What is Global Fulfillment? Importance and Solutions (2025)

Find the right global fulfillment partner to optimize international shipping, reduce costs, and meet evolving cross-border customer demands

Global ecommerce has evolved in recent years, and it’s not going to stop. 

In 2024, global ecommerce sales were worth close to $6.09 trillion. By 2028, they are expected to reach $8.09 trillion. If your buyers are global, you’ll need fulfillment solutions to ensure orders arrive on time and intact.

Here are some crucial questions and considerations for finding and retaining a global fulfillment partner, including whether you need this kind of partner at all, and how buyer behavior will shape your fulfillment efforts. 

What services do global fulfillment partners offer?

A full-service global fulfillment partner is like an outsourced operations department. It stores your products close to shoppers, moves them across borders, manages returns, and sends all related data back to your commerce stack. 

Here’s a quick rundown of services a fulfillment partner will provide:

• Distributed warehousing and inventory management: Operates multi‑node fulfillment centers and a warehouse management system (WMS) to receive, store, reconcile, and cycle‑count stock
• Order processing (pick, pack, kitting and light assembly): Picks individual SKUs, bundles, or subscription kits; prints branded inserts and shipping labels; secures dunnage to ship orders safely and cost-effectively
• Multi-model freight: Contracts air, ocean, truck and parcel carriers; offers rate shopping, track‑and‑trace, and last‑mile hand‑off
• Cross-border compliance: Generates commercial invoices, HS codes, landed‑cost estimates; files entries, pays duties, and offers DDP terms 
• Returns and reverse logistics: Issues RMA labels, receives and inspects returns; restocks, refurbishes, or routes to liquidation
• Value-added services: Kitting, relabeling, FBA prep, compliance labelling, buyer’s consolidation, retail‑ready palletization
• Sustainability add-ons: Carbon calculators, optimized routing, recyclable or localized packaging 

Choosing a fulfillment partner with deep platform integrations (like your ecommerce platform and ERP) and a transparent tech layer usually yields the fastest payoff, because you eliminate manual reconciliation and can scale to new markets with a few clicks.

How changing consumer behavior impacts global fulfillment

Consumer expectations shift quickly as new trends, technologies, and cultural moments—think the COVID‑19 ecommerce surge, or the arrival of social shopping—reshape how people buy. Meeting those expectations, especially across borders, comes down to two things:

• Speed: Shoppers everywhere expect delivery that rivals local shipping times.
• Capability: Only the right mix of technology and logistics partners can move inventory across oceans without bottlenecks.

Because international shipping relies on extra legs (e.g., North America → Europe by air or sea), you need a data‑backed view of customers’ expectations in each region before you promise fast shipping. Start with a quick audit:

• Where are my fastest‑growing international markets?
• What delivery speed do those customers see as “fast enough”?
• Are current transit times and shipping costs competitive?
• How satisfied are overseas shoppers with post‑purchase service?
• Does our five‑year growth plan depend on cross‑border sales?

If the answers reveal widening gaps—slower deliveries, rising costs, or stagnant satisfaction—it’s time to vet a global fulfillment partner who already has nodes near your buyers. The sooner you align fulfillment with evolving customer behavior, the sooner you outpace competitors who don’t.

Do you need a global fulfillment partner?

Fast‑growing brands reach a tipping point where DIY logistics start eroding profit and customer experience. A global fulfillment partner—a third‑party logistics provider (3PL) with warehouses in multiple regions and built‑in cross‑border services—can help you cross that chasm. You probably need one if you’re seeing any of these red flags:

• Rising costs: Shipping now exceeds 15% of average order value, or you’re paying dimensional‑weight surcharges on every overseas parcel.
• Long lead times: Door‑to‑door delivery regularly tops seven business days in your top export markets.
• Operational drag: Ops teams spend more time on commercial invoices, HS codes, and return labels than on growth initiatives.

The right partner offers duty‑paid checkout, localized inventory placement, real‑time tracking, and flexible storage that scales with demand peaks. 

From a tech perspective, integration matters as much as square footage. With Shopify’s built‑in connection with 3PL Flexport, you can plug fulfillment into your existing workflows and maintain a single source of truth for orders, inventory, and customer data.

If your growth goals include faster delivery, lower landed costs, and happier customers, it’s time to start the partner search.

International fulfillment partner considerations

Resilient supply chains often spread manufacturing, fulfillment, and shipping risk across multiple vendors and locations. 

This strengthens a brand's ability to continue operating facing a period of economic difficulty, , a lack of warehouse space, or any other obstacle that may impact a portion of the supply chain. However, building diversification and resilience into the supply chain can also add costs that may seem unnecessary in times of economic prosperity.

Consider the impact international fulfillment operations will have on your company’s cost structure in both good times and bad, and weigh that against the risk of not diversifying and being unable to optimally fulfill international orders during the next crisis.

With that cost-benefit analysis in mind, here are the main benefits of working with an international fulfillment partner.

Optimized international shipping

Many brands currently produce the bulk of their products in Asia, or in the Asia-Pacific region. If you have to import your products from there to North America, and then ship them back out to Europe, you’re losing money on every single transaction. 

The right way to do this would be to ship from your factory in Asia to a fulfillment partner in Europe who then handles the shipment to your European customers.

Avoid owning or leasing a warehouse

While owning your own warehouse gives you full control over your inventory and customer experience, it often isn’t worth the cost. During slow times you may be overstaffed, and it will be hard to cut this fixed cost if you need to downsize.

Priced to grow

The more you ship, the more you pay. A fair ecommerce fulfillment partner can reverse that equation as you scale. Pick-and-pack fees help lower costs as you increase volume.

No in-house management

If you handle your fulfillment in-house, you need your own team to manage it. Working with a fulfillment partner avoids that. For international fulfillment this can be a huge win, as dealing with employees in a foreign country is complex.

Minimized shipping errors

When you start fulfilling orders in-house, you often aren’t ready to scale up. If your current team won’t be able to handle an increase to the magnitude of 10 in order volume, imagine what would happen at a magnitude of 100. If you choose the right fulfillment partner to work with, they’ll be able to grow with you.

Cost decreases over time

An international fulfillment partner isn’t cheap. Not only do you need to dedicate inventory abroad, you will also have to pay for setup fees. However, over time the return on investment (ROI) on this kind of partnership, and the cumulative effects of the above-stated benefits, lead to major cost reductions.

Worker safety priority 

Any 3PL you partner with should prioritize warehouse worker safety. When interviewing potential partners, ask to see their business continuity plan (BCP). This will help you assess whether they prioritize people over profits, and how they might behave during potential crises.

The cost of international fulfillment

Running your own warehouse ties up headcount and capital. A 3PL’s fees—pick, pack, storage, and shipping—look simpler, but import duties can wipe out the savings if you’re not prepared:

• Duties vary by country and product. Rates can swing from 0% to double‑digit percentages.
• They’re usually charged to the receiver. Surprise bills destroy trust, so display landed costs at checkout and spell out who pays duties in your shipping policy.

💡 A quick reference: the US International Trade Administration’s Country Commercial Guides summarize regulations and duty rates for 125+ markets.

Duties, taxes, and carrier surcharges can turn a “cheap” 3PL rate into an expensive surprise. To keep margins healthy and checkout prices transparent, you have to control the landed cost. Here are two high‑impact ways to do it:

• Ship in‑country, not cross‑border. Moving goods from manufacturer → local warehouse → customer eliminates import duty for the buyer and cuts transit time.
• Use on‑demand warehousing. Short‑term space lets you bypass congested ports or regions where non‑essential goods are delayed.

If sales slip, delivery times stretch, or your stock keeps getting deprioritized:

• Ask for lower pick fees or bundled per‑order pricing.
• Request zero‑cost receiving—inventory delivered from the factory to the 3PL dock free of charge.
• Leverage carrier volume. Pool shipments or adjust pickup schedules for better discounts.

Supply‑chain diversification and near‑shoring will keep shifting the logistics map, but as long as customers want products made elsewhere, cross‑border fulfillment is non‑negotiable. When an overseas shopper enjoys the same transparent, fast delivery as a domestic one, you’ve truly built an international brand.

How Shopify Managed Markets can help your global commerce efforts

Selling into more than 150 countries sounds exciting—right up until you hit the maze of VAT registrations, restricted products, and payment quirks that vary from market to market. Managed Markets removes that complexity while allowing you to maintain full control of your storefront.

A built-in merchant of record

The moment you activate Managed Markets, Global‑e becomes the legal merchant of record for every international order. That means it registers for local taxes, remits VAT or GST, files the paperwork, and assumes compliance risk. You simply fulfill the ecommerce order and get paid in USD after duties, taxes, and processing fees are settled.

All-in pricing at checkout

Shoppers see guaranteed duties and taxes before they pay—if border charges come in higher, Global‑e eats the difference. The result is fewer abandoned carts and no angry emails about surprise fees. 

Local payments and quick logistics

Managed Markets automatically surfaces popular payment methods like Klarna, iDEAL, or Vipps alongside Shop Pay, and pairs them with discounted express shipping that clears customs in as little as one to five days. 

Because HS codes and regional restrictions are assigned for you, parcels glide through borders instead of getting flagged.

Pay-as-you-go pricing

There’s no monthly subscription. You pay a 6.5% transaction fee (which includes payment processing) plus a 2.5% foreign exchange (FX) fee on each international sale. You can turn the service off at any time, making it ideal for testing new regions without long contracts or upfront costs.

Managed Markets is currently available to US‑based merchants on the Basic plan or higher. If you already rely on Shopify’s standard international‑sales tools, turning on Managed Markets simply layers deeper localization, compliance, and risk protection into the same admin you use every day. 

Global fulfillment FAQ

What are global fulfillment services?

Global fulfillment services are a type of logistics solution that allows companies to quickly and efficiently ship products to international customers. These services provide access to a global network of warehouses and distribution centers, enabling delivery to customers regardless of location. They also include customs and import/export support, tracking, reporting, and other logistics services.

What are the types of fulfillment?

• Dropshipping: A third-party supplier ships directly to the customer.
• In-house fulfillment: The company manages the entire fulfillment process internally.
• Third-party logistics (3PL): Shipping and logistics are outsourced to a third-party provider.
• Inventory management: Helps manage inventory levels and optimize stock efficiency.
• Automated fulfillment: Uses technology to streamline and automate the fulfillment process.

What does a fulfillment company do?

A fulfillment company is a third-party provider that manages inventory, stores products, picks and packs orders, and ships them to customers. They handle the full order fulfillment process from purchase to delivery and may offer additional services like returns management, customer service, and analytics. If you’re a US-based merchant, the Shopify Fulfillment Network can help you manage your fulfillment, freight, storage, and returns while offering Shop Promise, which can boost sales by up to 25%.

Is fulfillment the same as logistics?

Fulfillment is a type of logistics. It focuses on the end-to-end process of getting goods to customers, including order management, packaging, shipping, and handling returns. Logistics is the broader discipline that encompasses fulfillment along with supply chain management and transportation planning.