There’s a big difference between shipping a few orders a week and shipping 100 a day. Not just in tools and process—but in time, energy, and how much of your business it consumes.

If your brand is growing, your fulfillment setup can’t stay stuck in launch mode. What works when you’re just getting started won’t hold up under real volume. And when your system breaks, it doesn’t just slow down your operations—it drags everything else down with it.

Here’s what to expect as you scale from zero to 100 orders a day—and how to build a system that can keep up.

This post is part of an ongoing series on Startup Order Fulfillment, built to help growing brands scale their operations with confidence.

10 Orders a Day or Fewer: Scrappy, But It Works

This is where most brands start. You’re packing orders at your kitchen table, printing labels one at a time, and storing inventory in bins or on shelves wherever there’s space. It’s inefficient, sure—but it works because the volume is still low.

At this stage, your setup likely includes:

  • A basic workspace. Your fulfillment station is whatever space you can claim. A kitchen table, a spare bedroom, the garage—it doesn’t matter, as long as it lets you spread out and get the job done. It’s not optimized, but it’s functional—and that’s enough to start.
  • Free or low-cost shipping supplies. You’re keeping things lean, but you still care how it looks. USPS Priority Mail boxes, bubble mailers, tissue paper, branded stickers, and thank-you cards are often part of the mix. At this stage, packaging isn’t just functional—it’s one of the few ways you can make the brand feel special.
  • No-frills tools. You’re probably handwriting addresses, using an inkjet printer, and copy and pasting tracking numbers into emails one by one. It’s slow, but with a handful of orders a day, it’s manageable—and buying tools that save time may not feel urgent yet.
  • A reactive mindset. You’re responding to orders as they come in, figuring things out on the fly. It’s exciting, a little chaotic, and deeply personal. Every package is a small celebration—but that adrenaline will start to wear thin as volume picks up.

You’re learning what your packaging should look like, how long fulfillment takes, and what your customers expect.

It’s good enough for now. Just don’t build your future around it.

11–50 Orders a Day: The Cracks Start to Show

Once daily volume climbs into double digits, your early setup starts to fail. What used to feel exciting now feels like pressure. The process that once gave you a sense of control now consumes too much of your time—and makes it harder to focus on anything else.

At this stage, a few common pain points start to surface:

  • Time pressure. You can’t pack every order like it’s a one-of-a-kind project anymore. The details start to slow you down, and the tradeoff between “special” and “scalable” becomes impossible to ignore.
  • Packing fatigue. The more repetitive fulfillment becomes, the easier it is to make mistakes. A missed insert, a mislabeled envelope—it’s all small stuff until it starts impacting your customers.
  • Material clutter. Supplies take over your space. You order too much of one thing and forget to reorder another. Nothing is where it should be, and suddenly, “packing orders” includes 10 minutes of digging.
  • Workflow breakdowns. Copying tracking numbers into emails by hand takes forever. You skip your usual packaging extras just to keep up. Small inefficiencies compound—and fulfillment starts to feel like a bottleneck.

You’re still in control—but fulfillment starts to compete with everything else you need to be doing. Marketing. Product development. Customer service. It all starts to slip unless your system holds up.

51–100 Orders a Day: Something Has to Give

Once you cross the 50-per-day mark, fulfillment is no longer a side task—it’s a full-time job. If you’re still trying to manage it yourself, one of two things is probably happening:

  • You’re constantly behind, overwhelmed, or making mistakes.
  • You’re keeping up, but at the expense of everything else.

This is the stage where growth can become a burden. It’s also the point where you need to make a decision:

  • Do you hire help and build a more structured in-house process?
  • Or do you outsource to a partner who can take it off your plate entirely?

There’s no one right answer—but doing nothing isn’t sustainable.

If you’re at this volume and still packing orders late at night, you’re not building your business. You’re holding it together.

How to Strengthen Your Setup Before It Breaks

As your daily order volume grows, these changes will make fulfillment faster, cleaner, and much easier to scale—whether you stay in-house or eventually bring in help.

  • Label your SKUs—and store them with intention. Use barcodes. Even if you’re not scanning yet, labeling each SKU clearly and placing it in a consistent, labeled bin or on a dedicated shelf will reduce picking errors and prep you for growth. A clean storage system isn’t just for 3PLs—it saves you time now.
  • Standardize your packing process. Whether it’s scribbled on a notepad or printed and laminated, having a defined sequence cuts down on errors. It also reduces decision fatigue—so you can move faster without sacrificing quality.
  • Pre-kit or prep whenever possible. Folding tissue, assembling inserts, and batching product sets ahead of time will make fulfillment smoother. The more you front-load repetitive tasks, the less chaotic it feels during busy periods.
  • Upgrade your technology where it counts. A reliable thermal printer, simple barcode scanners, a shipping platform that integrates with your store, and select automation tools can shave hours off your workflow. These aren’t luxuries—they’re the backbone of a setup that scales. The earlier you put them in place, the less painful your next stage of growth will be.
  • Build with handoff in mind. Even if you’re not outsourcing or hiring help yet, assume that someone else will need to follow your process one day. Document it like you’ll have to explain it—because eventually, you will.

Get these pieces in place early, and you’ll have a fulfillment setup that grows with you—instead of one that holds you back.

The Bottom Line

You don’t need to outsource fulfillment on day one. You might never outsource at all. But at some point, the way you handle fulfillment has to level up—because shipping isn’t just a service, it’s part of your brand.

What starts as a personal, handcrafted process eventually needs to become a system—one that’s fast, repeatable, and reliable at scale. For many brands, outsourcing to a 3PL is the cleanest way to get there. For others, it’s about refining their in-house setup with the same level of discipline and structure.

Either way, the goal is the same: to keep your business moving forward without letting fulfillment slow you down.

Feeling the weight of things? Let’s talk.