Service Details
Rakuten Super Logistics (RSL) is an ecommerce order fulfillment provider established in 2001, with a nationwide network of 15 fulfillment warehouses across the US.
RSL provides fast-growing ecommerce retailers a 1-2 day shipping solution through its fulfillment center network and established partnerships with national and regional shipping carriers.
RSL’s fulfillment management platform integrates with popular online marketplaces, shopping carts, and order management tools.
| Platform | SaaS (Cloud Web App) API Shopping Cart Plug-in |
| Customers Supported | Worldwide |
Pricing & Trial
| Price Range |
| Custom tiered pricing. Contact the supplier for a quote. |
Integrations & Compatibility
| Details | Integrations |
|---|---|
| Amazon Sites | Amazon.com |
| eBay Sites | eBay.com |
| Alternative Marketplaces | Walmart.com |
| Multichannel Software | ChannelAdvisor |
| Shipping & Fulfillment | DHL FedEx FirstMile ShipStation UPS USPS |
| Carts, Payment & POS | BigCommerce Magento Shopify Volusion |
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Jeff Thompson
Great Team to work with
What where the positives?
Sales process was thorough and they were able to answer all of my questions and alleviate my concerns. I then was passed on to the client services team who onboarded me and has supported me throughout my time with them. Coming from a different 3PL that I had to fire for never getting packages out on time, it's been a welcomed relief working with Rakuten.
Any negatives?
Nothing so far.
Summary
Happy with my choice moving to them! My inventory is received in a timely manner and packages go out quickly and accurately. I look forward to growing with them and taking advantage of their multiple US facilities. Service has been good!
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FOND Bone Broth
I highly recommend RSL!
What where the positives?
We’ve had a great experience with our account manager, Frank, and the head of the Austin warehouse, Tim. Frank is awesome and really responsive - he’s like the traffic controller for all of the different departments I have to communicate with at Rakuten. He’s been really understanding of our new packaging changes and has been patient with us as we navigate any issues that arise there. As a growing company, his support (and lack of pressure placed on us) has been invaluable. During Thanksgiving week, Tim came in on a 1/2 day while he was supposed to be off and received a shipment for us, because he knew that if the shipment wasn’t received, it would impact our ability to continue shipping our products. He literally went home for 3 hours at the end of the 1/2 day and came back to the warehouse just for us.
Any negatives?
I would love some improvement on their dashboard - it is sometimes glitchy.
Summary
I’ve overall had a largely positive experience with Rakuten. We’ve had some bumps along the way but we’ve figured out how to communicate and make things work smoothly. The team there always admits when they aren’t succeeding in something and they work towards trying to fix it in a sustainable way.
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Tavis Malcolm
Superior Level of Service, Efficiency, and Software
What where the positives?
Having used 2 other 3PLs for our business in the past, it's easy to say that RSL is in another league from their competitors. They have the speed, reliability, software integrations, and flexibility you want to ship anything from D2C, wholesale pallets, or custom orders with speed and accuracy. They have the size and capabilities to handle incredible volume but offer personalized account management for very small clients (like us). Can't recommend them enough!
Any negatives?
The past year has brought new software and a few bugs that come along with it, but every technical issue is always handled immediately by the great support team.
Summary
10/10 Cannot recommend highly enough for their speed, pricing, software, flexibility, and personal approach to their customers.
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Scott Hutchison
They almost put me out of business
What where the positives?
There werent any
Any negatives?
Bad client support, inflated shipping costs, high amount of shipping errors
Summary
If you're an e-commerce business that is considering Rakuten as your 3pl, DON'T. We started using them a year ago when their sales rep told us that our average all in shipping cost (postage, pick and pack, storage) would be around $12. Their costs were low for the first few months. I stopped monitoring invoices, and 8 months later realized that their average cost was $24 per order. Their support was terrible. They made mistakes on 20% of our shipments, and completely ate our margin. There are so many 3pls out there. Do not sign with this one.
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John
RSL is NOT a business solution (especially on Amazon Fulfillment) - STAY AWAY
What where the positives?
Better shipping discount compare to competitors in the market, slightly.
Any negatives?
- Terrible day-to-day customer service. Around 6 of 10 inquiries will be ignored. 80% of the inquiries will take 3 days or more for a response. - Terrible fulfillment quality (not always but few times a year). We have Amazon orders sat in the system without processing for days, which put our Amazon account at risk of deactivation. No hotlines or immediate help we could reach out to. - Since RSL updated their system to version 2.0, Invoice items are not transparent and got over-billed every month. There is no benchmark on what or why or how things got charged. They tend to overcharge on everything first then get you to dispute. Unfortunately, the dispute process is painful and takes months to resolve. Meanwhile, cash is being held on. - Very hard to prepare FBA replenish shipments to Amazon. Amazon requires shipping goods to three warehouse locations. Unfortunately, Rakuten system is complicated to archive that. Most importantly, if you want to ship with a pre-paid shipping label, RSL charges you $35 to label each box. The first time we sent 90 boxes and got charged $3150. -Poor pallet shipment preparation. As you all may know, pallet size and height restrictions may apply depending on the recipient (like Amazon max. pallet height at 72"). We tried to be as detail as possible to lay out all the criteria in the remark column, but RSL never read them. - Missing inventory. Nothing much you could do but writing it off as an expense. We sent 100 pieces to the warehouse, but they received 10~15% less of the total shipment. We requested to recount the receivable and found the missing portion but had to pay for labour as a "special project" for the recount. - With RSL 2.0 system, you can't amend an order (for example, the quantity or address) even it just entered into the system a minute ago. You have to reach out to your account manager for help, but they won't get back to you in days. - System transition is terrible. We spent just $10k to scrip an API integration, and one week before the completion, they announced the old system would be sunset in 2 months. The onboard account manager never mentions anything regarding the new system until we found out and asked. He then provided the new API handbook for our IT team, which, base on the timestamp on the front page, the new API handbook was available one month before our onboarding. Sadly, the onboard manager gave us the old API handbook in the first place. They refused to compensate for our loss. - Disappearance of account manager. The last time we have communicated with the accounter manager was two weeks ago. We tried to reach out to him for a response but never heard back since then.
Summary
It is never easy to decide to move on with a 3PL until lots of deliberations. The time and cost to set up is considerable. We spent months trying to work a solution with RSL but there weren't enough lids to cover all the pots. There are at least 5 to 7 cases open and waiting to be solved most times and not to mention new problem emerges. We do not recommend RSL as an e-commerce partner, especially for Amazon.
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Kelly M
Excellent wraparound business support
What where the positives?
We engaged RSL to provide consumer distribution services, but now also use SmartFreight to handle all of our freight needs. The live chat customer service is a great feature, and the customer portals are straight-forward and easy to use.
Any negatives?
I wish there was an edit feature in Smartfill to cancel orders or change carriers. I am having difficulty understanding our carrier shipping costs and would like a zone map- specific to each warehouse where my inventory is housed, rather than output from a shipping analysis that I can't really fact check.
Summary
Smooth, timely operations. Straight forward billing. Smartfreight is an excellent bonus feature. Shout out to Justin and Natalie from Live Assist and Bob from SmartFreight, it's a pleasure working with them.
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Joe
RSL is focused on upgrading systems, not caring for customers
What where the positives?
None since RSL 2.0 became the focus
Any negatives?
New system is slow and lacking essential features (like reporting shipping and handling costs) No bulk editing capabilities No bulk uploading or orders Cannot modify orders Cannot cancel orders Customer support tickets take more than week to get a response Customer support is usually unable to solve problems
Summary
RSL's old system wasn't pretty, but it worked well and got shipments to customers. A little more than a year ago, RSL started transitioning to a new system. Since then, it's been nothing but a nightmare. Every new "feature" RSL announced was more like something that made it easier for RSL, but harder for Shopify merchants. We're looking for a new fulfillment partner and suggest you save yourself the trouble and avoid RSL at all costs.
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No Name (I fear it's getting worse if we disclose our name)
HORROR CUSTOMER SERVICE - ORDERS FROM SHOPIFY ARE NOT SEND AND PRICES IN CAN'T BE AMENDED
What where the positives?
Good sales team, HORRIBLE DAY TO DAY CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SOFTWARE. STAY AWAY! ORDERS ARE NOT BEING FULFILLED AND RAKUTEN DOESN'T CARE AND IGNORES. IMAGINE FOR AN ECOMMERCE BRAND WHAT THIS MEANS. ABSOLUTE REPUTATION DAMAGE!!!
Any negatives?
An absolutely horror experience with this company. I suggest everyone to stay away form this company. We have so many issues and the customer service is just the horror. A few examples: - Shopify is connected to Rakuten through an app which only Rakuten has access to. Orders we get on Shopify are not been delivered to Rakuten and they don't care! Setting up tickets and approaching the service support, all is being ignored. - We changed the prices in Shopify of our products. The Rakuten system doesn't allow us to amend the prices in their system. We are paying higher taxes and addressed this issue 4 months ago with no solution. - Credit Card cannot be changed. Since more than 2 months we addressed this issue with complete ignorance.
Summary
NEVER EVER USE THIS COMPANY. Even many things work well, but when you have issues which are severe for your company and your clients then the customer service is just ignorant and you are left alone!!! We regret having chosen that company. Be wise before choosing a fulfillment center. They have all your stock (ours worth in the millions) and orders are not being sent to clients. No further comments needed.
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Mike
Wish more was provided but they complete the pick. pack. and ship well.
What where the positives?
New system has the looks and feels of being something robust but currently the fundamentals have not matched the new look and feel When you can get ahold of someone they are very helpful
Any negatives?
Impossible to get through the customer service line Updated their system but it provides less transparency into shipments
Summary
I wish it was more customer service but at the end of the day they ship products to our customers so we do not have to pick, pack, ship.
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Tyson Walters
I would not recommend their services
What where the positives?
Price for shipping items is cheaper than competitors
Any negatives?
customer support is non existent makes way too many mistakes a lot of features are not available software is garbage too many fees their discounted fees are minimal
Summary
not great, spend way too much time having to get things done and oversee to double check their arent any mistakes.
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Teo Shi Jie
Competitive shipping rates. But please keep RSL 1.0 until RSL 2.0 is up to standard!
What where the positives?
Postage rates are competitive and I am please with the shipping speed. This has certainly helped grown my business and I had a great last quarter as a result. My account manager, Jason Morgan, is super helpful and replies to my queries promptly.
Any negatives?
I honestly think RSL 2.0 is a serious stepback from RSL 1.0. Here are the reasons why 1. RSL 2.0 loads slower than RSL 1.0. This is problematic when I am doing manual order creations. 2. RSL 2.0 does not have the ability to filter shipments by date and download customer's tracking number. Instead you are required to download the ENTIRE month's shipping data and you have to filter it out on your own. Moreover, this monthly data is not up to date till the time that you download the data. For eg, if you were to download the data on 6th Jan 2020, you can only see data till 4th Jan 2020 only. This means that I can only update orders shipped on 5th Jan on 7th Jan instead of the next day. As you know in Ecommerce business, speed is everything and this is not acceptable. This does not happen in RSL 1.0. I can see everything up to date. 3) In RSL 1.0, I can see the exact cost incurred for each shipment once it has been shipped. I am unable to do so in RSL 2.0. 4) In RSL 1.0, I can also see the address that I have shipped to. This is very important as customers might complain that they did not receive the item when tracking number states that the item has been delivered. Being able to screenshot the customer's name and address with the tracking number is very important in showing customers that the item has been shipped as promise. In RSL 2.0, I am unable to see the address that is being shipped. 5) In RSL 1.0, I can create ASN one day before the date of arrival. WIth RSL 2.0, I can only put the arrival date 1 week ahead even though my item takes less than 1 week to reach the warehouse. I am concern if this will affect the receiving speed. In summary, RSL 2.0 seems to be a serious step back from RSL 1.0. I have some programming background and it seems to me that RSL 2.0 has not been tested with real users. I seriously hope that you guys keep RSL 1.0 until RSL 2.0 is updated with the full feature set. To me, the inability to see customer's address after order creation and the inability to download shipment data by date is a serious drawback to me. Customer service response time can also be faster. Sometimes, I have to email to my account manager for a faster response.
Summary
It really pains me to see that you guys are rolling out an inferior system. It feels like it will hurt you guys back and I don't want to see it because you guys have a good thing going on here. I even recommend my friends to consider you guys. I am giving you guys 4 stars overall because I am taking RSL 1.0 into account. If it is being sunsetted, I will give it 3 stars. Currently, I am using RLS 2.0 to create orders but I use RSL 1.0 to supplemant RSL 2.0's shortfall. If RSL 1.0 is being sunsetted, I can imagine my work process to be longer. As your rates are currently competitive and shipping is fast, I will still stay as a customer and put up with the inconvenience. However, if the rates goes up in the future, I might consider shifting to another provider due to how cumbersome the new system is.
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Dave Korstad
Very good at handling daily orders regardless of volume but any else causes headaches and/or delays
What where the positives?
Rakuten is very good at handling our daily orders regardless of volume. I never stress about our orders being sent in a timely manner and having them be correct.
Any negatives?
What I do stress about is when an issue occurs or something needs to be handling outside of our daily orders. Timing of execution is lacking in this situations of In House Transfers, customer support responses, answer phone calls, preparing a pallet, preparing FBA, anything other than daily orders I try to avoid doing as much as possible. Our co-man has taking on more responsibility in these areas because I do not want to do them with Rakuten. Also, their SmartFill 2.0 is a step backward from the original 1.0. All UX, design and features that have been changed or removed benefit them and not us. I was expecting a much better layout and improvement when I heard about a new version. I still use 1.0 as much as possible because I can't stand the new platform. This alone is making me rethink the relationship. I would scrap the layout or hire someone new to design 3.0 immediately.
Summary
Overall, Rakuten is a good option if your company is simplistic with its needs. We have custom boxes, multiple sizes per flavor (we are a good company), ship products to multiple industries (homes, restaurants and manufacturing facilities), ship to Canada....all of these variations create complexity that is hard to manage at times with Rakuten narrowing it's true capabilities as time goes on. Marcus Fox, Barbara Carrow and Jammie Carapellatti have been my go-to support people and without them I would have left Rakuten a long time ago.
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Ersan Vugdalic
Declining Support and Capabilities
What where the positives?
The legacy version on Smartfill is pretty useful. You can create orders, ASNs, track shipments and shipping cost, run reports, create and delete products, and monitor inventory. If stock is available the product can ship fairly quick,
Any negatives?
Smartfill 2.0 does not contain many features previously on Smartfill. No longer support the RMA process, cannot run reports, unable to track shipping cost, just to name a few. Support Ticket process is subpar, tickets closed prematurely without a resolution and in some cases taking weeks to resolve a receipt discrepancy or a cycle count. Lack of customer support and urgency. Inability to reach support over the phone, issues mostly handled through tickets and emails. Ongoing IT issues that cause delays in order processing and shipping.
Summary
Decent fulfillment center with reach across the US. Fast and fairly affordable shipping.
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Bonie
Rakuten is great!
What where the positives?
The Rakuten team will go out of their way to help and if you get the right service members it's golden.
Any negatives?
It's corporate so there are hoops to jump if you want customization with product delivery.
Summary
Team Players! The key members of our team (extended team) at Rakuten make my job easier.
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Edward Gardner
Rakuten really helped my business
What where the positives?
Before coming to Rakuten, we were in a single facility. Once we partnered with Rakuten we were able to put our products in 3 facilities which made a big difference in cost for our 10 - 20lb shipments (which makes up 805 of our business)
Any negatives?
I just wish I would have done this sooner.
Summary
My overall experience through sign up, onboarding and now being an active customer has been really good. Rakuten has a very detailed process for onboarding new clients which for me really helped.
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Chris W
Terrible Account customer service
What where the positives?
Can't think of any.
Any negatives?
We've been with them for several years. Today was the last straw. Terrible customer service. I have had urgent issues that never get a response. It's been 6 days with being unable to ship orders because of an issue with the Rakuten software showing inventory out of stock when it isn't. I've emailed support every day the last 6 days with no response. Can I call them? Nope, they don't provide a CS phone number. All they provide is the email. No online chat either. So what am I supposed to do?
Summary
Don't use them.
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YA
They are making money out of carrier shipping fees.
What where the positives?
The PA warehouse is located close to our main suppliers. That is why we have been working with RSL.
Any negatives?
Everything was kinda ok (except they constantly lose inventory, ship wrong items) until RSL decided that we can not ship with our own shipping carrier accounts anymore. For the reason they stated that the Carriers will not allow them to ship with 3rd party accounts anymore. But until they noticed they continued to ship with our account. So this reason was invalid. After we switched to RSL shipping account our shipping fees has increased by 60%. There are two reasons for this increase. First They started to ship exact same items with bigger boxes than they used to ship with our account. This multiplies the actual weight of the product. They do not provide discounts on Accessorial Cost which is most of the time almost same or higher than the base rates. This is nonsense as both Fedex and UPS gives discounts on extra costs such as rural area charges, residential charges etc.
Summary
We have been working with RSL (Webgistix) since 2012 but we have no choice to switch to another very soon.. A fulfillment center should give a company advantages on decreasing their costs but with RSL this has become the opposite.
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Eli Altaras
Just Stay Away From RSL if you want to succeed in your business
What where the positives?
Price
Any negatives?
- RSL is shipping our products without required pre-paid labels and not taking responsibility as the shipments are lost. They state prepaid labeled shipments are not under their guarantee. They keep doing this over and over since about a year with no improvements and we're getting careless responses. - RSL has integration issues constantly that causes us extra work. The integrations keep stopping and we have to do manual work. Entering orders and tracking etc. It takes them weeks to months to resolve by pushing. The communication is too slow and again careless. - RSL is not actually delivering in 1-2 days as advertised and when questions they are saying we need to have 3 warehouses locations to do that. The website doesn’t really show that until this happens to you. - RSL is marking orders as shipped after business hours hours where the carrier already picked up and gone for the day. They create shipping labels and while they are actually handing the packages to carrier the next day causing problems with our marketplace order since tracking shows late shipping and also it gets delivered late. They do not admit this and they state carrier doesn't scan when they pick up but from shipping time 6-7-8 PM we know it's not true. - RSL is shipping wrong products to customers very often so our customers order other seller's products - Our inventory very often disappears. Let's say we have 100 units and we enter a wholesale order of 60 units and all of a sudden 30 is shipped and 30 is on back order. As if the stock was only 30 units, then 70 units inventory vanishes. - When inventory is lost they don't pay. They state we need to wait for yearly inventory count and they don't pay for missing quantity as they guarantee inventory accuracy 90 or 95 percent. - RSL is not letting us cancel an order even one minute after it was placed. So your customers can not cancel any orders. This forces us to refund the money to our customers and still ship the product. - RSL has overcharged us several times on different kinds of fees which we had to claim later as we realized - RSL’s User interface and platform is so outdated that it’s mind buggling. - They claim dedicated contact point os provided but their response time is so late. You either get voicemails or next day responses most of the time. You're lucky if you got a response on the same day but if you write back, then good luck getting a response again on the same day.
Summary
Horrible experience overall. Their user interface is like from 70's. They don't do anything to change any issues. False advertisements galore. Unfortunately it's not an easy task to move all your products to another warehouse and it's costly. This is what they take advantage of and do whatever they want.
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MotoTour
DO NOT WORK WITH RSL
What where the positives?
N/A
Any negatives?
N/A
Summary
I can't stress enough, do not work with RSL. They have been a nightmare since day one. We've been working with them for just over a year now. -Last week they shipped out 28 duplicate orders, costing me over $4,000 and making our company look like idiots. You don't want them representing you. -I visited their Las Vegas warehouse and it was a complete mess. Workers were literally throwing packages into bins over 10' away, like it was a game. The bin could have been right next to them if they moved it. -They constantly loose inventory in their warehouse. I once found around $1,500 of lost inventory. -They were overcharging me for storage until I physically visited the warehouse and called them out on it. The general manager blamed it on his "fat fingers" and adjusted the charges. Avoid at all costs. I'm already looking for a new fulfillment company.