The IMD Guide
eCommerce fulfilment; a comprehensive guide
Everything growing brands need to know about outsourcing storage, picking, packing and shipping — plus an interactive calculator to estimate what it'll actually cost you each month.
JQ
Jake Quenet
12 min read · Updated May 2026
Most growing ecommerce brands hit the same wall. Orders are coming in faster than you can pack them, the spare room is full of stock, and you're spending evenings printing labels instead of building the business. At some point, fulfilment stops being a task and starts being the bottleneck.
This guide covers everything you need to know to make a confident decision about outsourcing — what fulfilment actually involves, how 3PL pricing really works, the signals that say "now's the time," and the questions worth asking any provider you're considering.
01 — THE FUNDAMENTALS
Start with the basics
What fulfilment actually is, the lifecycle of an order, and the terms that get used interchangeably — but really shouldn't.
What is ecommerce fulfilment?
Ecommerce fulfilment is everything that happens between "order placed" and "parcel delivered" — receiving stock, storing it, picking the right items when an order comes in, packing them, and shipping them out. It's the operational backbone of any online business. Get it right and customers barely notice. Get it wrong and they don't come back.
THE ORDER LIFECYCLE
01
Stock in
Inventory arrives at the warehouse, gets checked in and logged into the system so every unit is tracked from day one.
02
Storage
Products are organised on the warehouse floor in a way that makes picking fast, accurate, and easy to audit.
03
Order received
Sales channels feed orders straight to the warehouse the moment a customer hits checkout — no manual exports.
04
Pick & pack
Items are picked from shelves, scan-verified for accuracy, and packed to your spec — branded, plain, or custom.
05
Ship
Label generated, courier collects, tracking goes live — typically same-day if the order was placed before 3pm.
06
Returns
Parcels come back, are assessed and processed on receipt, and your live stock count updates automatically.
Terms that get muddled
The fulfilment world has a few terms that get used interchangeably but mean very different things. A clean break:
OFTEN CONFUSED
Warehouse vs. fulfilment centre
A warehouse holds stock. A fulfilment centre actively processes orders — receiving, picking, packing, dispatching, often same-day — and is integrated with your sales channels so everything runs in real time.
OFTEN CONFUSED
Fulfilment vs. shipping
Shipping is one part of fulfilment. Fulfilment is the whole operation — storage, order management, picking, packing, dispatch. When people say "outsourcing fulfilment," they mean all of it, not just the courier leg.
JARGON
What's a 3PL?
Third-party logistics — an outsourced partner that runs your fulfilment for you. You send them stock, they store it and handle every order, so you can focus on growth instead of getting boxes out the door.
In-house vs. outsourced
Most growing brands eventually hit a point where outsourcing becomes the obvious move. The tradeoffs side-by-side:
IN-HOUSE
You run the operation
Full control over every detail of the operation
Significant upfront investment in space, staff and systems
Hard to flex capacity up or down with demand
All overheads sit on your P&L
OUTSOURCED
A 3PL runs it for you
Plug into existing infrastructure and courier rates
Pay only for the capacity you actually use
Scales naturally with order volume
Specialists running it day-to-day
02 — KNOWING WHEN
When to make the move
There's no single threshold for outsourcing, but the signals are usually loud once you know what to listen for.
SIGNS IT'S TIME
You should look at outsourcing if…
•
You're packing orders instead of growing the business.
•
The spare room — or self-managed unit — is overflowing.
•
Shipping costs are high because you have no volume leverage with couriers.
•
Dispatch deadlines slip during peak periods.
•
You're juggling Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop and others as separate processes.
Outsourcing doesn't just buy back time — it usually reduces per-order cost once you factor in courier rates, packaging, labour and overheads.
Two terms worth knowing properly
"Pick & pack" and "inventory management" get mentioned a lot. The detail is what separates a smooth operation from one that's quietly losing customers.
CLOSER LOOK
Pick & pack
The live stage of fulfilment — what happens the moment an order lands. In a well-run operation, every pick is barcode-verified to prevent the wrong item going out, and packing is done to your spec: plain brown, branded boxes, or custom inserts. Accuracy here is the single biggest lever for customer trust.
CLOSER LOOK
Inventory management
Knowing exactly what you've got, where it is, and how it's moving. In a fulfilment context: how many units of each SKU sit in the warehouse, what's allocated to open orders, what's dispatched, what's come back via returns. Good inventory data prevents overselling and sharpens every buying decision.
03 — WHAT IT COSTS
How fulfilment pricing actually works
Most 3PLs charge across five lines rather than a single per-order rate. The mix matters — comparing only one fee in isolation is the fastest way to pick the wrong partner.
01
Receiving fees
For booking in and processing new inbound stock — usually charged per pallet or per carton.
02
Storage fees
Charged per pallet, shelf or cubic metre, either weekly or monthly. Usually the biggest fixed line on the bill.
03
Pick & pack fees
Per order, sometimes with an additional per-item charge for multi-line orders. Scales directly with sales volume.
04
Shipping costs
Either passed through at cost using the 3PL's negotiated rates, or built into the per-order price. Volume buys you leverage.
05
Returns handling
A per-return processing fee covering inspection, restocking and any handling required to put the unit back on shelf.
Estimate it for your operation
Pop your carton dimensions and order volumes into the calculator below. You'll see how many pallets you'd need and a rough monthly cost range based on UK industry averages.
Estimates are based on UK industry averages for pallet storage (£3–£6 per pallet per week) and pick & pack (£1.50–£3 per order). Final pricing depends on your SKUs, order profile and service level — get in touch for a tailored quote.
BY THE NUMBERS
What you can expect from IMD
99.98%
Pick accuracy across every order, barcode-verified.
3pm
Same-day dispatch cut-off — orders in by 3pm go out today.
2
UK distribution hubs giving you resilience and capacity.
2003
Year founded — two decades of ecommerce fulfilment experience.
04 — WORKING WITH IMD
Everything else you might be wondering
The practical questions ecommerce brands ask before signing on with a 3PL — grouped by theme.
READY TO MOVE
Stop packing orders. Start growing the business.
Tell us about your operation and we'll come back with a setup and pricing built around what you actually need — no generic rate card, no surprises.
Trusted by ecommerce brands since 2003 · Two UK distribution hubs
