B2B Fulfillment in Chicago for Wholesale and Retail

B2B fulfillment in Chicago for orders measured in cases, not units

A retail buyer orders 40 cases across six SKUs, wants them on two pallets, needs a specific label on every carton and has a delivery appointment next Tuesday. That's a normal Monday in B2B fulfillment in Chicago, and it's a completely different job from packing a single order for a customer's porch. We handle it from our warehouse at 5673 W Howard St in Niles, just outside the city.

Here's the thing with wholesale. The product is usually fine. What goes wrong is everything around it. A carton label in the wrong spot. A pallet that's too tall. A mixed pallet with SKUs stacked so the heavy cases crush the light ones. Paperwork that doesn't match what's on the truck. Each one of those can mean a chargeback, a refused delivery or a very awkward email from a buyer.

So this page is about the boring, careful part: picking cases, building pallets, labeling cartons with the data you give us, handling routing admin and getting freight paperwork right. It sits under our marketplace prep services, which means it shares a floor with receiving, kitting and inspection.

What wholesale fulfillment covers in our building

Not every wholesale order needs every piece of this. Most need three or four.

Case picks

Your buyer orders by the case, we pull full cases from stock, check the SKU and count, and stage them for the order. Simple, as long as your cases are labeled clearly when they arrive (if they aren't, tell us during the quote so receiving can sort them properly).

Full pallet outbound

A pallet that came in as one SKU and goes out as one SKU. We pull it from storage, check it, wrap it if needed and stage it for pickup. Handling only. Freight is billed separately.

Mixed-SKU pallet builds

This is where most of the care goes. We build pallets to the order, heavy cases on the bottom, stable stacking, within the height limits your buyer or carrier gives us. Somebody will always ask for a pallet that's 80 inches tall. We'll ask whether the receiving dock will actually take it.

Retail carton and UCC labels

Many retailers want a specific label on every carton, often a UCC-128 style shipping label. We print and apply them per carton. The important part: you supply the correct label data (or the finished label files). We place them where the spec says, but the data itself has to come from your side.

Retail compliance rework

Freight that arrives wrong, cartons that need relabeling, inner packs that need changing for a retailer's rules. Rework runs on standard hourly labor, with materials billed separately as needed.

Retail compliance: what we handle and what stays with you

Retail compliance is the part of retail fulfillment that costs sellers the most money when it goes sideways. Every big-box retailer has its own routing guide, label placement rules and delivery requirements, and they change. So we keep the line clear.

On our side: building cartons and pallets to the spec you share, applying labels where the guide says, basic retailer routing and admin work, BOL and freight paperwork, and staging freight for the scheduled pickup.

On your side: knowing the current routing guide, providing correct label data, purchase order details and appointment info, and managing any EDI connection with your retailer. We offer ASN and routing admin support at a per-order rate, but EDI software is separate, and we don't run it for you. If your buyer requires EDI transactions, keep using your EDI provider and send us what the shipment needs.

Clients are responsible for marketplace and carrier compliance, labels and addresses. That's not us dodging work. It's just that you're the one with the retailer relationship and the current rulebook, and a warehouse guessing at a routing guide is how chargebacks happen. Send us the guide and we'll follow it.

How a wholesale order moves through the warehouse

Each order runs through the same sequence, whether it's five cases or five pallets.

1. 01

   Share the order and the rules

   PO details, SKUs and case quantities, ship-to address, label data, pallet requirements and the routing guide or buyer instructions. The more specific, the fewer surprises.

2. 02

   Confirm the work order

   We write down picks, pallet configuration, labels, paperwork and who's arranging the truck. Hourly items like compliance rework get flagged and agreed here.

3. 03

   Inventory is on hand

   Stock comes in through receiving (or is already in storage with us). Cases get counted and checked so the order can actually be filled.

4. 04

   Pick, build, label, ship

   Cases get picked, pallets get built and wrapped, labels go on, paperwork gets prepared and freight is staged for the carrier pickup.

If you want proof before the truck leaves, ask for pallet photos. The first three evidence photos are free, then it's $1 per photo.

Freight paperwork and coordination

Freight is where wholesale gets expensive, so let's be clear about how it's priced. Our handling rates cover the work in the building. The actual carrier cost isn't part of the handling fee.

If you or your buyer arrange the truck, we prepare the bill of lading and freight paperwork for a flat per-shipment fee and load the freight when the carrier arrives. If you'd rather we coordinate the freight, that's billed at carrier cost plus 10%, or a $25 minimum, and our exact role with the carrier gets confirmed in the quote.

One more thing nobody likes hearing about: detention. If a driver is held past the free hour because of client or carrier conditions, detention is billed at $50 per hour, and that gets disclosed in advance, not tacked on as a surprise.

Selling to Amazon as a vendor? Vendor Central or marketplace shipment admin is available as an administrative add-on, and we can prep cartons through Amazon FBA prep if part of your stock is headed to FBA instead.

Who needs retail distribution services like this

Mostly brands at that awkward middle stage. Too big to ship wholesale orders from the garage, not big enough to want their own warehouse and staff.

Consumer brands that just landed their first regional retailer and got handed a 60-page routing guide. Importers who bring in a container and sell some of it to stores, some to Amazon and some direct to consumers. Distributors filling case orders for independent shops. Ecommerce sellers who started on marketplaces and added wholesale accounts. Suppliers shipping to other businesses on a regular schedule.

A lot of these sellers run both channels out of one inventory pool. Cases go to retailers, units go to FBM and DTC customers, and nobody has to move stock between two warehouses. If you're building retail display packs or gift sets for a buyer, our kitting and bundling team builds them before the cases ship.

Honestly, the first sign you need outside help is usually a chargeback. The second is realizing you spent a whole Saturday building one pallet. If either sounds familiar, B2B fulfillment in Chicago is worth pricing out before another month of doing it yourself.

B2B warehousing in Niles: the facts

We'd rather give you the plain facts than a list of adjectives.

• Pallet storage starts at $35 per month for a standard pallet up to 72 inches, with lower rates at 25+ and 100+ pallets. See warehouse storage.
• Inbound pallets and cartons are received and counted through inbound receiving and inventory control, including lot, expiry and serial capture where you need it.
• Pallets that just pass through can go out through freight forwarding and cross-docking without long-term storage.
• We maintain up to $5 million in insurance coverage for qualifying warehouse operations, subject to policy terms, limits and exclusions. Confirm coverage before you ship.
• The team is reachable by phone, email or WhatsApp, Monday through Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM Central.

And if cases arrive banged up, we can run them through inspection and quality control before they go back out to a buyer who's going to inspect them too.

Serving Chicago-area brands and freight from anywhere

The warehouse is in Niles, at the northwest edge of Chicago. Local brands can drop off inventory or come see how their pallets get built during business hours. Out-of-state sellers ship freight in and never visit, which works just as well. More on that on our Chicago 3PL page and our Illinois page.

Being close helps in small ways. If a buyer changes the pallet configuration the day before pickup, a local brand can swing by with new labels or sign off on a rebuilt pallet in person. That kind of quick fix is a big part of why sellers look for B2B fulfillment in Chicago instead of a warehouse three states away.

Before any freight heads our way, onboarding needs to be done. That means verifiable U.S. company information (legal name, address, EIN or registration, an authorized U.S.-based signer and photo ID). Please wait for approval and inbound instructions before you book the truck.

B2B and wholesale rates

Here are the posted rates. Freight cost is never included in handling. Full details live on the pricing page.

Case pick

$1.50/case

Full pallet outbound

$12/pallet (handling only; freight excluded)

Mixed-SKU pallet build

$25/pallet + $0.50/case

Retail carton / UCC label

$0.35/label

ASN / routing admin

$7.50-$15/order (EDI software separate)

Retail compliance rework

Standard labor, $40/hour

BOL / freight paperwork

$7.50/shipment

Freight coordination

Carrier cost + 10% or $25 minimum

Have a PO or a routing guide in hand? Send it through the quote form and the team will scope the order.