A brand decides to move fulfilment providers. Then it discovers a three month notice period, a charge per unit to pick and pack its own stock for collection, a clause allowing the warehouse to hold goods against outstanding charges, and no way to export order history.
All of that was in the contract it signed eighteen months ago, when nobody was thinking about leaving.
The questions to ask before signing
1. What is the notice period
In months, from when, and whether it can only be served at certain points. Three months of notice while you are already unhappy is a long time.
2. What does it cost to get stock out
Per unit, per pallet, or a flat charge. Some providers charge a full pick fee to prepare a brand's own stock for collection, which can run to thousands.
3. Who arranges collection
Whether you can send your own transport, whether they load, what notice they need and what hours collection is possible.
4. Is there a lien over goods
Whether the provider can hold stock against unpaid or disputed invoices. This is the clause that turns a commercial disagreement into an operational crisis, and it is in more contracts than brands realise.
5. What happens to stock in odd states
Returns being processed, damaged goods, quarantined stock and items awaiting a decision. These are the units that go missing in a transfer.
6. Can you get your data
Order history, stock movements, returns records and customer data, in a usable format. Brands frequently leave with a spreadsheet of current stock and nothing else.
7. How long does a transfer take
Counting, preparing, loading and reconciling. A brand planning a move needs to know whether it is a day of downtime or two weeks.
8. What happens to orders during the move
Whether the old provider keeps shipping until a cut-off, whether there is a gap and how in-flight orders are handled. Customers should not experience the transfer at all.
9. Who reconciles the count
What happens when what arrives does not match what the system said, which is the discrepancy problem described in inventory visibility questions from brands choosing a 3PL.
10. What are the returns arrangements after leaving
Returns addressed to the old warehouse will arrive for months. Agreeing who forwards them, and at what cost, prevents a steady trickle of lost customer orders, which connects to returns processing questions brands ask 3PL providers.
11. Is there a minimum term
And what happens if you leave inside it. Some contracts carry a charge, and knowing it before signing is the point.
12. How does the provider behave when asked
A provider who answers these readily is confident in its service. One who deflects has told you something useful, which is the same signal as in AI chatbot security questions to ask a vendor.
For providers, publish the answers
Clear exit terms attract brands who have been trapped elsewhere, and those are exactly the brands worth winning, which is the enquiry pattern in warehousing enquiries from growing online brands.
Getting started
Publish your notice period, exit charges, data provision and transfer process, then answer them at any hour. SpideyChat for logistics providers answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about answers on the features page.