There is no single rate for ecommerce fulfilment in Europe, and any provider quoting one has not looked at your catalogue. Fulfilment is priced as six separate lines, each charged on a different unit. What varies between two quotes is rarely the rates themselves — it is which lines are included and which arrive later as surcharges. How fulfilment is actually priced Six lines, six different units. Understanding which unit each is charged on is most of what you need to compare providers. Cost lineCharged perWhat moves it upInbound handlingPallet, carton or unit receivedLoose items rather than palletised; SKU-level checks; batch or expiry captureStoragePallet or bin, per week or monthSlow-moving stock; oversized items; seasonal overstockPickOrder line or itemMulti-item orders; size-and-colour matrices; items in different zonesPackOrderBranded packaging; fragile protection; gift presentation; kittingShippingParcelDestination; weight and volumetric weight; service level; surchargesReturnsReturned unitHigh return-rate categories; inspection requirements; re-tagging The two drivers most brands get wrong Order complexity, not order volume. Two thousand single-item orders cost less to fulfil than eight hundred five-item orders, even though the second number is smaller. Pick is charged per line, so what matters is lines, not orders. Model your average items per order before you model anything else. Volumetric weight. Carriers charge on actual weight or the space the parcel occupies, whichever is greater. A light but bulky product is billed for air, and each carrier calculates it with its own divisor. Box sizing is a genuine cost lever and it needs no negotiation with anyone. Why providers will not quote without seeing your catalogue Because the same “one order” means different things. A supplement tub and a flat-pack table both count as one, and they cost different amounts to store, pick, pack and ship. A published rate card would be accurate for one brand and wrong for every other. The variables that make a universal price impossible: Product dimensions and weight — the single largest factor Storage type — ambient shelving, pallet racking and specialised storage cost differently Order profile — average items per order changes pick cost entirely Destination mix — a parcel to Germany and one to Norway are different costs and different customs positions Return rate — apparel behaves nothing like electronics Seasonality — a brand doing most of its year in Q4 needs capacity held for weeks it is not using At efulfilment.eu pricing is built around order volume, shipping destinations, storage requirements, returns handling, pick and pack complexity and software integrations rather than fixed packages, with a custom quote returned within 48 hours. How to compare quotes so the numbers mean something Send every provider the same brief. Without it you are comparing two different structures, and the cheaper-looking one often is not. Monthly order volume, and how it moves across the year Average items per order — the number that drives pick cost SKU count, and how many are slow-moving Average product dimensions and weight, including your largest Destination split by country Return rate by category Then ask each provider to quote the same six lines. A bundled per-order rate that will not break down is not a simpler quote — it is a less comparable one. What makes the total move after you sign Three things change the figure without anyone renegotiating. Fuel surcharges. Applied as a percentage on top of the transport rate and reset monthly against a published index. Your negotiated rate stays the same; the number on the invoice does not. Your own order profile. If average items per order rises, pick cost rises with it. The rate did not change — your mix did. Where your stock sits. Orders shipped from inside the EU customs union move as domestic shipments. Orders entering the EU carry customs costs the same parcel would not otherwise face. Frequently asked questions How is fulfilment priced per order? Not usually per order at all. Pick is normally charged per order line or per item, pack per order, shipping per parcel and storage per pallet or bin per period. A single per-order rate bundles these together and hides where cost moves as your profile changes. Why do fulfilment providers not publish price lists? Because the same order costs different amounts depending on product dimensions, weight, storage type, order profile, destination and return rate — none of which a provider can see until they look at your catalogue. A published rate card would be accurate for one brand and wrong for every other. What is the biggest driver of fulfilment cost? Shipping is usually the largest single line, and within it volumetric weight is the factor brands most often underestimate. On the warehouse side, average items per order drives pick cost more than total order volume does. How do I compare fulfilment quotes fairly? Send every provider the same brief — monthly volume, average items per order, SKU count, average dimensions and weight, destination split and return rate — then ask each to quote the same six lines. Different structures make a bundled rate look cheaper than an itemised quote that costs less.