How to switch 3PLs without missing a day.

The one rule: your current 3PL keeps shipping until you cut over

The fear in every switch is the gap. Inventory on a truck, orders piling up, two warehouses pointing at each other. The way to remove the gap is to never create it. Your current 3PL keeps picking and shipping while we receive your stock, map your catalog and connect your store. Nothing points at us until we are ready to ship from here. Then you pick a day and cut over.

This is not theory. Most brands are live in under two weeks. Found switched 3PLs and was shipping in one weekend. We have moved brands mid-season without a missed day. The rest of this guide is the sequence that makes that possible, in the order we run it.

Step one: send your profile through the intake

A switch starts with data, not trucks. The 3PL intake takes about ten minutes and asks for what we need to model your operation: monthly orders, where you sell, your SKU count, what you sell, and your last three months of shipments.

The shipment history matters most. It tells us your order sizes, your zones, your weights, and what a normal week looks like next to a peak week. An operator replies within one business day. The proposal follows within five. The proposal is where your rates are confirmed and where the cutover plan is written down, so there is one document both sides work from.

Step two: pull your exports before the trucks move

Everything we load into ShipStation comes from exports you already have. Pull them before any inventory leaves your current 3PL. Once the pallets are on a truck, you lose easy access to the system that holds the counts, and a count you cannot reproduce is a count you cannot argue about later.

• SKU list with barcodes, dimensions and weights, including every size and color variant.
• Inventory by SKU as a dated snapshot, with lot and expiry if you track them.
• Shipping rules: which carrier and service for which order, signature thresholds, insurance rules, how international orders are handled.
• Packaging standards: box sizes, mailers, inserts, gift notes, what goes in every order and what goes in only some.
• Kits and bundles, with the component SKUs and quantities.
• Open orders, backorders and returns in transit.
• Your last three months of shipments, if they did not go in with the intake.

With those files we map SKUs, shipping rules and packaging standards into ShipStation before a single carton arrives. That is what made the Found switch a weekend instead of a month. The mapping was done before the trucks moved, so receiving was the only work left when they arrived.

What to ask your current 3PL for

Most 3PL agreements set a notice period and an exit process. Read yours first. Then ask your current 3PL for the following, in writing, so the dates and the counts are on record.

• The date they will stop accepting new orders for you, and the date they will ship the last one.
• A final inventory count by SKU, run as a physical count rather than a system export, and signed off by both sides.
• The pallet count, pallet dimensions and weights of the outbound shipment, so freight can be booked.
• Any returns still in their building, and any returns in transit to them.
• Your packaging materials, branded boxes and inserts on hand, and whether they ship with the inventory.
• The final invoice, with storage prorated to the day the inventory leaves.
• Who disconnects your store from their system, and when. Two systems pulling the same orders is the one mistake that creates duplicate shipments.

If you want us to arrange the truck, freight brokerage is available. If you have a carrier you trust, use them. Either way, book the pickup for after the mapping is done, not before. The truck should be the last thing scheduled, not the first.

Step three: inbound and map while they keep shipping

Inventory arrives at 465 Mola Blvd, Dock 10, Elmwood Park, NJ 07407. Receiving is scan-to-stock. Every unit is scanned against the SKU list, so look-alike sizes and shades never share a bin, and the count on your dashboard equals the count on the shelf. Lot and expiry dates are captured at receiving for supplements, gummies, beverage and food-grade goods, and picking runs first-expired-first-out from the first order.

While receiving runs, your store is connected. Shopify, including Plus and subscription orders, Amazon and TikTok Shop connect natively, and a custom API or ERP sync covers the rest. Orders will sync in and tracking will sync out. The connection is tested before it is live, so your current 3PL is still shipping your real orders while we check ours. You see receiving progress on the same dashboard we use.

What a weekend switch looks like

Found moved from another 3PL to shipping from our floor in a single weekend. The sequence was the one above, compressed.

1. 01Before the weekend: SKUs, shipping rules and packaging standards loaded into ShipStation from the brand’s own exports. Freight booked for after the mapping was done.
2. 02Day one: pallets arrive at Dock 10. Scan-to-stock receiving. Inventory is sellable the moment it reaches the shelf.
3. 03Day two: the store is connected and tested. Shipping rules fire on test orders. The dashboard is opened to the brand.
4. 04The first business day: the first orders are picked as soon as the sync goes live. Orders in by 12pm ET ship the same business day.

Not every brand needs a weekend. The point is where the time goes. The work that takes time, mapping and testing, happens before the inventory moves, so the inventory move itself is short.

Step four: cut over on a day you choose

Cutover is a date, not a feeling. You choose it, and it goes in the proposal. On that day your current 3PL stops accepting new orders, your store points at Elmwood Park, and orders in by 12pm ET ship the same business day. From then on the SLA is one business day, two to three in peak.

Pick a day that suits your calendar, not ours. A quiet weekday after a drop is a common choice. The day before a launch is not. If you are mid-season, say so in the intake. We have cut brands over mid-season without a missed day, and the plan accounts for the orders already in flight.

Step five: tune

The first weeks after a switch are when the operation gets faster. We review the first orders with you, confirm the pack-out looks the way you want it on a customer’s doorstep, and set the KPIs you will watch on the dashboard: SLA, inventory by SKU, order status. Reorder triggers and demand forecasting follow once there are a few weeks of history on our floor.

The switch checklist

• Send the intake with your last three months of shipments.
• Read your current agreement for the notice period and the exit steps.
• Pull your exports: SKUs, inventory snapshot, shipping rules, packaging standards, kits, open orders.
• Ask your current 3PL for a final physical count, pallet details and the last-ship date, in writing.
• Confirm the mapping in ShipStation is done before the truck is booked.
• Book freight to 465 Mola Blvd, Dock 10, Elmwood Park, NJ 07407.
• Choose a cutover day and put it in the proposal.
• Test the store connection while your current 3PL is still shipping.
• Cut over. Watch the first day’s orders on the dashboard.
• Collect any returns and packaging materials left at the old warehouse.

Questions brands ask before they switch