Prioritize transit time to your largest customer clusters, dock and shipping capacity, IT/OMS integration capabilities, and scalability of labor and storage. Also evaluate reverse logistics processes and carrier density for lowest‑cost parcel routing.

Facility attributes directly affect costs and SLAs: higher dock door counts and dedicated ecomm pick zones reduce throughput time; racked vs. bulk storage alters handling costs; integrated WMS and automated sortation lower labor spend and error rates.

Centralized DCs provide inventory consolidation and lower safety stock, but longer last‑mile times. Multiple regional sites reduce transit times and parcel premiums but increase inventory carrying and coordination complexity. Assess order profiles and service targets.

Include KPIs for OTIF shipments, order accuracy, dock-to-ship cycle time, and inventory accuracy. Contract terms should define billing cadence, chargeback thresholds, minimum service levels, and transparent accessorial pricing. Consider service credits tied to KPI misses.