Cross-Docking 3PL Services

When Touching Inventory Too Many Times Starts Costing Too Much

Most ecommerce brands eventually face a strange moment. Inventory that should move quickly from suppliers to customers instead spends days or weeks sitting in storage. Every pause adds cost, risk, and confusion. Cross-docking 3PL services exist to break that cycle. Instead of storing product for long stretches, cross-docking moves freight directly from inbound trucks to outbound shipments with as little friction as possible. The goal is simple. Move goods, not pallets of excuses.

Search interest around cross-docking has grown as brands feel the squeeze of rising storage rates, volatile demand patterns, and the pressure to keep leaner inventory. Cross-docking does not solve every warehousing problem, but when used strategically, it can shorten lead times, lower carrying cost, and create breathing room in facilities that feel too busy for their own good.

Why Traditional Storage Slows the Whole System

Warehouses are designed to store things. That is both their purpose and their trap. When every inbound shipment automatically moves into racks, brands lose speed. Products sit until someone plans a release. The more you store, the more labor you burn moving pallets around, counting stock, and reconciling discrepancies. Storage becomes an invisible tax on growth.

Maureen Milligan, Director of Operations and Projects at G10, sees the downstream effects when brands leave other providers. She explains that "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 meeting the committed requirements." Storage driven congestion undermines all three. Inventory gets misplaced, orders slow down, and commitments wobble.

Cross-Docking as a Flow, Not a Parking Lot

Cross-docking treats the warehouse like a transfer station instead of a storage closet. Inbound shipments arrive, get scanned, confirmed, and sorted immediately. Instead of shelving them, workers route them to outbound docks for quick turn. The product spends hours in the building, not days. That shift dramatically reduces handling, storage cost, and the risk of inventory drift.

Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment at G10, underscores the foundation of the process. He says that "you want everything to be scanned in the warehouse, nothing done on paper." Cross-docking magnifies that rule. When goods move quickly, every scan matters. It confirms arrival, checks quantities, and ties units to outgoing orders with no ambiguity.

Which Products Benefit from Cross-Docking

Not every SKU qualifies for cross-docking. The best candidates share a few traits. They move quickly, have predictable demand, or link directly to active POs and customer orders. Seasonal goods, promotional bundles, and high velocity marketplace SKUs often fit this profile. Cross-docking helps them travel through the network with less cost and less delay.

Slow movers, bulky irregular items, and products requiring inspection or kitting usually remain in traditional flow. G10 uses ChannelPoint WMS to determine which inbound receipts match cross-dock criteria and which should enter storage. Workers do not have to guess. The system tells them exactly where each pallet belongs.

Reducing Touches, Reducing Cost

Every time a worker touches a pallet, case, or unit, you pay for it. Cross-docking eliminates many of those touches. Instead of putaway labor, travel time, and later picking, the operation performs a streamlined sequence: receive, scan, sort, stage, ship. Fewer touches mean fewer errors, fewer steps, and fewer long walks through crowded aisles.

Holly Woods, Director of Operations at G10, notes that "the Zebra robots are allowing efficiency with pick paths. They are lowering fatigue on employees." While cross-docking relies less on picking, the same automation supports fast movement by delivering inbound totes or cartons to the right staging lane. Workers stay focused on flow instead of searching for locations.

Cross-Docking in Multi-Node Networks

Cross-docking becomes even more powerful in multi-node 3PL networks. A shipment arriving at one node can be sorted and forwarded to another node without entering storage. That keeps regional demand balanced and reduces the need for large transfer orders later. G10’s locations in South Carolina, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas all operate under the same WMS, which lets cross-docking operate across the entire network.

Multi-node visibility ensures that a case routed through Wisconsin does not disappear from the broader story. ChannelPoint tracks every move in real time so planners know where each unit is, where it is headed, and whether it is already tied to outbound orders.

Supporting B2B and Retail Programs

Retail and B2B shipments often operate on tight timelines tied to resets, appointments, and routing guides. Cross-docking gives brands an edge by speeding the turnaround between supplier shipments and retailer commitments. Instead of storing pallets until a warehouse can build compliant loads, G10 can route inbound cases directly into B2B prep with minimal delay.

Joel Malmquist, VP of Customer Experience at G10, explains that G10 handles "B2B shipping into places like Target and Walmart" using the same backbone that supports DTC and marketplace orders. Cross-docking makes those flows faster, especially when retailers need product urgently but distribution centers do not want overshipments.

Eliminating Bottlenecks Before They Start

Cross-docking reduces warehouse congestion by keeping aisles clear and minimizing long term storage. Instead of warehouses bloated with weeks of inventory, only the essential SKUs remain on hand. That clears space for kitting, packing, and seasonal builds.

Holly describes G10’s peak preparation by saying that "we start planning peak times months ahead of time. We run forecast models, staffing models, and we audit inventory." Cross-docking fits naturally into peak planning because it reduces the incoming volume that needs full storage treatment. More inbound can move through quickly, leaving room for promotional builds that need floor space.

Cross-Docking Protects SLAs

When fulfillment SLAs matter, inbound speed matters too. Cross-docking accelerates the timeline from supplier arrival to customer shipment. Orders that once waited for weekly replenishment now move the same day inventory arrives. That speed protects marketplace SLAs, retail appointments, and customer delivery promises without requiring bloated safety stock.

John Pistone, Chief Revenue Officer at G10, puts it simply. "What I am really interested in is finding customers who are going to have long term value, and what that means is they are going to grow. We are going to grow with them." Growth requires smarter flow, not just more storage. Cross-docking is one of the tools that makes scaling less painful.

Turning Flow Into Competitive Advantage

Cross-docking does not replace the warehouse. It complements it. The power lies in treating movement as the default instead of storage. For the right SKUs, cross-docking cuts cost, protects SLAs, and sharpens forecasts by keeping inventory in motion.

Mark Becker, CEO and founder of G10, sums up the mindset clearly. He says that "we are going to grow with them." For brands feeling crushed by storage cost, bottlenecks, or lead time bloat, cross-docking 3PL services may be the simplest place to regain speed. If your inbound shipments spend more time parked than moving, it might be time to rethink how your network should really flow.