The importance of the warehouse in the 3PL buying process: the perspectives of logistics providers and shippers

As the demand for logistics outsourcing has grown over time, third-party logistics (3PL) providers need to find solutions to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in an increasingly crowded market. First, 3PL providers need to find a way that helps them to be attractive when they are presenting themselves to the marketplace. Second, they need to improve their customer retention. Adopting the theoretical lens of the Resource Based View (RBV) theory, one of the critical resources for 3PL providers consists of physical assets, which include warehouses. Notwithstanding the relevance of warehouses as key physical assets within the logistics processes, literature does not explore their importance as a source of competitive advantage for 3PL providers. To fill this gap, the present research aims to investigate the importance of the warehouse among the selection criteria used in the 3PL buying process to improve the 3PL’s attractiveness and the level of customer retention, taking into account the perspectives of 3PL providers and shippers in a dyadic relationship. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to collect perceptions and opinions from the participants in each dyadic relationship, and the selection criteria were ranked with the Best-Worst Method (BWM). Results show that warehouses have a limited importance in the 3PL buying process according to both 3PL providers and shippers. However, warehouses affect the 3PL evaluation indirectly due to their impact on the main selection criteria: ‘expertise and reputation’, ‘costs’ and ‘service quality’.9-11 September 202