8 signs you’ve outgrown your fulfillment stack

TL;DR: If you're shipping thousands of orders a month and still juggling spreadsheets, siloed tools, or manual workflows, it's time to upgrade. This post highlights 8 signs you’ve outgrown your fulfillment stack—and what to do about it.

You can’t scale with spreadsheets forever.

What worked when you were shipping 10 orders a day—manually updating a Google Sheet, printing labels one at a time, packing boxes in your living room—just doesn’t cut it when you’re managing multiple channels, warehouses, and carriers. These once-scrappy systems quickly become the reason you’re missing SLAs, burning out your team, or disappointing customers.

This post outlines the biggest red flags that your current tech stack is holding you back, so you can spot them early, scale smarter, and reclaim your time.

Need the full roadmap? Download the ebook to learn how high-volume brands are building scalable fulfillment stacks that grow with them.

1. Inventory issues are hurting your margins

Frequent stockouts, stagnant SKUs, or confusing stock levels across warehouses are telltale signs of inventory mismanagement. A more advanced inventory management system (IMS) can help rebalance your supply chain and reduce strain on your bottom line.

💡 Check your Inventory Turnover Ratio (ITR)
Use this formula:
ITR = Cost of Goods Sold ÷ Average Inventory (for the same period)
Most industries aim for a ratio between 2 and 4. Lower than that could mean you’re overstocked or underperforming. Higher? You may be running too lean, risking frequent stockouts. In both cases, modern IMS tools can help restore balance.

2. Support tickets are piling up

If your team is overwhelmed with “Where is my order?” (WISMO) tickets, fulfillment may be the root of the problem—not your support process. According to industry benchmarks, proactive, automated order tracking and delivery updates can cut WISMO tickets by 40–50%.

Tools like Shippo’s tracking solution make it easy to send branded updates and real-time delivery notifications—reducing your ticket volume while keeping customers informed and confident in their purchase.

3. New channels are creating new chaos

Maybe you’ve added wholesale, launched on marketplaces, or built out a B2B program. New revenue streams are exciting—but they bring complexity, too.

Each channel may require different fulfillment logic, integrations, and workflows. Without technology that can centralize and streamline operations across all channels, you risk introducing fulfillment errors or delayed timelines. Your stack should scale with your go-to-market strategy—not slow it down.

4. Multi-warehouse operations are getting messy

If you’ve opened a second warehouse or partnered with a 3PL, managing inventory and fulfillment across locations becomes exponentially harder.

Without the right multi-warehouse tools in place, teams often default to workarounds like spreadsheets, siloed tools, or Slack-based coordination. The result? Misdirected shipments, inventory imbalances, and fulfillment delays. Implementing technology early in your multi-location rollout avoids these growing pains.

5. Your carrier mix is growing

Adding more carriers gives you better rates, faster delivery options, and backup when disruptions happen. But managing them manually? That’s not scalable.

If you're switching between carrier portals to compare rates or generate labels, it's time to upgrade. A shipping solution that supports multi-carrier rate shopping, auto-selection, and label generation in one place will save time and improve accuracy.

6. Your e-commerce platform is straining

When your storefront slows down or crashes under high traffic, you risk more than lost sales—you lose customer trust.

If you’ve patched together custom workarounds or constantly need engineering resources to maintain integrations, your current e-commerce platform or plan may no longer be the right fit. Monitor key KPIs like page load time (aim for <3 seconds) and site downtime. If performance is slipping, it’s time to reassess your core infrastructure.

7. Your systems are lagging under volume

Slow load times, timeout errors, or general tech glitches as order volume increases are a red flag.

As you grow, your systems need to keep pace—not become the bottleneck. If your tools are consistently lagging or struggling with higher transaction loads, look for solutions built for scale: APIs with strong uptime, platforms with advanced automation, and systems that can grow with you.

8. Manual processes are breaking

Manual workflows are usually the last thing to go—but also the most time-consuming. Maybe your team is still printing every label individually, updating order statuses manually, or copy-pasting tracking numbers into emails.

These “good enough” habits don’t scale. As they become error-prone and time-intensive, they drain your team’s energy and distract from high-impact work like marketing, product development, or customer growth. Automating or outsourcing these low-value tasks will help you scale more smoothly—and stay focused on what matters most.

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“There’s no magic number. But if you’re spending more time packing boxes than planning your next product launch—it’s time to rethink your tech.”
— Kristina Lopienski, Sr. Director of Marketing Communications, ShipBob

What to do next: Build your fulfillment stack for scale

If any of these signs felt a little too familiar, you’re not alone—and you’re not stuck.

The next step is building a fulfillment tech stack designed to scale with you. Our new ebook, The complete guide to building your fulfillment tech stack, walks you through:

• The key components of a scalable fulfillment stack—from inventory and order management to shipping and returns
• Expert insights from operators and solutions engineers on what to prioritize (and what to avoid)
• A rollout plan to help you upgrade your systems without disrupting day-to-day ops

📘 Download the guide and start building a fulfillment engine that keeps up with your growth: Get the ebook

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