Storage
€/pallet/month
Varies €12 (Poznań) to €19 (Rotterdam). For 50 pallets, that's €350/month difference — €4,200/year. Bulk SKUs that sit slow benefit most from Eastern hubs.
Warehouse & 3PL · Tier 2
Most SMEs pick the first 3PL that quotes them. Then overpay 30-40% for years.
3PL pricing is opaque on purpose. Storage rates vary 60% between Rotterdam and Poznań for the exact same service level. Pick & pack fees vary 50%. Onward shipping zones change everything once you know where your customers actually live. We benchmark six EU hubs side-by-side on your real numbers — orders, units, pallets, primary destination — and tell you the ones to negotiate with.
The six benchmarked hubs
Each is the right answer for a different shipper profile.
01
Rotterdam (NL) — premium gateway
Largest EU container port, premium B2C infrastructure, multilingual ops. €19/pallet/month list. Best for high-velocity B2C with same-day pick or air-cargo handling. Capacity tight.
02
Hamburg (DE) — DACH distribution
3rd-largest EU port, deep DACH onward network, strong customs-compliance culture. €17/pallet/month. Best for goods sold primarily into DE / AT / CH where regulatory rigor matters.
03
Frankfurt (DE) — air freight + parcel
Frankfurt Airport adjacency, geographic centre of EU population. €18/pallet/month. Best for air-imported goods or shippers who care about even reach across all EU regions.
04
Poznań (PL) — cost-effective Central
Cheapest EU 3PL labour, China-Europe rail terminus 200km away, 1–2 day reach into DACH. €12/pallet/month. Best for cost-sensitive operations serving Central + East EU.
05
Prague (CZ) — emerging Central hub
Cost-effective with stronger English-language ops than PL, faster customs flow. €13/pallet/month. Best for shippers wanting PL pricing with Western-EU service expectations.
06
Barcelona (ES) — Mediterranean speed
Fastest Mediterranean port from Asia (28-32 days vs 35-42 for Rotterdam), serves Iberia + Southern France. €15/pallet/month. Best for shippers with strong Iberian / Italian customer base.
What we benchmark
Five cost lines that move independently across hubs.
Pick & pack
Per-order labour
€1.20 base in Poznań vs €1.80 in Rotterdam. Add lines and units and the gap widens. At 1,500 orders/month, you're choosing between €4,500 and €6,800 just for the pick step.
Outbound shipping
Hub → customer
The line that flips the answer. Same hub serving DE customers vs ES customers — different cost, different transit. We model six destination regions × six hubs.
Inbound + setup
Receipt + onboarding
Inbound receipt (per pallet) and setup (one-off, amortised over 12 months) are smaller line items but vary 40% between hubs. We surface both so they don't ambush you in month 13.
Value-added services
QC, labelling, kitting, returns
Optional services that turn a 3PL into a brand operation. Returns processing alone is €4-6 per return — a 5% returns rate on 2,000 orders is €400-600/month most shippers don't price in.
When to run multiple hubs
Single hub for <3k orders/month. Two hubs for >5k. Above that, the math is different.
Multi-hub adds operational overhead — separate inventory, separate ops contacts, separate inbound flows. The breakeven is roughly when transit-cost savings on a second region exceed €2,000/month.
Single hub (default)
Below 3,000 orders/month, one well-chosen hub almost always wins. Pick the cheapest hub in your destination region — same-day cost wins, 1-2 day delivery is fine.
Two hubs (cost-sensitive scale)
3,000–10,000 orders/month with mixed destinations: one Eastern hub (PL/CZ) for cost-sensitive Central+East, one Iberian hub (ES) for fast Southern delivery. We model the split.
Three+ hubs (enterprise scale)
Above 10,000 orders/month, three hubs become viable: PL for East, NL/DE for Central, ES for Iberia. Below this, the operational complexity doesn't pay back.
Always negotiate
Our list rates are mid-market — what a new shipper with no leverage would pay. At 3k orders/month, expect 10–15% below list. At 10k+, expect 20–25%. Bring three quotes to negotiate from.
Ready