We often share real conversations with brands, not polished success stories, but the gritty problems many teams are quietly grappling with. Last week was no exception. A direct-to-consumer brand came to us with a familiar dilemma: how to intelligently route orders between their third-party logistics warehouse (a 3PL using Mintsoft WMS) and Amazon's Multi-Channel Fulfilment (MCF) service. In simpler terms, they needed to decide which orders should be fulfilled by Amazon and which by their 3PL, without making a mess of their operations.
The Fulfilment Routing Dilemma
This brand's wish list was straightforward on paper, yet tricky in practice. They wanted to set up rules so that:
Certain orders (based on sales channel and units per order) go to Amazon MCF.
Specific SKUs always ship through Amazon MCF.
Everything else flows through their 3PL's warehouse.
Nothing too unusual, in fact, we see requests like this all the time. The truth is, modern brands rarely have a single fulfilment strategy. Most are juggling multiple moving parts, for example:
Multiple warehouses (e.g. your own warehouse and Amazon's fulfilment centres).
Multiple 3PLs (third-party logistics partners in different regions or for different product lines).
Multiple sales channels (Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop, eBay, wholesale, etc.).
And they're not alone: according to recent industry data, 84% of brands use an external 3PL for at least some orders, and nearly 59% already operate more than one fulfilment centre. On top of that, a whopping 85% of brands already sell on two or more channels. In other words, having a complex mix of warehouses, 3PLs, and sales platforms is the norm, not the exception, for growing eCommerce companies.
Amazon MCF: FBA for Everything (& Everywhere) Else
For anyone unfamiliar, Amazon MCF (Multi-Channel Fulfilment) is essentially Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) for orders beyond Amazon's own marketplace. It's a 3PL service that lets you leverage Amazon's vast fulfilment network to pick, pack, and ship orders from off-Amazon sales channels. In practical terms, stock sitting in Amazon's warehouses can be used to fulfil orders from your Shopify store, your TikTok Shop, eBay, or almost any channel you sell on.
And that unlocks some powerful possibilities for brands:
Clear Excess Inventory
Got surplus units stranded in FBA? MCF let's you push those products across every channel to avoid dead stock.
Handle Sales Spikes
Planning a flash sale or viral campaign that your own warehouse can't handle? Seamlessly route those orders to Amazon MCF to absorb the spike.
Beat Expiry Dates:
If certain products in Amazon storage have best-before dates approaching, distribute them aggressively through all channels via MCF to clear the stock in time.
7-Day, Prime-Speed Delivery
Want to offer next-day delivery even on weekends or holidays when your warehouse is closed? Let Amazon MCF cover those orders and give customers that Prime-like speed all week long.
The Hard Part: Orchestrating It All (No Chaos, No Spreadsheets)
If splitting orders between Amazon and a 3PL sounds complicated, that's because it is. As Amazon's own supply chain team points out, "managing fulfilment across channels can be time-consuming and complex." Different systems need to talk to each other: your Shopify or marketplace orders need to trigger Amazon fulfilment for some products, while others should notify your 3PL's WMS. Without the right orchestration, you end up with customer orders falling through the cracks or manual teams firefighting with Excel sheets and duct-tape solutions.
In our brand's case, the question wasn't whether to use a hybrid fulfilment approach (that was an easy yes), but how to orchestrate it cleanly across all their systems. They needed a way to automate the decision-making: which orders or items go to MCF and which go to the 3PL without relying on someone to manually sort or upload spreadsheets every day. In other words, they wanted the whole thing running in the background like a well-oiled machine, not a contraption held together by hope.
Enter Neuro: Smarter Order Routing Without the Headaches
This is where our platform, Neuro, comes into play. It's specifically built to handle these multi-channel, multi-warehouse scenarios. With Neuro, brands can set up intelligent workflows so that the right orders go to the right place, automatically. For example, Neuro allows you to:
Connect to 500+ marketplaces and channels far beyond the handful of integrations Amazon supports natively. Sell on any platform, and we likely integrate with it.
Apply granular routing rules based on virtually any order attribute: sales channel, SKU, order quantity, customer location, you name it. You can create if/then rules (or rule sets) that reflect your unique fulfilment logic.
Automatically push orders to Amazon MCF when they meet your criteria, no manual intervention needed. The system flags those orders and sends them to Amazon for fulfilment in real-time.
Streamline the rest to your 3PL or warehouse: everything not earmarked for MCF flows to the correct 3PL or in-house warehouse system through Neuro's integrations. No confusion, no duplicate orders, no manual re-routing.
The end result? The brand's multi-channel orders get routed exactly where they need to go, with no manual spreadsheets, no brittle workarounds, and no "logic" held together by hope and prayers. It's all automated and auditable. Their operations team can relax (at least a little) knowing that a surge of TikTok orders on Saturday will seamlessly go out via Amazon, or that a bulk wholesale order will correctly land with the 3PL - all without someone flipping switches at 2AM.
Ready to Streamline Your Fulfilment Strategy?
This conversation highlights a broader industry problem: as DTC brands diversify channels and fulfilment partners, orchestration becomes the critical piece of the puzzle. Many operations teams struggle quietly with these integration headaches. The good news is you're not alone - and solutions do exist to make it easier.
We're curious if anyone reading is already using Amazon MCF today. Which channels are you routing through it, and how are you managing the hand-off between systems? We love swapping war stories and tips. And if you're facing a similar routing challenge and want to see how tools like Neuro can help, let's chat. Feel free to book a call with our team or drop us a line - we're always happy to discuss how to turn a messy multi-channel operation into a smooth, scalable, omnichannel workflow. Here's to no more fulfilment fire-fighting, and a lot more growth.
