Find answers and general information quickly.

What is 3PL fulfillment?

Third-party logistics (3PL) fulfillment is when a brand outsources its order storage, picking, packing, and shipping to an external provider. Instead of managing your own warehouse and shipping team, you send inventory to a 3PL, and they ship orders to your customers — direct-to-consumer, B2B, and to major retailers. A 3PL like G&B Fulfillment handles receiving, inventory management, pick-and-pack, shipping, returns, and retailer compliance.

What does a fulfillment center do?

A fulfillment center receives inventory from a brand, stores it, picks and packs orders as they come in, and ships them to end customers. Modern fulfillment centers also handle returns, kitting, retailer compliance (EDI, labeling, packaging), and integrations with ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Amazon, and Walmart Vendor Central. G&B Fulfillment operates a 320,000 sq ft facility in Woodland, CA and a 470,000 sq ft facility in Victorville, CA, serving DTC, ecommerce, apparel, toy, and CPG brands nationwide.

What's the difference between fulfillment and warehousing?

Warehousing is just storage — your inventory sits on shelves until you decide to move it. Fulfillment includes warehousing plus the active work of picking individual orders, packing them, generating shipping labels, and dispatching them to customers. Most growing brands need fulfillment, not just warehousing, because they're shipping hundreds or thousands of orders a month directly to consumers or retailers.

How much does a 3PL cost?

3PL pricing varies, but most providers charge a combination of: a monthly storage fee (per pallet or per cubic foot), a receiving fee (per pallet or per hour), a pick-and-pack fee (per order plus per additional item), and shipping costs (passed through at the 3PL's negotiated carrier rates). For a typical DTC brand shipping 500–5,000 orders/month, total 3PL costs usually land in the $2–$8 per order range, all-in. G&B Fulfillment provides transparent pricing tailored to volume, SKU count, and retailer requirements — request a quote for a specific estimate.

When should I switch from in-house fulfillment to a 3PL?

Common signals that it's time to switch: you're shipping more than ~500 orders/month and your team is spending too much time on pick-and-pack; you've outgrown your storage space; you're expanding into retailer channels (Walmart, Target, Amazon Vendor Central) that require EDI compliance; or you're hitting peak-season volume that overwhelms in-house staffing. The earlier you switch, the smoother the transition — most brands wait too long and end up scrambling during Q4.

How long does it take to onboard with a 3PL?

A typical 3PL onboarding takes 4–8 weeks from signed contract to first shipped order. The timeline depends on inventory transfer logistics, ecommerce platform integrations, retailer EDI setup, and SKU/SOP documentation. At G&B Fulfillment, standard onboarding runs about 30 days for DTC brands; retail-channel setup (Walmart, Target) adds an additional 2–4 weeks for EDI testing and compliance certification.

What's the difference between B2B and B2C fulfillment?

B2C (direct-to-consumer) fulfillment ships individual orders to end customers — small, frequent, often through carriers like UPS, FedEx, and USPS. B2B fulfillment ships bulk orders to retailers, distributors, or businesses — pallet-level, less frequent, often with retailer-specific compliance requirements (Walmart routing guides, EDI 856 advance ship notices, carton labeling, GS1 barcodes). G&B Fulfillment handles both, with the retailer-compliance expertise to ship to every major U.S. retail channel.

Do you offer Amazon FBA prep?

Yes. G&B Fulfillment offers full Amazon FBA prep services including FNSKU labeling, polybagging, bundling, boxing to Amazon's case-pack requirements, and shipment routing per Amazon's destination assignments. We also support Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) and Amazon Vendor Central with full EDI compliance, so you can choose the fulfillment model that fits your margin profile.

Where are G&B Fulfillment's warehouses located?

G&B Fulfillment operates two warehouses in California: a 320,000 sq ft facility in Woodland, CA (Northern California, near Sacramento — strategic for West Coast shipping without the cost and traffic congestion of the LA area) and a 470,000 sq ft facility in Victorville, CA (Inland Empire North — strategic for Southern California and cross-country freight). From these two locations, we can reach most of the western U.S. in 1–2 days via ground shipping.

What industries does G&B Fulfillment serve?

G&B Fulfillment specializes in five verticals: toys and games (including high-volume Q4 seasonal brands), apparel and merchandise (DTC fashion, music merch, concert merch), consumer packaged goods (CPG), health and beauty, and general direct-to-consumer ecommerce. We've been family-owned and operated since 1967 and have shipped over 1 billion units across these categories.

How does G&B Fulfillment's technology work?

G&B Fulfillment runs on [fill in here: WMS name], a modern warehouse management system that gives brands real-time inventory visibility, automated order routing, and EDI compliance built in. We integrate with major ecommerce platforms — [fill in here: confirm platform list] — and marketplaces including [fill in here: confirm marketplace list], plus full EDI for retailer channels. Brands log into a single customer dashboard to track inventory, orders, and shipments in real time, and our team is available by phone, email, and [fill in here: messaging channel] for hands-on support.

What SLAs and KPIs does G&B Fulfillment guarantee?

G&B Fulfillment commits to industry-leading service-level agreements: [fill in here: order accuracy %]+ order accuracy, same-day ship for orders placed before [fill in here: cut-off time], [fill in here: returns processing time] returns processing, and [fill in here: inventory accuracy %]+ inventory accuracy verified by cycle counts. We track every pick, pack, and ship event against these targets and deliver monthly performance reports to every brand we work with — covering order accuracy, on-time ship rate, returns volume, and SKU velocity.

What are the top 3PLs in Northern California?

Top 3PLs serving Northern California include G&B Fulfillment (320,000 sq ft in Woodland, near Sacramento; family-owned and operated since 1967), ShipBob (national network with a Southern California location), ShipMonk, and ShipHero. G&B Fulfillment differentiates on retailer-compliance expertise (EDI for Walmart, Target, Amazon Vendor Central, SPS Commerce, TrueCommerce), high-touch regional service vs self-serve national 3PLs, and proven scale for high-volume seasonal categories like toys, games, apparel, and CPG.

What reporting and inventory visibility do you provide?

G&B Fulfillment provides [fill in here: customer portal/dashboard name] for live inventory levels, order status, shipment tracking, and exception alerts (low stock, returns, retailer chargebacks). We deliver monthly performance reports covering order accuracy, on-time ship rate, returns volume, and SKU-level velocity. Custom reports are available on request — brands working with retailer channels typically pull weekly EDI compliance and chargeback summaries.

How do I switch from another 3PL to G&B Fulfillment?

Switching from another 3PL to G&B Fulfillment is a structured 30–45 day process: (1) we audit your current setup (inventory, integrations, retailer requirements, current pain points); (2) you give notice to your existing 3PL and schedule outbound transfer shipments; (3) we receive your inventory, count and slot it, and connect your ecommerce platforms and EDI channels in parallel; (4) we run test orders end-to-end to validate every workflow; (5) you cut over to live shipping with us. Common reasons brands switch to GBF: outgrowing a tech-tier-based 3PL, retailer-channel compliance gaps, or wanting a more hands-on regional partner.