Ask three Australian 3PL providers for a quote and you will get three documents that are almost impossible to compare. One prices storage per pallet per week, another per cubic metre per month. One quotes a low per-order rate and recovers it in pick lines. One does not mention the minimum monthly charge until the contract.
None of this is dishonest. Fulfilment cost genuinely depends on your products. But it does leave you unable to judge whether a number is reasonable.
This page breaks the cost into the parts every provider charges for, with the ranges published across the Australian market.
The six lines that make up your bill
Almost every Australian fulfilment quote is built from the same components.
Receiving. Charged when your stock arrives, usually per pallet. Published Australian figures sit at roughly A$14 to A$50 per pallet, with floor-loaded containers at the expensive end because they take longer to unload than palletised deliveries.
Storage. Charged per pallet space, cubic metre, shelf or bin. Pallet storage typically runs A$20 to A$45 per pallet per month, or around A$3 to A$7 per pallet per week. Rates vary with location and whether any special handling is involved.
Pick and pack. The core per-order cost. A base fee of roughly A$2 to A$4 for a single-item order, plus A$0.40 to A$1.50 for each additional item in the same parcel. Note the structure: two items in one box is one order, not two.
Packaging. Your boxes, mailers, tape and inserts, plus the handling time they add. Branded packing takes longer per order than a plain satchel, and that cost is real regardless of who does the packing.
Returns. Charged per returned item, typically A$3 to A$8, depending on how much inspection, repacking and restocking is involved.
Postage. The courier's charge, normally passed through at cost or near cost. This depends on weight, dimensions and destination, and it is usually the largest single line for a small parcel business.
What a realistic monthly figure looks like
Take a brand shipping 300 orders a month, averaging 1.5 items per order, holding around 6 cubic metres of stock, with a 5% returns rate.
Run those numbers against the ranges above and the fulfilment cost — excluding postage and GST — lands somewhere around A$800 to A$1,800 per month. That is a wide range, and the width is the point: the same brand can land at either end depending on product size, packing complexity and how storage is measured.
You can run your own numbers in the fulfilment cost calculator, which shows the same ranges with the source for each figure.
The cost that is not in the quote
The single most common surprise for smaller brands is the minimum monthly charge. Many Australian providers apply one — commonly in the range of A$300 to A$500 per month — regardless of how many orders you actually ship.
For a brand shipping 300 orders a month this is irrelevant; the usage cost is well above it. For a brand shipping 60 orders a month it is the entire story. Your usage might come to A$180, and you will be invoiced A$400 anyway, every month, including the quiet ones.
That single line is the reason many growing Australian brands conclude that 3PL "is not worth it yet". Often the arithmetic is right — but it is arithmetic about the minimum charge, not about fulfilment.
Other lines worth asking about before you sign:
- Peak-season surcharges, which apply exactly when your volume is highest
- Account or software fees, charged monthly for the portal you log into
- Per-pick-line charges layered on top of the base order fee
- Exception fees for anything non-standard about your packing
- Exit penalties, if you leave before a 12 to 36 month term is up
None are unreasonable in isolation. They become a problem when they arrive after the quote.
Questions that make quotes comparable
If you are collecting quotes, four questions do most of the work:
- Is there a minimum monthly charge, and what is it?
- How is storage measured — pallet, cubic metre, shelf — and per week or per month?
- What is the base pick fee and what is the additional-item fee?
- What is the contract term, and what does it cost to leave early?
The answers turn four incomparable documents into a table.
Where this leaves smaller brands
Below roughly a hundred orders a month, self-fulfilment is usually cheaper once minimum charges are counted. Above several hundred, national providers are competing for your business and pricing gets sharper.
In between sits a real gap: brands too busy to keep packing, too small to be priced properly. That gap is why Parcelo exists, and why we do not apply a minimum monthly invoice — you are billed for the orders you actually ship.
If you want to see how each line would apply to your brand specifically, the pricing page explains the structure in more detail, or you can send us your numbers and get a quote broken down line by line.
Figures in this article are compiled from publicly published Australian 3PL pricing guides, reviewed August 2026. Sources: Couriers & Freight, NP Fulfilment, Pik Pak Logistics. They are industry ranges, not Parcelo's rates.