In this article you will find:
- FedEx Fulfillment vs Redpack: Key Differences at a Glance
- What Was FedEx Fulfillment and Why Did It Close?
- Redpack: The Parcel Carrier Model and What It Actually Covers
- Rates and Cost Structure
- Geographic Coverage in Mexico
- Technology and Ecommerce Integrations
- Delivery Speed and SLAs
- When Does Each One Make Sense?
- The Missing Layer: Fulfillment vs Transport
- How Cubbo Integrates Redpack into a Complete Solution
- Frequently Asked Questions
When a Mexican ecommerce brand looks to optimize its logistics, Redpack appears as one of the most frequently cited options for reducing shipping costs. FedEx Fulfillment was for several years FedEx's bet on managing complete fulfillment for ecommerce brands, until it shut down in 2022.
Placing them in the same comparison seems intuitive, but requires a fundamental clarification: they are not the same type of service. Redpack is a parcel carrier, a shipping company that picks up prepared packages and delivers them to the end customer. FedEx Fulfillment was a 3PL, an operator that stored inventory, prepared orders, and then shipped them through its own transport network.
That category difference is not a minor detail. It defines what problem each one solves, which brands benefit from each model, and what remains unresolved when a brand chooses only the carrier without having the fulfillment layer that comes before it sorted out.
This article compares both models precisely, analyzes when each makes sense, and explains why for most ecommerce operations in Mexico the answer isn't choosing between Redpack and FedEx Fulfillment, but understanding which layer is resolved and which one isn't.
FedEx Fulfillment vs Redpack: Key Differences at a Glance
The fundamental difference: FedEx Fulfillment was an end-to-end service that included everything from storing inventory to delivering it to the customer. Redpack covers only the final leg, transport from the preparation point to the end customer. Storage, picking, and packing are outside Redpack's service scope and are the brand's or their logistics operator's responsibility.
What Was FedEx Fulfillment and Why Did It Close?
FedEx Fulfillment was the 3PL fulfillment service FedEx launched in 2017. The logical bet: leverage FedEx's warehouse network and transport infrastructure to offer storage, picking, packing, and delivery to ecommerce brands under a single contract.
Execution didn't work at the expected scale. Ecommerce fulfillment demands an operational profile different from parcel transport: specialized WMS with bidirectional integrations, receiving and inventory control processes, high-volume returns management, and customer service oriented toward ecommerce. FedEx had the transport infrastructure but not the fulfillment competencies built into its design from the start.
In 2022, FedEx closed the service and began redirecting customers to third parties. The closure confirmed what specialized 3PLs already knew: being a leading carrier doesn't make a company a good fulfillment operator. They're different businesses.
A relevant detail for the Mexican market: FedEx Fulfillment never operated in Mexico. Its fulfillment centers were exclusively US-based, which made the model unviable for any brand with customers in Mexico, customs processing times and border-crossing costs destroy the value proposition of local ecommerce.
Redpack: The Parcel Carrier Model and What It Actually Covers
Redpack is one of Mexico's leading parcel companies, with a presence in the country since the 1970s. It operates a national delivery network for domestic shipments, with coverage reaching municipal centers and urban areas throughout the territory.
What Redpack does:
- Picks up prepared packages from your warehouse, store, or logistics operator
- Transports and delivers them to the end customer at the indicated address
- Generates labels with tracking codes
- Offers different service levels: express (next day), standard (2–3 days), and economy (3–5 days by zone)
- Allows transport-level returns management: picks up the package from the customer and returns it to the origin point
- Has commercial volume agreements for ecommerce with differentiated rates based on monthly orders
What Redpack doesn't do:
- Doesn't store your inventory continuously
- Doesn't process orders that come into your online store
- Doesn't automatically generate picking orders when a customer purchases
- Doesn't manage the complete returns cycle (picks up the package but doesn't inspect or restock it to available inventory)
- Doesn't have a WMS integrated with your selling platform
This is the critical point for understanding the comparison: Redpack solves transport, not fulfillment. A brand using Redpack still has to figure out on its own how to store inventory, how to prepare orders, how to manage inventory in real time, and what to do when a return needs to go back into available stock.
💡 #CubboTip, Contracting Redpack as a carrier is not the same as having a logistics solution for ecommerce. It's having one layer resolved. The storage, order preparation, and returns management layers are still someone's responsibility, your team, a self-operated warehouse, or a 3PL that manages them in an integrated way.
Rates and Cost Structure
FedEx Fulfillment (until 2022)
FedEx Fulfillment had an integrated cost structure covering all fulfillment layers:
- Storage per cubic foot per month
- Inventory receiving per pallet
- Pick & pack per order and per additional unit
- Outbound shipping via FedEx network (at negotiated rates)
The total cost represented the sum of all those layers. The advantage was simplification: one provider, one invoice. The limitation: the outbound carrier was exclusively FedEx, with no ability to optimize by route with other parcel carriers.
Redpack
Redpack charges exclusively for transport: the cost per label based on billable weight (the greater of actual weight and dimensional weight), the selected service level, and the destination zone.
Redpack's ecommerce rates vary by contracted volume. As a general reference:
Dimensional weight: (length × width × height in cm) / 5,000 = DIM kg
For products with large packaging and low actual weight, cosmetics, apparel, lightweight electronics, dimensional weight can push billable weight from 0.5 kg to 2–3 kg, multiplying shipping cost regardless of which carrier is used.
What Redpack's cost doesn't include: storage, picking, packing, packaging materials, inventory receiving, or returns management with inventory restock. Those costs are additional and are absorbed by whoever is responsible for the fulfillment operation.
⚡ #CubboHack, When evaluating shipping costs with Redpack, always calculate the total cost per order: prorated storage + picking + materials + Redpack label cost + estimated return cost. The label cost typically represents 40–60% of total logistics cost for well-optimized operations. The rest are layers Redpack doesn't cover.
Geographic Coverage in Mexico
FedEx Fulfillment (until 2022)
No presence in Mexico. Centers in US only. For the Mexican market, this made the service unviable: cross-border means customs, tariffs, and delivery times of 5–10 business days minimum, incompatible with the 1–3 day expectation of the Mexican ecommerce consumer.
Redpack in Mexico
Redpack operates a national network with coverage across all 32 Mexican states. Its geographic strengths and considerations:
A relevant advantage of Redpack compared to premium carriers like DHL or FedEx: its cost structure for B2C domestic ecommerce shipments is competitive, especially in the 0.5–3 kg range that represents the majority of ecommerce orders in Mexico. It doesn't apply the same high minimum price that premium carriers impose for low-weight packages.
The limitation: coverage in remote areas or small municipalities may have variable transit times and extended zone surcharges that don't always appear in the initial quote.
Technology and Ecommerce Integrations
FedEx Fulfillment
FedEx Fulfillment offered bidirectional integration with Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. When an order came into the store, the system automatically generated the fulfillment order, processed it in the warehouse, and updated the order status. It had a proprietary WMS with real-time inventory.
Redpack
Redpack offers integration at the label generation and tracking level, but not at the full fulfillment level. Its technology capabilities for ecommerce include:
- API for high-volume label generation
- Shipment tracking by label or batch
- Status update webhooks (available in volume plans)
- Shopify and WooCommerce plugin for label printing
What this integration doesn't include: inventory synchronization, automatic picking order generation, returns management with inventory restock, or per-order cost reporting with all layers included.
For a brand operating with its own warehouse and order preparation team, Redpack's API or plugin integration may cover the need to automate label generation. But it doesn't resolve inventory management or the fulfillment process that precedes the shipment.
According to Shopify's data on logistics provider integration, integrating a carrier without a prior fulfillment management system generates synchronization errors in 8–12% of orders for operations with more than 200 monthly orders. The label gets generated, but without the WMS confirming available stock and the real order status.
Delivery Speed and SLAs
The most operationally relevant detail about Redpack's delivery time: order-to-ship, from when the order comes in until Redpack picks it up, doesn't depend on Redpack but on whoever prepares the order. If your team prepares packages in your own warehouse, order-to-ship is the time of your internal process. If you use a 3PL, it's the 3PL's time. Redpack only starts counting when it picks up the ready package.
That distinction is important because many brands attribute delivery delays to the carrier when the problem was actually in the preparation time before pickup.
To compare Redpack with other active carriers in the Mexican market in terms of rates, zones, and specific use cases, the article DHL vs FedEx for ecommerce in Mexico explains the factors that determine the real cost per shipment.
When Does Each One Make Sense?
When FedEx Fulfillment Would Have Made Sense
FedEx Fulfillment made sense in very specific scenarios that don't apply to the Mexican market:
- US-based brands that wanted to consolidate transport and fulfillment under the FedEx contract they already had.
- Operations where FedEx was optimal for 100% of routes (B2B context with guaranteed SLAs).
- Brands prioritizing management simplicity over multi-carrier cost optimization.
For the Mexican market, FedEx Fulfillment was never an operational option: it had no physical presence in Mexico.
When Redpack Makes Sense
Redpack makes sense as part of a Mexican ecommerce logistics solution in these scenarios:
- You have your own or third-party warehouse where orders are prepared and need a carrier with good pricing for the final delivery leg. Redpack can be more competitive than premium carriers for packages under 3 kg on national routes.
- Your volume justifies a direct contract (generally from 300–500 labels per month) and you want to negotiate rates below list price. The volume discount range can be 20–35% off base rate.
- You're looking for same-day in Mexico City as an urgent delivery option for customers in the capital, without paying DHL or FedEx Express premium rates.
- You operate from Mexico City and want a carrier with good local coverage without the costs of international parcel companies.
- Your destination mix is concentrated in urban areas where Redpack's coverage and transit times are competitive against other options.
When Redpack Alone Isn't Enough
Redpack solves transport. But if you also need:
- Storing inventory without operating your own warehouse
- Automatically processing orders as they come into your store
- Managing the complete return: pickup + inspection + inventory restock
- Real-time inventory visibility integrated with your selling platforms
- Automatic selection of the most efficient carrier by route (including but not limited to Redpack)
…then Redpack is a piece of the puzzle, not the whole puzzle.
The Missing Layer: Fulfillment vs Transport
This is the most important distinction in the article, and the one most growing brands confuse.
Transport is the final leg: getting the package from the preparation point to the end customer. Redpack, DHL, FedEx, Estafeta, J&T, and 99Minutos are all transport solutions. None of them manages inventory or prepares orders.
Fulfillment includes everything that comes before transport: inventory receiving, storage, real-time inventory management, processing incoming orders, picking, packing, labeling, and handoff to the carrier. Plus complete-cycle returns management.
A brand using Redpack as its carrier but still manually preparing orders in its own warehouse has transport resolved, not fulfillment. Internal processing time (order-to-ship) is the most underestimated factor in total cost per order: for an operation processing 500 monthly orders with a 2-person team, the labor cost of preparing orders can exceed the transport cost.
To compare providers that solve the fulfillment layer in the Mexican market, the article FedEx Fulfillment vs Buho Logistics analyzes how the two 3PL models compare for Mexico.
How Cubbo Integrates Redpack into a Complete Solution
Here's the point that changes the logic of the comparison: Cubbo doesn't compete with Redpack. Cubbo integrates it.
Redpack is one of the carriers Cubbo uses within its multi-carrier system. When a brand operates its fulfillment with Cubbo, the system automatically selects the most efficient carrier for each order based on the destination, weight, and required SLA, and Redpack can be that option when its combination of price and speed is optimal for that route.
What this means in practice:
- Redpack's transport layer is available through Cubbo, with rates negotiated on the consolidated volume of 500+ brands, better than what an individual brand with 300–500 monthly orders can get through a direct contract.
- The fulfillment layer is covered by Cubbo: storage in Mexico City, inventory receiving, picking, packing, materials, and WMS with real-time visibility.
- Carrier selection is automatic: Redpack when it has the advantage, DHL when DHL does, J&T when applicable, 99Minutos for same-day in Mexico City. Without your team having to decide or manage separate contracts.
According to BigCommerce's fulfillment strategy guide, access to aggregated volume rates can reduce shipping costs by 15% to 30% compared to individual contracts. And automatic multi-carrier selection adds an additional 5–15% saving on transport cost compared to using a single carrier, even with a good direct contract.
What Cubbo adds on top of the carrier:
- Storage in Mexico City. Inventory available for same-day and next-day delivery in Mexico City without needing to manage your own warehouse.
- Automatic order processing. Integration with Shopify, WooCommerce, VTEX, Mercado Libre, Amazon, and TikTok Shop. The order comes in, the picking order is generated, it's prepared and dispatched, without manual intervention from your team.
- 1.3-day average national delivery time. Result of automatic carrier selection by route, including Redpack when it's the optimal option.
- Dedicated account manager. Included in the service at no extra charge. Proactive incident management and operation optimization.
- Cubbo Engage. Automation of 85.3% of post-purchase customer queries via WhatsApp, including tracking information, regardless of which carrier was used.
- 365-day operations with guaranteed capacity during seasonal peaks.
Want to understand what running your fulfillment with Cubbo would cost compared to your current model? Talk to an expert. The team can run the real per-order cost analysis against your volume, destination mix, and SKU mix.
To see how Cubbo compares with other 3PLs in the Mexican market, the article Segmail vs Buho Logistics analyzes the two main local alternatives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are FedEx Fulfillment and Redpack the same type of service?
No. FedEx Fulfillment was a complete fulfillment 3PL: it stored inventory, prepared orders, and shipped them. Redpack is a parcel carrier: it picks up already-prepared packages and delivers them to the end customer. They are different layers of the logistics chain. FedEx Fulfillment also no longer exists, it closed in 2022.
Can Redpack manage ecommerce fulfillment?
Not in the complete sense. Redpack manages transport: it picks up the ready package and delivers it to the customer. Inventory storage, order preparation, and real-time inventory management are the brand's or their logistics operator's responsibility. If you don't have those layers resolved, Redpack alone isn't enough.
How much does shipping with Redpack cost?
Redpack's ecommerce rates depend on billable weight (actual or dimensional, whichever is greater), service level, and destination zone. With a direct volume contract, estimated prices range from ~$80–$110 MXN for packages up to 1 kg to ~$180–$260 MXN for 5–10 kg packages to major cities. List rates without a contract are 30–40% higher.
Is Redpack cheaper than DHL or FedEx for ecommerce in Mexico?
Generally, for the 0.5–3 kg range with national urban destinations, Redpack can be more competitive than DHL or FedEx at list rates. The gap narrows when compared against negotiated volume rates with premium carriers. The real comparison depends on your destination mix, weights, and required SLAs.
Does Cubbo work with Redpack?
Yes. Redpack is one of the 10+ carriers integrated into Cubbo's system. The system automatically selects the most efficient carrier for each order, which can include Redpack for routes where it has a price or speed advantage. Brands operating with Cubbo access Redpack rates negotiated on the consolidated volume of 500+ brands.
At what volume does a direct Redpack contract make sense?
Generally, from 200–300 labels per month, volume starts generating conditions to negotiate a contract with a discount from list rates. But even with a direct contract, Redpack only solves transport. If your operation exceeds 200–300 monthly orders, the time consumed by internal fulfillment, order preparation, inventory control, returns management, typically outweighs the savings on the label. At that point, a 3PL like Cubbo that accesses the same Redpack rates and also manages all fulfillment is usually more efficient in total cost.
What if the cheapest carrier isn't always Redpack?
That's exactly what makes multi-carrier selection relevant. Redpack may be the optimal option for certain destinations and weights, but not for all. DHL may have an advantage in zones where Redpack applies a surcharge; J&T may be cheaper in some weight ranges; 99Minutos may be the only viable option for same-day in Mexico City. A 3PL like Cubbo automatically selects the right carrier for each order, without your team having to update contracts or compare rates manually.
