The Impact of E-commerce Growth on 3PL Technology Investments
The demand for e-commerce consumption is rising. The ongoing consumption pattern increasingly depends on digital interfaces because of the sheer convenience of shopping at online marketplaces or brand websites that enable omnichannel sales. But why don’t most brands have in-house delivery services? The answer is profitability given the scale and scope!
Why 3PL companies? Decoding E-commerce Logistics to Understand 3PL Technology Trends
Key Factors in Logistics Operations for Supply Chain Optimisation: An Overview
Setting up in-house logistics operations, including warehouses, transport vehicles, and other related costs, poses a huge barrier. The endeavour becomes particularly capital-intensive because several such facilities must be built across different locations, catering to customers across zones. Establishing large-scale end-to-end logistics operations involves
- Buying, renting, leasing, or constructing warehouses
- Acquiring transportation fleets by purchasing, renting, or leasing
- Investing in warehouse management solutions, including subscription to WMS and the costs of warehouse technology hardware.
- Subscribing to a robust transport management system (can also be a module of the WMS)
Along with infrastructure costs, tech and real estate, the e-commerce platform will also need to spend on workforce management and ongoing operational expenses.
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Challenges and Economic Considerations Surrounding In-house Logistics
After a mega investment in delivery operations, breaking even can be challenging, at least for individual brands.
Let’s assume that a brand has its delivery infrastructure. In that scenario, the infrastructural costs must be recovered by factoring logistics expenditure into product prices. This price augmentation makes direct sales less competitive compared to the deals available on online marketplaces.
Similarly, logistics expenses in many online marketplaces, where brands compete with resellers, are recovered via subscription-based revenue, delivery charges, commissions, etc. This model can eat into sellers’ profit margins, which the marketplaces compensate for by offering access to a huge customer base and promising profits via bulk sales.
However, e-commerce platforms must balance sellers’ profit margins and their own, which is again influenced by logistics, to ensure viability. Hence, should e-commerce platforms opt for in-house logistics infrastructure while optimising profits, they must consider that the overall demand for the logistics infrastructure in any given location is sufficiently large. If not, it makes little sense to invest in company-owned logistics. Moreover, warehouse management solutions and logistics management systems must be updated regularly in keeping with advancements in the logistics automation domain, which is working to suit the diminishing customers’ willingness to wait for order fulfillment.
3PL (third-party logistics) companies, on the other hand, can establish the large integrated logistical network that brands and e-commerce platforms need without compromising their own profits.
Stay on top of logistics automation by adopting 3PL technology trends early! Curious about how to proceed?
3PL Companies Powering Online Marketplaces & Direct Sales Order Fulfillment
As 3PL players focus only on logistics, they can aggregate orders from multiple clients and deliver them in exchange for fees as per their contracts with individual brands and e-commerce platforms. Unlike e-commerce platforms, 3PL companies don’t necessarily have to deal directly with sellers and their commissions; their priority is to offer logistics services. Therefore, 3PL companies are more likely to have greater financial bandwidth to improve order fulfilment time through logistics automation investments. Also, many 3PL players strive to remain agile by not investing in real estate. A Mordor Intelligence report says that 55% of revenue in the 3PL industry is made by those who rent their transportation fleet and warehousing.
In other words, by sticking to their core strengths, each party—the 3PL business, the brand, and the e-commerce platform—remains profitable by spreading out the per-unit logistical costs.
How Fast is the E-Commerce Market Growing? Leverage 3PL Technology Trends!
As of recently—in 2025—the global e-commerce market size was estimated to be worth USD 10.19 tn, mentions a newly published study by the market research company, Mordor Intelligence. The market research giant analyses that during the study’s forecast period, 2025-2030, the market is predicted to expand at a staggering 15.8% CAGR, indicating that the market size will grow more than 2X in just 5 years, reaching USD 21.22 tn by 2023. Given that e-commerce order fulfilment is joined at the hip to the throughput capabilities of 3PL companies, the projected growth rate points to an important question:
Are 3PL companies ready with advanced logistics automation solutions to tackle the demand?
3PL Technology Trends for Keeping with E-commerce: Impact and Infrastructure
The expected growth of e-commerce indicates higher order volume along with reduced fulfilment duration. In fact, another Mordor intelligence study informs that millennials are already willing to pay a 30% premium for same-day delivery.
Along with higher throughput to meet rising order volumes, the need for transparency in the 3PL workflows will also grow.
As e-commerce slowly becomes the primary medium of consumption, customers are likely to place larger order volumes more frequently, and the expectation for greater accountability comes with the territory, especially when there is a delay or any damage caused to the shipment. In turn, e-commerce platforms will need more transparency in 3PL operations, which include billing, warehouse conditions, as well as details on shipment handling throughout the supply chain.
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This new benchmark for higher order volumes, delivered faster and dealt with more transparency, has already prompted many 3PL players to contemplate adopting emerging technologies such as
- A robust machine vision-powered DWS (dimensioning, weighing, and scanning) system, ensuring billing transparency based on volumetric weight (weight/unit of volume) using accurate dimensioning and weighing technologies, suitable for the niches the 3PL companies serve.
- Topline sortation robot/automated sorting stations, enabling the business to automate the separation of shipments based on type and PIN code, shortening the gap between warehousing and delivery.
- IoT solutions infrastructure with a blockchain security mechanism, empowering both 3PL companies and their clients to have untampered visibility into warehouse and transportation workflows.
- Warehouse robotics, including warehouse drones, eliminates downtime caused by manual labour while also highlighting any lapse in supervision in real-time.
- Machine-Vision-based operations supporting predictive maintenance, curtailing downtime caused by a system failure, thus ensuring that throughput demands and contract obligations regarding shipment handling are duly met.
In other words, technologies such as IoT, AI, ML, robotics, and mechatronics will be integrated on a massive scale to disrupt the current efficiency level of the logistics industry. To know about these 3PL technology trends in detail, keep an eye out for our upcoming blog series
How Fast Is the 3PL Sector Adopting Advanced Logistics Automation Solutions?
According to the leading market research organisation, Digital Insights Market, the 3PL Automation Solutions market worldwide is set to be worth 3x more between 2025 and 2033, jumping from USD 15bn to USD 45bn. In other words, the market is projected to clock an impressive growth rate of 12% CAGR during the forecast period. The report attributes this growth in valuation to the expansion of the e-commerce market, globalisation, and higher standards of order fulfilment speed.
Upon examining the 2025 MHI Annual Industry Report, The Digital Supply Chain Ecosystem: Orchestrating End-to-End Solutions, jointly published by MHI and Deloitte, it is clear that investment in 3PL technologies will dramatically rise. About 55% of supply chain leaders among the 700 companies surveyed in the study want to invest more in solutions leading to supply chain optimisation. Moreover, 60% of these leaders plan to spend more than USD 1 mn while 19% have decided on investments worth over USD 10 mn.
In fact, as early as the 2022 issue of this study—Evolution to Revolution: Building Supply Chains of Tomorrow—it was found that the adoption rate of key emerging technologies used in warehouse management solutions and logistics automation setups will increase by 66% by 2027.
Taking the Leap with Quinta
The technologies listed in the 2022 MHI-Deloitte study include blockchain, artificial intelligence technologies, autonomous vehicles and drones, wearable and mobile technology, 3D printing, industrial Internet of Things (IoT), predictive and prescriptive analytics, robotics and automation, inventory and network optimization tools, sensors and automatic identification, and cloud computing and storage. And this is where integrated warehouse automation solution providers such as Quinta can play a major role with their value-added services.
Since our company’s inception, we have striven to be more than a distributor of warehouse automation products. Our team of experts, who specialise in hardware, software, and industrial workflow design consulting, has worked with major 3PL operations and can help new players in the sectors or those looking for a digital transformation realise their potential, thus redefining order fulfillment rate and overall service quality of the e-commerce sector.
Curious to know about our value-added services and products in our portfolio? Contact us now, and one of our experts will get in touch with you soon!
