Shopify recently expanded their Fulfillment Network with five new partners, giving merchants more options for outsourced fulfillment directly within Shopify admin.

The partner list is the interesting part. Instead of building out its own network, which was the original SFN plan before Flexport took over operations in 2023, Shopify is assembling a marketplace of specialists: one for cross-border, one for Europe, one for speed. That’s a different bet, and it changes what you should be optimizing for.

Here’s what you need to know about each provider and how to evaluate them.

The New Partners

DHL Fulfillment Network

Global logistics leader bringing international shipping expertise to Shopify merchants.

Best for: Brands with significant international sales
Coverage: US and Germany, with a Canada rollout announced for September 2025
Key feature: Automated customs documentation, plus Delivered Duty Paid labels without leaving Shopify
Watch for: Premium pricing. You’re paying for reliability and customs handling, not for the cheapest rate.

Bigblue

European fulfillment specialist with 9 warehouses across EU markets.

Best for: Brands expanding into Europe or EU-based merchants
Coverage: France, Spain, UK, and Germany. Limited US presence.
Key feature: Strong B2B and DTC order handling, serving 600+ brands including SVR and Scuffers
Watch for: If most of your volume is US, the EU warehouse footprint works against you.

Mayple

Cross-border logistics platform focused on global expansion.

Best for: Brands testing international markets
Coverage: Ships to 80+ countries, 3.5-day average delivery
Key feature: Single warehouse for global inventory, so no multi-location allocation headaches
Watch for: One warehouse means one point of failure. Fine for testing a market, riskier at volume.

GoBolt

Tech-forward 3PL with carbon-neutral delivery options.

Best for: Brands prioritizing sustainability and North American coverage
Coverage: Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, LA, NYC, Houston
Key feature: Electric vehicle delivery where available. Reports 77% faster fulfillment and 35-50% shipping savings for clients.
Watch for: Those are vendor-reported numbers against an unnamed baseline. Ask what they were measured against.

Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment

Amazon’s fulfillment network, available on Shopify for a few years now, is officially part of the curated SFN program.

Best for: Brands already selling on Amazon or needing fastest possible delivery
Coverage: Extensive US network with same-day/next-day in major metros
Key feature: Same inventory pool for Amazon and Shopify sales. Unbranded packaging by default (most item types).
Watch for: Pricing runs meaningfully above FBA rates for the same network. You’re paying for the multi-channel privilege.

How to Evaluate Your Options

When choosing between these providers, focus on four key factors:

1. Geographic match Pull your last 90 days of order data and find where your customers actually are. The answer usually picks the provider for you:

75%+ in US metros: Amazon MCF is worth pricing out
30%+ international: DHL becomes interesting
Canada-heavy: GoBolt
Growing EU presence: Bigblue or DHL

2. Order volume requirements Each provider has different minimums. Confirm you meet their thresholds before investing time in integration.

3. Special requirements Do you ship fragile items? Need temperature control? Require specific packaging? Verify capabilities upfront.

4. Total cost structure Look beyond pick-and-pack fees. Include receiving, storage, returns processing, platform fees, and the peak-season surcharges that don’t show up on the rate card you get in September.

The Tradeoffs Worth Naming

The marketplace model is good for merchants on balance. More competition means better pricing, and standardized integration means less lock-in than a bespoke 3PL contract. But three things come with it:

Your fulfillment data concentrates in one place. Every provider you connect through SFN routes its operational data through Shopify. That’s convenient right up until you want to compare a Shopify-network provider against one outside it, or take your performance history somewhere else.

Specialists get standardized. Providers have to fit Shopify’s framework to be in the network. The kitting quirk or the cold-chain handling that made a boutique 3PL worth using may not survive the translation.

It’s one more critical function tied to one platform. Payments, checkout, and now fulfillment. That’s a reasonable trade for most brands. It’s still worth making it consciously.

Getting Started

All five providers are accessible through Shopify’s Fulfillment Network. Once connected, you can:

Compare provider options
Connect without complex technical integration
View basic performance metrics (orders fulfilled, delivery times, fulfillment speed)

Monitor Performance That Matters

Shopify’s Fulfillment Network provides basic metrics like fulfillment time and delivery speed. For actionable insights - like True SLA™ performance based on your specific agreements, late order tracking, and issue identification - you’ll want additional monitoring.

Whichever provider you pick, track these weekly rather than monthly. A month is long enough for a bad trend to become a bad quarter:

Dock-to-stock time: how fast they actually receive your inventory
Order accuracy: mispicks quietly eat margin through returns and reships
Actual delivery times against what was promised, not against the provider’s own average
Inventory accuracy: phantom stock sells units you don’t have

The catch is that most of those numbers come from the provider grading itself. Tools like 3PL Pulse verify performance from your own Shopify data across any provider, which is the difference between a number you’re given and a number you can check.

What’s Next

This expansion shows Shopify’s commitment to building out their fulfillment marketplace. For merchants, it means more choice and potentially better pricing through competition.

It also shifts where the leverage sits. When switching providers gets easier, the constraint stops being the contract and starts being the evidence: knowing which provider is actually performing, in numbers you trust, before the renewal conversation.

Take time to evaluate these new options against your current setup. Even if you don’t switch, getting quotes can help in negotiations with your existing provider. Just make sure you’re negotiating with your own data.

Ready to properly track your fulfillment performance? Learn more about monitoring your 3PL metrics, regardless of which provider you choose.

Shopify Fulfillment Network Adds 5 New Partners