3PL Data Accuracy: Why One Bad Scan Can Wreck a Growing Brand

If there is one thing that quietly ruins e-commerce businesses, it is bad data. Not flashy failures, not dramatic warehouse fires, just small errors that pile up. One wrong inventory count. One missed scan. One order marked shipped when it is still sitting on a pallet. Over time, those mistakes bleed money, time, and credibility.

For brands relying on a third-party logistics provider, 3PL data accuracy is not a nice-to-have. It is the difference between scaling cleanly and constantly apologizing to customers, retailers, and finance teams.

Most brands learn this lesson the hard way. They do not switch 3PLs because of pricing spreadsheets or sales decks. They switch because the data stopped lining up with reality.

When Inventory Numbers Stop Meaning Anything

Ask founders why they left their last 3PL, and the answer is rarely mysterious. Inventory accuracy. Orders shipped wrong. Product that simply vanished. Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment at G10 Fulfillment, hears this story constantly. "One of the pain points our clients have experienced with previous 3PLs is inventory accuracy; maybe their previous 3PL wasn't great at picking the orders accurately. So they were losing money by shipping wrong items or wrong quantities of items."

That loss compounds fast. If inventory data is off, everything downstream breaks. Marketing oversells. Customer service scrambles. Finance cannot reconcile invoices. Retail partners start issuing chargebacks.

The root cause is often simple: too many warehouses still rely on paper processes, partial scans, or systems that only record inventory after it reaches a shelf. "You want everything to be scanned in the warehouse, nothing done on paper," Perkins says. "You can lose a lot of money in this industry by you know having people ship stuff wrong, or store it wrong, and now it's lost somewhere."

Why Scan-Based Systems Matter More Than Promises

Good intentions do not fix bad systems. Bryan Wright, CTO and COO of G10 Fulfillment, explains the difference between a modern warehouse management system and an outdated one. "A bad WMS system will not track inventory 100%, as it should. A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point that you touch it."

That distinction matters. In a weak system, inventory magically appears when it is shelved. In a strong system, every movement is recorded. "A good WMS will tell you, 'Okay, I've received the product at the dock, so there's a location called dock, and then I've put it on a pallet, and now it's sitting on a pallet in a location called dock, and now I've picked it up with a fork truck, and now it's sitting on a fork truck called fork 10.'"

This is not trivia. It is accountability. When inventory is fully traceable, errors shrink. When something goes missing, it can be found. When data feeds customer portals, it reflects reality, not hope. "At any point in time, I know that Bobby has this product on fork 10 right now," Wright says. "If I needed to go find that product, I just got to go find Bobby on fork 10."

Data Accuracy Is Really About Trust Earned Over Time

Brands do not ask for perfect warehouses. They ask for reliable data. Maureen Milligan, Director of Operations and Projects at G10 Fulfillment, sees this clearly. "Most of the customers who come to us from another 3PL, their challenges have always been access to their data, order accuracy and efficiency, and basically just meeting the committed requirements."

When data is late or wrong, customers are forced into email chains and status checks. That friction kills momentum. "What these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility," Milligan says. "They can actually watch those progressions going on."

Instead of waiting for updates, customers see work happening. Orders move. Inventory adjusts. Problems surface early, not after damage is done. "For a lot of customers, just having the ability to look that up, or, if they get an inquiry from one of their customers, to be able to immediately go in on their own and check their statuses without having to send an email to a customer service rep," Milligan says.

Accuracy Becomes Critical in B2B and Retail Compliance

D2C mistakes upset shoppers. B2B mistakes cost real money. Joel Malmquist, VP of Customer Experience at G10 Fulfillment, puts it bluntly. "Ensuring retail compliance can be involved. Walmart's pretty intense with their labeling rules. Dick's Sporting Goods is the same; if you don't do it right, you get those massive chargeback."

In B2B, data accuracy is not optional. Labels, ASNs, routing guides, and pallet configurations all depend on precise data flowing between systems. "We have over 99.9% ship accuracy of these orders," Malmquist says. "When you look at it on a unit level, such as unit shipped versus unit errors, I almost couldn't believe it when I came here."

That level of accuracy protects brands from fines, delays, and lost shelf space. It also opens doors. Many 3PLs can handle D2C or B2B, but struggle to do both well. "The 3PLs that do well in D2C usually struggle with getting that right on the B2B side," Malmquist says.

Transparency Is Not a Dashboard, It Is a Relationship

Many 3PLs promise dashboards. Few pair them with humans who understand the data. Matt Bradbury, Director of Sales at G10 Fulfillment, sees this gap constantly. "There's a lot of mistrust about being able to grow with someone, being able to scale up with someone, but also a lot of mistrust on transparency with pricing and overall time to resolution."

Data accuracy without context still creates friction. Brands want someone who can explain the numbers, not just display them. Perkins describes the visibility brands get when reporting is built into the work. "Our clients get best-in-class visibility and transparency. They can see their daily orders, they can see KPIs, and they can see historical transactions."

That visibility works because it is paired with real support. "You're not put into a ticketing system with people coming in and out every day," Perkins says. "You have a human you can talk to."

Why In-House Technology Changes the Equation

Many 3PLs rent software. Few understand it deeply. G10 Fulfillment operates differently because its leadership helped build the underlying systems. "This is commercialized software," Wright says. "I just happen to be the person who designed and created it."

That familiarity matters when customers have unique requirements or when data needs to adapt quickly. "When we need to accommodate a customer's changes, we can do it significantly quicker than the competition," Wright says.

This agility shows up in onboarding, reporting, and problem-solving. It also reduces errors because changes are controlled internally, not pushed through vendor queues.

Accuracy Is the Foundation for Same-Day Shipping

Speed and accuracy are inseparable. Same-day shipping magnifies mistakes. Perkins sees this daily. "I hear a customer say, 'A previous 3PL took three days from when the order was placed to when they would ship it.' That's not great if you're trying to compete in this industry right now."

Fast fulfillment only works when data is right. Orders must flow cleanly. Inventory must be correct. Picks must be verified. Milligan points to the results customers care about. "Our inventory accuracy is generally right there at that 99.7% that we agreed. So that's one of the areas where we really do excel, and where we've been able to win business."

What 3PL Data Accuracy Really Buys a Growing Brand

Accurate data reduces stress. It lowers chargebacks. It keeps marketing honest and finance sane. It lets founders sleep.

It also enables growth. Brands can expand into new channels without rebuilding infrastructure. They can survive viral spikes and retail surprises. Malmquist recalls the question that growing operators ask when the stakes rise. "A really fast-growing customer said to me, 'Is G10 the right partner for us to navigate through that and execute at a high level?' And the answer was a firm 'Yes we can.'"

That confidence comes from systems that work and people who understand them. "I think G10 marries cutting-edge technology and human care for the benefit of the client," Perkins says.

If 3PL data accuracy has been a constant headache, the problem is rarely effort. It is structure. The fix starts with scan-based systems, real-time visibility, and teams that take ownership of the numbers.

The next step is simple: get fulfillment data that matches reality, so growth stops feeling like a gamble and starts feeling manageable.