Most 3PLs try to stay away from furniture because it exposes every weakness in a building. High-value inventory, awkward dimensions, fragile surfaces, and wide SKU variation make oversized fulfillment one of the toughest categories in e-commerce. At SHIP8, we decided to lean into it. Furniture has become one of the strongest tests of our operational maturity and a clear way to show what disciplined layout design, process control, and trained operators can achieve.
Brands like Olliix, JLA Home, E&E LTD, and retail channels such as Wayfair trust us with oversized products because we move bulky freight with the same confidence and consistency that small-parcel e-commerce is known for. The goal is simple. A sofa should move through the building with the same clarity, traceability, and velocity you would expect from fulfilling a pair of sneakers. The cartons may be bigger, but the expectations are just as high.
Oversized Fulfillment Starts With How You Design the Floor
A building becomes a furniture distribution center the moment a large box hits the dock. Oversized cannot be squeezed into a standard pick module or a one-size layout. Space, equipment paths, lifting methods, and staging logic all need to adjust.
GA2 Savannah, GA Fulfillment Center: East Coast Velocity
GA2 handles high outbound volume with predictable daily rhythm.
The layout supports:
- Larger staging lanes for two-person handling
- Vertical racking designed for wrapped frames and high-movement SKUs
- Clear inbound-to-outbound flow for oversized
- Wireless printing ensures continuous picker movement with no workflow interruptions
CA1 Woodland, CA Fulfillment Center: West Coast Diversity
CA1 processes more inbound variation.
The floor is built around:
- Wider turn radius for clamp and push equipment
- Mixed-unit pick zones for brands with deep SKU breadth
- Carton-flow designed for irregular replenishment
- Additional dimensional check points due to carton variability
Both campuses run on our core discipline framework, Methods, Pace, Time, Safety (MPT+S). That rhythm keeps oversized predictable even when cartons, weights, and geometries change with every pallet.
Single-Piece Flow for Team-Lift SKUs
One of the most impactful changes we made was shifting many large SKUs to single-piece flow. Instead of storing multiple units together and replenishing throughout the day, each team-lift item is stored on its own pallet and picked as a single unit.
This eliminates unnecessary replenishment touches.
Fewer touches mean lower risk, cleaner tracking, and better pace control.
It also removes the temptation to treat oversized like a dense pick path, which never fits the realities of furniture.
The most efficient oversized flow is often the one that removes steps, not the one that tries to speed them up.
How We Keep Damage Low and Traceability High
Speed matters, but consistency and control matter more. A late sofa creates frustration. A damaged sofa becomes a brand-level problem that no one forgets.
Our oversized process is built around reducing touches and improving accountability at every movement.
Key controls include:
- Two-person handling from receiving through staging
- Wireless printing that releases shipping labels only after SKU and location verification
- Photo capture and dimensional validation pre-loading
- Pallet logic that separates single-piece units from bundled sets
- Reinforced wrap and corner-protection standards tailored by SKU type
- Staging assignments based on door availability, carrier mix, and trailer timing
Every label, scan, and movement is tied into a traceable flow.
The wireless printing workflow removes redundant scans and ensures that a label cannot be printed until the product has been validated correctly. This reduces both mislabels and downstream exceptions.
None of these controls exist in theory. They are the lived-in processes our operators follow daily. Ask them how a chaise should stand, or when a loveseat should ride flat, and you will hear answers drawn from experience, not a handbook.
Why We Use Footwear Logic for Furniture
The comparison to sneaker fulfillment is intentional. Footwear succeeds because the flow is predictable, traceable, and designed to avoid errors before they happen. Oversized deserves that same philosophy.
Our model applies e-commerce discipline to large-format freight:
- Short cycle times driven by reduced touches
- Scannable workflows for full carton traceability
- Repeatable patterns that produce consistent velocity
- Damage prevention designed into the upstream process, not added after packing
Many 3PLs rely on brute force for furniture. We rely on a repeatable, auditable system that holds up under volume.
A Morning Walk Through SHIP8 INC. Oversized Fulfillment
If you walk our oversized lanes at 7:00 a.m., here’s what you’ll actually see:
- Two-person teams moving in sync without rushing.
- QA tagging on the wrap line.
- Team leads validating measurements before the carrier closes the trailer.
- Staging lanes organized by door availability and appointment windows.
- An entire workflow designed around controlling the variables that typically break oversized fulfillment.
It’s a process built by operators, not theorists.
What Brands Learn When They Tour Our Furniture Distribution Center
Most furniture brands tell us the same thing after walking our campuses:
“You run oversized fulfillment with e-commerce discipline.”
They’re right. And that’s the difference.
We don’t treat furniture as a special project. We treat it as a core capability. Our distribution design, carrier logic, dimensional controls, and oversized pick and pack standards are built to scale, not survive.
Ready to Scale Your Furniture or Home Décor Line
If your brand is growing into furniture, home décor, or any large-format category, we invite you to walk our East and West Coast operations. See the single-piece flow, the wireless printing logic, the staging lanes, the handling controls, and the low-damage discipline in person.
