Question 1

Do you integrate with my Shopify store?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Our fulfillment systems integrate with Shopify, WooCommerce, and the major DTC platforms so orders flow automatically from your store into the fulfillment queue. The integration pushes orders in and pushes tracking numbers and inventory counts back out, so your storefront reflects real stock rather than a number someone updates manually. Marketplace channels connect the same way, which is what makes a single pooled inventory position possible across DTC and marketplaces instead of maintaining separate allocations you have to reconcile by hand.

Question 2

Can you handle subscription box assembly?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Kitting and subscription assembly are standard capabilities — including monthly themed boxes, sample kits, and gift sets. Subscription work is really two operations: the assembly run that builds this month's configuration ahead of the ship window, and the recurring order flow that releases those units on the subscriber's renewal date. We build the kits as their own inventory item so the pick is a single line rather than five, which is faster and materially less error-prone. Component-level lot tracking is preserved on the kit record for any regulated item inside it.

Question 3

What about temperature-sensitive products?

Accepted Answer

We support climate-controlled storage and cold-chain handling where the product requires it. This is especially important for certain supplements, probiotics, and wellness products. The storage condition should follow the product's stability data rather than a general preference — if shelf life was established at controlled room temperature, that is the condition the inventory needs to hold to make the printed expiration date meaningful. We also account for the handoff points, because staging on a hot dock undoes careful storage. Gummies, emulsions, and live-culture products are the categories that most often require it.

Question 4

What does a 3PL actually do that a warehouse doesn't?

Accepted Answer

A warehouse stores your pallets. A third-party logistics provider runs the operation around them. That means receiving and QC-checking inbound production, putting stock away against a location system, holding inventory under the right conditions, receiving orders electronically from your storefronts and marketplaces, picking and packing individual units, buying and rating carrier labels, handing off to carriers, processing returns, and reporting inventory back to you in real time. The distinction matters most in DTC and marketplace businesses, where the unit of work is a single order rather than a pallet.

Question 5

How does fulfillment work for OTC and other regulated products?

Accepted Answer

Regulated product carries obligations that follow it past the manufacturing floor. OTC drug products and dietary supplements ship with a lot number and an expiration date, and the fulfillment system has to record which lot went to which order so a recall can be scoped to affected units instead of your entire customer base. Stock rotates first-expired, first-out rather than first-in, first-out, because a later-produced lot can carry an earlier expiration. Storage conditions have to match the conditions the product's shelf life was established under, and returned units generally cannot go back into sellable stock.

Question 6

Can one inventory pool serve DTC, Amazon, and retail at the same time?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it is usually the better structure. A single stock position is allocated across channels by the order management layer rather than physically split into per-channel stockpiles. That avoids the common failure where Amazon runs out while DTC sits on six weeks of cover, and it removes the freight and delay of rebalancing between locations. The channels differ in how units leave, not in how they are stored: an Amazon FBA shipment needs prep and a case-packed inbound, a retail DC needs routing-guide compliant labeling and an ASN, a DTC order needs a branded parcel.

Question 7

How are returns handled?

Accepted Answer

Every return is received against the original order, inspected, and dispositioned according to rules you set in advance. Unopened, in-date, undamaged product with intact tamper evidence can return to sellable stock. Opened consumables, product with broken seals, and anything past its date are destroyed or quarantined rather than resold. Transit damage is documented so you can pursue carrier claims. Regulated product is held to the stricter standard — once an OTC or supplement unit has left your custody, storage conditions are unknown and it does not go back into inventory. You get the disposition record for your books.

Question 8

How do lot tracking and expiration dates work in fulfillment?

Accepted Answer

Inbound production is received by lot, so each unit in the building is associated with the batch it came from and the expiration date that batch carries. Picking runs FEFO — first-expired, first-out — so the oldest-dating stock ships first and short-dated inventory surfaces before it becomes unsellable rather than after. Outbound orders record the lot shipped, which is what makes a targeted recall possible: you can identify exactly which orders received affected units. The same records support marketplace and retailer requirements around dating, and retailers frequently reject product with insufficient remaining shelf life.

Question 9

How quickly can a brand go live on fulfillment?

Accepted Answer

The gating items are integration, inbound, and setup rather than warehouse space. That means connecting your storefront and marketplace channels to the order management layer, agreeing SKU-level setup including dimensions, storage conditions, lot and expiration handling, packing configuration, and returns disposition rules, then physically receiving and putting away your inbound inventory. Brands with a single storefront and a handful of SKUs move fastest; multi-marketplace catalogs with kitting, FBA prep, and retail routing-guide requirements take longer because each channel has its own setup. We scope the timeline against your actual channel mix.

Question 10

Can one fulfillment provider handle both OTC products like hand sanitizer and standard personal care SKUs under the same compliance umbrella?

Accepted Answer

Yes, provided the operation maintains the separation the categories require. OTC products such as hand sanitizer are FDA-regulated drugs; a body lotion without drug claims is a cosmetic. They can share a facility, order management system, and inventory pool, but OTC SKUs still need lot-level traceability, expiration dating with FEFO rotation, storage aligned to stability data, and segregation or quarantine for suspect and returned units. Manufacturing is where the harder line sits: OTC drug product is made under pharmaceutical cGMP at 21 CFR Part 210/211 in an FDA-registered drug establishment, while cosmetics follow their own framework, including MoCRA requirements. The fulfillment system must treat the categories differently instead of flattening them into one generic SKU record.

Between your manufacturer and your customer, someone has to handle the middle.

Fulfillment determines whether customers come back.

We don't fulfill in a vacuum. We fulfill for the customer experience.

Multi-channel fulfillment from one inventory pool

Climate-controlled storage where it matters

Returns handling that protects margin

What fulfillment with PMG actually covers.

Fulfillment & 3PL questions buyers ask us first.

Ready to talk about fulfillment & 3pl?