3PL fulfilment: when your own warehouse is no longer enough and how to choose a logistics operator.
Author: Borys Terlecki · marketplace sales and implementations at Commercraft · updated: September 2026
In brief
A 3PL provider takes over storage, picking, packing, shipping and returns. In Poland, fulfilling one order costs 15 to 22 PLN (EUR 5.04) at list prices, roughly 3.50 to 5.10 EUR (DDT Logistics, July 2026).
The numbers start to work from about 300 to 500 orders a month, the usual decision point is around 1,000 orders, and above 8,000 to 10,000 they often tip back (industry estimate).
For selling to Poland, the parcel locker is what counts: over 72,000 lockers run by InPost and Allegro Delivery, plus the Smart! badge and Polish VAT registration once your stock sits in Poland.
At some point your own warehouse takes more attention than the sales it supports are worth. Orders pile up, seasons overlap and marketplaces keep asking for shorter shipping times. This is where 3PL fulfillment comes in: an external provider stores your goods and handles shipping.
This article is built on numbers: what a provider in Poland charges per order, at what volume the switch pays off, and what a warehouse in Poland means for VAT and registrations. If you sell to Poland from Germany, Austria, Switzerland or elsewhere in Western Europe, you will find the calculation for both routes here: shipping from your own warehouse and fulfillment on the ground.
3PL (third-party logistics) is a company that handles the physical side of order fulfillment. It receives and stores your goods, and as soon as an order comes in, it picks, packs and ships the parcel to the customer, often handling returns as well. You keep control of sales, pricing and your brand, and hand over the part that eats more time with every extra order and produces the most errors.
Stock
You send a batch of stock to the 3PL provider’s warehouse,
Receiving
the provider receives the products and logs them,
Connection
you connect your shop and marketplaces to the 3PL system (usually through an integration),
Shipping
as soon as an order comes in, the provider picks, packs and ships the parcel,
Returns
it also receives and processes returns.
Polish providers publish their price lists, so the calculation for a warehouse in Poland can be done in the open. For comparison, German providers usually only name their prices in a quote.
| Service | Price (Poland, list price) | Converted |
|---|---|---|
| Pick and pack, labelling | 2.50 to 3.50 PLN (EUR 0.80) per item | roughly 0.60 to 0.80 EUR |
| Pick and pack, standard order | 4 to 6 PLN (EUR 1.38) | roughly 0.95 to 1.40 EUR |
| each additional SKU in the same parcel | 0.70 to 1.20 PLN (EUR 0.28) | roughly 0.15 to 0.30 EUR |
| Storage | 1 to 1.50 PLN (EUR 0.34) per pallet per day | roughly 0.25 to 0.35 EUR |
| Returns handling | 3 to 5 PLN (EUR 1.15) per parcel | roughly 0.70 to 1.20 EUR |
Added up, fulfilling one order comes to 15 to 22 PLN, roughly 3.50 to 5.10 EUR. At 500 orders a month the average is 19.81 PLN (EUR 4.54), at 3,000 orders it is 17.81 PLN (EUR 4.08). Volume brings the unit price down, though less than most calculations assume.
Source: DDT Logistics public price list, July 2026. List prices, not a quote for your volume. Conversion rounded.
3PL does not make sense for everyone from day one, but it becomes relevant when:
In practice the numbers start to work from about 300 to 500 orders a month. The usual decision point is around 1,000 orders, where providers show savings of roughly a quarter compared with your own warehouse. Above 8,000 to 10,000 orders a month the calculation often tips back, and your own warehouse becomes attractive again.
The thresholds are an industry estimate, not a commitment from any provider.
There are two ways to start selling to Poland. You ship from your existing warehouse in Germany or Austria, or you place stock with a Polish provider. The first route costs nothing in registrations. The second shortens delivery times, gives your buyers a Polish returns address and opens up delivery methods the Polish market takes for granted.
The biggest difference from Germany is the parcel locker. InPost runs around 29,000 Paczkomaty (its parcel lockers), and Allegro Delivery adds more than 36,000 locations, giving Poland over 72,000 lockers in total. There, locker delivery is the default shipping method and the courier is the alternative. To Polish buyers, a listing without Paczkomat delivery looks like a German listing without Packstation, only more so.
On Allegro, the largest marketplace in Poland, the Smart! badge depends on this. More than 9 million subscribers in the Allegro Group get free delivery, since 2 March 2026 from a uniform basket value of 49.90 PLN (EUR 11.44). A seller can only offer Smart! if, among other things, their shipping price list includes several courier and locker methods and they have a returns address in Poland. Without Smart! your visibility drops noticeably. This is exactly where a Polish warehouse or Polish 3PL turns from a cost question into a requirement.
The catch is VAT. As soon as your goods are stored in Poland, you need Polish VAT registration with a Polish tax number (NIP) and regular filings in Poland. Using the One Stop Shop does not replace this registration, not even with Amazon FBA on amazon.pl. Packaging you place on the Polish market falls under BDO, the Polish waste register. If you ship from Switzerland, you also face customs duty and import VAT at the EU external border, and stock in Poland solves that in one go.
Run both options against your own order profile before you sign. With few orders a month, shipping from Germany carries the load. Once Allegro becomes a relevant channel, local stock wins.
Sources: Allegro, Q2 2026 results (17 September 2026) and Smart! help pages, as of September 2026; InPost and Allegro Delivery, network sizes according to company data and cashless.pl, 2026.
The Polish market returns less than the German one: around 8 to 10 percent of orders come back, and up to 40 percent in fashion. In return, delivery and returns weigh more heavily in reviews: 82 percent of negative customer reviews in Polish e-commerce concern shipping or returns. A parcel coming back from Poland therefore has to move fast and be free for the buyer, or it will hit your seller rating.
For your calculation this means you need a returns address in Poland, either at your provider or through a returns service, and a process that checks and restocks every return. On Allegro, returns are free for Smart! buyers and the seller pays. Since 19 June 2026, every shop in the EU must also offer a digital withdrawal function with confirmation. If the shop does not tell the customer about the right of withdrawal, the period extends to 12 months and 14 days.
Sources: Ageno, Polish e-commerce report 2026; Alsendo, “Zwroty w polskim e-commerce 2026” (29 May 2026); Directive (EU) 2023/2673, as of September 2026.
72,000+
parcel lockers in Poland
InPost and Allegro Delivery, company data
8-10%
return rate in Poland
Ageno, e-commerce report 2026
82%
of negative reviews
concern shipping or returns, Alsendo 2026
300-500
orders a month
the point where 3PL pays off, industry estimate
Two platform services matter for the Polish market. Amazon FBA stores your goods in the marketplace’s fulfillment centres, including for amazon.pl, handles shipping and returns, and requires VAT registration in the country where the stock sits. Allegro offers its own logistics service, One Fulfillment, which meets the Smart! conditions automatically. Terms and capacity are agreed during onboarding.
Both usually increase visibility and shorten delivery times, but they tie your stock to one platform. An independent 3PL keeps a single stock pool for all channels. In practice it often ends up as a mix: bestsellers through the platform service, everything else through your own 3PL.
We work out with you when the switch pays off, compare offers from independent providers with FBA and ZFS (Zalando Fulfillment Solutions), and connect the route you choose to your sales channels. We help prepare the registrations a warehouse in Poland triggers: VAT, BDO and the connection to InPost and Allegro Delivery. We advise and help with the paperwork, though we are not a law or tax firm.
For the full picture of entering the Polish market, see the guide Marketplaces in Poland, and for the terms of the most important channel, the page Selling on Allegro. Check what is left at the end in the ROI calculator.
EUR conversions: NBP rate of 18 September 2026 (table 182/A/NBP/2026), EUR 1 = PLN 4.3633.
Borys Terlecki – marketplace sales and implementations at Commercraft. He previously worked on the operator side of marketplace platforms (Mirakl, Munich) and today onboards brands on marketplaces in Poland and the DACH region and runs their accounts.
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