Global ecommerce sales are projected to grow from reach $8.09 trillion by 2028. As more businesses expand online, demand for fulfillment services is skyrocketing. However, while selling products has never been easier, third-party logistics providers (3PLs) and fulfillment centers struggle to keep up.
Most 3PLs still rely on outdated methods to connect with customer sales channels and business software, slowing down operations and driving up costs. These businesses spend three to six months and anywhere from $200,000 to $750,000 building custom connections for each new customer. During that time, potential customers often take their business elsewhere, choosing competitors who can onboard them faster.
This article explores why traditional methods are failing and how leading 3PLs are transforming their technology to stay competitive.
Why Old Methods Are Failing
3PLs have relied on custom-built integrations to connect with customer systems for years. Every new retailer or brand partnership meant a fresh round of custom coding, API mapping, and manual setup, a process that takes months and strains IT resources. However, as the logistics landscape grows more complex, these legacy methods become a bottleneck rather than a solution.
Integration Challenges
The number of sales channels is expanding rapidly, from DTC websites and marketplaces to social commerce and retail partnerships. A 3PL that once needed to connect with a handful of platforms must now integrate with dozens if not hundreds. But legacy systems struggle to keep up, leading to data silos, inefficiencies, and delays.
Rising Operational Costs
Maintaining custom connections is expensive. Many 3PLs spend millions per year just to keep outdated integrations running. A report found that companies using legacy systems experience 20–30% higher operational costs compared to those with modern, automated solutions.
Limited Visibility & Scalability
Legacy order management systems weren’t built for the complexities of modern operations. They lack real-time tracking and cannot easily scale with growing order volumes, forcing warehouses to rely on spreadsheets and manual updates. As a result, 3PLs experience higher error rates and slower fulfillment times, leading to dissatisfied customers.
According to Mo Afshar, CEO of Pipe17 and a veteran in commerce and logistics technology, the logistics industry is now at a breaking point. “Operational complexity is only going up, not down,” he explains. “Businesses need faster, simpler, and more cost-effective solutions, not outdated systems that hold them back.” Traditional methods are inefficient, costing 3PLs revenue and market share.
The Real Impact on Business
Outdated systems slow operations and limit revenue growth. On top of that, maintaining legacy IT can increase annual costs by 15%, while inefficiencies lead to delayed shipments, inventory errors, and lost customers.
“The solutions people have found, which include spreadsheets, more staff, or costly custom integrations, aren’t sustainable,” Afshar explains. Spreadsheets cause errors, custom integrations take too long, and adding staff drives up costs.
Traditional order management software requires constant IT maintenance, slowing onboarding when brands expect real-time visibility and seamless connections.
In short, legacy systems are now a revenue blocker. 3PLs that don’t modernize will struggle to stay competitive, control costs, and meet growing customer expectations.
How Leading Warehouses Are Solving the Problem
Forward-thinking 3PLs are adopting cloud-based logistics platforms to replace outdated, manual processes. These modern solutions offer real-time data access, seamless integration with multiple sales channels, and faster onboarding, eliminating the delays caused by custom-built connections. This is critical as the global cloud logistics market is projected to reach $40.4 billion by 2030 from $19.2 billion in 2023, reflecting an 11.2% CAGR.
Modern platforms allow 3PLs to quickly integrate with multiple sales channels instead of spending months building custom connections. Speed and efficiency in integration are now competitive advantages, enabling 3PLs to serve customers better and expand their market reach.
Let’s see how one 3PL, Deliverr (now Flexport), overcame the problem of connecting with enterprise systems faster, onboarding larger merchants, and scaling its business.
How Deliverr Overcame Its Biggest Growth Barrier
Deliverr, a technology-driven fulfillment provider, helps online merchants offer fast, cost-effective shipping. As Deliverr expanded its operations, more enterprise customers wanted to use its services, but the company had no way to easily connect with their existing systems.
Initial Challenges
By 2019, Deliverr had become a choice fulfillment provider for small and mid-sized merchants, particularly on Walmart Marketplace and Shopify. While the company had built native Shopify and Walmart Marketplace integrations, expanding to larger enterprise customers proved difficult. These merchants required seamless integration with ERPs, order management systems, storefronts, and POS systems, but Deliverr had no way to connect with these platforms.
Every new enterprise customer required complex, custom integrations, delaying onboarding and limiting the company’s ability to close high-value deals. Without a scalable connectivity solution, Deliverr was missing out on a significant share of the market.
Implementation
Deliverr partnered with Pipe17 to build a gateway connector that linked its API with major commerce platforms. This allowed integrations with NetSuite, Acumatica, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Wayfair, and Mirakl, allowing Deliverr to support enterprise merchants without months of custom development.
Results & Business Impact
Within two weeks, Deliverr was able to:
- Expand its addressable market, attracting larger enterprise customers
- Close deals faster, eliminating lengthy technical delays
- Strengthen its position in the fulfillment industry
By solving its integration challenge with Pipe17’s technology, Deliverr unlocked new revenue streams.
Key Elements of Modern 3PL Customer Integration
Modern 3PLs are using ready-made integration solutions to simplify operations and grow faster. These tools remove the need for custom coding, making connecting with sales channels and business systems easier without long delays or high costs.
Pre-Built Connector Network
Many 3PLs are moving to pre-built connector networks that link directly to ERPs, marketplaces, and storefronts. This eliminates the need for one-off integrations, allowing businesses to work with new customers more quickly and efficiently.
Rapid Customer Onboarding
Long integration timelines make it harder to close deals. By using pre-built connections, 3PLs can onboard new customers in days, helping them start shipping sooner and keeping business moving.
Scalable AI-Ready Architecture
Older systems make it difficult to grow. A more flexible, modern setup allows 3PLs to handle more customers and adapt to changes in demand without constant system updates or IT work. AI plays a key role by automating system monitoring and optimizing workflows, reducing manual intervention.
No Developer Resources Required
Maintaining custom-built connections takes time and money. A fully connected system removes the need for ongoing developer support, allowing teams to focus on fulfillment and operations rather than fixing integrations.
By adopting simple, scalable integration solutions, 3PLs are lowering costs, improving efficiency, and keeping up with an increasingly complex logistics landscape.
Implementation Framework
Upgrading your integration capabilities, a structured approach ensures a smooth transition while maximizing the impact on your operations and bottom line.
The first step is to evaluate your current integration capabilities. Look at how long it takes to onboard a new customer and whether manual processes are slowing down fulfillment. If integrating new sales channels or ERPs requires significant IT support, scaling will only get harder. Identifying these weak points helps you focus on the right improvements.
Once the gaps are clear, it’s time to measure the ROI of modernization. Faster onboarding means quicker revenue, while automation reduces IT costs and fulfillment errors. A flexible, scalable system allows you to take on more customers without increasing overhead. These gains add up quickly, making integration a smart investment.
A well-planned transition ensures minimal disruption. Most 3PLs can fully modernize in just a few months. The first phase involves assessing your current setup and selecting an integration platform.
Next comes implementation, testing with key sales channels, and gradually rolling out the new system. The final stage is full-scale adoption, training your team, and fine-tuning performance.
Frequently Asked Questions About 3PL Customer Connectivity
Traditional custom integration development costs 3PLs between $200,000 to $750,000 per customer implementation. Beyond initial development, maintaining these custom-built connections adds 15% to annual operational costs. Modern pre-built integration solutions reduce these expenses by up to 85%, with implementations typically costing less than $10,000 per customer and going live in weeks rather than months.
Traditional 3PL customer onboarding requires three to six months for custom integration development. During this extended timeline, potential customers often choose competitors who can onboard them faster. Modern pre-configured connectors reduce this timeline to days by eliminating custom coding and API mapping work. This speed advantage is critical as brands expect immediate connectivity to their sales channels and real-time visibility into inventory and order status.
Modern Order Operations Platforms enable 3PLs to onboard new brand customers in days instead of the three to six months required for custom-built integrations. Pipe17’s pre-configured connectors eliminate lengthy technical delays by providing ready-made connections to hundreds of selling channels, ERPs, and warehouse management systems. This speed advantage helps 3PLs close deals faster and prevent prospects from choosing competitors during extended implementation timelines.
Pipe17’s Order Operations Platform combines both connectivity and order management in one solution, eliminating the need for separate iPaaS tools and order management software. Pipe17 includes a fully managed connector network that maintains hundreds of pre-built integrations as partner APIs change, ensuring connections never break. For 3PLs serving many customers and processing millions of orders annually, this unified approach delivers faster customer onboarding, lower operational costs, and the ability to say yes to more deals without adding technical resources.
Yes. Modern Order Operations Platforms like Pipe17 connect directly to your existing warehouse management systems, allowing 3PLs to improve customer connectivity without replacing core fulfillment infrastructure. These platforms act as a connectivity layer between the 3PL’s WMS and each customer’s sales channels and business systems. This approach enables 3PLs to modernize customer onboarding and system integration in under 90 days while continuing to use their current warehouse technology for pick, pack and ship operations.
Leading 3PLs are adopting Pipe17 to transform customer connectivity. Pipe17 eliminates custom development work, enables customer onboarding in days, and requires no ongoing developer resources for maintenance. By implementing a scalable, built for commerce operations connectivity solution, forward-thinking 3PLs can serve enterprise customers, close deals faster, and expand their addressable market without the technical bottlenecks that constrain competitors using legacy integration methods like iPaaS tools.
Conclusion & Next Steps
The logistics industry is evolving fast, and 3PLs that fail to modernize will struggle to keep up as ecommerce brands expand across multiple sales channels. Seamless system integration is no longer a luxury. Businesses expect fast onboarding, real-time visibility, and scalable operations. Those still relying on outdated, custom-built connections will continue to lose deals to competitors who can integrate quickly.
Leading 3PLs are already adopting pre-built, automated integration solutions. Now is the time to assess where your business stands. Are your integration processes slowing you down? Are manual workflows and IT bottlenecks limiting your ability to scale? Addressing these challenges today will set you up for long-term success.
Book a demo to see how Pipe17 can help your 3PL close more deals with seamless integrations.
