The decision most eCommercers rush
Your 3PL is your brand's last touchpoint, even if you do it yourself. Choose wisely →
Well, hello, and welcome to this week's edition of the eCommercer.
I've been thinking about decisions that feel operational but are actually strategic. The kind you rush through because they seem like admin. Necessary but not exciting. Tick the box and move on.
Fulfilment is definitely one of those decisions.
So, when you're growing and think about outsourcing, the temptation is to send the same email to ten providers asking "What's your pricing?" and go with whoever comes back cheapest. After all, it's just shipping boxes, right?
But your 3PL (even if you do it yourself) is the last touchpoint before your customer receives their order. This is critical to understand as it represents your brand in that final, critical moment. Everything you've done to win that customer, and the experience they have depends on a partner you might have chosen based on a spreadsheet comparison.
This week on the podcast, we dig into this idea. And it helped me question some of the things that we do. Not in a dramatic way. Just the useful kind of rethink where someone says something and you find yourself still turning it over in your head days later.
Have a great week, wherever you are in the world.
Until next time,
This Week's Episode of the eCommerce Podcast →
Why the Best 3PL Relationships Start With the Most Questions
Dave Gulas came to eCommerce fulfilment from pharmaceuticals, where everything ships overnight and problems get solved immediately because lives depend on it. That background shaped how he approaches logistics partnerships, and it's quite different from what most brands experience.
He's heard all the horror stories. Warehouses going bust without telling their clients. Inventory tracked on spreadsheets. Response times measured in days. In one case, a provider defaulted on their lease and essentially disappeared with a brand's entire inventory.
"It can be a big hole to dig out of," Dave told me. "Sometimes businesses don't recover."
The pattern he sees is brands treating fulfilment as a commodity, which means shopping purely on price. His advice is disarmingly simple. Ask more questions. A lot more.
"The best clients, the best long-term relationships are the ones that ask the most questions on the front end. You can't ask too many."
Dave GulasDig into their warehouse management system (if they mention spreadsheets, run), their average response time when something goes wrong, and references you actually call. If you can do a site visit, do it. You'll learn more in thirty minutes walking a warehouse floor than in ten sales calls.
In this episode, we cover:
The mindset shift that separates brands who thrive from those who struggle with their logistics,
Three technology red flags that should make you walk away immediately,
The questions that reveal whether a 3PL will help you scale or leave you digging out of a hole,
Why Dave doesn't respond to "What's your pricing?" emails (and what to ask instead), and
The order volume sweet spot where outsourcing makes the most sense.
Guest Links:
Company: EZDC 3PL → https://ezdc3pl.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegulas/
Related Episode →
The Hidden Cost of "Good Enough" Accuracy
This connects to something Harry Drajpuch shared with me a while back. Harry has over 40 years in logistics and made a point that's stuck with me ever since.
If you ship 10,000 orders a year with 99% accuracy, that sounds impressive. Until you realise 99% means 100 customers won't get the right order. At roughly £18 per error to correct, you're spending £18,000 annually fixing preventable mistakes. That's before you count the customers who never come back.
"When you tell customers 'I'm gonna give you 99%,' they're excited about it," Harry explained. "Until they put pencil to paper and ask what that 1% actually means."
It's another example of a decision that seems operational but carries strategic weight. The right fulfilment partner isn't just about getting boxes out the door. It's about accuracy systems, technology stacks, and treating your customer's experience as seriously as you do.
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