What is a 3PL? Third-party logistics, explained for UK sellers

September 2026 · 9 min read · Angler Fulfilment

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A 3PL, or third-party logistics provider, is a company you pay to store your stock and to pick, pack and ship your customers' orders for you. Most also handle returns. For an e-commerce seller, using a 3PL means your products live in the provider's warehouse instead of your spare room, orders flow from your online shop straight to their packing benches, and parcels leave with tracking without you touching them.

That is the whole idea. The rest of this guide is the detail that the big explainers tend to skip: what happens step by step, what a 3PL does not do, how it compares with the other options open to a small UK seller, and what the monthly bill actually looks like. We run a 3PL in Greater Manchester for sellers shipping from around 100 orders a month, so the numbers below are real ones from our published rate card, not estimates.

What does 3PL stand for?

3PL stands for third-party logistics. The "third party" is simply someone who is neither the seller nor the customer. You are the first party, your customer is the second, and the company that stores and ships your goods sits in between as the third. You will also see it written as third party logistics provider, 3PL provider, fulfilment partner or outsourced fulfilment. In UK e-commerce they usually mean the same thing.

How a 3PL works, step by step

Every provider has its own systems, but the sequence for an online seller is nearly always the same:

1. Your sales channels are connected. The 3PL links its warehouse system to your Shopify store, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, TikTok Shop or WooCommerce account, so orders arrive automatically. Some charge for this and some do not; ours is a one-off £150 that covers every channel together.
2. You send your stock in. Your supplier or you deliver cartons or pallets to the warehouse, ideally booked in advance. The 3PL counts it, checks it against what you said was coming, and gives every product a location.
3. Your stock is stored. It sits on a shelf, in a pick bin or on a pallet, and you pay for the space it uses. A good 3PL gives you a clear way to check what is in stock at any time.
4. An order comes in. A customer buys from your shop and the order drops into the warehouse queue within minutes.
5. It is picked, packed and dispatched. Someone collects the items, packs them in the right box or mailer with any inserts you supply, prints the label and hands the parcel to the carrier. Orders that reach us before our 2pm cut-off on a working day leave the same day.
6. Your customer gets tracking. The tracking number is written back to your shop, which sends the usual shipping email.
7. Returns come back to the 3PL. They are opened, inspected, graded and either put back into stock or set aside, and you get a record of each one.
8. You get one itemised invoice. Pick and pack, storage, goods-in, returns and postage, line by line, usually monthly.

For most small sellers the practical change is that steps 4 to 7 stop happening at their kitchen table. The onboarding checklist covers what to prepare before step 1.

What a 3PL does not do

This catches people out, so it is worth saying plainly. A typical e-commerce 3PL:

• Does not sell for you. Listings, pricing, advertising and customer service to your buyers stay with you. The 3PL answers to you, not to your customers.
• Does not buy or own your stock. It holds your goods on your behalf, which is why you should ask about goods-in-trust insurance.
• Does not usually source or manufacture. Some will arrange freight from a supplier, but that is a separate service, often from a different company.
• Does not take every kind of product. Most small-seller 3PLs are set up for small, non-perishable parcels. Chilled, hazardous, very heavy or oversized goods need a specialist, and a good provider will tell you so before you sign.

1PL, 2PL, 3PL, 4PL and 5PL: what is the difference?

The numbers describe how much of the job you hand over. Only the first four have settled meanings.

For a business shipping hundreds or a few thousand parcels a month, the real choice is between 1PL, 2PL and 3PL. If someone pitches you a 4PL at that size, ask what it adds that a good 3PL does not.

Is a 3PL the same as a fulfilment centre?

Nearly. The fulfilment centre is the building where stock is stored and orders are packed; the 3PL is the company that runs it for other businesses. Amazon, for example, runs fulfilment centres for its own FBA programme. In everyday UK usage "fulfilment company", "fulfilment house" and "3PL" are interchangeable. Where it matters is at the logistics end of the market: some 3PLs only move and store pallets for manufacturers and retailers and do not pick individual e-commerce orders at all, so check that a provider actually ships single parcels to consumers.

A 3PL compared with the other options

These are not either-or. Plenty of sellers keep Amazon orders in FBA and send everything else through a 3PL, and the 3PL can also prep and label stock for FBA before it goes to Amazon.

What does a 3PL cost in the UK?

3PL pricing is built from a handful of lines, and the trap is comparing providers on the first line only. These are the charges you will see, with our own published rates as the example:

• Pick and pack, per order: £1.10 for the first item under 1,000 orders a month, falling to 95p and 85p as you grow, plus 25p, 22p or 20p for each extra item.
• Storage, by the space your stock takes: £4.15 a pallet, 48p a pick bin or 20p a box, per week.
• Goods-in, when stock arrives: £5 a parcel delivery or £10 a pallet.
• Packaging, at cost plus a handling charge (ours is 15p an order).
• Returns, per unit: £2.
• One-off setup: channel integration (£150 with us, once) and new product setup (£1.50 a SKU).
• Postage, at the 3PL's carrier rates, which are usually lower than a small seller can get alone.

Here is how that adds up in a month, before postage and VAT:

The 100-order column assumes single-item orders and four pick bins of stock; the other two assume 1.2 items an order and two or four pallets. The pricing page shows every assumption. Add postage, and a typical single-item parcel lands at around £3.50 to £5.50 all in. Whoever you talk to, ask for a worked invoice like this one at your own volume, because it is the only way to compare quotes fairly. Our write-up of the charges that don't appear on rate cards shows what to look for.

When should a small business use a 3PL?

A 3PL rarely makes each parcel cheaper than packing it yourself for nothing. What you buy is time, space and consistency. The usual signs it is time:

• Packing takes the evenings or weekends you need for sourcing, marketing or rest.
• Stock has outgrown the room, the garage or the self-storage unit.
• A busy week means parcels go out late and reviews suffer.
• You are turning down wholesale, marketplace or TikTok Shop opportunities because you cannot physically pack more.
• You sell on several channels and keeping stock counts in step is becoming a job in itself.

Many sellers start looking at around 100 orders a month, which is also where plenty of larger 3PLs stop being interested. We wrote a separate guide to fulfilment at 100 orders a month. If you are well under that and enjoy packing, there is no prize for outsourcing early.

The advantages and the trade-offs, honestly

What you gain:

• Hours back every week, and a business that no longer stops when you go on holiday.
• Carrier rates negotiated across many sellers' volume, not just yours.
• A same-day cut-off you can advertise, and dispatch that holds up at peak.
• Returns handled to a routine instead of piling up in a corner.
• Room to grow: a good 3PL absorbs a month that doubles without you hiring or renting.

What you give up:

• Direct, hands-on control of every parcel. You manage it through a portal and a contact instead.
• A fixed monthly cost that does not disappear in a quiet month, especially storage.
• Some flexibility: very personal touches such as handwritten notes need to be agreed and priced.
• The effort of switching if you choose badly, which is why the choice matters.

How to choose one

Once you know you want a 3PL, the questions that separate a good one from a costly mistake are about minimums, the full price list, measured accuracy, who you actually talk to, returns, and how you leave. We put all twelve in how to choose a 3PL in the UK, with a checklist you can email to every provider on your shortlist, us included.

For what it is worth, our own answers: no minimum volume, the full rate card published, pick accuracy averaging 99.8% and reported monthly, a named contact who replies within two hours in business hours, and rolling monthly terms with no exit fee. Here is how our fulfilment works.

3PLs, answered

What does 3PL stand for?

3PL stands for third-party logistics. A third-party logistics provider is a company, separate from the seller and the customer, that stores a business's stock and picks, packs and ships its orders, usually handling returns as well.

What does a 3PL do for an e-commerce business?

It connects to your online shop and marketplaces, receives and stores your stock, picks and packs each order as it comes in, hands the parcel to a carrier with tracking, processes returns, and sends you an itemised invoice. Selling, pricing and customer service stay with you.

Is a 3PL the same as a fulfilment centre?

Nearly. The fulfilment centre is the warehouse where orders are packed; the 3PL is the company that runs it for other businesses. In UK e-commerce the terms are used interchangeably, but some 3PLs only move and store pallets and do not ship single parcels to consumers, so check.

What is the difference between a 3PL and a 4PL?

A 3PL does the physical work of storing and shipping your goods. A 4PL manages the whole supply chain on your behalf, often coordinating several 3PLs and carriers. A 4PL is rarely useful below large brands with several warehouses or countries.

Is Amazon FBA a 3PL?

In effect, for Amazon orders: Amazon stores your stock and ships your Amazon orders. It is tied to Amazon, though, with its own prep and labelling rules and fees, so many sellers use FBA for Amazon and a 3PL for their other channels, often with the 3PL preparing stock for FBA.

How much does a 3PL cost in the UK?

It depends on volume and product. On our published rate card, 100 single-item orders a month cost about £144 before postage, or £1.44 an order, covering pick and pack, packaging handling, storage, returns and goods-in. A typical single-item parcel lands at around £3.50 to £5.50 all in with postage.