We need to stop the interchangeable use of “Fulfillment Provider” and “Warehouse Provider.”

Brands use them interchangeably. Perceived experts use them interchangeably. Services and consultants use them interchangeably. And what it often leads to is a mismatch between needs and capabilities, followed by pricing conversations that feel fine upfront but become incongruent once operations begin.

It has been happening more frequently so I wrote about this earlier this week as a guide for brands that are coming to Slotted.

The economics are different. The physical structures and processes are different. The priorities are different.

Can warehouses do fulfillment? Yes.

Can fulfillment providers do warehousing? Yes.

But in the spirit of the recent Winter Olympics, think of it this way: just because you can go downhill on cross-country skis does not mean you should line up at the start of the Super G course on them and expect to make it through the first turn. The right equipment, the right experience, the right training and process all matter. Both in skiing and 3PL operations.

What's trending

📦 The “Return Crisis” and Return-uary tailwinds

• Data from late February shows the industry is still dealing with Return-uary fallout, but with a shift in how brands are responding. About 65% of merchants now charge return fees, averaging $9.04.

• Returns are increasingly treated as a system to manage rather than an unavoidable loss. Some brands are now using AI to flag high-risk returners before a label is generated. Those shoppers are estimated to represent about 12% of return attempts.

📦 The “Mid-Year Policy Cliff” with new U.S. import duties

• On February 20, 2026, the U.S. administration introduced a temporary 10% global import duty effective February 24. For many brands this creates a near-term policy cliff, pushing fulfillment and supply chain teams to accelerate inbound inventory now or absorb margin pressure later this year.

• At the same time, the Supreme Court struck down prior legal bases for certain tariffs, leading U.S. Customs to stop collecting some previously contested duties. The result is a regulatory environment that is shifting quickly and making landed-cost calculations increasingly difficult for international fulfillment.

Partner Highlight: Switchboard

New customer. Different tech stack.

Manual data entry between systems.

Onboarding slowed down by integration bottlenecks.

Switchboard helps fix that.

Switchboard is already embedded within Slotted to help brands quickly and securely share historical order profile data with prospective providers. But the real value shows up once a provider is live and operating day to day.

Switchboard is a scalable integration layer between your WMS, ERP, or IMS and the systems around you.

Customer ERPs, marketplaces, carriers, and B2B portals. Instead of building one-off connections every time you onboard a new client, you plug into a standardised framework that flexes where needed.

Where providers typically see the biggest impact

1. Customer onboarding integrations (faster go-live, fewer custom builds)

2. PO/invoice ingestion and automated order creation within your WMS/ERP (PDF, email, portal, EDI)

3. ASN and shipment data sync

4. Invoice sync back to customer ERP

5. Label generation and carrier schedule data flows

6. Inventory feeds

Instead of manually entering customer POs or invoices, Switchboard's AI tool can ingests them, validate key fields, and automatically creates clean orders in your system. Your team only handles exceptions.

For teams without a large development function, or teams who want engineers focused on core systems, Switchboard removes complexity while keeping flexibility.

Faster onboarding. Less manual admin. Integration infrastructure that scales as your operation grows.

Opportunities in Fulfillment