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What Drives the Cost of Office Supplies Fulfillment

Updated October 2026

Office stock costs money to bring in, to hold and to send out, and some of it comes back. On paper and furniture, the carrier's charge is often the biggest part.

The primary drivers of office supplies fulfillment cost are:

receiving inbound stock
storage by the unit and by the case
breakpack and single-unit picking
freight, pushed up by heavy paper and bulky furniture
handling returns

Carton size, a scan on every pick and replenishing from the warehouse nearest each order are where a 3PL can bring the total down.

By The Fulfillment.com team

Same catalog, two bills

Why two accounts can pay different amounts for the same catalog

Two office supplies brands can sell the same catalog at the same rates and still end up with very different totals. The difference comes from how the work gets done:

how big their cartons are
which warehouses hold their stock
how many of their orders mean breaking open a case
how often units come back
which carriers move their orders

A rate per order shows none of that.