Prioritize cold-chain capacity, export documentation support, and dock/terminal access. Evaluate handling equipment, IT integrations (WMS/EDI), peak-season scalability, and experience with perishable compliance. Also confirm carrier networks for road, short-sea, and air connections to your key markets.

Compare landed transit time, carrier frequency, and consolidation opportunities. Consider using regional cross-dock services to aggregate outbound parcels and negotiate zone-based rates. Monitor dimensional weight impacts and evaluate hybrid carrier mixes to balance cost versus speed.

Factors that mitigate risk include proximity to deep-water ports, multimodal links (road, air, sea), and redundancy in carrier options. Look for warehouses with on-site contingency capacity, winter-ready operations, and established relationships with regional freight forwarders.

Negotiate clear KPIs for order accuracy, on-time dispatch, temperature compliance, and inventory reconciliation. Define SLA remedies, seasonal capacity guarantees, and visibility requirements (real-time WMS access). Include termination and ramp-down clauses to limit operational exposure.