Placement fees are quoted per unit, but the real comparison is per-unit fee versus the fully loaded cost of splitting a shipment yourself: extra pallets, extra BOLs, extra receiving windows and the staff hours to build them.
Our rule of thumb after 14 months: under 400 units per shipment, pay the placement fee. Above 1,200 units in a single SKU, self-split almost always wins because pallet economics take over.
The middle band is where judgement matters. Weigh it against sell-through: if the SKU turns in under 45 days, faster receiving at a single node is worth more than the fee you saved.
Track it as a line in your landed cost model, not as an operating expense. Otherwise it silently eats two to four points of contribution margin per unit.
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