Fulfillment Cost Calculator

Warehouse rent is a fixed monthly cost that gets divided across however many orders ship that month, so a higher order volume spreads that same fixed rent over more orders and lowers its per-order contribution. The variable costs — pick and pack, packaging, and shipping — stay roughly flat per order regardless of volume, so total per-order cost falls mainly through this fixed-cost dilution effect.

Labor cost per order is your hourly wage divided by how many orders a worker processes in that hour, so a faster pick rate spreads the same wage over more orders and lowers the per-order labor cost. Doubling orders-per-hour through better warehouse layout or process improvements cuts the labor-per-order figure roughly in half at the same hourly wage.

It converts your projected monthly order volume and processing rate into a headcount estimate using a standard 160-hour work month, giving a baseline for how many full-time workers your fulfillment operation needs at that volume and pick rate. Real staffing also needs a buffer for absences, seasonal peaks, and training time that this baseline figure doesn't build in.

Yes — this calculator's total cost per order represents your in-house fulfillment cost, which is the natural benchmark to compare against a 3PL's per-order fee to decide whether outsourcing fulfillment would actually save money. Be sure the 3PL quote includes comparable line items, since some 3PL pricing bundles storage, pick-and-pack, and shipping differently than this breakdown.

No — it uses a single average shipping cost per order that you provide, rather than modeling how weight, dimensions, or destination zone change the actual shipping rate for each order. If your order mix includes a wide range of package sizes or ships to varied distances, your real average shipping cost may differ meaningfully from a flat estimate.