A fulfilment centre operates as the hub for every logistics processes necessary to get a product from the producer to the consumer. It carries the complete order fulfilment process, ranging from order picking, processing,packaging, and shipping. A third-party logistics provider, likeShipBob, uses the fulfilment centre to receive, process, and fulfil consumer orders for ecommerce retailers.A fulfilment centre exists to get online orders to consumers in a timely fashion and ease ecommerce companies' handling of this crucial and challenging process.

Fulfilment centre operations consist of the work that supports getting online orders to customers’ doorstep. It is also referred to as the process of order fulfilment. An ecommerce business’s stock is stored tactically in a 3PL’s fulfilment centre in arrangement for fulfilling customer orders. After a customer completes a purchase on an ecommerce store, product is picked and packed, and labelled for shipment. Fulfilment centres can handle both business-to-business (B2B) orders in general with a higher volume of product that is sent to a big-box retailer as well as business-to-consumer (B2C) orders, which are dispatched directly to an individual customer’s home. As a seller outsourced fulfilment, the 3PLwill complete the fulfilment operations on behalf of the store owner. This comprises everything from stock management to negotiating shipping rates with carriers.