Shopify eCommerce fulfillment decides whether a growing brand keeps its customers or loses them at checkout. A slow warehouse costs you sales during a launch. One that skips Health Canada or FDA rules can cost you your license to sell at all.
According to Shopify, global ecommerce sales are on track to climb from $6.42 trillion in 2025 to $7.89 trillion by 2028. Supplement, beauty, and apparel brands are positioned to capture a large share of that growth.
Each of those categories carries its own compliance and packaging demands.
What Should You Look For Before Switching Shopify 3PLs?
Not every 3PL fits every brand. A supplement company has different needs than an apparel label. A beauty brand selling into the US has different needs than one selling only within Canada.
A proper tech-driven 3PL evaluation looks past price and asks how the warehouse actually operates day-to-day. Ask for a live demo of the merchant dashboard rather than a slide deck. Migrating ecommerce fulfilment to a new partner is disruptive enough without discovering integration gaps three weeks later.
Inbound freight is where most of these gaps first show up. A warehouse that struggles with receiving and container unloading will pass that delay straight on to your Shopify customers. That single bottleneck can undo weeks of marketing spend before a single order ships.
Brands rarely budget the time needed to test this properly in practice until it is already too late, and the 30th Annual Third-Party Logistics Study from NTT Data found 57% of shippers cite technology integration as a top driver of stronger relationships. Four areas matter more than any glossy sales page:
- Direct, native integration with your Shopify store, not a manual CSV upload
- Compliance certifications relevant to your specific product category
- Real-time visibility into stock levels, orders, and shipment status
- Support for both direct-to-consumer and wholesale or retail orders
Supplement and beauty brands should add one more line to that list. Ask for proof of a valid regulatory licence or registration, not just a claim on the sales page. Confirm the licence number directly with the regulator if the answer feels vague.
Do Canadian 3PLs Also Handle Freight and Drayage for Imported Inventory?
Many full-service Canadian 3PLs manage freight and drayage right alongside fulfilment. This matters for Shopify brands importing stock through ports in Vancouver, Montreal, or Halifax. Handling both under one roof removes the need for a separate freight broker entirely.
That kind of coordination becomes more valuable once inventory sits on the water rather than in a truck. A provider offering drayage support can move containers straight from the port to a fulfilment centre with fewer handoffs, meaning fewer delays and clearer accountability if something goes wrong.
Cutting out a separate drayage broker also simplifies billing and removes a common source of demurrage charges that eat into margins on imported goods. That matters more each year as cross-border order volume continues to climb. Global ecommerce spending is projected to grow well past $8 trillion by 2027, pushing more import volume through the same handful of Canadian ports.
Not every 3PL on a Shopify brand’s shortlist offers this. Some specialise purely in pick, pack, and ship once inventory already sits on their shelves. Brands importing directly from overseas suppliers should ask this question early, since it can eliminate an entire vendor relationship.
With those criteria in mind, here is how six Canadian providers actually compare for Shopify brands. Some suit a fast-growing supplement label better than an established apparel brand shipping thousands of parcels a week.
1. Metro Supply Chain
Metro Supply Chain is the largest privately owned supply chain company in Canada, and in May 2025 it was named a winner of Canada’s Best Managed Companies for the fifth straight time. The program, run by Deloitte Private, recognizes privately owned Canadian businesses for sustained growth and sound, long-term strategy. That kind of recognition carries real weight with brands doing careful due diligence on a potential fulfilment partner.
Metro’s facilities are built to GMP standards and support the Health Canada Site Licence requirements that apply to regulated products like supplements and cosmetics. The same award announcement noted the company now operates across more than 175 sites in North America and Europe, backed by a team of roughly 9,000 people. For very large brands, that kind of scale can matter more than the personal touch of a smaller warehouse.
Smaller or fast-growing Shopify brands sometimes find that Metro’s enterprise focus offers less flexibility for custom projects. A boutique 3PL often moves faster on one-off requests. Onboarding timelines can also run longer given the size of the network involved.
2. ShipBob
ShipBob is a US-headquartered 3PL with a large global network, including several Canadian fulfilment centres. It built its own proprietary warehouse management system, giving merchants a single dashboard across every warehouse in the network. That system supports order fulfilment across more than 60 locations spanning the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, and Australia.
ShipBob is an official Shopify-certified fulfilment partner, which appeals to larger merchants running multiple sales channels. Its customisation suite covers branded packaging, gift notes, and product bundling. Brands that care about the unboxing experience tend to value this most.
That footprint comes with a few practical trade-offs worth weighing:
- Inventory decisions made at a global network level rather than a Canada-first one
- Pricing structured around US-scale volume, which can suit larger merchants better
- Support routed through a broader team rather than one dedicated Canadian contact
Canadian brands should note that ShipBob’s centre of gravity sits in the US. Canadian operations sit layered onto a larger international network rather than built around it. That structure suits brands expanding globally more than ones focused primarily on the Canadian market.
3. ShipTop
ShipTop was built around Shopify from day one, and it shows how the platform connects. Orders sync automatically the moment a customer checks out. Your dashboard always reflects what is actually sitting on the shelf.
That kind of Shopify API-based warehouse integration eliminates the manual updates that slow down smaller warehouses. ShipTop runs fulfilment centres in Toronto, Mississauga, North York, Vancouver, and Delta, BC, with a daily cross-border lane from Vancouver into Blaine, Washington. That lane cuts transit times for brands shipping into the US Pacific Northwest.
ShipTop also handles reverse logistics in-house, inspecting and restocking returned items instead of leaving them to sit in a corner of the warehouse. Supplement, beauty, and apparel brands also get custom kitting, bundling, and branded packaging without having to hire a separate vendor. A well-run cross-border lane also depends on solid drayage practices behind the scenes.
The platform supports both direct-to-consumer orders and B2B or Amazon FBA prep from the same warehouse. That flexibility matters as a brand grows into retail. A few things worth knowing before you switch:
- Same-platform support for DTC, B2B, and Amazon FBA prep
- Warehouses positioned near major transportation hubs in three provinces
- Dedicated onboarding built specifically around Shopify store migrations
Brands moving from a slower or outgrown 3PL tend to name ShipTop first for a reason. It remains one of the few Canadian providers built specifically around Shopify’s workflow rather than adapted to it later. That shows up in fewer sync errors and faster onboarding during a migration.
4. MacMillan SCG
MacMillan Supply Chain Group operates from Brampton, Ontario, with GMP-certified warehouse space designed for nutraceutical, health, and consumer goods brands. The company runs its operations on a Mantis-powered warehouse management system, tracking over 350 KPIs across its network. That level of WMS software compatibility appeals to brands that want detailed reporting on every stage of fulfilment.
MacMillan also brings deep experience with US-bound customs entries. That experience has become more valuable now that the Section 321 de minimis exemption has been suspended nationwide. Brands that once shipped low-value parcels duty-free now need a partner who understands formal entry and duty calculation.
Slower formal clearance also raises the odds of demurrage and detention charges piling up on inbound freight. Working with a 3PL that plans for that risk beats reacting to it after the fact. A customs bond is one of the pieces that can come into play once formal entries become the default.
Its client base leans toward established supplement and FMCG companies rather than early-stage DTC brands. That focus suits brands that have already scaled past their first warehouse. They tend to want more structured reporting than a smaller 3PL typically provides.
5. Ottawa Logistics Fulfilment
Ottawa Logistics is a family-owned 3PL with facilities in Ottawa and Vancouver, running over 250,000 square feet of warehouse space. The company processes more than 40,000 direct-to-consumer orders every week for beauty, food, and health brands. Its facilities are GMP-compliant and hold FDA-registered warehouse status.
That FDA registration matters for any brand shipping regulated products south of the border. Paired with temperature-controlled storage, it makes Ottawa Logistics a natural fit for beauty and supplement brands specifically. The company also lists over one hundred years in the logistics business. Few competitors on this list can point to that kind of long-term track record with regulated goods.
- Same-day fulfilment for orders received before 1 p.m. EST
- Temperature-controlled storage for beauty and health products
- Integrations with Shopify, Amazon, and WooCommerce out of the box
Family ownership tends to mean closer client relationships and more willingness to accommodate custom requests. It also means a smaller physical footprint than a national provider like Metro Supply Chain. That gap can matter once order volume climbs into the tens of thousands per week.
6. ShipHype
ShipHype runs fulfilment hubs in Toronto and Vancouver, built specifically for high-volume Shopify DTC brands. Orders placed before 2 p.m. typically ship the same day. The company reports onboarding most new brands within about a week.
It uses ShipHero’s warehouse software to manage real-time inventory syncing across both Canadian locations. That two-warehouse structure gives reasonable coast-to-coast coverage without the complexity of a much larger national network. Brands report clear billing and fewer inventory discrepancies after switching over from broader providers.
ShipHype positions itself toward brands shipping 1,000 or more DTC orders per month with a fairly tight SKU count. Brands with complex catalogues or heavy wholesale volume may find that focus limiting. A broader, more flexible provider tends to suit a wider range of order types better.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Counts As a Value-Added Service in Fulfilment?
Value-added services include extras beyond basic pick-and-pack work. These include kitting, bundling, custom labelling, and branded packaging. Brands often add these services to build a stronger, more memorable unboxing experience for customers.
Does Port and Terminal Support Actually Matter for a Shopify Brand?
Port and terminal support speeds up the process by which inventory clears customs and reaches the warehouse floor. Faster clearance means stock arrives sooner than expected, even during peak season. That timing matters most for brands importing seasonal or high-volume goods ahead of a launch.
Should a Shopify Brand Ask About Container Unloading Speed?
Container unloading affects how quickly new stock gets shelved, counted, and listed as available. Slow unloading can delay restocks during your busiest sales periods. Asking providers about their typical unloading speed helps set realistic launch and restock timelines.
Can One Provider Manage Both Freight Transportation and Last-Mile Delivery?
Some 3PLs manage the entire journey from the port to the customer’s doorstep under a single contract. This single-provider approach reduces handoffs between separate logistics companies. Fewer handoffs generally means fewer delays and clearer accountability when something goes wrong.
What Paperwork Should a New Shopify Brand Have Ready Before Onboarding?
A new client should have product dimensions, SKU lists, and supplier invoices ready in advance. Any compliance documents, like a site licence or safety data sheet, should be on hand too. Sharing this early shortens onboarding and helps catch compliance issues before launch.
Choose the Right Fit for Your Brand
Every provider on this list can pick, pack, and ship a Shopify order without much trouble. What actually sets a brand up for long-term eCommerce fulfilment growth is a partner who responds directly rather than routing you through a call center. Canada3PL connects growing brands with a dedicated logistics contact who knows their shipment from day one and remains reachable as questions arise.
Contact us to talk through your questions and find the right fulfilment partner for your business.
