Warehouse and fulfilment agreements that reflect how your operation actually runs

A lot of risk appears in the operational gaps between what each side assumes and what the contract actually says. Common examples include who is responsible when stock is damaged in storage, what happens if dispatch targets are missed, who bears shrinkage risk, how returns are handled, and whether the provider can subcontract parts of the service. If customer or order data is shared, privacy issues can also arise. A well-structured agreement helps address those pressure points, but Your lawyer will explain the practical position and your options in plain English. if the facts on the ground differ from the written arrangement.

It will often cover the services being provided, stock receipting, storage conditions, pick and pack obligations, dispatch processes, service levels, inventory reporting, fees, invoicing, liability allocation, insurance expectations, confidentiality, data handling, termination and what happens to stock on exit. Some businesses also need clauses for damaged goods claims, stocktakes, returns workflows or minimum volume commitments. The right drafting depends on the working arrangement, documents and the factual context, especially where the provider is handling both physical goods and customer information.

We usually need to know what goods are being stored, whether they are fragile, high value or time-sensitive, how orders are received and fulfilled, what service levels matter commercially, and where responsibility changes hands. It also helps to know whether the provider uses subcontractors, whether your systems integrate with theirs, and whether customer names, addresses or other order data are being shared. The practical working model can be just as important as the contract wording, so practical operational detail is important when shaping the final document.

Off-the-shelf wording can help you see the usual structure, but it may not deal with the facts that make your arrangement different. However, it often stays too general for a live fulfilment arrangement. It may not deal properly with stock discrepancies, turnaround commitments, claims procedures, data-sharing points, or the exact handover moments where responsibility shifts from storage to dispatch or courier collection. Those are often the issues that matter most when something goes wrong. A tailored agreement can help you assess and reduce risk, but it helps you make informed decisions without making promises about third-party outcomes in every scenario or remove the need for your day-to-day practices to match the contract.

Timing depends on whether we are working from a clean draft or reviewing an existing supplier form, and on how quickly the commercial details are confirmed. In practice, the process is usually faster when you can provide the current service description, pricing model, any proposed service levels and the provider's standard terms upfront. Once the draft is prepared or reviewed, the next step is usually to resolve any open commercial points before signature. If negotiations expand or the other side proposes major rewrites, that can affect timing and may require extra work.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Warehouse And Fulfilment Agreement service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.