A brand decides to move. The service has declined, a better provider has been found and the decision is straightforward.
Then the contract is read properly. Three months notice, an outbound handling charge per unit, a minimum monthly fee that applies through the notice period, and no obligation to release stock before any outstanding balance is settled.
The move costs more than a year of the difference in rates. The decision was right and the exit terms were agreed twenty months earlier by somebody who never expected to use them.
1. Read the exit terms before signing the contract
This is the only moment at which they can be negotiated. Nobody reads them at that point because nobody is planning to leave, which is exactly why they are frequently onerous.
2. Check the notice period
Length, when it can be served and whether it must align to a contract anniversary. A long notice period tied to an anniversary can add months to a move.
3. Check the outbound handling charge
Per pallet or per unit, and whether it differs from normal outbound rates. This is usually the largest single exit cost and it is easy to model in advance.
4. Check the minimum charges during notice
Where a monthly minimum applies, it continues through the notice period even as volume falls. This turns a quiet exit into an expensive one.
5. Check whether stock can be withheld
Any lien or retention clause over goods. This is the term that turns a commercial disagreement into an operational emergency, and it deserves specific attention.
6. Agree the release timescale
How quickly stock will be picked, palletised and made available once notice is served. An unhurried provider can extend a move considerably.
7. Agree the final reconciliation method
Counted how, by whom, and how discrepancies are settled. This is where accumulated differences surface all at once, and an unagreed method turns a move into a dispute.
8. Agree what happens to damaged and unsellable stock
Disposal, return or storage. Brands are frequently surprised to receive pallets of write offs they had assumed were already dealt with.
9. Agree the data handover format
Order history, stock records, serial or batch data and returns history. Data in an unusable format is data lost, which is the same problem as switching clinics and records questions.
10. Plan the overlap deliberately
Running two providers briefly is usually safer than a clean switch, and both contracts must allow it. This is the single most useful piece of planning in a move.
11. Decide what to sell down before moving
Moving slow stock costs money twice. A deliberate sell down before an exit reduces the handling charge directly.
12. Protect the customer experience through the move
Order flow, stock availability and despatch times, which is where a move becomes visible to customers, as set out in is it in stock the question retail websites fumble.
13. Keep visibility through the transition
A brand that cannot see its own stock during a move is working blind, which is the ground in inventory visibility questions from brands choosing a 3pl.
14. Answer the exit question before anybody signs
An assistant that explains the notice period, the outbound charges, the release timescale and the data handover at the point a brand is choosing a provider produces better contracts and better relationships, and it answers the same questions honestly for a brand thinking about leaving. The same open approach to terms is set out in exit and transfer questions brands should ask a 3pl. See pricing, run the numbers on the chatbot ROI calculator, and the sector view sits under logistics.