Fulfilment in Germany
for 1,450 E-Commerce Brands

Orders that arrive in time on a working day leave our warehouse the same day, a processing rate we hold at around 99.8 percent.

In metropolitan areas such as Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne or the Rhine-Main region that usually means delivery on the next working day. In outlying regions, on islands or with remote postcodes, add one to two working days.

If you offer premium or express delivery, DHL Express or UPS Express options can even enable morning delivery. Which combination makes sense for your shop is something we clarify during onboarding, depending on your carrier mix and the promise you make to your customers.

A blanket answer would not be honest, because costs depend heavily on order volume, product size, weight and the additional services you want. What we can promise: no hidden items and a transparent price list for our fulfilment.

The total price for our service is made up of these three main blocks:

• Software prices
• Fulfilment prices
• Shipping prices

You will find the complete overview and a simple video explanation here on the Quivo pricing page.

As rough benchmarks for the German market:

• Pick & pack: typically between €1.49 and €2.99 per order
• Standard parcel within Germany: €3.50 to €4.50 in shipping costs
• Storage of one euro pallet: €6 to €9 per month

As volume rises, some items can come down automatically. That is something we need to work out individually.

Want to understand more about market data, statistics and background? Read our complete guide to fulfilment in Germany.

Returns are a business of their own in Germany. In fashion the rate is often above 40 percent, in beauty, electronics and other segments usually between 5 and 20 percent.

We receive returns through our returns portal and process them in several steps:

1. Photo documentation at goods receipt
2. Inspection of the condition
3. Classification according to the ABC scheme (resellable, B-grade, disposal)
4. Resellable items are booked straight back into your stock

You follow the whole process in the Connector, your customers get prompt refunds and you avoid returns sitting in the warehouse for weeks tying up stock.

• Everything on the topic of fulfilment returns can be found here.

In our experience the threshold sits at around 100 to 300 orders per month. Below that, shipping yourself often still adds up. But as soon as you are packing parcels daily, driving to the post office and buying packaging material in larger quantities, the maths tips over.

With a partner you save not only time (often 10 to 20 hours per week) but also:

• (IT) infrastructure
• Warehouse rent
• Packaging costs
• Shipping fees through better terms
• Staffing risk during peak phases
• Returns processing
• Transport and customs topics

Black Friday and Christmas are the typical tipping points: shops that suddenly see double the volume in November rarely get through cleanly without professional fulfilment.

We work with all the relevant carriers: DHL, DPD, GLS, UPS, FedEx, Deutsche Post and, as needed, specialist providers too.

In German standard business the strengths are clearly divided:

• DHL and DPD dominate standard business, because both have the densest hub network and deliver reliably in every region.
• GLS is often the most economical choice for medium to larger parcels.
• UPS and DHL Express take over when it comes to morning or same-day delivery.

Through our multi-carrier shipping we pick the right provider for each order, depending on region, weight and delivery promise. For shipping to neighbouring EU countries and non-EU countries, country-specific providers such as Colissimo (France), Mondial Relay or Royal Mail come into play.

The German market is demanding in regulatory terms. Three areas are particularly relevant:

• Packaging Act (VerpackG): obliges online merchants to license packaging with a dual system.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): additionally affects many product categories.
• Industry-specific requirements: supplements, cosmetics and electronics each come with their own rules.

Important: these registrations and reporting duties legally sit with the merchant, not with the fulfilment provider.

What we take over on the operational side:

• We use tested packaging materials.
• We document quantities and material types cleanly in the Connector, so you can produce your reports without trouble.
• We advise you during setup on packaging options that are both legally compliant and on brand.

Yes, alongside classic B2C shipping we also handle B2B fulfilment, for example deliveries to retailers, wholesalers or marketplaces such as Amazon Vendor.

From our German warehouses in Wetzlar and Kösching we regularly supply store networks and deliver to bricks-and-mortar retailers across Germany, shipping on pallets or as full loads through our transport solutions.

What makes the German market special in B2B: many recipients require exact delivery time slots, EDI connections or specific packaging standards. We map these requirements in the Quivo Connector, so B2B shipments go out just as precisely as your B2C orders.

From our German locations we ship into every EU market daily. Within the EU the single market applies, which means no customs clearance, no additional import taxes, and your parcels run like domestic shipments.

The carrier is chosen per order to suit the destination country, so Colissimo in France, PostNL in the Netherlands or Mondial Relay for cheaper parcel shop delivery.

For deliveries outside the EU (Switzerland, UK, Norway) we take over customs clearance including the creation of shipping documents. If your shipping volume justifies it, we recommend moving to one of our international warehouses to optimise local shipping costs and delivery times further.

Switching provider is delicate while business is running, because every day of moving warehouse can be a day without shipping. We have a proven handover process in three phases for exactly that:

1. Preparation We clarify which stock is where, what condition it is in and which master data we need to take over from the previous provider (SKUs, barcodes, packaging rules).

2. Goods delivery As soon as the shop connection through the Connector is in place, we coordinate the goods delivery to Wetzlar or Kösching. Usually as one complete handover by truck, or in several tranches for large product ranges, in order to pause shipping for as short a time as possible.

3. Go live As soon as your products have arrived, been stored and are available in the Connector, we go live, and from that moment all new orders run through Quivo.

In our experience this keeps the switch down to a few days of shipping interruption, often with no pause at all.

If you sell on Amazon you quickly come across two terms, FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) and FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant). Both models decide who ships your orders and what role a fulfilment provider plays in that.

With FBA (see all the details here) Amazon takes over the entire logistics. Your goods are delivered to Amazon warehouses, stored there and shipped by Amazon itself when they sell. The advantage is the Prime badge and the simple handling. The downsides are high storage fees, limited packaging options and heavy dependence on Amazon.

With FBM (all the information on it here) you ship the goods yourself or through an external fulfilment provider. You keep full control over packaging, branding and carrier. With the Prime by Seller programme you can even keep the Prime badge without Amazon storing your goods.

• For many brands, FBM combined with a professional fulfilment provider like Quivo is the most economical solution. You can find out more about Amazon FBM with Quivo here.

Many Shopify merchants work with external fulfilment providers to handle their orders efficiently and cost-effectively. Shopify offers a simple integration with various logistics partners, so orders are transmitted to the provider's warehouse automatically and processed there.

The advantages of seamless Shopify fulfilment are faster delivery times, lower error rates and better scalability, especially for multichannel merchants who sell not only through Shopify but also through Amazon, Otto or TikTok Shop. The important thing is that the fulfilment provider you choose offers a direct interface to Shopify, to guarantee automated and error-free handling.

• Find out more about automated Shopify fulfilment with Quivo here.

Sustainable shipping is increasingly becoming a purchase criterion in German e-commerce, and we have several levers to reduce the CO2 footprint of your shipping.

On the shipping side:

• DHL GoGreen Plus: climate-neutral shipping through certified offset projects
• GLS KlimaProtect: automatic CO2 offsetting for all GLS shipments
• DPD Total Zero: emission-free shipping within Europe
• Consolidation: with our two locations in Wetzlar and Kösching we minimise transport distances, because we can pick the warehouse for your business that is closest to your customers

On the packaging side:

• Recycled and recyclable shipping boxes as standard
• Plastic-free filling materials (paper as our standard instead of bubble wrap)
• Size-optimised packaging: every parcel is packed to the smallest suitable size, which reduces volumetric weight in shipping and saves material
• Reusable shipping options where needed

On the warehouse side:

• Our self-run fulfilment centres are operated with energy efficiency in mind, and one site is certified to the DGNB standard (German Sustainable Building Council)
• Efficiency routines in the Connector, such as batch picking and intelligent storage location assignment, reduce distances travelled and therefore energy consumption

Which options make the most sense for your shop is something we clarify during onboarding. If you want to promote sustainable shipping as a brand, we also help you communicate it correctly and honestly to your customers, from the packaging labelling to the tracking note in your shop.

Choosing the right fulfilment partner decides your margin, customer satisfaction and ability to grow over the long term. These seven criteria are particularly important in the German market:

1. Own warehouses or sub-contractors? Many providers advertise a "pan-EU network" but work with partner warehouses. That can lead to fluctuating quality, opaque prices and delays. Quivo operates all eight locations itself, two of them in Germany: in Wetzlar (Hesse) and Kösching (Bavaria).
2. Location and transit times: the warehouse location decides how fast your parcels reach your customers. Look for a central position, good connections to carrier hubs (DHL hub Frankfurt, motorway axes) and whether the provider reliably delivers next day delivery across all of Germany.
3. Price transparency: hidden fees are unfortunately not rare in this industry. Look for a clear pricing structure, like the one you will find with us, for example.
4. Software and integrations: without a clean connection to your shop system (Shopify, WooCommerce, Shopware, Amazon, Otto, TikTok Shop) you are stuck with manual data transfers. A modern fulfilment dashboard like the Quivo Connector should bring real-time stock, tracking, returns and multichannel management together in one tool.
5. Industry expertise: beauty, fashion, supplements, jewellery and electronics each place their own demands on storage, packaging and shipping. An experienced fulfilment provider should already have handled your industry and be familiar with the typical pitfalls.
6. Returns management: return rates from 5 to over 40 percent are normal in German e-commerce, depending on the industry. Ask specifically: how fast are returns processed? Is there an ABC classification system? Does resellable stock go straight back into inventory?
7. Scalability and cross-border: your provider has to be able to grow with you. Ask how the move from 500 to 2,500 or 15,000 orders per month is handled. If you want to sell across Europe, check the cross-border capability: customs clearance, country-specific carriers (Colissimo, Mondial Relay, PostNL, Royal Mail) and additional EU warehouses if needed.

On the Quivo overview page on e-commerce fulfilment you will find more background on the selection process, and we are happy to go through the details in a first personal conversation.