We Move Your Inventory.
You Run Your Business.

Switching 3PLs carries real operational risk. The difference between a smooth migration and a costly one comes down to the planning that happens before any inventory moves. Most 3PL transition failures trace back to insufficient pre-move planning, poor outgoing-3PL coordination, or attempting the migration during peak season when capacity is tight.

Three migration approaches

The right migration pattern depends on your business profile:

• Phased migration: Move inventory in batches over 1-2 weeks while both 3PLs fulfill orders. Best for high-volume operations where downtime is unacceptable. More expensive (paying both 3PLs during overlap) but lowest risk. Common for brands with $1M+ monthly revenue.
• Cutover migration: Pull inventory in one or two truckloads over a Friday-to-Monday transition window. Best for moderate volume brands with predictable order patterns. Lower cost, requires careful timing around order cutoffs and ship deadlines.
• Inventory build migration: Route new inbound shipments to the new 3PL while running down inventory at the old one. Best for brands with regular inbound flow (importing containers regularly, ongoing production runs). Slowest approach but lowest freight cost.

The audit step matters most

Before pickup, you need an accurate inventory snapshot from your outgoing 3PL: SKU-level pallet counts, lot codes (especially for regulated products), condition reports, location data. This becomes your reconciliation baseline. Without it, you can't claim shortages later when discrepancies show up.

Outgoing 3PLs sometimes resist providing detailed inventory data — especially if there's friction in the relationship. We work through this either by requesting via your account manager, escalating through their operations team, or in the most contentious cases, conducting a physical pre-pickup count at the outgoing facility (additional cost but worth it for high-value inventory).

EDI cutover is the highest-risk step

For brands shipping to retailers (Walmart, Target, Costco, Amazon Vendor Central, etc.), EDI cutover is the single highest-risk part of any migration. A failed cutover means missed shipments, late ASNs, and chargebacks within days.

Best practice: configure new 3PL's EDI in parallel for 1-2 weeks, test 850/856/810 transactions in retailer QA environments before going live, coordinate cutover timing with each retailer's EDI VAN (typically SPS Commerce or TrueCommerce), monitor chargeback rates closely for 30 days post-cutover. Some brands run parallel EDI (both 3PLs transmitting) for the first week as belt-and-suspenders insurance.

Channel integration sequencing

Each sales channel (Shopify, Amazon Seller Central, TikTok Shop, Walmart Marketplace, etc.) needs to be reconnected from your old WMS to the new WMS. Inventory levels must sync. Order routing must redirect. Tracking webhooks must update. We typically migrate channels one at a time over consecutive weekends:

• Weekend 1: Primary channel (whichever drives most volume) — typically Shopify or Amazon
• Weekend 2: Secondary channels — TikTok Shop, Walmart Marketplace, etc.
• Weekend 3: Long-tail channels — eBay, Etsy, Faire

Sequential migration reduces the blast radius if any single channel cutover has issues — you can troubleshoot one channel without all channels being affected.

Plan for discrepancies

Inventory discrepancies almost always show up during 3PL transitions — 0.5-3% variance from expected counts is common. Causes include outgoing 3PL inventory inaccuracy that wasn't caught before (most common), damage during transport, undocumented shrinkage, or pallet-level counting errors at receiving.

Document everything with photos. Reconcile against expected counts. Pursue claims with your outgoing 3PL through their contracted dispute process. We support claims with the photo evidence, timestamp records, and pallet-level documentation needed to substantiate shortage claims.

Contract considerations

Review your current 3PL contract before committing to migration: termination notice period (usually 30-90 days), early termination fees, inventory removal fees (some 3PLs charge per pallet to release inventory), outstanding invoice obligations, IP/data return terms. Decide whether to honor the notice period or pay the early termination penalty based on the value of getting out sooner.