Summary

Metro Paws had been through three fulfillment providers. The last one lost 22 pallets tied to a $10,000 order. Before choosing a fourth, they evaluated 23 providers, called references directly and placed test orders. We rebuilt their inventory baseline from scratch.

The situation

Nobody changes 3PLs four times because they enjoy the process.

Metro Paws is an established pet products brand selling direct to consumers and into retail, with recurring customers and steady volume. They weren't a startup figuring out fulfillment. They had it working once and watched it break three times.

The clearest failure was inventory: 22 pallets missing, tied to a $10,000 order. That's not a counting discrepancy. It means receiving, tracking and accountability had all stopped working at the same time, and the brand had no way to know what they actually owned.

Underneath it, three other things were costing them.

Pick and pack accuracy had slipped. Wrong items and incomplete orders, which for a brand with recurring customers is more expensive than it looks.

Packaging was inflating shipping cost. Products going into cartons larger than they needed, which carriers bill as dimensional weight. It's invisible in any single order and significant across all of them.

No real visibility. How much inventory exists, where it is, what's causing errors, where an order sits. None of it is answerable without asking someone.

By the fourth search, the question wasn't which provider to pick. It was whether outsourced fulfillment could work at all.

How they chose

Worth documenting, because most brands don't do this.

Metro Paws evaluated 23 providers. They requested references and actually called them, speaking directly with other business owners. They placed real test orders of products we currently handle. They inspected the packaging that arrived, checked accuracy and evaluated delivery performance as a customer would.

They chose based on what they observed rather than what they were told.

What we did

Rebuilt the inventory baseline. Every pallet, SKU and unit was physically counted, verified and reconciled during receiving. Nothing was carried over on faith from the previous provider's numbers. That's the only way to fix an inventory problem: you can't reconcile your way out of records that were already wrong.

Restored visibility. Inventory levels, order status and fulfillment activity available in real time, so decisions stopped depending on someone else's answer.

Fixed the packaging. Product dimensions were analyzed against packaging so shipments stopped going out in oversized cartons. Dimensional weight charges drop as a direct result, on every order.

Standardized pick and pack. Repeatable workflows rather than procedures individual staff have to remember. Accuracy built into the process instead of depending on who's working that shift.

Results

An inventory baseline they could trust, with every SKU validated at onboarding rather than inherited.

Higher order accuracy from structured picking workflows.

Lower shipping cost through right-sized packaging and reduced dimensional weight charges.

Real-time visibility into inventory and fulfillment, which is what makes forecasting possible.

Confidence in outsourced fulfillment, which after three failures was the thing actually at stake.

Why this one matters

The packaging point is the one most brands should take from this. Oversized cartons are the most common avoidable cost in ecommerce fulfillment, and almost nobody catches it, because it never appears as a line item. It's spread across every shipment as dimensional weight, and it compounds with volume.

The inventory point matters differently. When a 3PL relationship fails, the inventory records fail with it, and a new provider who accepts the old numbers inherits the problem. A full physical validation at onboarding costs time once. Skipping it costs forever.

Questions this raises

What are the warning signs a 3PL is failing? Missing inventory, incorrect orders, rising shipping costs, slow communication and no visibility into warehouse activity. Inventory discrepancies are the most serious, because they mean the records can no longer be trusted.

Why are my shipping costs higher than they should be? Usually packaging. Oversized boxes generate dimensional weight charges that carriers bill on volume rather than actual weight. It's invisible per order and substantial across thousands.

How should I evaluate a 3PL? The way Metro Paws did. Ask for references and call them. Place test orders and inspect what arrives. Proposals describe intent; test orders show execution.

What happens to my inventory numbers when I switch providers? They should be rebuilt, not inherited. Every unit counted and verified at receiving, so your baseline reflects what physically exists rather than what the last system claimed.

How long does switching take? Onboarding usually takes one to two weeks. What stretches it is how clean the outgoing records are, and the validation step is worth the time it adds, since it's what keeps the new relationship from starting with the old problem.

Want to learn more?

TCB can be your 3PL that actually fits. Read more about how we can help your brand here.