There are several reasons why a company would sub contract their storage and distribution to a third party.

1. Start ups - with no room or infrastructure to store products
2. Warehouse costs - rent, staff, power, equipment is very expensive
3. Time - companies can concentrate their time and resources on other aspects of their business
4. Price - fulfilment centres can negotiate bulk and better deals on courier and postal services pricing as well as discounts on packaging etc
5. Expertise - A fulfilment house is an expert in distribution and shipping
6. Convenience - Everything is already in place with a fulfilment company, no additional set up required
7. IT - A fulfilment house already has the integrations and IT infrastructure to send and receive orders
8. Equipment - A fulfilment centre already has in place forklifts, container unloads, printers, labelling equipment, racking, scanners and other specialist equipment required for distribution
9. Postal accounts - Most couriers and postal companies require a minimum order quantity to set up an account.

Order fulfilemnt pricing can vary drastically, as an example a standard rate for picking and packing your goods is £1 per order, you can generally add that cost on to your shipping fee to your customer, additional fees to take into account include storage of goods and and account maintenance fees.

1. Warehouse rent
2. Warehouse rates
3. Warehouse insurance
4. Lighting and power
5. Forklift
6. Pallet handling equipment
7. Pallets
8. Racking
9. Shelving
10. Scanners
11. Computers
12. Printers
13. Label printers
14. Staff
15. Phone and Internet costs
16. Labels and consumables
17. Storage boxes
18. Postal accounts
19. IT integrations