Prioritize measurable KPIs: transit time to core markets, dock-to-stock velocity, order accuracy, and cost-per-pick. Evaluate warehouse infrastructure (racking, cold chain), labor pool stability, equipment uptime, and carrier relationships. Confirm SLAs, recovery plans for disruptions, and transparent billing to compare cost-to-serve across providers.

Understand line-item billing (receiving, storage, pick/pack, outbound freight) and activity-based fees that drive variable costs. Negotiate minimums, bundled rates for volume tiers, and pass-throughs for carrier surcharges. Request modeled cost scenarios for peak, slow, and scale-up volumes to predict blended unit economics.

Require real-time inventory visibility, EDI/API order transmissions, event-based shipment notifications, batch processing for returns, and role-based access controls. Ask for integration references, uptime SLAs, data export formats, and support for multi-channel order routing to ensure seamless OMS/WMS connectivity.

Review historical peak management plans, temporary labor programs, overflow capacity agreements, and rapid racking or slotting strategies. Request case studies showing duty-cycle scaling, on-demand packaging supply provisioning, and contingency plans for carrier capacity constraints to validate operational resilience.