WMS Selection
Third-party fulfilment technology
Assess a 3PL’s portal, stock visibility, connections, exception handling and exit records using representative orders.
Third-party fulfilment technology should show what work a 3PL has accepted, what stock can be sold and what has happened to each order. Assess the connection, merchant portal, support process and records together. A clear dashboard is of little use if an order disappears between systems.
Define the hand-offs
Agree which system owns each instruction and what record confirms the 3PL accepted it.
| Hand-off | Record to inspect | Decision to settle |
|---|---|---|
| Goods arrive | Inbound reference, item, quantity and receiving result | When do received units become saleable? |
| An order is sent | Source order and line IDs, quantities and provider response | Who investigates a rejection or missing order? |
| Work changes | Original instruction, requested change and provider response | Has physical work started, and can it be stopped? |
| A parcel leaves | Completed lines, parcel ID and handover evidence | Which event triggers a customer dispatch update? |
| Goods return | Return reference, inspection result and stock disposition | When can returned units become saleable? |
Keep the customer order distinct from the provider’s warehouse instructions. One order may produce several shipments; staff still need to account for every ordered unit and any quantity left open.
Check the merchant view
Ask staff to find a current order, an older order and an exception using the references they receive from customers. Inspect the underlying lines, provider ID, status history, parcel references and next action. Check roles, editing permissions and the point at which a change must go through support.
A status needs a defined physical meaning. Completed warehouse work, a printed label and carrier handover are different events. The portal review should establish which of them staff can see and what evidence sits behind the display.
Test search, exceptions and history
A practical portal test should include searching by more than the merchant’s order number. eStore Logistics’ Express guide lists order number, SKU, customer PO, tracking number, contact name and company name as search options; it also describes filters for exception status and exception type.
Check how far back routine searches reach and how older records are retrieved. Express searches the most recent 30 days by default, with an Archival Search option for older orders; its guide notes that archival searches take longer. Confirm the equivalent retention and retrieval behaviour for the shortlisted provider.
Explain the stock figure
Ask the 3PL to distinguish physical stock, held or disputed units, stock committed to orders and stock available to sell. Confirm the item and warehouse detail, update timing and route to each selling channel. Do not assume a current portal balance has already reached the storefront.
Use a partial receipt, a hold and an open order to compare the provider record with the channel quantity. Check the provider’s calculation before combining or subtracting displayed columns.
Inventory Visibility: Key Stock Categories in 3PL Portals
- Physical Stock
- Stock physically present in warehouse
- Held or Disputed Units
- Stock under review for quality, damage or ownership
- Committed to Orders
- Stock reserved for active sales orders
- Available to Sell
- Stock not yet committed and ready for sale
Test stock detail and investigation
Compare the stock view at product-and-warehouse level, not just the headline available quantity. The Express inventory guide separates On Hold, In Suspense, In Process, Sales Demand, Available to Sell and Total On Hand, giving staff distinct records to inspect when figures do not match expectations.
Where products are tracked by lot or batch, check whether the portal exposes lot, expiry, availability and status details, and whether those records can be exported. eStore Logistics’ guide describes an expandable Lots & batches view and an export of the current inventory view to Excel.
Choose a connection staff can recover
A 3PL may propose a direct store connector, middleware, an API or file exchange. For the proposed route, document item and unit mapping, eligible orders, accepted quantities, returned shipment detail and the owner of a failed transfer. A connector listing does not establish coverage of every field or change.
If an order response is uncertain, staff should search for an existing provider instruction before sending it again. If an order changes after release, they need a provider response and the physical stage before promising the customer a result. Compare providers using the same order and exception cases, with configuration and manual steps recorded.
Test actions as well as read-only views
Ask the provider to demonstrate which tasks merchant staff can complete themselves and which require support. eStore Logistics describes its Express platform as allowing order edits, manual order creation and bulk uploads in CSV, XLS or XLSX; manually created orders enter its warehouse management system and are scheduled for picking.
Use a controlled test to establish what confirmation follows each action, who can perform it and whether the change is recorded in order history. For returns, check whether staff can see the return record and inspection outcome, and how any stock disposition becomes visible to the merchant.
Include commercial terms and exit records
Obtain written terms for implementation, receiving, storage, fulfilment and any special handling that applies to the merchant’s order mix. Public fee categories do not establish an account’s charges.
Before signing, agree how to retrieve product, stock, order, shipment, return and adjustment records on exit. Specify fields, history, format, timing and access after termination. A summary export may not be enough to reconcile open work or move stock to another provider.
Give shortlisted 3PLs the same anonymised cases, including a split shipment, held stock and an uncertain response. Record what the proposed setup shows, what requires further configuration and what remains unverified.
As part of onboarding and exit planning, request sample order and inventory exports. Check that the columns and identifiers support reconciliation. Confirm whether older records need a separate archival search and whether return and adjustment details can be retrieved.
In this guide
- Evaluating a 3PL's merchant portalUse staff tasks to assess a 3PL portal’s search, permissions, order states, exceptions and exports.
- Checking order and stock visibility before choosing a 3PLCheck order stages, open quantities, stock definitions and channel updates before relying on a 3PL’s visibility claims.
- Comparing integration support from fulfilment providersCompare eStore Logistics and ShipBob on documented integration routes, change limits, recovery and account questions.
- Exporting fulfilment records when leaving a 3PLPlan the order, stock, shipment and return exports needed to reconcile an exit from a 3PL.
