Third-party logistics provider (3PL) ShipMonk is doubling down on apparel fulfillment.
The company has opened an apparel-specific fulfillment center in Louisville, Ky., making it the first ShipMonk facility built to serve a single category and the Fort Lauderdale, Fl.-based firm’s 12th warehouse overall.
The 406,000-square-foot facility, known as “KY2,” is designed to address the full operational lifecycle of an apparel order. This ranges from dealing with challenges like managing size- and style-driven SKU complexity to processing fit-related returns and handling soft goods at scale.
Related Stories
“Apparel brands need partners who understand the complexity behind every order—from returns, to presentation, to speed,” said Kevin Sides, CEO and co-founder of ShipMonk. “Our merchant-first approach means designing fulfillment around how brands actually operate. This facility was built to support those details and help brands scale without losing control of the customer experience.”
According to the company, the layouts within the fulfillment center are optimized for high-SKU density, and are designed to enable rapid picking across deep garment inventories and high-volume footwear assortments.
Additionally, the facility is designed to smooth out the often-arduous reverse logistics process that apparel brands and fulfillment providers can struggle with. Using an in-house returns program, ShipMonk inspects, grades and routes all returned items. New or like-new merchandise is sent directly to putaway. Recoverable products are restored and returned to inventory, while non-recoverable items are dispositioned based on the customer’s discretion.
ShipMonk processes more than 15 return merchandise authorization requests per labor hour across its network, on average. The company also offers a “quality guard” service, in which every returned item is automatically photographed upon receipt and after rework, so the customer has proof of condition when it arrives and when it returns to inventory.
The Louisville warehouse also includes dedicated rework stations that support a range of garment restoration capabilities, including steaming, refolding, re-tagging and ensuring re-stockable items are returned to inventory in hours.
Within the facility, ShipMonk will offer bespoke fulfillment services including hanger application, hang tagging, price ticketing and poly-bagging.
The location features more than 300,000 storage locations and 60 dock doors.
KY2 is ShipMonk’s second warehouse in Louisville, expanding the existing campus, which serves as a central hub for customers looking to ship goods nationwide. The fulfillment center is roughly 10 miles from Louisville International Airport, home of the UPS Worldport air cargo hub.
The campus is positioned to optimize shipping costs across its distributed customer bases and offers two-day expedited shipping that reaches to 100 percent of U.S. consumers.
The facility also offers standard shipping, which reaches 86 percent of the U.S. in three days and 100 percent in five days, and the lower-cost economy shipping option that touches 60 percent of the population in five days.
“Fulfillment shouldn’t slow brands down or force compromises,” Sides added. “When it’s done right, it becomes a growth advantage. That’s exactly what we built here.”
When fully staffed, the facility is expected to employ approximately 250 people, with most roles representing new positions as ShipMonk continues to scale its operations.
According to the 3PL, ShipMonk is heading into the second quarter with a 1,000-brand enterprise client list, touting 99.95 percent accuracy rate in fulfilling orders to customers in 195 countries.
The grand opening comes as the company has been undergoing a network shift of sorts.
ShipMonk opened two new campuses last year in Las Vegas and Pittson, Pa., building on existing facilities in both areas. Now hosting two facilities each, the Las Vegas campus covers 800,000 square feet, while the Pittston hub totals 650,000 square feet.
Both campuses serve as the main hubs to fulfill products to the West and East Coasts, each hosting 300,000 orders monthly on average. The hubs can scale up to 1 million orders during the peak holiday season.
Facilities at the West and East Coast centers also serve as bonded warehouses, enabling client businesses to defer tariff payments on imported goods until they’re sold.
As more emphasis goes to the Las Vegas campus, ShipMonk is shuttering its San Bernardino, Calif. fulfillment center this summer.
According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice filed by the company on March 24, ShipMonk is set to lay off 124 employees as part of the closure.
The layoffs and permanent closure are expected to take effect June 30.
