FedEx Fulfillment.FedEx Fulfillment’s specialty services include:
Climate Control
The company’s main fulfillment and distribution center in Memphis is fully temperature-controlled and monitored with a compliant temperature recording system. This makes storage and handling of perishable and temp-sensitive goods possible. However, unlike ShipBob, FedEx fulfillment is not FDA-certified.
Custom Packaging
FedEx Fulfillment can create custom or branded packing elements for its clients. It’s unclear whether the materials are made in-house or outsourced to a partnered manufacturer—but in either case, the offering is a rare find in the fulfillment industry. FedEx asserts that customization and branded solutions are a key part of its fulfillment offerings, with the goal of keeping up with customer expectations.
Custom packing elements can include inner product packaging and shipping materials, like boxes, and tissue paper. Red Stag Fulfillment is another example of a 3PL that offers custom packaging creation. But contrary to FedEx Fulfillment, Red Stag’s packing elements are custom-fitted to ensure safe transport—not to convey branding or provide an unboxing experience.
Custom Solutions
Leveraging FedEx’s broad-spectrum presence in the logistics industry, the company offers flexible supply chain solutions that can be customized beyond order fulfillment to meet your business’s needs.
FedEx Supply Chain’s services include:
- Order fulfillment
- Reverse logistics
- Repair and refurbishment
- Warehouse development
- Warehouse operations
- Distribution services
- Freight forwarding
- International trade services
- Technology services
- Transportation management
- Consulting
FedEx offers these services to strengthen supply chains within a number of industries—including retail, consumer goods, electronics, and healthcare.
FedEx Fulfillment’s score in this category was impacted by the lack of information available about the features and services pertaining to ease of use. We know that the provider is highly scalable and offers the same robust software as its parent company, which helped bolster its final score.
Here’s a summary of the factors we took into account:
- Support: It’s unclear whether FedEx Fulfillment has its own team of client support representatives. The FedEx Fulfillment website offers almost no information about its client support methods, and online reviews describe the service as inconsistent and lacking. It’s likely that multiple branches of the company are serviced by a team of cross-trained representatives, which doesn’t leave much room for personal attention.
In past years, there have been fulfillment-focused employees who functioned separately from the rest of FedEx’s branches. However, we were unable to reach those contacts recently.
- Onboarding: We’ve struggled to get in touch with the FedEx Fulfillment sales team as a potential new client with an ecommerce store. After multiple months of unreturned calls and emails, we’ve concluded that it’s highly difficult to start service with the company.
- Error Policies: FedEx Fulfillment’s error policies are not published online, and we were unable to receive any clarification from members of the staff.
- Accuracy: FedEx Fulfillment’s error rate is undisclosed. The parent company’s shipping accuracy rate is 98.7%, but this figure mainly considers shipments arriving on time. There is no current insight into how accurate FedEx Fulfillment’s picking, packing, storing, and handling processes are.
- Transparency: FedEx Fulfillment’s software provides industry-leading shipping transparency by making sophisticated tracking visible from the platform. Billing transparency is also provided through detailed, itemized invoices on FedEx’s Online Billing platform.
- Client Support: FedEx Fulfillment’s client support capabilities are said to be lacking, especially within the last two years. It offers phone and email support with a ticket-based resolution system, although hours of availability are not disclosed online.
Overall, we see a lot of value in FedEx Fulfillment’s offerings. Its impressive infrastructure and wide range of services are primed to support growth and help you meet evolving customer expectations.
However, we struggle to recommend FedEx Fulfillment due to the lack of current information available about it. As mentioned above, we have been unable to source any info from the company, even after a full year of ongoing effort through direct outreach as both a potential client and as media.
The company’s website advises interested business owners to reach out via email for a quote. Of the two email addresses provided, one is unregistered and the other yields no response. This issue, combined with the stark lack of standard information published by the provider, creates concern that FedEx Fulfillment is not a viable option for new clients. At risk of wasting time, we recommend reaching out to other fulfillment partners in addition to FedEx.
What Users Say in FedEx Fulfillment Reviews
Online FedEx Fulfillment reviews from users are virtually impossible to find. FedEx Logistics as a whole has a modest number of helpful reviews, but the majority of ratings you’ll find are evaluations of what it’s like to work for FedEx rather than use its services.
When searching through around 60 verified reviews on Gartner Peer Insights, I found only one that mentioned order fulfillment. That being said, most of the reviews address other FedEx features that pertain to its fulfillment operation. Overall, FedEx Logistics’ ratings are very high, and customers express total satisfaction with the partnership.
A handful of other FedEx Fulfillment review articles have been published, but helpful info is sparse.
- Gartner Peer Insights: 4.5-star rating from about 60 reviews (FedEx Logistics)
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Professional and courteous handling | Impersonal call-center support |
| Good geographical coverage | Operational errors |
| Software functionality and interface | Faulty/lacking integrations |
| Delays are communicated efficiently | Bare-minimum service requirements met |
Methodology: How We Evaluated FedEx Fulfillment
To evaluate FedEx Fulfillment and all 3PLs, we considered the factors that matter most to small retail and ecommerce businesses. We started by researching the provider through third-party reviews, user ratings, relevant articles, and the company’s own content.
For information we can’t find online, we reached out to the company as potential customers rather than reporters. FedEx Fulfillment was surprisingly uncommunicative, so we relied on information from previous employees and clients and third-party content.
We then evaluated FedEx Fulfillment on a 23-point scale shaped by industry experience, reader surveys, and competing providers’ attributes. Our criteria weighs functionality, scalability, and transparency throughout a range of processes.
30%
Quality/Functionality
20%
Pricing
15%
Ease of Use
15%
Specialty Services
20%
Expert Score
30% of Overall Score
We evaluated the quality of service and functionality of each company by weighing critical details like order turnaround time, shipping partner options, size of fulfillment center network, and accuracy rate.
We also considered how each service integrates with ecommerce shopping carts, marketplaces, operational tools, and solution providers that your online store may use.
FedEx Fulfillment achieved a mediocre score in this category. It earned points for its large warehouse network and speedy transit times, but the company’s undisclosed error rate, limited integrations, and inflexible shipping partner options impacted its score significantly.
20% of Overall Score
Many fulfillment companies offer pricing on a custom-quoted basis. We assert that it’s better to openly publish pricing. This eliminates the need for potential clients to contact each company for a quote—potentially wasting both parties’ time—and promotes general transparency.
Since we can’t fairly compare the specific costs of each provider, this category examines the providers’ pricing transparency, billing transparency, and billing predictability.
FedEx Fulfillment is very opaque about current pricing, which compromised its score here. That being said, we awarded the company points for its transparent billing portal.
15% of Overall Score
This score considered customer service accessibility—prioritizing companies that provide a dedicated service rep for each client and weighing their support center’s hours of availability.
Each service was also evaluated for software usability and operational transparency. Companies were awarded points for having highly functional software that allows users to see where each order is within the fulfillment process and warehouse space.
Lastly, order minimums and service scalability were weighted heavily to provide the best recommendation for small businesses that need a fulfillment partner that can grow with them.
The company earned points here for its scalability and fulfillment software. But since we couldn’t find any information about FedEx Fulfillment’s client support structure, we were unable to give it points for that criteria. It was also docked for requiring a minimum of 400 orders per month.
15% of Overall Score
We awarded points for the availability of special services like climate control, international shipping, custom packaging elements, and different types of assembly. Being crucial to ecommerce operations, return handling and reporting/analytics were prioritized.
Lastly, we assessed whether each company was eligible to fulfill Amazon Prime or SFP (Seller-Fulfilled Prime) orders.
FedEx Fulfillment boasts an impressive range of logistics services through its parent company, which contributed to its high score in this category. We docked the provider for being ineligible to send Amazon Prime orders.
20% of Overall Score
This score combined our retail and ecommerce experts’ final evaluation of value, ease of use, and standout features with scores from real-world users on trusted third-party review sites
We gave FedEx Fulfillment a medial score in this category that reflects our difficulty working with the provider. It has no reliable reviews to determine popularity, and our few interactions with staff members indicate that it’s not an easy service to start. However, we did award points for the company’s helpful services, which would create a good overall value.
*Percentages of overall score
FedEx Fulfillment Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Who Should Use FedEx Fulfillment?
FedEx Fulfillment is a good fit for small and midsize businesses selling physical products online. In addition to DTC businesses, its wide-ranging logistics services are particularly helpful for international sellers, importers, and B2B sellers.
In the past, the company only worked with products that measure less than 18x14x8 inches and weigh less than 50 pounds. It also previously required an order-to-SKU ratio (daily orders shipped vs number of unique SKUs in stock) of 4:1. It’s unclear whether these restrictions still apply, but FedEx Fulfillment may be best for small to medium-sized goods that move relatively quickly.
When Should I Use a FedEx Fulfillment Alternative?
- FedEx Fulfillment doesn’t offer liability insurance, services for goods like ammunition, or economical storage for oversized goods—so it’s a poor fit for sellers who need these types of special handling. We recommend Red Stag Fulfillment.
- Businesses dealing in health products, food and beverage, cosmetics, or medical goods may want to partner with an FDA-certified fulfillment provider, such as ShipBob.
- FedEx Fulfillment doesn’t offer batch fulfillment programs, so crowdfunding campaigns and product launches need to seek an alternative. We recommend ShipBob.
- FedEx Fulfillment is not well-suited for Amazon sellers who rely on the Prime badge to stay competitive. Since the company isn’t Seller-Fulfilled Prime (SFP)-eligible, you would need to either lose your Prime designation or use FBA in tandem with FedEx Fulfillment. Ultimately, an alternative like ShipMonk or FBA is a better option if you need Amazon Prime eligibility.
Bottom Line
FedEx Fulfillment is a robust operation backed by the parent company’s well-entrenched transportation services. With a pricing structure that makes partnership accessible to startups and young businesses, this company is likely a solid choice for third-party order fulfillment.
Unfortunately, it seems like FedEx has chosen to dedicate fewer resources to its fulfillment branch since the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Surprisingly little information is available online, and the fulfillment staff has been nearly impossible to reach.
Based on its performance in previous years, we recommend considering FedEx for your fulfillment partner. But after multiple months of anonymous outreach met with unreturned messages and emails, we’ve concluded that it’s highly difficult to start service with the company.
Contact FedEx at FSC-Leads@fedex.com to learn more about its current offerings, and be sure to have backup options in mind.
Consider using WarehousingAndFulfillment.com as you explore your options—it compares your specific needs to 500+ prescreened companies to find the best fit for your business. Plus, the service is completely free to use.
Visit WarehousingAndFulfillment.com
