3PL website checklist: 12 things shippers check before they request a quote

A shipper choosing a 3PL has several of you open in browser tabs. They want five answers fast: where you are, what it costs, how long it takes, which systems you connect to, and whether you have done this before. Most of them don't want to touch their goods at all. They want to hand them over and stop thinking about them.

This is the checklist we use when we build and fix 3PL websites.

The checklist

1. The shipper's questions, on the first screen

The most common mistake on 3PL sites is talking about yourself instead of what the shipper needs. The shipper cares about location, price, timelines, integrations and experience. Put the short answers on the first screen: what you handle, for whom, from where, and how to get a price.

2. How goods come in, are stored and go out

Receiving, storage, pick and pack, shipping, returns. Say how each step works and what it needs from the shipper, in plain words. Shippers ask about each of these before they hand you their goods.

3. The goods you take, and the ones you don't

In our 3PL projects, most shippers are e-commerce sellers of everyday goods, apparel among them. Say which product types you handle and how you store them, and say what you don't take: it saves both sides a call. Temperature-controlled storage for food retail chains is a separate business, so don't let the site suggest it if you don't run it.

4. Packaging, labels and inserts

Shippers want to know what goes in the box: your packaging or theirs, who prints the labels, whether you add their promo inserts. Show it, ideally with a photo of a packed order.

5. Marketplaces and sales channels

Amazon FBA prep and marketplace fulfillment, direct-to-consumer orders, the retail chains you ship to. A seller who lives on Amazon looks for that word first.

6. Integrations

Amazon, Shopify, WooCommerce and your WMS (Extensiv, ShipHero, Logiwa and the like). List the ones you connect to, and say what the shipper has to do to connect.

7. The whole chain, with addresses

Warehouse addresses, how you deliver, delivery times by region, the chains and marketplaces you deliver to. A shipper who can't tell whether you reach their customers moves on to the next tab.

8. Prices, or a calculator

Everyone compares by price. Publish starting prices for storage, pick and pack and shipping. A calculator is even better: in our projects it has always worked well, as long as it doesn't scare people off with too many questions. Prices hidden like a secret, or a price list too complex to read, lose requests.

9. The first steps

What happens after the shipper says yes: the first call, the inbound shipment, how long receiving takes, when the first orders go out. A free move of their stock to your warehouse works well as an opening offer.

10. Experience in the industry, with proof

This is the question that decides it: have you done this before? Name the industries and types of sellers you serve, how long you have been doing it, and show cases with numbers. For Silmar Logistics we built a page around storage from one pallet place. In its first month it brought an inquiry for 1,000+ pallet places.

11. A short quote form

Ask only what you need to price the job: orders a month, SKUs, pallets, product type, storage method, packaging, labels, and whether inserts go in the box. Shippers drop a form when it's unclear what it wants or when it has too many fields. Say what happens after they send it.

12. A reply in minutes

The faster you answer, the better. Five minutes is the ideal, because the shipper is comparing you with the other tabs in their browser. Silmar promised a cost calculation in 15 minutes and kept that promise.

Where 3PL sites lose requests most often

• The site talks about the company, not about the shipper's needs.
• The form asks the wrong questions, or too many.
• The site is slow.
• There is no clear path to a request.
• Prices are hidden, or too complex to read.
• The service area is hard to make out.
• Spam buries the real requests. On the A&O landing page more than half of the traffic was bots, so spam protection came first.

How to use the checklist

Open your homepage and your quote page on a phone and read them as a shipper with three other 3PLs open in tabs. Can you find the location, the price, the timelines, the integrations and the experience in a minute? Fix the first screen and the form first: that is where most requests are won or lost.

FAQ

What should a 3PL website include?

The answers shippers compare on: location and service area, prices or a calculator, timelines, integrations, the goods you handle and your experience in their industry. Add a short quote form and a fast reply. The 12 points above go through each one.

Should a 3PL publish prices?

Yes, at least starting prices. Shippers compare by price, and a site that hides it loses them to one that shows it. A simple calculator works even better, as long as it asks only a few questions.

What should a 3PL quote form ask?

Orders a month, SKUs, pallets, product type, storage method, packaging, labels and inserts. Nothing that isn't needed for the first price.

How fast should a 3PL answer a quote request?

As fast as you can. Five minutes is the ideal, because the shipper is comparing you with other tabs. If the price takes longer, say when it will come.

Do 3PLs need SEO?

Shippers search by location, service and sales channel, and AI assistants answer the same questions. Pages that answer them bring requests straight to you. How we do it for 3PLs