ShipBob Review 2023: Best 3PL & Fulfillment for Small Business
This article is part of a larger series on Retail Management.
ShipBob is a tech-enabled third-party logistics (3PL) company that provides warehousing, order fulfillment, and shipping solutions for small and midsize businesses (SMBs).
In our review of the best order fulfillment companies for small businesses, ShipBob topped the list with a score of 4.47 out of 5 based on our evaluation of 23 data points. Its robust software, large global warehouse network, affordable pricing structure, and useful special features make it the best choice for businesses of all sizes and order volume levels.
Pros
- Wide, global fulfillment network
- Special services for startups, importers, dropshippers, and 3PLs
- Robust customization and branding options
Cons
- High storage fees
- Cannot fulfill Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) orders
- Minimum usage fee requirements
Supported Business Types | Small to midsize businesses (SMBs), startups, ecommerce stores, retail stores, DTC sellers, B2B sellers, dropshippers, subscription-box services, and 3PL companies |
Standout Features |
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Minimum Requirements | $250 monthly usage |
Setup and Onboarding Fees |
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Pricing |
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Contract Length | None |
US Warehouse Locations | 35 |
International Warehouse Locations | 8 |
Shipping Partner Options | FedEx, UPS, US Postal Service (USPS), DHL, OSM, CDL Last Mile, UDS, LSO, OnTrac, and smaller regional carriers |
Customer Support |
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Best for: Oversized, heavy, high-value, or fragile items | Best for: On-demand services, labor, and space for scaling in-house fulfillment | Best for: Multichannel sellers seeking SFP fulfillment | Best for: Amazon sellers |
Monthly minimum: 200 orders | Monthly minimum: None | Monthly minimum: $250 in pick-and-pack fees | Monthly minimum: None |
When to Use ShipBob
- Ecommerce retailers: ShipBob is our top solution for small business ecommerce fulfillment
- Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands: It has the infrastructure to optimize transit times, shipping costs, and global expansion
- Business-to-business (B2B) sellers: ShipBob’s B2B program offers a simplified pricing structure and electronic data interchange (EDI)-compliant integrations with a wide range of retailers
- Startups and growing businesses: The company’s “Growth Plan” is available with no minimum order volume requirements and useful tools for scaling
When to Use a ShipBob Alternative
- High-value, heavy, fragile, or oversized products: Red Stag Fulfillment is more economical for special-handling needs
- Slow-moving products or businesses with a low sale-to-stock keeping unit (SKU) ratio: ShipMonk’s pricing model offers lower storage costs
- Amazon-focused sellers: We recommend FBA or another Prime-eligible provider, such as ShipMonk
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.
ShipBob offers great billing transparency; clients’ bills are assessed and updated daily, and all charges are visible in a fully itemized format from your dashboard. The company’s straightforward pricing structure and shipping estimation tools also lead to high billing predictability. However, ShipBob lost points in our evaluation for recent customer reports of overcharges and hidden fees.
Service | Cost | What It Covers |
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Onboarding | $975 for full implementation package or $0 on the Growth Plan for self-onboarding | Onboarding, account setup, stock migration, and platform integration done by a dedicated implementation specialist who stays with you for 30 days |
Receiving | $35 per hour first two hours and $45 per hour following | Inbound stock receipt, unpack, and check-in |
Inventory Storage | $40 per pallet, per month; $10 per shelf, per month; or $5 per bin, per month | Storage, security, space optimization, and inventory management |
Fulfillment Fee | Calculated per package based on weight and shipping distance | Pick and pack, packaging materials, and shipping |
Pick and Pack | $0 for the first 4 picks, 25 cents per additional pick | Picking items from inventory and packing them for shipment |
Packaging Materials | $0 (Included in fulfillment fee) | Free standard boxes, poly mailers, bubble mailers, book folds, and dunnage |
Shipping | Discounted rates available with 5 carrier partners (included in fulfillment fee) | Shipping costs vary depending on the size, weight, and destination of your goods |
Returns | $3 per order (plus shipping cost) | Return processing, quality check, and restocking |
Special Projects | $45 per man hour | Versatile labor to handle open-ended additional needs, such as product labeling and supplier management |
ShipBob provides high-quality services with an impressive accuracy rate of 99.95%. The company’s functionality is also strong; it boasts well-built features that facilitate growth without compromising control, requiring oversight, or forcing users into workarounds.
Click below to expand on the features contributing to ShipBob’s Quality & Functionality score.
Every ShipBob account receives free cloud-based software to manage orders and inventory as well as handle other operations. The software provides visibility into your stock levels across warehouse locations and reports expected depletions—ensuring sufficient stock to always meet demand. You can also see where each active order is within the facility as it is processed and follow shipment tracking.
Multichannel sellers can manage orders on a unified dashboard or refine reports by channel for further insight.
The billing tab allows you to toggle between shipping carriers and speeds to view different cost options. It also provides a detailed itemization of each cost on your fulfillment invoice—visible down to each item on each order—and is updated daily.
ShipBob’s fulfillment software allows you to manage returns and refunds easily, although users also have the option to let ShipBob handle returns for you. It also integrates with leading ecommerce returns platforms, such as Happy Returns and Returnly, to streamline the returns process.
ShipBob’s software (Source: GetApp)
ShipBob has 35 warehouses positioned across the US, and its network is still growing. Many competing providers, such as Red Stag and ShipHero, have a limited network of five or fewer fulfillment centers. ShipBob’s wide network allows for practical inventory distribution, which gives you faster shipping speeds at lower costs.
Clients can store their inventory across as many warehouses as makes logistical sense for their customer base, which gets orders delivered to shoppers as quickly as possible. This includes eight international warehouses for sellers with a global footprint.
ShipBob works with a wide scope of shipping providers—plus smaller regional carriers—to allow for a range of speed, cost, and route options for each order.
ShipBob’s wide warehouse network allows for strategic and simple inventory distribution that can be managed from your fulfillment software. (Source: ShipBob)
ShipBob’s 2-Day Express Shipping Program relies on a proprietary algorithm that uses a combination of ground, air, and regional carriers to provide high on-time delivery rates for two-day orders, while still being a cost-effective solution.
The company’s impressive shipping offers work in tandem with its fast turnaround times. All orders placed before noon are processed and shipped out the same day; later orders are processed the following day. ShipBob also guarantees that inventory shipments will be fully received and processed within five business days of arrival.
ShipBob measures and publishes data on its shipping speeds on the ShipBob Status page, where you can see weekly insights on carrier performance, receiving times, and more.
ShipBob tracks key metrics and data for each account to offer advanced reporting within its software. This gives business owners insights to help make strategic decisions and promote growth.
Reports can be generated on peak fulfillment times, promotional impact, expense breakdowns, revenue of orders shipped by day, sales by channel, forecasted demand, sales and quantity of orders by zone, and much more.
ShipBob offers some of the best connectivity in its class, delivering prebuilt, turnkey integrations with over 75 partners. These direct integrations are free and take only 30 seconds to three minutes to connect, and most are two-way compatible.
The company also offers application programming interface (API) capabilities for custom connectivity with platforms it hasn’t yet developed turnkey integrations for. This process takes longer and incurs an additional cost.
Here’s a current list of ShipBob’s available integrations:
- Ecommerce platforms and marketplaces: Shopify, Shopify Plus, Amazon, BigCommerce, eBay, Magento, Squarespace, Square, Walmart, Wix, WooCommerce, and NetSuite
- Operations, inventory, and order management: Brightpearl, Brij, ChannelApe, Cin7, Cogsy, Cymbio, Fulfil.io, Inventory Planner, Linnworks, Logicbroker, Order Desk, PackageBee, Shypyard, Skubana, SPS Commerce, and Zentail
- Returns management platforms: Happy Returns, Loop Returns, Returnly
- Freight and shipping solutions: DHL, FedEx, UPS, USPS, AfterShip, Anvyl, Echo Global Logistics, EasyPost, FlavorCloud, Flexport, Freightos, Route, Rush, Shippo, and ShipStation
- Ecommerce marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), and customer support: CartHook, CheckoutChamp, EcoCart, Gorgias, Klaviyo, OctaneAI, Okendo, Omnisend, Ordergroove, PageFly, Privy, Quartile, Recharge, Rise.ai, Sezzle, Shop Circle, Simplr, Skio, Smartrr, TalentPop, Tydo, Zaius, and Zip
- Custom packaging and design solutions: Arka, Noissue, Packhelp, and Packlane
- Branding, marketing, and web development agencies: adQuadrant, Blanka, BVACCEL, eHouse Studio, Envoy, Eventige, Hawke Media, Priceless Consulting, The Stable, MuteSix, ROI Revolution, and SeaMonster Studios
- Accounting, tax, and financing: Avalara, Avask, Bookkeeper360, Canusa Logistics, Clearco, DSP Insurance Services, Firstbase.io, Go Global Ecommerce, Kickfurther, Mercury, OFX, Rho, SimplyVAT, TaxJar, and ZonKeepers
Overall, ShipBob’s special services and features generally are robust—but its incompatibility with Amazon Prime orders cost the company significantly in this category. Since ShipBob isn’t eligible for SPF, its users who sell on Amazon must either:
- Participate in the Fulfillment By Merchant (FMB) non-Prime program for their Amazon sales
- Have ShipBob prep and send a portion of their inventory to Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA), where it can be fulfilled for Prime orders
Beyond this shortfall, ShipBob offers an impressive range of services for importers, startups, omnichannel sellers, and dropshippers—plus hard-to-find special features that support traditional ecommerce businesses. ShipBob’s specialty services include:
ShipBob supports both cross-border shipping and international fulfillment.
Sellers can store their products domestically and use Delivery Duty Paid (DDP) services that display shipping, tax, and duty costs at checkout—eliminating unexpected fees upon delivery. ShipBob leverages strong partnerships to offer discounted cross-border shipping rates, allowing sellers to reach buyers in other countries.
Alternatively, businesses can opt for localized international fulfillment by storing a percentage of their inventory in any of ShipBob’s eight non-US warehouses. This way, most orders don’t have to go through cross-border customs or be subject to certain import taxes.
Localized fulfillment can help businesses successfully expand into new foreign markets with fast delivery and low shipping costs. Most small business-friendly 3PLs don’t have a global warehouse network to accomplish this, which is why ShipBob is our top pick for international expansion.
Unlike most fulfillment companies, ShipBob is happy to work with businesses of all sizes. Its Growth Plan is designed for nascent operations fulfilling fewer than 400 orders per month, and there’s no order volume requirement to enroll.
The Growth Plan is a self-service platform that enables businesses to tailor ShipBob’s services to their needs and make adjustments as they scale. Straightforward and detailed resources are provided to help newcomers understand the fulfillment process and make the most of their investment.
ShipBob offers a Customization Suite to create a customer experience that stands out. Businesses can use the services to integrate branding at multiple touchpoints throughout the order and develop a memorable unboxing experience.
ShipBob clients can:
- Use custom boxes, mailers, and other shipping supplies
- Add marketing inserts to orders
- Have customer gift notes printed during packing
- Add a business name to shipping labels
- Specify how kitted orders should be packed through video instruction
Custom packaging ShipBob uses for beverage brand Mad Tasty (Source: ShipBob)
ShipBob can’t design or create custom-printed packaging materials, but staff can help you find the right provider through its partner ecosystem. Additionally, users can integrate with third-party solutions like AfterShip to create branded tracking pages. ShipBob can automatically send tracking emails once each order has shipped.
ShipBob also offers FreightBob—an end-to-end managed freight and inventory distribution program for importers, powered by Flexport. ShipBob users that import stock from China can use FreightBob to reduce time-in-transit, lower freight costs, and distribute inventory strategically across ShipBob fulfillment centers.
This program leverages faster ships with priority discharge in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, ports to shorten transit time to 15 to 30 days. Staff books your less than container-load (LCL) freight on 100% guaranteed weekly sailings at highly competitive rates, even for shipments as small as 1 cubic meter. These shipments can clear customs during transit as well as skip destination transload and container freight station (CFS) steps—making the journey even faster (and more predictable.)
ShipBob delivers EDI compliance and unique programs to support omnichannel sellers through retail dropshipping and B2B distribution.
The company’s dropshipping solution enables you to sell products directly on a partnered retailer’s online store and have ShipBob fulfill those orders directly to the end customer. This feature can help traditional sellers increase their sales by expanding into stores that work through dropshippers. ShipBob is partnered with dozens of participating retailers, with more being added each week.
ShipBob’s retail distribution solution automates fulfillment of B2B orders coming from wholesale and retail partners. 70-plus retailers are currently connected to ShipBob’s B2B program, allowing your store to reach new channels.
In addition to outsourced fulfillment, ShipBob can support in-house fulfillment through full-stack fulfillment and warehouse management software.
The software (called Merchant Plus) gives you ShipBob’s proprietary WMS for superior control over your own in-house operation. This solution can replace multiple inventory-, order-, and shipping-management platforms to streamline in-house fulfillment and help businesses scale.
Merchant Plus comes with all of ShipBob’s extensive turnkey integrations. It also allows you to leverage ShipBob’s global fulfillment network when needed for flexible hybrid fulfillment.
ShipBob scored highly in our ease of use category, largely thanks to its user-friendly software and high operational transparency. Here’s a summary of the factors we considered:
- Onboarding: When onboarding with ShipBob, you’re set up with an implementation team that helps you get everything dialed in—from configuring your shipping options to integrating your online stores.
- Accuracy: ShipBob boasts a 99.95% accuracy rate in fulfilling orders, with 99.89% of orders shipping on time.
- Error policies: In the case of operational errors, including picking errors, packaging errors, order swaps, lost inventory, and fulfillment delays, ShipBob will reconcile within 90 days of the issue. Its standard policy is to pay for any necessary shipping and reverse logistics to correct the mistake or to provide credit up to $100 of the manufacturer’s value per order.
- Customer service: Customer service is available by phone from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time Monday to Friday, and via live chat from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. CT seven days a week.
- Transparency: ShipBob’s software provides visibility into each of your orders by letting you track their progress through the facility. Billing transparency is also provided through detailed, itemized invoices updated daily.
Overall, we find that ShipBob offers good value for small businesses seeking outsourced fulfillment. The company makes enterprise-level order fulfillment and logistics accessible to online stores of all sizes, including startups and nontraditional businesses.
Its robust fulfillment software, wide warehouse network, unique special services, and high accuracy rates make ShipBob stand out among its competitors.
However, ShipBob’s high storage costs take away from its affordability, which is something that must be considered for sellers dealing in large or slow-moving goods. We also factored in negative ShipBob reviews, which have increased in recent months.
What Users Say in ShipBob Reviews
ShipBob has a healthy overall rating on trusted review sites, with a few opinionated 1-star reviews among many glowing 5-star reviews. However, negative ShipBob reviews have increased recently, dropping the company’s rating on Trustpilot from “Excellent” to “Good.”
- Trustpilot: 4.0-star rating from 500-plus reviews
- Shopify App Store: 4.4-star rating from about 150 reviews
- G2: 3.5-star rating from about 85 reviews
Many positive reviewers cite their relationship with their account manager, often mentioning them by name and applauding their responsiveness and knowledgeability. Others speak to their experience with ShipBob’s software, noting its usefulness in many aspects of their operation. Multiple users shared that the service’s two-day express shipping option helped them decrease shopping cart abandonment rates and lower their overall shipping costs.
Reviewers who mention the Growth Plan describe it as somewhat difficult to set up but worthwhile for its impact on their small businesses.
Negative ShipBob reviews mention frequent operational errors, including late orders, incorrectly addressed shipments, improperly packed products, misplaced inventory, and unmet SLAs. The company has experienced rapid growth recently, and several reviews attribute these issues to ShipBob’s use of subpar contracted warehouses and employees. Many of the negative ShipBob reviews also mention overcharges and hidden fees as well as poor customer service.
ShipBob Users Like | ShipBob Users Don’t Like |
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Responsive support from dedicated account representative | Inventory losses |
Ease of use and simple onboarding | Customer support issues |
Software functionality and interface | Billing discrepancies |
Low shipping costs | Unmet service-level agreements (SLAs) |
In the News:
ShipBob faces backlash on social media amid accusations that the company—and other venture capital-backed 3PLs—is responsible for severe overcharges, frequent mistakes, and holding inventory “hostage.”
Methodology: How We Evaluated ShipBob
To evaluate ShipBob and other fulfillment services, we consider the factors that matter most to small retail and ecommerce businesses.
We evaluate each provider 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% 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.
ShipBob earned perfect marks in this category, scoring points for its wide fulfillment network, extensive integrations, and overall speed.
20% of Overall Score
This category examines the providers’ pricing transparency, billing transparency, and billing predictability.
ShipBob’s pricing has a straightforward structure and an easy-to-use billing portal that provides high levels of transparency. However, customer reports of hidden fees and overcharges brought its score for this category down to 4.88 out of 5.
15% of Overall Score
This score considered customer service accessibility, software usability, and operational transparency. 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.
ShipBob earned points for its extended customer service hours, but providers with 24/7 service scored higher. We also awarded points for ShipBob’s accessibility to startups, robust fulfillment platform, and ability to support growth. It lost points for its minimum usage requirements, ultimately scoring 4.23 out of 5.
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.
ShipBob was docked for its incompatibility with SFP orders and lack of climate control, but earned points for its wide range of other specialty services, earning a final score of 3.25 out of 5.
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
There are a decent number of negative ShipBob reviews, which cost the provider points in this category. We gave it high marks for its overall value, ease of use, and impressive specialty services, totaling 4.38 out of 5 points.
ShipBob Review Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
ShipBob provides third-party distribution and order fulfillment services for retail businesses, including ecommerce brands, B2B sellers, subscription box companies, and dropshippers.
When businesses have too many orders to fulfill themselves, they can hire ShipMonk to handle their inventory storage, order processing, packaging, and delivery.
ShipBob also provides freight management services for importers as well as WMS software for other 3PLs.
ShipBob’s biggest competitors are Amazon FBA and ShipMonk. These companies are frequently compared to ShipBob because they use a similar infrastructure and offer similar order fulfillment services geared toward ecommerce sellers.
Read our review of the 4 best ShipBob competitors to learn more.
Other competing fulfillment companies include:
- Red Stag Fulfillment
- ShipHero
- Saltbox
- Whitebox
- Deliverr
- ShipNetwork (Rakuten Super Logistics)
- Huboo
- eFulfillment Service
- Ships-a-lot
ShipBob’s pricing is mostly based on usage, so your total bill will depend on a few factors, including order volume, shipping speed, shipping distance, and amount of inventory in storage.
Here’s a summary of ShipBob costs:
- Receiving: $35 per hour for the first two hours; $45 per hour following
- Storage: $40 per pallet, per month; $10 per shelf, per month; or $5 per bin, per month
- Pick and pack: $0 for the first four picks; 25 cents per additional pick
- Shipping: Varies depending on package size, weight, zone, and speed; discounted rates available
Overall, ShipBob is an affordable 3PL for most small businesses, but it charges higher storage rates than many competitors. For this reason, it may be more expensive for large or slow-moving goods.
ShipBob is designed for SMBs that sell physical products. You may be a good candidate for ShipBob if your store processes more orders than you can—or want to—fulfill on your own.
It’s also a good fit for businesses that want to expand internationally or offer affordable, fast shipping options.
The company specializes in DTC ecommerce sales but works with brick-and-mortar retailers and B2B sellers as well.
- ShipBob is not well-suited for Amazon sellers who rely on the Prime badge to stay competitive.
Since the company isn’t SFP-eligible, you would need to either lose your Prime designation or use FBA in tandem with ShipBob. Ultimately, an alternative like ShipMonk or FBA is a better option if you need Amazon Prime eligibility.
- Sellers dealing in products that require special handling should also seek an alternative fulfillment solution. ShipBob doesn’t offer liability insurance, services for goods like ammunition, or economical storage for oversized goods. We recommend Red Stag Fulfillment for these needs.
Bottom Line
Simple pricing, useful special services, and a large global footprint make ShipBob a good choice for most small businesses. It provides tools to promote growth while efficiently serving existing customers.
We recommend evaluating multiple options to ensure a good match between you and your fulfillment provider.
If you’re still unsure whether ShipBob is right for you, broker sites, such as WarehousingAndFulfillment.com, compare your specific needs to 500-plus prescreened companies to find the best fit for your business. Plus, the service is completely free to use.