Ecommerce fulfillment with native Shopify and Amazon integration. Subscription-aware routing and kit-on-the-fly built into the WMS.
What ecommerce fulfillment covers
Ecommerce fulfillment is order fulfillment with the channel logic and workflow depth that DTC brands actually need. Below are the five workflows that distinguish ecommerce-native operations from B2B operations that pick up DTC orders on the side.
Direct app integration with order webhooks, inventory sync, and tracking writeback. Multi-currency and multi-region (Shopify Markets) supported with the correct shipping rules per market. Subscription apps (Recharge, Bold, Loop) integrate at the order level so renewals run on the same workflow as one-time orders.
MFN (merchant-fulfilled) and FBA prep on the same WMS. FBA replenishment batches run on a weekly cadence with capacity caps per ASIN. FBA prep services (poly-bagging, labeling, bundling, hazmat compliance) included as a workflow, not a separate vendor relationship.
Order ingestion from every major DTC commerce platform via direct API. Inventory sync runs on a near-real-time cadence. Tracking writeback fires promptly after label print. Klaviyo and Postscript transactional triggers fire on ship, deliver, and exception events.
Recurring subscription orders, gift-with-purchase logic, and SKU-level packout variants are first-class workflows in the WMS. Kit-on-the-fly bundles (where the bundle never exists as a stocked SKU) get assembled at pick time from component SKUs. No pre-kitting required, no per-kit setup fee.
Returns land at the dock with a pre-printed RMA, get inspected against your brand-spec criteria (sellable, refurbishable, damaged, fraud-flag), and rejoin inventory or get dispositioned to liquidation. Photo capture at the inspection station on higher-value items. Returns dashboard surfaces SKU-level return rate so your merchandising team can act on the data.
Who this service is for
Ecommerce fulfillment fits brands whose order mix and workflow depth would break a generic pick-and-pack operation. Below are the four profiles we run ecommerce fulfillment for most often.
Built on Shopify, growing fast, has 600 to 4,000 orders per day at peak. Wants native Shopify integration, branded packout, subscription support, and Klaviyo transactional triggers. Not interested in 3PLs that "support Shopify" via a generic CSV import.
Runs DTC on Shopify and a parallel Amazon Seller Central business with FBM and FBA. Wants one 3PL handling both with consistent SKU IDs, consistent packout, and FBA prep on the same dock. Tired of explaining the brand twice to two different 3PLs.
Monthly or quarterly recurring box, 3,000 to 80,000 active subscribers, plus a one-time accessories or upsell SKU catalog. Needs predictable batch pick-pack on ship-window days alongside daily one-time orders, with insert and kit logic that does not break under load.
Has a working Shopify operation, just opened TikTok Shop, BigCommerce, or international Shopify Markets, needs a 3PL that supports the new channel without a 90-day integration project. Wants the same SLA at the new channel as the established one.
What goes wrong at non-ecommerce-native 3PLs
A lot of "ecommerce 3PLs" are B2B warehouses that started pulling Shopify orders five years ago. The integration depth and workflow flexibility are not there. Below are the five gaps we hear about every week.
The 3PL says they support Shopify and what they mean is they pull a CSV from Shopify Admin once per day. Orders placed at 4 PM do not enter the WMS until the next morning. Same-day cutoffs are impossible because the orders are not even visible to the floor. The brand finds out on week three when promised-by dates start slipping.
The 3PL handles DTC pick-pack but FBA prep gets routed to a different facility or a different vendor entirely. Inventory has to physically transfer between operations. The brand pays two storage bills, two pick fees, and waits 3 to 5 days for FBA prep batches because the workflow is not on the main floor.
The Recharge or Bold subscription order fires correctly, but a SKU swap inside the subscription (customer changed flavor, added a one-time SKU) does not propagate to the WMS. Pick-pack ships the original recurring SKU and ignores the swap. Customer-service inherits the chargeback cycle. Most 3PLs cannot handle anything beyond the initial subscription order configuration.
The brand wants to run a "free skincare sample with orders over $75" promotion for two weeks. The 3PL says yes, kit it ahead of time, send us 5,000 pre-kitted bundles. By the time the kits ship, the promotion is over and the 3PL bills storage on 4,200 unused bundles. Kit-on-the-fly (where the bundle assembles at pick time from inventory you already have) is not in the workflow.
Returns land at the dock and sit for 5 to 10 days before getting inspected and rejoined. The brand cannot see the return queue, does not know which SKUs are coming back at what rate, and finds out about the return-rate problem when the merchandising team runs a Q3 review three months later. Cheap returns processing kills repeat-purchase rate quietly.
How we run ecommerce fulfillment at Vertex
Order ingestion runs via direct platform integration, not CSV import. Shopify and Shopify Plus push order webhooks that hit our WMS in near-real time. As a fallback we poll the Shopify Orders API on a short interval, so a dropped webhook (typical cause: payment-gateway latency on PayPal or Klarna) never strands an order. The same pattern runs for Amazon Seller Central (MWS and SP-API), TikTok Shop, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Etsy. For brands on custom commerce platforms or ERPs, we expose a direct WMS API endpoint that your engineering team integrates against; the contract is documented and we provide reference clients.
Subscription orders integrate at the order level, not the platform level. Subscription apps (Recharge, Bold, Loop, Skio, Stay Ai) all push subscription renewals as standard Shopify orders, and our WMS treats them as first-class workflows. When a subscriber swaps a SKU or adds a one-time item to their next renewal, the change propagates through the Shopify order before pick-pack starts. We do not pick from the original subscription configuration and ignore the swap. For subscription boxes shipping on a batch cadence (the first Tuesday of the month, for example), we batch the pick wave on ship-window days, which typically lifts throughput compared with running renewals one-by-one.
Amazon FBA prep runs on the same dock as DTC pick-pack, not as a separate vendor. FBA inbound batches get poly-bagged where required, labeled with the correct FNSKU, bundled for multi-pack ASINs, and palletized to Amazon's carton-spec requirements. The WMS holds a single inventory pool for the SKU regardless of whether a unit ships DTC, ships MFN through Seller Central, or moves to FBA replenishment. The brand sees one inventory number and stops paying storage twice on the same physical unit. FBA replenishment batches run on a regular cadence; higher-velocity ASINs run more often with capacity caps configured against Amazon's restock-limit API.
Branded packout gets photographed and approved during onboarding. Insert orientation, tissue color, void-fill choice (crinkle paper, branded tape, thank-you card placement) gets locked before order one ships. The pack station references the packout spec photo, and the QC inspector reviews random parcels against the spec. If the spec and the actual parcel diverge, the inspector pauses the zone and the shift supervisor reviews. Brands have gotten hammered on social media when a 3PL's third-shift packout team started doing it from memory; the reference photo prevents that drift.
Kit-on-the-fly bundles assemble at pick time from component SKUs in the WMS. A "skincare starter kit" that bundles three SKUs and a custom box does not need to exist as a stocked SKU. The customer orders the kit on Shopify, the WMS reads the kit definition, the pick wave pulls all three component SKUs plus the custom box, the pack station assembles, and the parcel ships. Inventory decrements correctly at the component level. Brands running GWP (gift-with-purchase) promotions configure the trigger rule in our WMS (cart-value threshold triggers free sample) and the rule fires per-order without a pre-kitting batch. The brand can run a short GWP promotion without stranding pre-kitted bundles in storage when the promotion ends.
Returns processing runs on a dedicated inspection station with photo capture on higher-value returns. Returns land with a pre-printed RMA generated by your returns platform (Loop Returns, Aftership, Returnly), get inspected against your brand-spec criteria (sellable, refurbishable, damaged, fraud-flag), and rejoin inventory or get dispositioned to liquidation promptly after dock arrival. The returns dashboard surfaces SKU-level return rate so your merchandising team can act on the data, not discover it three months later. Klaviyo and Postscript transactional triggers fire on return-received, return-refunded, and return-rejected events, which closes the customer-comm loop without your support team having to manually update statuses.
Channel comparison
Click a channel to see how we integrate, what the sync cadence is, and what the catch is. Honest about every line.
Shopify · Shopify Plus · Shopify Markets
How we integrate
Direct Shopify Plus app integration with order webhooks, inventory sync, and tracking writeback. Multi-region (Shopify Markets) and subscription apps (Recharge, Bold, Loop) integrate at order level.
Sync cadence
Order webhook from purchase to WMS in near-real time. Inventory sync on a frequent cadence. Tracking writeback promptly after label print. Klaviyo trigger fires on ship event.
The catch
Shopify rate-limits the Admin API at 2 requests/sec on standard plans and 20 requests/sec on Plus. For high-throughput brands we recommend Plus to avoid sync throttling.
Pricing snapshot
Four line items below cover the ecommerce fulfillment economics. Subscription orders, kit-on-the-fly bundles, and high-volume FBA prep get scoped on the discovery call against your actual order mix.
Pick + pack
from $1.05
starting per order, includes first item
Subscription
Custom
per recurring order, batched cadence
FBA prep
Custom
per unit, labeling + poly-bag included
Returns
Custom
per return, inspection + restock
Where this service runs
Every Vertex facility runs the ecommerce-fulfillment workflow: Shopify and Amazon native integrations, subscription support, FBA prep on the same dock, branded packout, returns processing, and Klaviyo transactional triggers. The node location affects ground-shipping zone math; above a certain volume a multi-node setup typically cuts blended ground cost meaningfully.
FBA prep volume scales differently. Higher-volume FBA brands usually run from a facility close to an Amazon inbound DC, which we route deliberately at onboarding.
Ready to run native Shopify + Amazon?
Native Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop, BigCommerce. Subscription, GWP, and kit-on-the-fly as first-class workflows. Pick-and-pack starts from $1.05; FBA prep and returns are quoted on the discovery call. No setup fee, no annual contract.
