The Best Fulfilment Companies for Small Businesses

Fulfilment centre employees wearing hard hats in discussion

Fedex is the best company for small business fulfilment, followed by Bezos.ai. If you need more options, we're more than happy to share our free quote requesting tool so you can save time – and money.

As your business grows, it’s time to start outsourcing your ecommerce fulfilment responsibilities. If you're shipping more than a dozen items a day, you should hire a company to handle the picking, packaging, and postage of your sold stock. You'll cut costs, streamline your operation, and scale up faster.

What are the best fulfilment companies for small businesses?

These are the providers we recommend based on our research. Use our comparison tool to find the best service for your business.

  1. FedEx – Best for online stock and order management
  2. Bezos.ai – Best for eco-friendly delivery
  3. Huboo – Best for low volumes
  4. Core Fulfilment – Best for late order cut-offs
  5. Abstrakt – Best for returns handling
  6. James and James – Best for startups and micro-businesses
  7. Amazon FBA – Best for low-value goods

We've researched the best companies for small business fulfilment in terms of scalability, price, late orders, handling returns and even more.

Is order fulfilment the right choice for you? If your budget is on the small side, you've been trading for less than six months or you're selling low-cost goods, you may be better off looking into other options, such as using software to fulfil order yourself, or dropshipping.

But if you've got the ambition to scale up your orders and bring your budget to bear, read on for our small business fulfilment guide.

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Fulfilment centre employees wearing hard hats in discussion

The best small business fulfilment (3PL) companies

If you're short on time, here's a quick comparison of the best order fulfilment services:

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Best for

Online stock and order management

Best for

Eco friendly delivery

Best for

Low volumes

Best for

Late order cut-offs

Best for

Returns handling

Best for

Startups and micro-businesses

Best for

Low value goods at high volume

Lowest price

Pricing on request

Lowest price

Pricing on request

Lowest price

£50+ per month

Lowest price

£687.50+ per month

Lowest price

Pricing on request

Lowest price

Pricing on request

Lowest price

£25+ per month

Need a better price to scale your order fulfilment?

We compared the range of ecommerce fulfilment services in the UK to find the ones best suited to the needs of small businesses. In particular, we kept an eye out for low fees, straightforward pricing, and a focus on catering to the needs of smaller scale operations. And here’s what we came up with.

The best small business fulfilment companies in the UK are FedEx, Bezos.ai, Huboo, Core Fulfilment, Abstrakt, James and James, and Amazon FBA.


FedEx

Best for online stock and order management

Hire a company like FedEx to manage your orders

FedEx's main benefit is its large market presence, and partnership with many ecommerce management solutions. As well as integrating with marketplaces such as Etsy, Magento, eBay and more, FedEx's stock and order management software is market leading. Its cloud-based platform syncs with your existing software track order placement through transit to delivery. 

On the downside, there are thousands of negative customer reviews describing poor delivery practices. Perhaps this is inevitable given how large the courier's network is. Still, it's certainly worth pause for thought.

Pros

  • Its broad network of fulfilment centres promises quick delivery
  • Integrates with payments, payroll and accounting tools, such as Square, Quickbooks, and Xero

Cons

  • Rates aren’t transparent, so you won’t know how much you can expect to pay unless you enquire with FedEx directly
  • Very low overall rating on Trustpilot

FedEx pricing

FedEx offers pricing that's tailored to the unique product, storage, and packaging demands of your business. You'll need to get in touch with FedEx directly for a better idea of what your fees will be. 

Alternatively, if you're ready to invest in full ecommerce fulfilment services you can get a range of tailored quotes from hand-picked suppliers now.

It’s no obligation at all – just answer a couple of questions about your delivery needs

In return, you'll receive quotes from the best ecommerce fulfilment suppliers in your area. You'll save time and take the guesswork out of price comparison.


Bezos

Best for eco friendly order fulfilment and delivery

Choose a fulfilment solution that delivers happy customers

Bezos is a challenger to more established fulfilment providers, with a squeaky clean online reputation. Customer reviews, albeit small in number, are all highly positive. The 3PL claims to resolve tickets raised within two hours.

Another beneficial feature is the option for green delivery, such as via cargo bike. This is essential for companies conscious of their carbon footprint. The company also claims to have clients' inventory checked-in and ready to sell within 48 hours or less.

Drawbacks you may face include the fact Bezos cannot refrigerate items, and there's a 150 order per month minimum. It's not as advanced as some other order management systems, though Bezos is adding new features regularly. For instance, as of October 2022, you can now request proof of delivery from Yodel or Parcelforce.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, it's not owned or operated by Jeff Bezos. Its founder is a former Amazon director, though.

Pros

  • Easy-to-use order management dashboard
  • Eco friendly delivery available
  • Checks-in and prepares your stock to be sold in 48 hours or less

Cons

  • No pricing information available
  • Not as many features as more established 3PLs

Bezos pricing

Bezos keeps its pricing under wraps, stating only that there's a monthly subscription fee and a charge per order.


Huboo

Best for low-volume order fulfilment

Delight your customers with automatic order fulfilment

Huboo delivers efficient stock management with its ‘hub model' system, which divides a warehouse into individually-run segments. That's how they can deliver competitive pricing and put you in touch with your ‘hub' manager directly. This gives you much better insight into how and where your stock is being managed.

Huboo used to be our pick for lowest fees, but price hikes since February 2023 have changed this. The Silver subscription package has doubled in price, while the Gold and Platinum packages have tripled in price. All while offering exactly the same number of dispatches per month.

On the plus side, Huboo has a decent range of integrations – and if they don’t already have the one you need, Huboo promises to build that integration for you, at no cost.

Pros

  • Direct communication with inventory manager
  • Strong customer ratings
  • Suitable for smaller parcels

Cons

  • You'll need to be shipping at least 30 units per month for it to be worthwhile
  • Can't handle big or bulky items like home furniture
  • Subscription prices have doubled or tripled recently

Huboo pricing (exclusive of VAT)

Here are the account management fees you'll pay each month:

  • Silver (300 dispatches per month) £50
  • Gold (1,500 dispatches per month) £150
  • Platinum (5,000 dispatches per month) £450

Storage fees per month (per item):

  • Large letter: 6p
  • Small packet 17p
  • Small parcel: 46p
  • Medium-extra large parcel: £1.15

Packaging costs for jiffy bags and envelopes (per item):

  • Large letter: 35p
  • Small packets: 46p
  • Small parcels: 58p
  • Medium parcel: £1.04
  • Large parcel: £2.24
  • Extra large parcel: £3.39

Fulfilment (picking and postage) fees:

Huboo’s standard rates for individual items start from £1.36 (a small letter – up to 20g – processed within 48 hours) and go up to £6.20 (a medium parcel – up to 2kg – processed within 24 hours). These fees include receiving, picking, packing, and postage/courier costs.

This is a partially tracked service, meaning a third-party company collects your package from Huboo and delivers it to a courier such as DPD, Royal Mail or Evri (formerly known as Hermes). At this stage, you'll receive a notification that it's been dispatched, and is on its way to your customer. It's a cheaper service but comes with clear logistical limitations, and is slower than Huboo's other options.

Here's where Huboo's fully end-to-end tracking service comes in. Rates for this start from £4.78 (for a small parcel – up to 500g – processed within 48 hours), and go up to £9.56 (for an extra-large parcel – up to 20kg – processed within 24 hours).

For corporate rates of over 5,000 units per month, answer a couple of questions and we'll ask Huboo to get in touch with you.


Core Fulfilment

Best for late order cut-offs

It's never too late to start third party order fulfilment

There’s a lot to get excited about when it comes to Crewe-based 3PL provider Core Fulfilment. Its industry-leading 10pm order cut-off times for next-day delivery, for instance. Its weekend order processing, too. Oh, and did we mention Core Fulfilment’s cloud-based software, and its seamless integrations with Magento, Shopify, and WooCommerce? Core Fulfilment is also totally upfront with its pricing, with a handy cost calculator on its website to help you understand exactly what you’ll pay in fees.

Pros

  • Allows you to offer your customers a wider choice of parcel delivery partners
  • Has experience in several sectors, including cosmetics, clothing, and consumer goods

Cons

  • You’ll need to be processing at least 250 orders per month to be eligible

Core Fulfilment pricing

Core Fulfilment’s picking and packing fees start at £1.95 per single order with one item in it. It’s 25p extra for each additional item added to the same order.

Storage fees weigh in at £10.88 per pallet (approximately one m³), when you have up to 50 unique products (SKUs, or stock-keeping units) in your inventory. As you add more unique SKUs, storage fees will increase accordingly.

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Abstrakt

Best for returns handling

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These days, handling returns is a huge part of running an ecommerce business. If it’s not easy to return, a customer won’t buy it. That’s why it’s such a relief that Abstrakt goes the extra mile to accept and process any returned items; getting them repackaged, re-shelved, and ready for resale. They'll use the best inventory management software and offer kitting, reworking, and gift-wrapping services, too.

Pros

  • Offers excellent integration with the big ecommerce marketplaces, such as Amazon
  • Its Birmingham-based warehouse allows it to cater to businesses from all over the UK

Cons

  • No pricing information available

Abstrakt pricing

Abstrakt doesn’t advertise its rates on its website. All of Abstrakt’s pricing is bespoke, so you’ll need to get in touch with the supplier directly, and provide some information about your business.

Remember, though, you can also trust us to provide you 3PL quotes tailor-made for your small business. Just jot down some brief details about where and how you currently sell online and we'll contact the providers on your behalf. 


James and James

Best for startups and micro-businesses needing ecommerce fulfilment

Make every delivery count with professional fulfilment

Unlike many 3PL providers in the UK, James and James offers a fulfilment service that caters to businesses taking as few as 150 orders per month. As well as being tailored towards young businesses looking to grow, James and James’ service is also highly scalable – which means it’s perfectly placed to handle spikes in demand from marketing pushes, fresh investment, or kickstarter campaigns. Better still, this is all powered by James and James’ award-winning cloud-based software, which offers real-time stock and dispatch information to keep you in the loop.

Pros

  • Its highly intuitive software provides a 360-degree view of your stock levels
  • Its US, European, and New Zealand fulfilment centres pave the way for your business to scale internationally

Cons

  • Its network of fulfilment centres isn’t as wide as those of the big 3PL providers

James and James pricing

James and James is also coy when it comes to disclosing exact ecommerce fulfilment rates. What it’s website does tell us, though, is that you’ll pay three different types of fees:

  • Fulfilment services costs: These include dedicated customer support, integration with your shopping cart, and your order fulfilment software licence fees
  • Fulfilment centre costs: These are what you’ll pay for the receipt and storage of your stock at James and James’ fulfilment centres (warehouses)
  • Order fulfilment costs: These fees are for the picking, packing, packaging, and shipping of your stock, and include a returns handling service
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Amazon FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon)

Best for selling small-sized, low value goods at high volume

We can match you with a great Amazon alternative

Amazon may have its faults, but we’ll say one thing – it has big, big brand power. Its name and logo alone inspire enormous consumer confidence. And, for your small business, ‘piggybacking’ on that brand recognition can go a long way towards boosting sales – at least in the early days. Add to this Amazon’s slick returns handling, excellent customer care, and vast network of fulfilment centres, and you’ve got a whole host of reasons to give it a go.

Oh, and those faults we were talking about? Well, Amazon FBA hikes its prices during the leadup to Christmas. It’s also widely known that Amazon co-mingles stock, meaning the product your customer ordered may not be the one they actually receive.

Pros

  • Provides 24/7 customer support
  • Has no monthly minimum order amount
  • Allows you to sell through a variety of ecommerce channels and platforms – not just Amazon

Cons

  • Amazon has strict guidelines for having goods shipped to their fulfilment centres
  • Lots of extra fees to watch out for

Amazon FBA pricing

Amazon FBA offers two pricing plans. There's the ‘Basic' plan, for sellers shifting fewer than 35 items per month, and ‘Professional' – for everyone else.

With the ‘Basic' plan, you won't pay a subscription fee. Sounds good, right? Well, let's dig a little deeper. Firstly, you will pay a ‘selling' fee of 75p on every item you sell – plus ‘additional fees'. Huh?

Looking into the latter a little more closely, they're what Amazon dubs ‘referral fees'. This is an extra charge calculated against the total sales price of your item, and includes the cost of any delivery or gift wrapping, too. It'll depend on the category of the items you're selling, and is typically a minimum of 25 per item.

Percentage-wise, these ‘additional' fees (or ‘referral' fees, if you like that better) can be as low as 7.14% of your item's sale price (clothing, computers, cars/motorbikes, consumer electronics, large appliances, and tyres), and as high as 45.9% (Amazon device accessories).

Not sounding quite so cheap any more, is it?

The alternative is Amazon's ‘Professional' plan. With this, you'll pay a monthly subscription fee of £25 per month (plus VAT). You won't be charged the 75p per item ‘selling' fee of Amazon's pay-as-you go plan here. However, you will still be eligible for those pesky ‘additional fees'.

Don't let guesswork define your small business's approach to ecommerce fulfilment. Find out exactly what you can expect to pay with FBA's ‘additional fees', or… simply go with another provider!

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Finding an order fulfilment provider for your small business: next steps

If your business is pre-trading, shipping very low volumes of products (fewer than 10 a day), or running on a tight budget, order fulfilment may not be the best option for you at this point. But if you check all those boxes…

Which ecommerce fulfilment provider you ultimately choose for your small business should depend on several factors. 

The first is down to which kind of features you’re looking to prioritise. If it’s total visibility and control over your inventory and order management – with excellent reporting features to match – then FedEx is your best bet. If low fees are at the top of your wishlist, though, don’t look past Huboo.

As a young, growing business, you’ll also need to think about how to best optimise your customers' experience. To do this, we’d recommend both Abstrakt (for making the returns process as seamless as it can be), and Core Fulfilment (for offering your customers late cut-offs for next-day delivery).

Finally, you’ll need to take into consideration the size and specific needs of your ecommerce business. If you’ve literally just started out, James and James is the best option for you. Likewise, if you’re building your reputation selling low value goods at high volume, Amazon FBA is a good place to start.

Don’t just take our word for it, though – find out for yourself which ecommerce fulfilment service is the most well-suited to your small business. It takes 30 seconds, and it’s your shortcut to getting the best deal. 

Simply select the answers to a few short, straightforward questions about your current situation. Things like:

  • How long you’ve been trading for
  • How you currently deliver your products
  • Where you sell your stock
  • The number of parcels you deliver daily
  • The rough size of an average parcel you’d deal in

Then we’ll provide you with quotes tailored to the responses you gave, ensuring you get an ecommerce fulfilment solution that’s unique.

Written by:
Sabrina Dougall
Sabrina is a business journalist whose career began in news reporting. She has a master's in Investigative Journalism from City University London, and her work has appeared in The Times, The Daily Express, Money Saving Expert, Camden New Journal, Global Trade Review, and Computer Business Review. She specializes in writing about SEO (search engine optimization). Having run her own small business, Sabrina knows first-hand how critical digital marketing is to building a client base and local reputation.
Reviewed by:
Robyn Summers-Emler, Grow Online Editor, Profile Picture
Robyn started working on Expert Market in 2021 as a specialist in business websites and digital marketing. As the Grow Online Editor, she ideates, commissions and optimizes content on Expert Market that helps businesses thrive in online spaces and maximize their ecommerce potential. Covering everything from choosing a website builder to scaling a social media marketing strategy - Robyn uses her expertise to help startups, SMBs, and larger businesses realize digital growth in an increasingly competitive landscape.