Since Flexport doesn't publish standard pricing, what should a mid-market Shopify brand ask for in an initial quote conversation?
No published figure exists. Here is the honest answer.
Flexport publishes no rate card, so a quote conversation has to supply the inputs itself. Bring twelve months of order data, unit dimensions and weights, SKU count, storage days, seasonality peak, and return rate. Ask for the rate card in writing, the monthly minimum treatment, and the notice period for rate changes. Flexport raised its minimum tenfold effective 1 January 2026.
Why the notice-period question is the important one
Start here, because it is the question nobody asks and the one 2026 made urgent.
Flexport announced in August 2025 that its minimum monthly fulfillment spend would rise from $500 to $5,000 effective 1 January 2026 (per Supply Chain Dive, 15 August 2025). A merchant on the Shopify Community forum described the sequence as a $500 minimum introduced in July 2025 followed by a tenfold increase announced roughly six months later, and called it a bait and switch (community-reported, Shopify Community, August 2025). We are not adjudicating that characterisation. We are pointing at the structural fact underneath it: with an unpublished rate card, your protection is contractual, not competitive.
Separately, Flexport's 2026 rate-card changes take effect 5 February 2026, with individualised rate cards emailed to customers on 6 January 2026 (per Flexport Help Center, September 2026). Thirty days between notice and effect is the pattern to plan around.
What to bring to the conversation
A vendor cannot quote what you cannot describe. Prepare these before the first call:
- Twelve months of order data, month by month, including your worst month.
- Units per order distribution, not the average. Multi-unit orders price differently.
- Unit dimensions and weights for your top 50 SKUs by volume, and note that Flexport's 2026 changes round dimensions to the nearest inch for billable weight (per Flexport Help Center, September 2026).
- Total DSKU count and the share that is slow-moving, because of the per-DSKU daily storage minimum change from $0.01 to $0.10.
- Average days of inventory on hand and your peak-season inventory position.
- Return rate and return handling requirement.
- Any kitting, bundling, inserts or custom packaging.
- Ship-to zone mix, which drives parcel cost more than anything else on this list.
- Whether you need B2B, EDI or retail-compliant outbound.
The line items to demand in writing
| Line item | Ask exactly this |
|---|---|
| Receiving | Per unit, per carton or per hour, and what triggers each |
| Storage | Per pallet, per bin and per DSKU per day, with the daily minimum stated |
| Pick and pack | Base fee and each additional unit, with the packaging included named |
| Parcel | Your blended rate by zone and weight band, not "market rates" |
| Returns | Per return, and what inspection or restocking is included |
| Kitting and prep | Per unit or per hour, with a stated turnaround |
| Card processing | Whether Flexport handles any, and at what rate |
| Monthly minimum | The figure, the offset list, and what counts toward it |
| Surcharges | Peak-season, fuel, residential, oversize, dimensional rounding rule |
| Rate changes | Notice period in days, and whether it is unilateral |
| Term and exit | Length, renewal, termination notice, and inventory-release terms on exit |
Three questions that reveal more than the rate card
- "Which of these lines has changed in the last 24 months, and by how much?" A vendor that changed its minimum tenfold has a change history, and the history predicts the future better than the current number does.
- "What does my invoice look like in my slowest month?" This forces the minimum into the open as a dollar figure rather than a clause.
- "What is the exit process for my inventory, and who pays for it?" Ask before you sign, because after you sign it is not a negotiation.
Do the same thing to the incumbent
Run the identical brief to ShipBob and any other shortlisted 3PL. ShipBob is also quote-only: "All quotes are customized for each customer" (per shipbob.com, September 2026), and it also does not publish rates. The comparison is only meaningful if both vendors quoted the same twelve months of data with the same assumptions.
What we refuse to give you
A typical total. We will not publish a representative monthly cost for Flexport or for any quote-only 3PL, because there is no published rate card to build one from, and a "typical" figure assembled from assumed rates would be a number with our name on it and nobody's data behind it. The method above produces a real number. A benchmark would produce a comfortable one.
The Deploi point of view
Our own position, from building on Shopify. Separate from the facts above.
- Our take: With an unpublished rate card, the negotiation is not about the rates. It is about the change-control clause, the minimum, and the exit terms. Win those three and an ordinary rate card is survivable. Lose them and a good rate card is temporary.
- What we’ve seen: Quote comparisons we are asked to review are usually missing three things: the slowest month, the minimum, and the surcharge schedule. Adding those three back has reordered the shortlist more often than the headline per-order rate has.
- Where we disagree: Procurement advice for 3PLs fixates on cost per order. Cost per order is the most negotiable line and the least stable one. The terms that actually determine three-year cost are the minimum and the notice period, and they are usually agreed in a paragraph nobody read.
- What this page adds: the specific line items and change-control terms to demand from a vendor with no published pricing, what to prepare before the first call, and why we decline to publish a benchmark total.
Reviewed by Martin Dejnicki, Director of SEO & AI Search. Facts verified 2026-09-14.
Where we worked this out
Our decision records