3PL vs Doing It Yourself: The Real Cost for Small UK Online Brands
By Nathan McClintock · · 6 min read
Packing orders yourself can make sense when your online shop is small. You know the products, control the presentation and avoid paying someone else to pick and pack. But as sales grow, fulfilment starts competing with marketing, customer service and everything else that keeps the business moving.
A third-party logistics provider, or 3PL, stores your stock and handles agreed fulfilment tasks. That introduces visible charges, but it can also release your time and reduce the space you need.
The question is not simply, “Which option has the lowest packing fee?” It is, “What does each option really cost my business?”
Nathan McClintock runs Pack & Post NI in Belfast for UK and Ireland brands. Here is how to compare its published rates with a realistic DIY budget.
What should you include in DIY fulfilment costs?
Doing your own fulfilment is not free, even when you work from home and pay yourself nothing specifically for packing.
Start with the costs you actually incur:
- Labour: receiving deliveries, checking stock, picking, packing, printing labels and handling returns.
- Packaging: boxes, mailers, tape, protective materials and any branded extras.
- Storage: rented space, shelving or the business use of space at home.
- Postage: courier charges and any collection costs.
- Equipment and software: printers, scales, labels and relevant subscriptions.
- Exceptions: damaged packaging, incorrect picks, replacement shipments and stock discrepancies.
Avoid inventing a commercial rent for a spare room if that would not reflect a genuine cost or useful alternative use. Equally, do not assume space has no value simply because you already have it.
Time needs similar care. An illustrative hourly value helps you compare options, but it is not necessarily cash you will save by outsourcing. If you pack orders yourself, the benefit may be time available for other work rather than a smaller payroll bill.
What does Pack & Post NI charge?
The following rates are exclusive of VAT. They separate routine fulfilment from postage and optional services, helping you build a like-for-like comparison.
| Cost area | Doing it yourself | Pack & Post NI |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Your own preparation and equipment costs | £150 setup |
| Picking and packing | Your labour plus packaging | £2 per order, including a standard box or mailer |
| Additional items | Extra handling time and any packaging needs | 25p per extra item |
| Storage | Your actual space and shelving costs | £8 per shelf per month |
| Goods received | Your receiving and checking time | £15 per delivery, or £20 per hour for large deliveries |
| Shipping | Your courier rate and administration | Discounted courier rate plus 50p per label |
| Returns | Your handling time and associated costs | £1.50 per item |
| Presentation extras | Materials and preparation time | Gift wrap or inserts from 30p per order |
Pack & Post NI has no minimums, subscription or long contract. That does not mean every monthly bill will be identical: order volumes, stock requirements and additional work still affect the total.
Check the pricing details and discuss your products before treating an estimate as a complete budget.
A practical example: 100 single-item orders
Consider a hypothetical brand sending 100 orders in one month, with one item in each order. Its stock occupies two shelves, and it receives one normal incoming delivery.
Using the rates above:
| Monthly charge | Calculation | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Picking and packing | 100 orders × £2 | £200 |
| Storage | 2 shelves × £8 | £16 |
| Goods in | 1 normal delivery × £15 | £15 |
| Label administration | 100 labels × 50p | £50 |
| Monthly subtotal | £200 + £16 + £15 + £50 | £281 |
That is £2.81 per order for the listed services in this particular example.
It is not an all-in delivered cost. The £281 excludes actual courier postage, VAT, returns and optional work. The £150 setup charge is separate from this recurring monthly example.
Standard boxes or mailers are included in the picking and packing rate. There are no extra-item charges here because every order contains only one item.
What would the DIY time cost look like?
Now assume the same brand spends six minutes picking, packing and preparing each order:
100 orders × 6 minutes = 600 minutes, or 10 hours.
At an illustrative value of £15 per hour, that represents:
10 hours × £15 = £150 of time.
The £15 figure is an assumed comparison rate, not a statutory wage rate.
Crucially, £150 is not the total DIY fulfilment cost. It covers only the assumed order-processing time. Packaging, storage, postage, equipment, goods-in work, returns and other relevant costs still need adding.
Nor should you simply subtract £150 from £281 and call the difference an outsourcing premium. The figures cover different things. The 3PL subtotal includes storage, goods in, standard packaging and label administration; the DIY figure values only ten hours of order-processing time.
How to find your own break-even point
Build two budgets covering the same period, order mix and services.
For DIY, add your relevant cash costs and show owner time separately. For outsourcing, include picking and packing, storage, incoming deliveries, label administration, actual postage and any expected extras. Keep setup visible as a separate upfront expense.
Then ask what released time would realistically achieve. Could it support product development or marketing? Would it replace paid packing hours? Or would it mainly make your working week more manageable?
Those outcomes have different financial effects. Ten hours available for marketing does not automatically produce ten hours’ worth of extra profit.
Your break-even point also changes with:
- The number of items per order.
- How much shelf space your stock needs.
- Delivery frequency and the work involved in receiving stock.
- Return volumes and presentation requirements.
- Your own courier rates compared with the quoted outsourced rates.
There is no universal order threshold at which a 3PL becomes cheaper. A compact, straightforward product range can have a different cost profile from a bulky or labour-intensive one.
When does each approach make sense?
DIY can remain sensible when volumes are manageable, suitable storage is available and fulfilment fits comfortably around your other responsibilities. It also gives you direct control while you learn how customers respond to your packaging and products.
Outsourcing deserves consideration when packing repeatedly displaces higher-priority work, stock takes over your space or the operational workload becomes difficult to manage.
Neither choice guarantees better margins. Compare actual requirements rather than assuming that outsourcing is automatically cheaper or that doing everything yourself always saves money.
Explore how the fulfilment process works, including the stages you would hand over. For a location-focused discussion, read the guide to ecommerce fulfilment costs in Northern Ireland.
Frequently asked questions
Is a 3PL cheaper for a small online brand?
Sometimes, but not automatically. The answer depends on your labour, packaging, storage, courier arrangements and service requirements. Compare equivalent costs and keep the value of your own time distinct from cash expenditure.
Is courier postage included in the £2 order charge?
No. The £2 charge covers picking and packing with a standard box or mailer. Shipping is charged at the discounted courier rate plus 50p per label. Actual postage is excluded from the £281 worked example.
Are there minimum order volumes or a subscription?
Pack & Post NI has no minimums, subscription or long contract. Charges still apply for the services used, such as shelf storage, goods in and order fulfilment, alongside the separate setup charge.
What should I provide for an accurate quote?
Share your order volume, typical items per order, product dimensions, storage needs, delivery destinations, incoming stock schedule and returns requirements. Flag gift wrapping, inserts or unusual handling too. You can request a quote using those details.
Summary
For the hypothetical 100-order brand, Pack & Post NI’s listed monthly services total £281, excluding actual courier postage, VAT, returns and optional work. Setup is a separate £150.
The DIY example values ten hours of order-processing time at £150, but that is only one part of its cost.
Compare complete, equivalent budgets. The right choice depends on your business—not an automatic promise that either option is cheaper.
