3 ms·

Here it definitely depends on the types of packages, and my experience is very much in the 1-5 pound range - as you get larger, it's clearly more profitable. St

Here it definitely depends on the types of packages, and my experience is very much in the 1-5 pound range - as you get larger, it's clearly more profitable. Still, however I ran the numbers, I just couldn't see Deliverr taking on my company as a client and not losing money on shipping alone (before factoring in all the overhead). Obviously it'd depend on their mix of business, but overall I just think being a 3PL, unless you have some specialty that allows you to charge a premium, is just a brutal, low-margin, race-to-the-bottom kind of business. I'm glad that Shopify made the acquisition, as having both Deliverr and Amazon MCF run as part of broader ecommerce platforms, as opposed to standalone 3PLs, will be good for ecommerce merchants and customers.

hef19898 4y ago
Being a 3PL is a brutal business, that's true. Logistics is, for what it's worth, regardless of industry. Not sure if it is actually a race to the bottom, because costs are the same for every player, more or less, in the same region. And the region is defined by infrastructure, customer requirements and so on. Which leaves salaries, and there it is sometimes a race to the bottom. Amazon, funny enough, is paying their own warehouse workers above average so (at least in Germany last time I checked). Amazon does have an advantage on small item (sortable in Amazon parlance). For larger items 3PL operations are actually pretty straight forward. Edit: or rather items you don't mind to ship as singles, one item per package.