2022 Whitebox Fulfillment Review: 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.
Whitebox is a unique 3PL (third-party logistics) company that provides full-service marketplace management solutions to small and midsize businesses. The company consists of an order fulfillment operation and a separate marketing agency—which are usually used in tandem by Whitebox clients.
In our evaluation of the best order fulfillment companies for small businesses, Whitebox scored 3.82 out of 5. Its comprehensive services allow businesses to outsource multiple aspects of their operation to experienced pros. But, our Whitebox review finds that it’s not the best choice for businesses seeking only fulfillment services.
Whitebox Fulfillment
Overall Score: 3.82
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- 2-day shipping for 99% of the continental US
- Full-service marketplace management platform handles your listings for you
- Amazon advantages through Whitebox’s highly rated seller account
- High-level client support from dedicated account manager
What's Missing
- Not ideal for businesses seeking fulfillment services only
- Prohibitive order minimums
- Monthly platform fee for software
- Lack of pricing transparency
When to Use Whitebox
- For a hands-off operation: Whitebox handles listing creation and post-sales servicing.
- Amazon sellers: It specializes in Amazon sales and works well in tandem with FBA.
- Brands and product manufacturers: Whitebox’s turnkey services focus on branding and growth.
- Multipreneurs: Outsourcing marketplace management to Whitebox gives you time for other ventures.
When to Use an Alternative
- Startups: Whitebox has a 1,000-order monthly minimum; consider ShipBob’s instead.
- Special handling needs: Red Stag Fulfillment is more economical for high-value, heavy, fragile, or oversized products.
- Perishable or temperature-sensitive goods: ShipBob has FDA-certified handling and climate-controlled storage.
- Global distribution: ShipBob has an international warehouse network.
Whitebox has services to take care of your entire ecommerce sales process—from listing creation and order fulfillment to post-sales servicing. This unique, hassle-free approach is geared toward sellers wanting to outsource as much of their operation as possible.
The company’s main focus is on Amazon; clients can use its highly rated Amazon seller account in conjunction with FBA to achieve maximized visibility. But Whitebox also fulfills multichannel orders and can promote non-Amazon stores.
If you want to outsource fulfillment but continue managing your own operation in-house, other providers are more economical and specialized than Whitebox. It’s also a poor fit for heavy, oversized, or fragile products, and it can’t accept any perishable or temperature-sensitive goods. Some startups and low-volume businesses should seek an alternative as well due to Whitebox’s 1,000-order/month minimum.
Whitebox Deciding Factors | |
|---|---|
Supported Business Types | Small to midsize businesses, product manufacturers, ecommerce stores, retail stores, DTC sellers, B2B sellers, dropshipping suppliers, subscription-box services |
Standout Features |
|
Minimum Requirements | 1,000 orders/month |
Setup and Onboarding Fees | None |
Pricing | Custom-quoted |
Contract Length | 6 months+ |
US Warehouse Locations | 3 |
International Warehouse Locations | None |
Shipping Partner Options | FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL, Amazon |
Customer Support | Via phone or email, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday through Friday, Eastern time. |
Whitebox Alternatives
 |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
Best for: DTC and B2B ecommerce fulfillment; FDA-certified storage and handling | Best for: Multichannel sellers seeking Seller-Fulfilled Prime (SFP) fulfillment | Best for: Oversized, heavy, high-value, or fragile items | Best for: On-demand services, labor, and space for scaling in-house fulfillment |
Monthly minimum: None | Monthly minimum: $250 in pick and pack fees | Monthly minimum: ≈200 orders | 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.
Whitebox doesn’t publish its current pricing. We’ve been told by the company that its fees are custom-quoted, but Whitebox has not disclosed any information on how it calculates each client’s fulfillment costs. This lack of pricing transparency cost it points in our evaluation.
That being said, its fulfillment software features an advanced billing platform that delivers high levels of visibility into your monthly bills. We awarded this transparency, which helped to bolster the company’s score.
Whitebox Fulfillment Fees
Whitebox’s fee structure is different from most other fulfillment companies’ pricing. Rather than being billed for each service individually, clients pay a monthly “all-in fulfillment fee” that covers all related charges—including receiving, pick and pack, shipping, and marketplace management. The “all-in fulfillment fee” does not include storage costs, which are billed additionally.
The company’s order management software also incurs a monthly fee. Advanced cross-channel data-management software, called Omnifi, is also available at an additional cost—or for free to clients that meet a minimum billing requirement.
It’s widely reported elsewhere online that Whitebox charges a flat, universal services fee equal to 10% of the client’s sales, plus a $3,000 onboarding charge. The company told us directly that these figures are inaccurate—its fulfillment services are not commission-based, and onboarding is free. We didn’t receive any details to further clarify pricing.
Whitebox advertises free receiving for single-SKU, pelletized shipments, and fulfillment fees as low as 99 cents per order.
A contract is required to partner with Whitebox—typically a six-month duration.
Whitebox achieves high-quality services with minimal errors, but it’s missing a couple of the components that enable some competing fulfillment providers to offer maximum functionality.
Orders are picked and packed with 99.9% accuracy, largely thanks to Whitebox’s advanced WMS (warehouse management system) and automation technologies. The company also reports a 99.8% on-time delivery rate.
But Whitebox’s network of three warehouse locations pales in comparison to our other top picks—such as ShipBob, which boasts 23 US fulfillment centers and seven international warehouses. Whitebox also offers fewer pre-built integrations than most other competitors.
Click below to expand on the features that contribute to Whitebox’s quality and functionality.
Two-day Shipping
Whitebox works with UPS, USPS, FedEx, and DHL (in addition to Amazon Logistics) to achieve two-day delivery options for 99% of US customers.
The company’s strategically located warehouses enable cost-effective shipping by distributing each client’s inventory near their customer bases. Whitebox also offers flexible shipping solutions based on consumer needs, your brand’s preferences, and the company’s own optimized algorithms.
Fulfillment Software
Whitebox’s fulfillment dashboard provides a centralized platform to manage sales and fulfillment across your marketplaces. It features automation tools, inventory management, demand planning features, order management, returns history tracking, and expiration date/lot tracking.
A snapshot of the Whitebox Dashboard displaying sales data (Source: Whitebox)
The web-based software connects with Whitebox’s Omnifi Insights platform to incorporate product promotion and marketing data. Omnifi, covered in detail below, is only available to clients using Whitebox’s Growth Agency service—which isn’t included in a standard fulfillment partnership.
Fulfillment Network
Whitebox has three fulfillment centers in the US, located in Las Vegas, Baltimore, and Memphis. Though the company’s warehouse network is significantly smaller than those of many competitors, its facilities are strategically positioned to cover 99% of the US with guaranteed two-day shipping.
Whitebox’s warehouse locations (Source: Whitebox)
Many competing fulfillment companies offer similar delivery guarantees. But the advantage of a wide warehouse network (such as that of ShipBob or Deliverr) is that it achieves two-day ground shipping anywhere within the continental US, typically incurring lower overall shipping costs than Whitebox.
Whitebox’s facilities are equipped with proprietary WMS (warehouse management systems) that can support specialized inventory needs, like expiration and lot code tracking/prioritization. It also works with the company’s fulfillment software to connect sales and inventory data for accurate demand planning.
Integrations
The following list of integrations was provided to us by a Whitebox representative. Unfortunately, the company’s turnkey integration catalog is very limited.
- Ecommerce platforms and marketplaces: Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce
Whitebox’s unique value comes from its ability to independently tackle most of the tasks involved in running your ecommerce business. This could eliminate the need for certain integrations such as connections with multichannel management tools, inventory/order management platforms, and marketing or CRM solutions. That being said, the lack of integrations would be much more problematic for clients that only use its fulfillment services and opt out of its Growth Agency programs.
Whitebox does offer API and electronic data interchange (EDI) capabilities for custom connectivity with platforms for which it hasn’t yet developed integrations.
Whitebox offers most of the standard specialty services that we look for in a fulfillment provider such as assembly/kitting, international shipping, and Amazon Seller-fulfilled Prime eligibility. However, it lacks climate control and can’t provide local fulfillment in any foreign markets, which cost it points in our evaluation.
Whitebox stands out against the competition in its special services that go beyond fulfillment. The company offers comprehensive solutions to manage other aspects of your business—creating a hands-off, turnkey platform.
Here’s a rundown of Whitebox’s specialty services:
Marketplace Management
Whitebox is staffed with a wide array of ecommerce professionals who tackle listing creation (including product photography, description copywriting, profitability studies, and SEO), customer service, and marketing on your behalf. Combined with its order fulfillment services, these features provide a full-service solution.
The company can also deliver tools to automate the management of your online marketplaces— including review alerts, order tracking, reseller tracking, and more.
For Amazon sellers, Whitebox can use its own Amazon seller account 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.
When partnering with Whitebox for your Amazon sales, the company will manage FBA for you—including prepping inventory and dealing with Seller Support.
You’ll also get the platform benefits of selling on Whitebox’s Amazon account, which maintains 98% lifetime positive feedback from over 26,000 ratings. These stats can dramatically boost your products’ visibility in searches and help you win the Featured Offer Buy Box.
Although Whitebox clients aren’t building their own seller identity on Amazon, it doesn’t impact their brand recognition and loyalty. Amazon shoppers are notoriously more conscious of seller rating rather than identity, which is part of how the Whitebox platform maximizes listing exposure—the company is a Top 200 Amazon Seller.
Growth Agency
The Whitebox platform combines fulfillment operations with a well-equipped marketing agency. It begins by setting you up with a dedicated data and content manager who analyzes your store’s data against industry reports to highlight consumer search trends and shopping behavior specific to your product catalog.
Using this information, your content manager (along with the rest of Whitebox’s Marketplace Services Team) evaluates the top-ranking competitors in your product categories. Then, they identify the most effective keywords and content to include in the title, bullet points, descriptions, and backend keyword fields on your product pages.
These listing changes are closely monitored by the marketing team to measure impact and build more meaningful insights. Over time, they can provide insight on:
- Journey mapping
- Product configurations to offer
- Shipping incentives to influence shopping cart activity
- What price is most likely to lead to a purchase
- Keyword optimization
According to Whitebox, these services drive an average of 15% monthly growth for its customers.
Reporting/Analytics Software
In addition to standard fulfillment software, Whitebox also offers its proprietary Omnifi Insights software. Together, these platforms achieve full ecommerce multichannel management.
With a focus on marketing and ad strategy, Omnifi can help clients leverage geographic sales trends, create new product offerings, evaluate the customer journey, and identify profitable areas of expansion.
The platform defragments marketing, sales, and logistics data, delivering actionable figures to refine your marketing efforts—such as which ads are moving products, what products are performing best, and where each item is seeing the most success. Omnifi’s analytics extend into return on ad spend (ROAS), detailed consumer behavior insights, and benchmarking your performance against the competition and market.
Omnifi is a part of Whitebox’s Growth Agency service, which is not included in a standard fulfillment partnership. The software is available for free to clients who meet a minimum volume requirement or at an additional cost to all other partners.
Post-sale Servicing
Whitebox’s business model heavily relies on FBA, which has its own team of customer service reps that handle inquiries about your orders. But when it comes to more specialized help or multichannel servicing, sellers are usually left to fend for themselves.
In line with its end-to-end service platform, Whitebox also has a team of representatives that handle your customers’ needs. They are available by phone during standard business hours or by email. The company promises on-brand and friction-free fulfillment, including 100% customer satisfaction around the level of support it provides.
Retail Dropshipping
Whitebox’s dropshipping program enables you to expand your brand’s presence to new retailers that work through dropshippers such as Wayfair, Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, Best Buy, QVC, Sam’s Club, Chewy, and more.
Your products sell directly on the partnered retailer’s online store, and each order is then forwarded to Whitebox. Whitebox fulfills the order by sending it directly to the customer, and you receive payment for the product. Exposure from dropshipping on new marketplaces can quickly generate more sales and bring in additional customers with low cost to entry.
Whitebox is an easy-to-use service thanks to its intuitive software, high scalability, and excellent operational transparency.
However, the company’s client support availability is limited to standard business hours, and its high minimum order requirements may make it difficult for startups and young businesses to use.
Here’s a summary of the factors we took into account in our evaluation:
- Support: Each Whitebox client is set up with a dedicated account manager, plus a separate data and content manager to handle actions from the Growth Agency. Service hours are 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday through Friday, Eastern time.
The company reports that these individual partnerships are long-lasting to promote knowledge and understanding of the retailer’s operations. It is rare that an account manager will be reassigned—unless requested by the client.
- Quality Control: Whitebox works with you to create a checklist-formatted document for each of your products, which is used by its warehouse employees to make sure each shipment is up to your store’s standards.
- Error Policies: Whitebox’s error policies are not published online, and we were unable to receive any clarification from members of the staff. It is noted on the company’s site that your customers’ satisfaction is 100% guaranteed, although no further explanation is provided.
- Accuracy: Whitebox touts a 99.9% accuracy rate in fulfilling orders, with 99.8% of orders shipping on time.
- Order Processing Transparency: The Whitebox Dashboard provides insight into where your orders are within the fulfillment process.
- Billing Transparency: Whitebox provides payout statements and sales channel/inventory reporting via a client portal.
- Multichannel capabilities: Though it specializes in Amazon sales, Whitebox can manage all of your sales channels and provide omnichannel visibility from its dashboard.
Whitebox ranked highly in our Expert Score category, earning points for its impressive services, good ease of use, and general popularity with its users. Its comprehensive special features create a unique, all-in-one solution that can propel your online business while you focus on production, in-store channels, or separate ventures.
That being said, Whitebox’s full-service approach may be overkill for many small businesses. If you’re seeking order fulfillment rather than turnkey marketplace management, we recommend considering another provider with a stronger focus on fulfillment.
For this reason, we deducted points for Whitebox’s overall value.
What Users Say in Whitebox Reviews
Online Whitebox Fulfillment reviews are mixed. Many users report highly effective and professional client support, while other users claim to have reached out to Whitebox for weeks on end without receiving help.
Many one-star reviews left on the business’s Google listing don’t offer any explanation, but some of the poor ratings include detailed descriptions of a problematic experience. Clients report needing to constantly oversee the company’s actions on their account to avoid unshipped orders, overcharges, and ongoing delays.
Positive reviews of Whitebox mention satisfaction with the staff, delivery speed, and warehouse efficiency. As mentioned above, the reviews and ratings of Whitebox’s Amazon seller account are outstanding; it maintains 98% lifetime positive feedback from over 26,000 ratings. This strongly suggests that the customers of Whitebox’s clients are generally satisfied.
- Facebook: 4.6-star rating from more than 15 reviews
- Google: 3-star rating from about 20 reviews
- Reviews.io: 4-star rating from about 3 reviews
In Whitebox fulfillment reviews, we noticed the following trends:
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Responsive support | Failure to adhere to SLA (service-level agreement) |
| Efficient operations and employees | Inattention to non-Amazon sales channels |
| Software functionality and interface | Billing discrepancies and overcharges |
| Fast delivery | Operational errors |
Methodology: How We Evaluated Whitebox
In our Whitebox review, and to evaluate competing fulfillment services, we consider the factors that matter most to small retail and ecommerce businesses. We research each provider by examining 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 companies as potential customers rather than reporters. We received a detailed demonstration of Whitebox’s software from its staff and found the company to be highly transparent with its features and operational processes.
We then 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%
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.
Points for this category were deducted due to Whitebox’s small warehouse network, as well as its limited array of native integrations. However, the company has an impressive lineup of shipping options and high accuracy rates, which helped to earn it a total score of 3.65 out of 5 points.
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.
Unfortunately, Whitebox is very unwilling to disclose pricing information until clients reach a certain point within the sales process. This lack of pricing transparency cost it points, but the provider’s robust billing portal helped it reach a final score of 3.38 out of 5.
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.
Whitebox was awarded points for its scalability and its highly intuitive software that provides excellent operational transparency. It was docked for its business-only customer service hours and steep minimum order requirements, ultimately scoring 3.45 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.
Whitebox earned a score of 3.95 out of 5 in this category, receiving points for its Amazon Prime compatibility, sophisticated reporting functions, and advanced customization options. The company was docked here for lacking climate control and international warehouse locations.
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.
Whitebox received high marks in this category for its robust specialty services, popularity, and painless ease of use. Since the company focuses on providing full-service marketplace management, it’s not the best service for small businesses seeking outsourced order fulfillment—which cost it points for lacking value.
*Percentages of overall score
Whitebox Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Who Should Use Whitebox?
Whitebox is a good fit for ecommerce businesses seeking a full-service solution to outsource their order fulfillment and marketplace management.
Many of Whitebox’s services are centered around branding and customization, making it a good fit for ecommerce brands and product manufacturers. It also specializes in Amazon sales and works well in tandem with FBA.
When Should I Use a Whitebox Alternative?
- Unlike traditional fulfillment companies, Whitebox delivers a range of services beyond fulfillment, including listing generation, marketing, and customer service. If you want to outsource fulfillment but continue managing your business in-house, we recommend a more specialized 3PL, such as ShipBob.
- Local international fulfillment has a number of advantages over cross-border shipping. All of Whitebox’s facilities are located in the US, so sellers targeting foreign customer bases may find better success with a global 3PL. We recommend ShipBob.
- Whitebox 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.
Bottom Line
Whitebox provides solutions for busy entrepreneurs and multichannel merchants by handling the entire sales process from start to finish. However, the extensive services provided by it aren’t the best choice for emerging businesses that need to stick to a limited fulfillment budget or want high levels of control over their operation.
If you’re seeking a more traditional fulfillment partner, broker site WarehousingAndFulfillment.com can compare your specific needs to 500+ pre-screened companies to find the best fit for your business. Plus, the service is completely free to use.
Visit WarehousingAndFulfillment.com
