3PL Receiving.
Booking inventory in — the per-partner intake systems (FE PO, ARN, ASN) and who owns the Stocked status.
What receiving does
When produced inventory arrives at a third-party warehouse, it must be booked in and matched to the originating purchase order before it can be allocated to orders. The Receiving Team (Raphne, Cameron) owns this and marks Sales Order products “Stocked” when complete. Each warehouse uses its own intake system, so the receiving step differs by partner.
Intake system by partner
| Warehouse (region) | Intake object | Shopify inventory |
|---|---|---|
| Topshelf (US) | FE PO in Fulfill Engine; product must be synced to FE first; one FE PO per kitting project | Verify after FE PO completed |
| Kayo3PL (Canada) | ARN (Advance Receiving Notice) at client.kayo3pl.com; tracking number required | Auto-synced — no manual stocking |
| LME / Shipdodo (Hong Kong) | ASN at app.shipdodo.com; “Put Away” status = stocked | Updated manually |
| Backloads (EU/Latvia) | Email warehouse re: incoming shipment (cc Raphne); monitor tracking | Updated manually |
| Lockwood (UK) | Email warehouse; monitor tracking | Updated manually |
| Packitle (Australia) | Email warehouse; monitor tracking | Updated manually |
| Printrove (India) | Send SKUs to Printrove so they set up products | Printrove-managed — usually verify only |
| Cubbo (Mexico) phasing out | INV (Inventory Replenishment) in Cubbo | — |
The EU / UK / AU partners (Backloads, Lockwood, Packitle) all follow the same monitor-only pattern: check the Linear ticket, confirm the Shopify product exists, email the warehouse about the incoming shipment, watch tracking, confirm receipt, then update Shopify inventory by hand and mark the SO “Stocked.”
Receiving kitted projects
- Topshelf: a kitting project uses a single FE PO regardless of component count.
- Kayo: create a Kitting Product (with components) and a Kitting Order; Kayo auto-updates Shopify.
- LME: one ASN per arrival if components arrive together; otherwise book components separately, then create an outbound order for kitting and a new inbound ASN for the finished kit.
- Standard kit box size discussed at Topshelf is roughly 12×10×4 in.
Kayo receiving SLA (reference)
Kayo (Canada) gave the most detailed receiving spec of any partner. Useful as the benchmark for what a well-run 3PL intake looks like:
- Receiving SLA: 3–5 days, but usually stocked same day — even when they have to add barcodes.
- Barcodes required on all items. Kayo can apply them, but prefers the supplier to barcode at source. All apparel must be individually poly-bagged (supplier-side preferred).
- ARN required in the portal; a brand-new SKU must be created in their platform or Shopify before the ARN.
- Piece counts: if the packaging lists counts they won’t recount, unless a box holds multiple SKUs/sizes — then they count to verify.
- 2-day discrepancy hold: after receiving, Kayo sends a receiving notice and holds stock non-live for 2 days so PerkUp can flag count discrepancies; reply “all good” to go live immediately.
- Fulfillment: same-day for orders in before noon (tracking same day; carrier hand-off depends on pickup time). Daily carrier pickups noon–EOD with all majors.
- US facility: Kayo now runs a US facility with a daily Canada→US stock transfer; US-bound orders are driven over the border and mailed from the US side.
- Storage billing: per-pallet-per-month or per-cubic-ft-per-day — Kayo recommends cubic-ft-per-day so cost drops as stock ships out.
Other notes from the walk-through: food-safe certified with a temperature-controlled area, an on-site photo studio for swag photography, and hands-on day contacts (Nikko, Lisa) in place of a dedicated account manager.
Warehouse contacts
Per-warehouse receiving contacts are maintained on the Warehouses page and in the “Warehouse Contact Information” Notion page.
Sources: “Receiving” + 7 per-warehouse receiving SOPs (Notion, 2026-05 to 2026-06); Kayo 3PL meeting notes (#customer-success, 2025-08-15); #operations (Slack).