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Warehousing and 3PL · checked 11 November 2026

Use a 3PL until you ship a few thousand orders a month; build your own warehouse only when volume is high and predictable.

A D2C 3PL ships orders from your own site and any channel you plug in, with your branding, while marketplace fulfilment ships only that marketplace's orders on its rules. Choose a 3PL on real-time inventory visibility, returns handling and capacity in a spike, and write accuracy and dispatch-time SLAs with financial penalties into the contract. Move to several fulfilment centres when delivery complaints and freight to distant pincodes, not revenue, say so.

The steps 6 answers

  1. Should I rent my own warehouse or just go with a 3PL? D2C
  2. How do I actually evaluate and pick the right 3PL, what questions do I ask? D2C
  3. What's the difference between marketplace fulfillment (like Amazon/Flipkart) and a D2C 3PL warehouse? D2C
  4. How do I get a proper WMS in place so I can actually trust my inventory data? D2C
  5. When should I move from one warehouse to multiple fulfillment centers across India? D2C
  6. What can go wrong with a 3PL, and how do I structure the contract to protect myself? D2C

The readingMost used across these answers

The terms

D2C

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