How to choose and negotiate with the right 3PL

An optics brand was growing fast, but their fulfillment setup was holding them back.

They were spending over $2.5M a year on fulfillment and shipping. With over 1,000 SKUs, they needed a partner built for complexity. Instead, they were stuck with billing issues, slow responses, and missed SLAs. The team knew they needed a change, but didn’t have the bandwidth to run a full search.

That’s when they brought in Operating Crew.

Founder Yan Sim led the transition - scoping the problem, running RFPs, modeling costs, and helping the brand switch to a better-fit 3PL.

I spoke with Yan to break down exactly how they did it.

Here’s what I learned from that conversation and how you can apply it if you’re in the middle of a 3PL search or thinking about switching soon.