3PL · Ecommerce Fulfillment Same-day Seattle fulfillment for Shopify, Amazon FBA, and ecommerce brands. 5 PM PT cutoff, custom-scoped pricing, no annual contract.
Trusted by brands shipping across pacific northwest
Toyota
Pacific Foods
Rad Power
Mystery Ranch
Brooklyn Bicycle
Cobian
BOCCI
Merkury
Written by the Vertex operations team
Marco, Kim, Tom & Sara · Receiving, Pick & Pack, FBA Prep, Account Management
Last reviewed by our team on May 10, 2026 against current NWSA + CBRE Puget Sound + WareCRE Kent Valley data.
Most brands shopping for a 3PL in Seattle think they are buying a downtown Seattle warehouse. They are not. The "Seattle 3PL" you want sits 20 to 35 miles south in Kent, Auburn, Fife, or Tacoma.
The Kent Valley is the second-largest concentration of warehouse and distribution centers on the entire US West Coast, and Q1 2026 industrial vacancy hit 11.5 percent, the most tenant-friendly correction in over a decade. NWSA labor is stable through July 2028 under the ILWU-PMA contract, while the East Coast ILA-USMX deal was won at the cost of a 2024 strike. And as of August 29, 2025, Section 321 de minimis was suspended, which killed the Vancouver BC parcel-injection model and made Seattle the 141-mile US landing pad.
We operate from the Seattle area as part of our 20+ warehouse US and Canadian network. This page covers what we ship from where, what we charge, where we win, and where we send you to a competitor.
Key takeaways
The "Seattle 3PL" pin is a lie. The real submarket is the Kent / Auburn / Fife / Tacoma corridor, 20 to 35 miles south of downtown. Per Port of Tacoma FTZ #86, the Kent Valley is the second-largest concentration of warehouse and distribution centers on the entire US West Coast. The Southend submarket carries 123.3 million SF of inventory; Pierce County adds another 100.9 million SF (WareCRE Q1 2026).
Q1 2026 is the negotiation window. Savills puts Puget Sound vacancy at 11.5 percent (a regional high, +230 bps YoY), CBRE at 11.0 percent with rents softening, Colliers at 10.3 percent. Net absorption ran negative 0.8M to 1.1M SF YTD. TI dollars, free rent, and shorter terms are negotiable for the first time since 2019.
NWSA handled 3.16M TEUs in 2025 (-5.5 percent YoY, -10.3 percent on imports) and ranks as the 4th-largest US container gateway. The ILWU-PMA 2022-2028 contract gives West Coast labor stability through July 1, 2028, two full peak seasons longer than the East/Gulf ILA-USMX deal that took a 2024 strike to settle.
We fit brands shipping 500+ DTC orders per month with Pacific Northwest, US west coast, or Asia-import volume, or US-bound flows previously routed through Vancouver BC under the now-dead Section 321 parcel-injection model. Below 200 orders/month, smaller Kent / Tacoma boutiques like PNW Warehousing or Efulfill run cheaper.
Why Seattle
The geography buyers think they are buying is wrong. "Seattle 3PL" almost never means downtown Seattle. Industrial inventory inside the city is declining via conversion (WareCRE flagged 238,811 SF lost to conversion in the latest cycle), and Seattle Close-In (SODO, Georgetown, Interbay) is only 9.5 percent vacant urban infill at a premium to the suburban workhorse clusters. The real workhorse is the Southend (Kent, Renton, Tukwila, Auburn, Federal Way) at 123.3 million SF of inventory, plus Pierce County (Tacoma, Lakewood, Puyallup, Fife, Sumner) at 100.9 million SF, the value leader on dollars per square foot with direct Port of Tacoma drayage. Port of Tacoma's own FTZ #86 page describes Kent Valley as "the second-largest concentration of warehouse and distribution centers on the U.S. West Coast." A buyer who signs an inside-Seattle lease is paying a 25 to 40 percent premium for last-mile geography most brands do not need. The Reddit consensus is uniform: most of the startup-friendly warehouses got priced out to Spokane or Boise, and the boutiques that remain in Seattle proper are either massive (Geodis, DCL) or niche specialists.
NWSA (the Northwest Seaport Alliance combining Seattle and Tacoma) handled 3,156,598 TEUs in 2025, down 5.5 percent year over year, with full international imports falling 10.3 percent to 1.16 million TEUs, the steepest drop of any top-10 US port (KBC Advisors Year-End 2025). YTD April was +15.9 percent before the April tariff regime reversed the trajectory; December imports finished -25.3 percent. That contraction is exactly why the leverage is real. NWSA still ranks as the 4th-largest North American container gateway, and West Coast labor is stable through July 1, 2028 under the ILWU-PMA Pacific Coast Longshore Agreement ratified August 2023. The East/Gulf ILA-USMX contract by contrast runs only through September 30, 2030 and was won at the cost of a 2024 strike that closed every East/Gulf port for three days. For brands choosing a 2026 fulfillment node, the strike-risk math now favors NWSA over the East Coast for the first time in two decades. SEA (Sea-Tac) handled 427,971 metric tons of air cargo in 2025 as the secondary lane for high-value or time-critical Asia imports. FTZ #5 (King County) hosts Tommy Bahama, Juno Therapeutics, and Honeywell Aerospace (approved August 15, 2025); FTZ #86 (Pierce County) is the 4th-largest FTZ on the US West Coast by merchandise received and overlaps the Kent Valley directly.
Section 321 de minimis was fully suspended on August 29, 2025 per Executive Order. For a decade, Canadian 3PLs in Surrey and Richmond BC injected sub-$800 parcels into the US last-mile via Blaine, WA duty-free. That model is dead. Vancouver BC sits 141 miles north of Seattle, about 2 hours 40 minutes by truck. The defensible 2026 move for a brand previously running Vancouver BC for US fulfillment is a Kent or Fife facility plus a cross-dock back into Canada Post when needed, same continental position, no per-parcel cross-border duty hit, and the FTZ #5 or FTZ #86 weekly-entry program absorbs the new tariff overhead. Per GoBolt's February 2026 brand survey, 22.5 percent of cross-border brands are shifting inventory to US and Canadian warehouses for domestic fulfillment post-321. Drive times from Seattle: Portland 3 hours, Spokane 4 hours 34 minutes, Vancouver BC 2 hours 40 minutes, Salt Lake City 12 hours 18 minutes. That geographic position, anchored by Amazon (multiple Kent FCs including BFI4 at 21005 64th Ave S), Microsoft, Costco, Starbucks, Nordstrom, and Boeing (Everett 777/767/737 MAX 10 fourth line, Renton 737 final assembly, Auburn fabrication), is the foundation for how we route inbound and outbound.
What it unlocks
We operate in the Seattle area as part of our 20+ warehouse US and Canadian network, positioned in the broader Kent Valley corridor for NWSA drayage (Seattle and Tacoma terminals), SEA (Sea-Tac) air cargo, and FTZ #5 / FTZ #86 weekly-entry coordination through partner brokers.
Our facility sits 22 miles south of downtown in the Kent / Auburn corridor, the second-largest warehouse cluster on the US West Coast per Port of Tacoma FTZ #86. We hold capacity in the Kent Valley rate band (WareCRE Q1 2026), not the Seattle-proper premium that runs 25 to 40 percent more.
NWSA handled 3.16M TEU in 2025 as the 4th-largest US container gateway. The ILWU-PMA 2022-2028 contract gives West Coast labor stability through July 1, 2028, two peak seasons longer than the East Coast ILA-USMX deal that took a 2024 strike to settle.
Savills puts Puget Sound vacancy at 11.5 percent (a regional high), CBRE at 11.0 percent, Colliers at 10.3 percent. TI dollars, free rent, and shorter terms are negotiable for the first time since 2019.
Section 321 was fully suspended August 29, 2025, killing the Vancouver BC parcel-injection model. Seattle is the 141-mile US landing pad: bulk-import into Kent Valley, fulfill domestic-US, cross-dock back to Canada Post for Canadian volume when needed.
For Shopify brands
A Seattle 3PL is the right call for a Shopify brand when Pacific Northwest demand, US west coast reach, Asia inbound through NWSA, or post-Section-321 cross-border substitution for the dead Vancouver BC model are in the mix. If your customer base is 80 percent or more East Coast, a Seattle 3PL is a wrong-coast pick. Below 200 monthly orders, a Kent Valley operator almost never pencils out.
Yes if
No if
If "yes" lands on you, the next question is which Shopify-side workflow tests separate ops-grade Kent Valley 3PLs from ones that look good on a sales call. Six questions to ask any operator below.
| Workflow | What should happen | What usually breaks | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| New order arrives | In the pick queue near real time | Polling intervals over 5 minutes; orders missed during peak | How often does your sync run, and what is the worst-case lag? |
| Inventory level changes | Pushes back to Shopify in real time | Daily batch updates → oversells during peak hours | Is inventory sync push or pull, and at what frequency? |
| Tracking number written | Posts to Shopify the moment carrier scans | Manual upload at end of day; customer emails arrive late | When exactly does tracking hit Shopify? |
| Pre-order / backorder | Order holds, ships when stock arrives | Order silently fails or ships partial without notice | How does your WMS handle backorders without losing the customer relationship? |
| Returns refund trigger | Refund triggers on return scan-in (or on inspection pass) | Returns sit unprocessed for days, customer service workload | What event triggers the refund: receipt, inspection, or restock? |
| Subscription orders | Routed separately, with subscription-specific packouts | Sub orders treated as one-time DTC, no recharge protection | How do you tag and prioritize Recharge / Skio subscription orders? |
For Amazon FBA brands
A 3PL in Seattle alongside Amazon FBA gets specific value when you import through NWSA and want first-port prep before routing to Amazon's Pacific Northwest fulfillment centers (SEA8, BFI4, BFI5, PAE2). Pure FBA-only domestic-supplier brands rarely need it.
Yes if
No if
Multi-channel Amazon sellers importing through NWSA benefit from a Kent Valley 3PL specifically because the 22-mile drayage cycle shortens inbound and gives you optionality on FBA versus DTC routing per SKU, with West Coast labor stability locked through July 2028.
Scope
A common mistake brands make when scoping a Seattle 3PL is treating it as a generic warehouse. Warehouses store things. A 3PL is closer to an operations team that happens to live in a warehouse. Knowing the line between what we own and what stays with your team prevents the most common onboarding fights, especially when NWSA drayage, FTZ #5 / FTZ #86 weekly entry, and post-Section-321 cross-border routing to Vancouver BC enter the picture.
✓ The 3PL owns
✗ The brand owns
Order flow
From the moment your container clears NWSA at Seattle or Tacoma and drays 22 miles south on I-5 to our Kent / Auburn / Fife / Tacoma cluster, to the moment your customer's parcel scans on their porch. Here is the exact path. Ten steps, mapped to who does what and where the typical 3PL drops the ball. SEA air cargo is the secondary lane for time-critical Asia inbound.
Your supplier or freight forwarder sends an ASN (Advance Shipping Notice) or simple email with PO, expected SKUs, container count, and ETA. We pre-allocate a receiving dock window at our Seattle-area facility.
An ASN is a structured file (EDI 856 or our standard CSV / spreadsheet) that lists every SKU, expected quantity, container or pallet ID, and ETA before the freight arrives. With an ASN, our receiving team pre-prints labels, pre-assigns rack locations, and starts unload the moment the truck or container chassis checks in. Without an ASN, every container takes 2 to 4 extra hours because we have to reverse-engineer the shipment on the dock. We accept both EDI and a simple template if your supplier is small.
Container arrives at our Seattle-area facility via NWSA drayage from Seattle or Tacoma terminals, SEA air-cargo pickup for time-critical Asia inbound, or domestic LTL pickup. Driver checks in, dock door is assigned, unload begins.
Asia inbound clears NWSA at Seattle or Tacoma terminals, then drays south on I-5 to our Seattle-area facility. NWSA handled 3.16M TEU in 2025 and ranks as the 4th-largest US container gateway. For time-critical loads, SEA (Sea-Tac) air cargo handled 427,971 metric tons in 2025; we coordinate pickup at the SEA cargo gates. Domestic restocks and sample shipments arrive via standard LTL.
Cases are unloaded, scanned, counted against the ASN. Discrepancies (short / over / damaged) are flagged and photo-documented inside 24 hours.
Every case gets a barcode scan against the ASN line item. If the count matches, the SKU moves to putaway. If it does not (short ship, over-ship, damaged outer), our team photo-documents the variance with timestamps and dock-door ID, then logs it in our exception queue. You get an email within 24 hours with the photos, the variance, and our recommended next step (claim with carrier, request supplier credit, accept and adjust on-hand).
SKUs are binned to designated rack or floor locations using our WMS. Lot codes and expiry dates captured at this step for food / supplements / beauty SKUs.
Putaway is the act of moving received cases from the dock to a permanent rack or floor location. Our WMS assigns the location based on velocity (fast-movers near the pack table, slow-movers in deep storage), pallet height, and lot rotation rules. For food, supplements, and beauty SKUs we capture lot code and expiry at putaway so FIFO (First-In-First-Out) picks always grab the earliest-expiring stock first.
A good WMS pulls orders from Shopify, Amazon, BigCommerce, and your ERP near real time. New orders appear in the pick queue automatically. We run Datex Footprint for this.
Order sync is the live link between your sales channels and our pick queue. A good WMS polls Shopify, Amazon Seller Central, BigCommerce, and ERP systems frequently so the order is in the pick queue shortly after checkout. We run Datex Footprint for this. Inventory levels push back to your store when the pick is confirmed, which prevents oversells during traffic spikes.
Orders are batched into pick waves based on carrier cutoff time. DTC same-day orders run first, B2B and retail run second.
A wave is a batch of orders released to the floor as a single pick task. We organize waves by carrier sweep time (UPS at 4 PM PT, FedEx at 4:30 PM, USPS at 5 PM, DHL at 4 PM) and by service level. DTC same-day orders run in the first wave because their cutoff is tightest. B2B and retail outbound run in later waves where the carrier sweep is later. This sequencing keeps small fast orders from waiting behind a large pallet pick.
Pickers scan each item against barcode and bin location. A good WMS rejects mispicks before they reach the pack table. That is how an operator holds pick accuracy in the high-nineties consistently.
Picking is the moment a worker grabs the right SKU off the shelf for an order. A good WMS forces a barcode scan at every pick, comparing the scanned SKU against the order line. If they do not match, the system blocks the pick and routes the worker back to the correct bin. That double-check is what keeps a 3PL at high-nineties shipped-correct accuracy across high order volumes.
Packers select carton, add inserts, generate carrier label, weigh, and tape. Each pack table runs a triple-check process before the parcel leaves the station.
At the pack station, the worker selects the right-size carton (we calculate dim weight to keep your shipping costs low), adds any inserts (thank-you cards, samples, marketing flyers you supply), prints the carrier label, weighs the parcel, and tapes. Three checks happen before the parcel leaves: SKU match, label match, and weight sanity check. If any fail, the parcel goes to a re-pack station before it ships.
Parcels stage by carrier (UPS, FedEx, USPS, DHL, plus Canada Post cross-dock when applicable). Carrier sweeps happen at fixed daily windows. Tracking pushes back to Shopify and Amazon automatically.
Parcels stage in carrier-specific zones near the loading dock. UPS, FedEx, USPS, and DHL each have their own daily sweep window with us. For Canada-bound volume previously routed through the dead Vancouver BC Section 321 model, we cross-dock to Canada Post via the 141-mile run to Vancouver BC (about 2 hours 40 minutes). The moment a carrier scans a label at sweep, that scan event pushes back to your Shopify or Amazon order page so the customer sees a tracking number in real time. No manual tracking uploads, no end-of-day batch lag.
Inbound returns are received, inspected against your disposition rules (restock, refurbish, scrap), and the result writes back to inventory. You get a daily returns report.
Returns come back to a dedicated returns dock. Our team inspects each item against your disposition rules (which you set during onboarding): restock if A-grade, refurbish if B-grade and re-label, scrap if damaged. The result writes back to your inventory in real time. Your refund logic can fire on any of three triggers (parcel scan-in, inspection pass, or restock complete) so you control whether the customer gets refunded fast or only after we confirm condition.
Pricing reality
Most 3PL pricing comparisons get hung up on pick-and-pack rates, which are usually within a penny or two between providers. The real difference shows up in receiving, storage, and how exceptions are billed. Here is where to look:
| Cost area | How it's charged | What raises the invoice | What you must define |
|---|---|---|---|
| Receiving | Per pallet or per container | Mixed SKUs per pallet, no ASN, damaged outers, NWSA terminal congestion during peak | ASN format, palletization standard, drayage carrier of record at the Seattle or Tacoma terminal |
| Storage | Per pallet / per cubic foot / month | Long-tail SKUs, slow-movers, packaging that wastes airspace. Kent Valley trades materially below Seattle Close-In and Eastside premiums (WareCRE Q1 2026) | Storage type (rack vs floor vs bin), long-term tier breakpoints |
| Pick & pack | Per order, per item, sometimes per SKU | Multi-item orders with kitting, gift wrap, custom inserts | Standard SKU vs kit, included vs add-on packout steps |
| Carrier costs | Pass-through, sometimes with markup | Use of 3PL's carrier account vs your own, dimensional weight pricing, Canada-bound cross-dock surcharges | Whose carrier account, who pays surcharges (residential, peak, customs broker fee for Canada cross-dock) |
| NWSA drayage | Per container | Terminal congestion at Seattle or Tacoma during peak, chassis availability, ILWU labor allocation (stable through July 2028) | Whose drayage account, container detention tolerance, FTZ #5 or #86 weekly-entry coordination |
| FBA inbound prep | Per unit prepped | Polybagging, FNSKU labels, bundle requirements | Prep scope, who buys polybags, which FBA codes you ship to (SEA8, BFI4, BFI5, PAE2) |
| Returns | Per return + handling | Inspection beyond visual, refurbishment steps, photos required | Disposition rules: restock / refurbish / scrap, photo requirements |
Failure modes
Five failure modes specific to LA-region fulfillment. Not generic 3PL problems. The ones that hit when port congestion stacks with peak-season demand and shared labor goes thin.
| Failure mode | Why it happens | How Vertex handles it |
|---|---|---|
| "Seattle 3PL" turns out to be an inside-city pin paying premium rates | Marketing pages lead with "near the Port of Seattle" or "downtown Seattle 3PL" while the actual buyer signs a Seattle Close-In or SODO lease at a meaningful premium, when the real workhorse cluster (Kent / Auburn / Fife / Tacoma) trades materially lower with direct NWSA drayage. | We are explicitly Kent Valley. We hold capacity in the Kent Valley rate band (WareCRE Q1 2026), not the Seattle-proper premium, and we will give you the physical address on the discovery call. |
| Container stuck at NWSA terminal | Asia inbound seasonality (Lunar New Year, BFCM build-ups, post-tariff capacity swings), chassis shortages, ILWU labor allocation (stable but capped) during peak windows. | A good Kent Valley 3PL pre-books drayage windows at Seattle and Tacoma terminals, holds relationships with multiple drayage carriers, and flags urgent containers (live shows, FBA peak) so they do not sit at the terminal. SEA air cargo (427,971 MT in 2025) is the alternate for genuinely time-critical loads. |
| Same-day cutoff slipping | Pickers shared with retail B2B during peak; carrier sweep moved up without notice (UPS pickups during BFCM run earlier); winter weather closing the Snoqualmie or Stevens passes for inbound East Coast restock. | We staff a dedicated DTC labor pool, lock carrier sweep windows in writing during onboarding, and stage backup inventory in the Kent Valley so a missed pass closure does not break the 5 PM PT cutoff. |
| FBA inbound rejected | Polybag or FNSKU spec changed without notice; wrong FBA code routed (SEA8 versus BFI4 versus PAE2 mix-up). | We subscribe to Amazon prep updates, re-validate FNSKUs on a recurring cadence, and route by ZIP rather than salesperson preference. |
| Post-Section-321 cross-border parcel duty surprise | Section 321 was fully suspended August 29, 2025. Brands that previously injected sub-$800 parcels from Vancouver BC into US last-mile via Blaine, WA now face full customs clearance per shipment. | For brands previously running the Vancouver BC parcel-injection model, we are the US landing pad. Bulk-import into our Seattle-area facility, fulfill domestic-US from there, and cross-dock back to Canada Post for Canadian volume when needed. FTZ #5 or FTZ #86 weekly-entry coordination through partner brokers absorbs the new tariff overhead. |
When this isn't a fit
We are not the right 3PL for everyone shipping from Seattle. Here is the honest list of cases where you should pick someone else.
You ship under 200 DTC orders per month. Smaller Kent / Tacoma operators (PNW Warehousing's 350,000 SF Fife + Sumner footprint, Efulfill, Mercer, Boxzooka) and 3PL match-services will run cheaper at your volume. We work best at 500 orders per month and up, or B2B and retail programs that justify dedicated handling.
Your customer base is 80 percent or more East Coast. A Seattle 3PL is a wrong-coast pick at that mix; an Atlanta or NJ operator saves real freight money.
More than 50 percent of your demand is in Canada. Consider our /locations/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-3pl page; a BC-headquartered operator is the cheaper geography for Canada-dominant volume.
You need Boeing aerospace AOG (Aircraft On Ground) parts logistics. That is a specialist lane run by Boeing supplier-network tier providers, not us.
You need walk-in retail or B2C drop-off. We do not run customer-facing counters at our facilities.
You require unstable or undefined inbound (no ASNs, surprise containers, ad-hoc SKU labeling). We can onboard this, and we will quote with a higher cost-to-serve to match.
You need cold chain (frozen or refrigerated). Our Kent Valley facility runs ambient-only. We refer cold-chain brands to NewCold, Lineage, or Americold in Tacoma.
You need a Foreign Trade Zone for direct duty deferral. We are not a designated FTZ. For brands where the FTZ #5 or FTZ #86 weekly-entry math justifies the overhead (named tenants include Tommy Bahama, Juno Therapeutics, and Honeywell Aerospace), we coordinate through partner brokers.
Reach from Seattle
From our Seattle footprint, your inventory reaches a defined 1-day and 2-day ground zone, plus cross-border to Canada through our Canadian network. No separate Canadian 3PL setup required.
1-day delivery
Washington, Oregon, northern Idaho, southern British Columbia
2-day delivery
California, Nevada, Utah, Montana, Arizona, most of the US west coast and Mountain West
Cross-border to Canada
1 business day to Toronto and Vancouver via our Canadian network.
5 PM PT
Same-day cutoff
4.5M (Puget Sound)
Metro pop served
4+
FBA codes routed
Comparison
A few honest comparisons. We're not the right fit for every brand shipping from LA, and where we're not, here's where we'd send you.
Seattle-area footprint + Kent Valley positioning + 20+ warehouse US/Canadian network
Inside Seattle city limits (rare; minimal industrial inventory left)
The legitimate Kent Valley + Pierce County operator tier
Seattle-HQ unique angle (Flexe, headquartered at 568 1st Ave S)
Seattle is one of 30-60 fulfillment centers (ShipBob, ShipMonk, Cart.com)
Vertex pricing
Pick-and-pack starts at $1.05 per DTC order. Everything else — receiving, storage, FBA prep, kitting, returns — is scoped to your SKU mix, channel set, and packout spec. Show us your current 3PL invoice and we'll tell you where we beat it, line by line.
Pick & pack
Per DTC order, standard SKU
from $1.05 /order
Everything else
Receiving, storage, FBA prep, kitting, returns, multi-channel routing — quoted on a call against your real order volume and SKU profile. We do not publish a per-pallet or per-cu-ft rate sheet because the honest answer depends on what you ship.
Bring your current invoice
Already at another 3PL? Send us your last three invoices. We will reply with a side-by-side and tell you whether we can beat it. If we cannot, we will say so.
What every brand gets
Bring your current invoice. We will reply with a line-by-line comparison.
FAQs about Seattle fulfillment
We operate in the Seattle area as part of our 20+ warehouse US and Canadian network. The actual ecommerce operations market sits in the Kent / Auburn corridor because the real Seattle 3PL market is Kent Valley and Pierce County, not the city itself, with the second-largest concentration of warehouse and distribution centers on the entire US West Coast. Our footprint is positioned for NWSA drayage from Seattle and Tacoma terminals, SEA (Sea-Tac) air cargo pickup, and direct I-5 access.
NWSA (the Northwest Seaport Alliance combining Seattle and Tacoma) handled 3.16M TEU in 2025 and ranks as the 4th-largest US container gateway. West Coast labor is stable through July 1, 2028 under the ILWU-PMA Pacific Coast Longshore Agreement, two full peak seasons longer than the East/Gulf ILA-USMX deal that took a 2024 strike to settle. For brands choosing a 2026 fulfillment node, the strike-risk math favors NWSA over the East Coast for the first time in two decades.
Orders placed before 5 PM PT ship the same business day. Orders after the cutoff ship the next business day. Saturday cutoffs are available on request for high-volume DTC programs.
Yes. We prep and route to SEA8, BFI4, BFI5, and PAE2 directly from our Seattle-area facility. FBA labeling, polybagging, and inbound shipment plans are all included. We re-validate FNSKUs on a recurring cadence so Amazon spec changes do not cause inbound rejections.
Until August 29, 2025, brands could inject sub-$800 DTC parcels from Vancouver BC into the US last-mile via Blaine, WA duty-free under Section 321. That model is dead. Every commercial parcel from Canada to the US now requires full customs clearance. The credible workaround is to bulk-import into a US facility and fulfill domestic-US from there; Seattle sits 141 miles south of Vancouver BC (about 2 hours 40 minutes), which makes our Seattle-area facility the closest US landing pad for the brands that previously ran the Surrey or Richmond BC parcel-injection model. We cross-dock Canada-bound volume back to Canada Post when needed.
Very. Savills puts Puget Sound vacancy at 11.5 percent in Q1 2026 (a regional high, +230 bps YoY); CBRE has it at 11.0 percent with direct asking rents softening; Colliers reports 10.3 percent with negative 1.1M SF net absorption. The 2022-2023 spec construction wave is still being absorbed, which means TI dollars, free rent, and shorter terms are negotiable for the first time since 2019. We hold capacity in the Kent Valley rate band rather than the in-city premium.
We are not a designated FTZ ourselves. FTZ #5 (King County, anchored by Tommy Bahama, with Juno Therapeutics and Honeywell Aerospace approved in 2021 and August 2025 respectively) and FTZ #86 (Pierce County, the 4th-largest FTZ on the US West Coast by merchandise received, overlapping Kent Valley directly) both sit in our operating footprint. For brands where the weekly-entry program saves 85 percent on entry and processing fees, we coordinate through partner brokers. For most brands, the FTZ overhead does not pay back; we say so on the discovery call.
Possible, and we plan around it. NWSA imports fell 10.3 percent in 2025, with December finishing -25.3 percent year over year, so terminal congestion is structurally lower than 2022-2023 peaks. ILWU labor stability through July 2028 means drayage windows are predictable. Our mitigation: we pre-book at Seattle and Tacoma terminals, hold relationships with three drayage carriers in the 22-mile Kent Valley run, and quote with a 48-hour buffer during Lunar New Year and BFCM build-ups.
We work best with brands shipping 500+ DTC orders per month, ideally with Pacific Northwest, US west coast, or Asia-import volume to justify the geography. Below 200 orders per month, smaller Kent / Tacoma boutiques (PNW Warehousing, Efulfill, Mercer) and 3PL match-services will beat us on cost. We say so on the discovery call. Many startup-friendly PNW warehouses have been priced out to Spokane or Boise, so verify the address and the volume floor before signing.
Yes. Vancouver BC sits 141 miles north (about 2 hours 40 minutes by truck). For brands with both US and Canadian demand we coordinate cross-dock to Canada Post and handle Section 321-replacement customs paperwork through partner brokers. For Canada-dominant volume, our /locations/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-3pl page is the better geography; we will say so rather than sell you a wrong-direction node.
Standard onboarding runs 1 to 2 weeks: discovery call, integration setup (Shopify, Amazon, your ERP), SOP design, and first inbound receiving. Brands with clean SKU data and a single sales channel can be live in under a week.
No. We use service agreements, not contracts. You can pause, scale up or down, or move volume across our nodes (Seattle, LA, Atlanta, US, Canada) without penalty. Termination is 60 days written notice.
Datex Footprint paired with TechDynamics. The combination gives us near-real-time inventory sync to Shopify and Amazon, barcode scanning at every pick, and EDI-compliant retail outbound for B2B programs.
Returns are received and inspected against your written disposition rules (restock, refurbish, scrap). The result writes back to your inventory in real time. You get a daily returns report. Refunds can trigger on receipt, on inspection, or on restock. You pick during onboarding.
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Ready to ship from Seattle?
Get a custom quote in 24 hours, based on your SKU mix, order volume, and Pacific Northwest delivery needs. 5 PM PT cutoff. 24-hour receipt-to-pickable. No annual contract.
5 PM PT cutoff · 24h receipt-to-pickable · No annual contract
