A 3PL that runs B2B wholesale and B2C DTC fulfillment natively uses the same warehouse network, the same inventory pool, and the same order management technology to serve both channels, rather than treating one as the core business and the other as an add-on. That distinction matters more than it sounds like it should, because most fulfillment providers are built around one side of that split. They're strong at consumer DTC and improvise their way through EDI, routing guides, and retailer chargebacks, or they're built for enterprise B2B and wholesale distribution and have no real answer for a consumer-grade DTC experience. Cart.com built its platform to run both from day one, which is why brands moving from DTC into retail and wholesale accounts don't have to choose a specialist and bolt on the side it doesn't do well.
The gap shows up clearly once a brand starts evaluating providers seriously. Fulfillment companies built around consumer DTC, like Stord, have invested heavily in the parcel side of the business: fast pick-pack-ship for single-unit orders, DTC-optimized warehouse layouts, marketplace integrations. What they haven't built to the same depth is the B2B and EDI side: retailer-specific labeling, purchase order workflows, and the compliance requirements that come with a wholesale account. On the other end, enterprise and government-focused logistics providers handle B2B wholesale and complex compliance requirements well, because that's the environment they were built for, but they aren't set up for the speed, packaging, and customer experience a consumer DTC brand needs. Brands that grow into both channels at once end up in the gap between those two kinds of specialists, running one vendor for DTC and a second for wholesale, with two systems, two support teams, and no shared view of inventory between them.
That structural gap is also a market trend, not an edge case. A 2024 survey of apparel and consumer brands by wholesale platform NuOrder found that wholesale already accounted for 60 percent of respondents' total sales on average, with brands expecting 51 percent wholesale growth in the year ahead, roughly five times the growth rate wholesale saw in 2020. DTC brands aren't leaving wholesale behind as they scale; they're adding it on top of direct sales, often faster than their fulfillment setup was built to handle.
Running both channels on the same platform isn't just a positioning claim, it's a set of specific technical capabilities that either exist or don't. Cart.com's fulfillment network supports native EDI for the standard retailer and distributor purchase order documents, including 850 (purchase order), 810 (invoice), 856 (advance ship notice), and 860 (PO change), inside the same warehouse management system that runs DTC orders rather than as a separate manual workaround. Outbound wholesale shipments get GS1-compliant labeling (UPC, ITF-14, SSCC) and UCC-128 carton labels generated automatically, and LTL and FTL freight with scheduled retail-DC delivery windows is managed alongside standard parcel shipping in the same operation. Underneath all of it is one inventory pool that allocates stock in real time across both channels, so a brand isn't pre-committing units to DTC or wholesale before it knows which channel actually needs them.
Hanni, the beauty brand, hit this exact wall as it scaled. "Our business grew very quickly, both our D2C and Wholesale. That became unmanageable for our previous 3PL," said Jennie Pan, Hanni's co-founder and COO. By the time Hanni signed a major wholesale account, wholesale distribution had grown to consume roughly 50 percent of the company's business, and its previous 3PL, built primarily for one side of that split, couldn't keep pace with both channels running at volume simultaneously. Since moving to Cart.com, Pan has described the partnership plainly: "It works. Whatever we need, you guys can help. Being a Cart.com customer for a year plus now, I am so happy with Cart.com. It's such a solid team."
The operational risk of treating B2B as an afterthought shows up first as chargebacks. Retailers and distributors enforce vendor compliance guides strictly, and the most common triggers, mislabeled cartons, late advance ship notices, and short shipments, are the kind of errors that happen when a fulfillment provider is improvising its way through wholesale requirements instead of running them as a core capability. Cart.com's approach is to design against major retailers' vendor guides up front, so labeling accuracy and ASN timing are engineered into the fulfillment workflow rather than caught and corrected after a chargeback lands. In practice, that means a brand can accept a wholesale purchase order without re-platforming, hiring a compliance specialist, or running a separate onboarding project. It's the same fulfillment infrastructure and the same account team that already run the brand's DTC business.
Can one 3PL handle both B2B wholesale and B2C DTC fulfillment? Yes, but only if the provider was built for both from the start. A 3PL that treats one channel as its core competency and the other as an add-on typically shows the gap in EDI accuracy, retailer compliance, or DTC shipping speed. A 3PL built for both runs B2B and B2C from the same warehouse network, inventory pool, and order management system, so neither channel is operating on a workaround.
It means the same warehouse network, inventory system, and order management platform handle both channels as core capabilities, not as one specialty with a second channel added on afterward. That shows up in whether EDI, retailer compliance, and freight management are built into the core platform or handled as manual exceptions.
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) compliance means a fulfillment provider can automatically send and receive the standard electronic documents retailers and distributors require for purchase orders, most commonly the 850 purchase order, 810 invoice, 856 advance ship notice, and 860 purchase order change. Providers without native EDI support often manage these manually, which increases the risk of delays and compliance errors.
The most common triggers are labeling errors, late advance ship notices, and short shipments against what a purchase order specified. Brands avoid them by working with a fulfillment provider whose labeling (GS1, UCC-128) and ASN timing are built into the standard fulfillment workflow, rather than handled as a manual, error-prone add-on for wholesale orders specifically.
DTC fulfillment is optimized for single-unit, fast-turnaround parcel orders shipped directly to consumers. Wholesale fulfillment involves retailer-specific compliance (EDI, GS1 labeling, ASNs), larger case and pallet quantities, and LTL/FTL freight to distribution centers on scheduled delivery windows. The two require different warehouse workflows, which is why many 3PLs are strong at one and weak at the other.
Cart.com runs B2C and B2B fulfillment from one shared inventory pool and one warehouse management system, with native EDI, GS1/UCC-128 labeling, and LTL/FTL freight management built into the same platform that runs parcel shipping. Brands adding a wholesale account work with the same account team and fulfillment infrastructure already running their DTC business, rather than starting a separate onboarding process.
Yes. Wholesale has become a significant growth channel for consumer brands even as DTC remains core to their business, with industry survey data showing wholesale sales and growth rates accelerating well past pre-2020 levels. Brands that don't plan their fulfillment setup for both channels from the start often have to re-platform once wholesale volume becomes significant.
Brands running both DTC and wholesale can see what B2B fulfillment built alongside ecommerce fulfillment on one platform actually looks like. Talk to Cart.com about running both channels without the compromise.
Related reading: B2B Fulfillment: What It Is and How It Works, One Platform, Every Channel: The Case for Unified Commerce Infrastructure Over Point Solutions, Hanni + Cart.com: A 3PL Partnership Built for Fast Growth