In short
- The 8 EU fulfilment policies below treat order minimums and minimum invoices differently. No minimum order volume does not automatically mean no fixed monthly cost; compare both before deciding how to start with a small stock batch.
- Where there is no order minimum, look for a minimum invoice, a set-up fee or a fixed weekly charge — the same constraint under another name.
- Storage separates them: per m³ per day, per week on space used, per m³ per month, or none at all.
- The list is alphabetical and we are last, because a comparison in which the author ranks first is an advert.
- AirPost is a peer-to-peer fulfilment network: online shops have their orders packed and dropped at a parcel point by verified people near their customers, who earn a fee per parcel from home. No warehouse, no minimum order volume.
The country of the stock changes the parcel route. Read how to ship domestically in Europe and where to hold stock before comparing a domestic label with a cross-border shipment.
Most fulfilment providers in Europe start being interested somewhere between 100 and 500 orders a month; below that their fixed costs are spread over too few orders. A handful take small sellers anyway and say so on their own website. Here are eight, with what each publishes about its minimum, how it bills storage and where it holds stock. We run the last one.
Where these figures come from
Every line is what the provider publishes on its own pages, checked on 1 October 2026. Where a provider publishes no rate, this article says so rather than guessing. Sources are at the bottom; always request a quote on your own volume.
The eight at a glance
| Provider | Minimum they publish | Storage model | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boxxl | None stated; handling from €3.75 an order | Not published | Netherlands |
| FLEX Fulfillment | None; Starter plan €0 a month, €1.49 an order | €14.99 per m³ a month (Starter) | DE, FR, PL, UK |
| Fulfilment.nl | €1,000 minimum invoice a month | Modular, per item | Netherlands |
| GS-Fulfilment | No minimum per day or per month; weekly software fee and one-off connection cost | Per week, on space actually used | Netherlands |
| isklad | No order minimum | Per m³ per day, on volume occupied | Slovakia, ships EU-wide |
| Monta | None published; quote per case, no fixed contract | Monthly, per location or m³ used | NL, DE, FR, UK |
| Omnipack | Not published; quote per case | Billed on space used and orders sent | Poland, ships EU-wide |
| AirPost | None — billed per shipment | None — stock sits with a person, not a warehouse | Countries with a domestic service |
How can a small online shop outsource shipping without a minimum order volume?
Pick a provider that bills per order and per space actually used, not per pallet or with a minimum invoice: Boxxl, FLEX Fulfillment, GS-Fulfilment and isklad state no minimum. A model with no warehouse at all, such as peer-to-peer at about €3.10 per small parcel plus the label, has no fixed cost to spread. At a few dozen orders a month, packing yourself is often still cheapest if your own hour is cheap. Compare on total monthly cost divided by your order count; the sums at 30 and 100 orders a month are in best fulfilment under 100 orders a month.
The eight, in order
1. Boxxl — the published rate card
A Dutch provider that puts numbers on the page: handling from €3.75, €0.55 per extra item in an order and €2.45 per return. No minimum order volume is stated.
2. FLEX Fulfillment — several countries, one contract
A European provider with six warehouses: three in Germany and one each in France, Poland and the UK. It publishes its rates: the Starter plan has no monthly fee, €1.49 per order with materials included and €14.99 per m³ of storage a month, with no onboarding cost and a flexible contract.
What that does not remove is the VAT registration in each country where stock physically sits — see VAT when you store stock in another EU country.
3. Fulfilment.nl — no minimum orders, but a minimum invoice
A Dutch provider with tiered service levels, starting at "Small" for up to 500 orders a month. No set-up costs, no account management fee and no software fee.
It does publish a minimum invoice value of €1,000 a month. That is the honest version of a minimum: at 60 orders a month it works out at €16.67 an order, which is a number you have to compute yourself.
4. GS-Fulfilment — the clearest no-minimum claim
A provider in Eindhoven that states it plainly: no minimum volume, no minimum per day and no minimum per month, and you can start with a handful of orders a day.
Storage is charged per week on the space actually used, plus a fixed software contribution per week and a one-off connection cost agreed in advance. Rates are quoted per case and depend on product size, weight, items per order and destination.
5. isklad — micro-fulfilment out of Slovakia
A Central European provider with no order minimum and warehousing priced per cubic metre per day, so the cost scales down in a slow month instead of holding you at a fixed monthly figure.
The counter-argument is transit time. Slovakia to a German or Dutch customer is an intra-EU parcel, not a domestic one, and that shows up in delivery days.
6. Monta — the large end, without a published floor
One of the larger operators in the Netherlands, listing the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and France on its site. It publishes no standard rates and quotes per case, with no fixed contract; storage is billed monthly per location or m³ used.
No minimum order volume is published either, which is not the same as there being none. At this end of the market the constraint usually turns up in the quote rather than on the website.
7. Omnipack — from Poland for the EU
A Polish provider shipping across the EU. It publishes neither rates nor a minimum volume and quotes per case, billing on space used and orders sent. The trade is the same as with isklad: stock further from a Dutch or German customer, so more transit days.
8. AirPost — no warehouse at all
Ours, and last on the list for that reason. It is not a warehouse: a verified person near your customers holds a batch of your stock at home, packs the orders and drops them at a service point.
You pay per shipment — €2.25 recommended sender fee for a small parcel plus €0.85 platform fee, so about €3.10 in fulfilment per order, plus the carrier rate you were paying anyway.
There is no storage fee because there is no warehouse to rent, and no minimum because there are no fixed costs to spread. That is the same reason it is the wrong answer above a few hundred orders a month. How it works is on local fulfilment in Europe.
- Small and light products, tens to a few hundred items per batch.
- Uneven or seasonal volume, because you pay per shipment and not per month.
- Selling into a country where you do not want to rent anything.
- Large, heavy, chilled or licensed goods — that needs a warehouse with the right permits.
- Hundreds of SKUs, or thousands of items of stock.
- Same-day promises or fixed collection windows.
How do you read a "no minimum" claim?
A minimum rarely appears as "minimum orders" in a quote. It appears in one of four other places, and all four have the same effect on your cost per order.
- A minimum monthly invoice. The clearest version. Divide it by your real order count to see your true cost per order.
- A tier or staffel. "Small, up to 500 orders" is fine; "Small, from 200 orders" is a minimum with a friendlier name.
- A set-up fee. Several hundred euros amortised over your first year is a fixed monthly cost, whatever the invoice calls it.
- Storage priced per pallet. A pallet you half fill is a pallet you fully pay for. Per cubic metre or per shelf location scales down; per pallet does not.
The one number that makes all of them comparable is your total monthly fulfilment cost divided by your order count. Everything above that is a rate; this is a price.
What should you ask before you sign?
Send one real month of data
Order count, average items per order, return rate, and how much shelf or pallet space your stock needs. Without those four, any quote you get back is a guess dressed as a number.
Ask for all five cost items, plus returns
Set-up, storage, pick and pack, inbound, shipping — and returns separately. A quote with only a pick-and-pack rate in it is not a quote.
Ask how storage is measured
On the peak of the month or on the average? That difference is tens of percent in the fourth quarter, when you are holding your Christmas stock.
Ask about the minimum invoice explicitly
Not "is there a minimum" — ask what the smallest amount you can be invoiced in a month is. The answers differ.
Ask what happens in a slow month
A provider charging per cubic metre per day answers this differently from one charging per pallet per month, and the difference only shows up in January.
Convert everything to cost per order
Monthly total divided by order count, for each quote and for your current situation including your own hours. That is the only comparable number.
Which one fits you?
| Your situation | What usually fits |
|---|---|
| Under 50 orders a month, small products | Peer-to-peer, or a provider charging storage per week or per m³ |
| 50–200 orders a month, one country | A small 3PL with no minimum and published rates |
| 200–1,000 orders a month | A mid-sized 3PL; ask for a quote and compare on cost per order |
| Above 1,000 orders a month | A larger operator, where negotiated rates beat any published one |
| Cost matters more than transit days | Central or Eastern Europe, shipping intra-EU |
| Transit days matter more than cost | Stock in the country you sell into most |
If the reason you are looking is the €3 per product type on every import since July 2026, the relevant sum is not which provider but whether local stock beats importing at all. That is in IOSS versus holding stock in the EU.
Frequently asked questions
Does no minimum order volume mean no minimum monthly invoice?
No. A provider can accept a small number of orders while requiring a minimum payment. Ask about volume, the minimum invoice, setup, storage and return fees separately.
Can a small shop start EU fulfilment with one product line?
Yes. A limited stock batch makes the first month easier to review. Confirm that the provider can handle your product and destination before moving your whole catalogue.
Is "no minimum orders" the same as "no minimum cost"?
No, and that is the trap. Check for a minimum monthly invoice, a set-up fee spread over your first year, and storage priced per pallet. All three are fixed costs regardless of what the order minimum says.
What does fulfilment cost per order in Europe?
Of the providers here that publish a rate, FLEX Fulfillment starts at €1.49 per order on its Starter plan and Boxxl at €3.75, with storage and returns on top. The others quote per case, so ask for a quote and divide the monthly total by your order count.
Do I need a VAT number in the country where my stock sits?
Generally yes, and there is no threshold for it. Holding stock in a country makes your sales from that stock domestic supplies there. OSS does not remove that obligation.
Can I start with one product line instead of my whole catalogue?
Yes, and with most of these providers that is the sensible first step. Put your best sellers somewhere for a month and compare your real cost per order against what you do today.
Sources
- Boxxl — published fulfilment rates
- FLEX Fulfillment — European warehouses and onboarding
- Fulfilment.nl — rates, tiers and the minimum monthly invoice
- GS-Fulfilment — fulfilment for small shops, on minimum volume
- isklad — how to choose a fulfilment provider in Central Europe
- Monta — fulfilment pricing and quotations
- Omnipack — fulfilment from Poland for the European market
See which countries have a domestic service today
Where we are active