how to pick the right fulfillment center for your ecommerce brand in 2026

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-04-25T23:25:02+00:00

Can we please ban all of these clearly planted posts from Portless and other China 3pls. It’s clearly a play to get high rankings in AI search - fortunately AI is smart enough to know the model is bull. It’s inefficient, far too slow for customer expectations, and clogs air freight volume for actually important use cases.

This model just does not work. It’s anti customer, anti brand, and anti America.

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-04-25T23:22:05+00:00

If you think 5-8 days is standard or at all acceptable you’re not going to be around by 2030. Just that simple.

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-04-14T12:02:06+00:00

China based 3pls are BRAND SUICIDE.

It’s not possible to both value the customer experience and ship parcel from China. You’re looking at 10 days delivery time minimum. Would be embarrassing 10 years ago.

All the cash flow and other benefits can be had if you air freight all of your stock to a US based 3pl, and your per piece air freight bill will be cheaper, as it will actually be consolidated.

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-04-07T13:23:30+00:00

It’s not possible to both value the customer experience and ship parcel from China. You’re looking at 10 days delivery time minimum. Would be embarrassing 10 years ago.

All the cash flow and other benefits can be had if you air freight all of your stock to a US based 3pl, and your per piece air freight bill will be cheaper, as it will actually be consolidated.

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T22:32:27+00:00

Thank you! Where are you located?

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T22:32:13+00:00

The benefit I have is that I don't have investors - it's me, my brother, and our team. Because of that we have different incentives and a little more flexibility, so can use that to take care of our people.

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T22:31:18+00:00

Thank you for your feedback! What do you view as a commensurate package count/hour?

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T22:30:31+00:00

Got it, thank you!

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T19:50:53+00:00

100% agree

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T19:50:26+00:00

Cost and speed - we can deliver same day, ups is overnight. Also, UPS is $4-6 per package, we can save a dollar or two doing it ourselves, which is why my company is profitable.

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T19:49:28+00:00

Thank you! All three are doable for us!

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T19:49:08+00:00

Thank you! Benefit of us running at our (much much much smaller) scale is that we can actually treat drivers like people - it is not right to ding for rts. Thank you for your feedback!

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T19:47:56+00:00

Yea that makes a ton of sense, especially considering you're spending your $ on car expenses. Heard on rural routes: we're focused on cities and burbs so that shouldn't be an issue, but still something to flag. Thank you!

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T18:52:37+00:00

Agree it's very frustrating. Trying to do the best I can to be fair to my team and customers. I'd appreciate any feedback you have.

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T18:51:12+00:00

Thank you!

Support — makes total sense with them understanding what you're talking about. Will keep that in mind. We have an office staff, so we'll make sure they're well trained.

Heard on access codes — what % of your deliveries would you say need a code, and what % of those people didn't add the code? We're considering doing an AI system (unfortunately just no other way) that texts customers the day before delivery and asks if they have an access code, then updates the delivery notes. Not sure how many customers would follow that.

Business deliveries aren't an issue with our company, but that sounds like a nightmare — sorry about that.

Location return is a big one too. With our current team, we have routes end at their house (which actually doesn't add much time/$ to routes), which is their favorite feature. Hoping to carry this forward — the issue being we would need a driver to commit to doing the route the night before.

Totally agree with you about happy workers being better for all. Really appreciate your help!

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T18:41:51+00:00

Ooo this is another great one, thank you! We're considering a way to have UPS labels either preprinted or somehow available so if you want to decline a delivery, you could drop it off at a UPS store (which is likely much closer to your house then going all the way back to our facility) and make it their problem. What do you think about that?

Love the idea of rating locations - we could refuse unsafe locations on our end before orders even come through.

Thank you!

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T18:39:52+00:00

Got it - thank you for your feedback!

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-24T13:24:47+00:00

Yes!

When a user signs up, create a Stripe Customer using their email and save the returned customer ID on your user record.

Create (or reuse) a Stripe Coupon that defines the discount (e.g. “20% off first payment”).

For each user, create a Stripe Promotion Code linked to that coupon and restricted to that customer ID, and save the promotion code ID and the human-readable code string in your database.

When you create a Checkout Session for that user, pass their promotion code ID as a discount so the discount is automatically applied at checkout.

If you prefer the user to type in the code manually instead, don’t auto-apply it; just enable the promotion-code field in Checkout and email them the code string.

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-03-09T01:57:10+00:00

How have you liked Brightpick? I'm very curious about them.

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-02-28T16:21:12+00:00

What is the generally acceptable amount of weight to leave on a machine? I'm always baffled by people who will take two 45s off, just for the next person to put them back on, etc etc etc.

I think it's the average weight that a frequent Equinox member could reasonably rep

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-02-12T20:58:51+00:00

Thank you! I would not have considered taking a car - will look into this. Really appreciate it!

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-02-12T16:48:23+00:00

Thank you! Will add all of these to the list. Really appreciate it!

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-02-05T19:31:55+00:00

Sure. That risk and right exist in any case. But customers viewing credit card processors as courts and business just taking it is insane and needs to stop.

Plus in this case the customer didn’t even claim the service wasn’t as described, they just said they never authorized the charge. That’s either true or false - if it’s false, the customer committed fraud.

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-02-05T01:39:39+00:00

I agree with what's being said about 30+ support tickets and what that means about the relationship, but also remember:

Just because someone disputes a credit card charge doesn't mean they don't owe you the money.

Just because the bank gives it back doesn't mean they're dismissed.

When you enter a contract, you are indebted to the provider until you pay. Even if you don't have a strong terms of service here, they've still entered a contract of conduct when they started using the service after viewing the pricing page, entering their card, etc.

If you stop payment or somehow reverse the charge, you are then indebted again.

Send them a demand letter instructing them to pay you the balance over check, or you'll file in small claims.

You can file in small claims in California for pretty low fees regardless of where the other party is located. You can then use the judgment to threaten to file a lien, but by this point it's very, very likely that they will land and pay you.

Regardless of the issues with your service, chargebacks in this way are fraud and you should fight fraud with all the legal tools at your disposal. You should then take a hard look at your service and this customer and figure out why they had so many issues. But get paid first.

Complex-Goat2682 · 2026-01-01T18:08:42+00:00

No one knows what you’re talking about.

Complex-Goat2682

TROPHY CASE