A partnership between Highline Commerce and Parsel

In January 2020, Richard Hurley and his wife Megan were trying to solve a very personal problem. Megan, a fashion designer running her own brand, couldn't get a single 3PL to take her on. Too small. Not enough order volume. “Come back when you hit 500 orders a month.”

That "no" became the foundation of Highline Commerce.

Six years later, Highline has grown into one of the largest 3PLs in New York City with 60,000 square feet in Brooklyn and additional facilities in Atlanta and Ohio. They serve 170+ brands across apparel, beauty, CPG, supplements, home goods, and electronics. Every single client acquired through word of mouth.

But the Highline philosophy hasn't changed: Treat a pre-launch founder like a real business from day one. Back it with technology that most 3PLs their size don't have the appetite to build. And stay close enough that your brands can walk their inventory and know their fulfillment team by name.

That's the promise. Parsel became a critical part of keeping it.

The problem: Enterprise shipping rates weren't built for small brands

Before Parsel, Highline's carrier mix looked like most 3PLs their size: USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL All recognized. All reliable. All expensive.

"We were mostly using national carriers, which is great, but it leaves a lot of room on the table for savings that companies like Amazon and Walmart enjoy, and small brands were not able to take advantage of," says Richard Hurley, Founder & CEO of Highline Commerce. "When you're early, the margins can really kill your business because you don't have economies of scale."

The friction wasn't just rates. It was visibility, too. Carrier pricing is notoriously opaque, with fuel surcharges, residential delivery fees, and accessorial charges that make the real cost nearly impossible to forecast. For a 3PL that prides itself on transparent pricing, that was a problem.

And then there was the operational reality: every new regional carrier relationship meant a new pickup window, a new driver, a new integration, new staff training. For a lean, tech-first operation, four to six additional carrier pickups isn't just inconvenient, it's draining.

"The idea of having four to six additional pickups is untenable for a company of our size," Richard explains. "It would be impossible for us to manage five or six different regional carrier relationships directly."

The match: A shared philosophy on early-stage brands

Highline's path to Parsel came through their network. Advisors from Shopify with connections to Parsel's founding team made the introduction. But the partnership wasn't just a warm referral. It was an instant alignment.

"I was in from the very first pitch," Richard continues. "I felt seen by them, probably in the same way that early-stage brands who hear our pitch feel seen by Highline. It's just such a real problem that our brands face and that we face as a 3PL."

Highline became one of Parsel's earliest adopters and their shared mission is explicit: make enterprise-grade shipping economics accessible to brands that don't yet have the volume to earn them on their own. Highline handles the warehouse. Parsel handles the rates.

"Parsel is my twin when it comes to the shipping piece," Richard said. "We both care very deeply about early-stage brands and making it easier for them to be profitable, to scale, and to have the economics that make it possible."

The integration: 15 minutes, then dominant rate shopping

One of Highline's non-negotiables is that new technology can't disrupt the warehouse floor. They run Packiyo as their WMS and Parsel needed to fit cleanly into that stack.

It did.

From there, Parsel's engineering team did the heavy lifting in the background. By the time Highline was ready to go live, the setup was essentially complete.

"Glen and the Parsel engineering team are really impressive," Richard said. "They did all the work in the background so that by the time I said yes, it was very easy for us to start shipping."

Highline ran test labels for a couple of days before going full volume. The results were immediate.

For the warehouse floor itself, the change was invisible in the best possible way. Highline's sorting robot routes everything parcel-related into one Gaylord. Packers don't change a thing. A different label prints. That's it.

The results: 20% rate savings, nearly half the transit time

The numbers from Highline's first major Parsel-powered brand tell the story clearly.

For a brand previously relying exclusively on national carriers — primarily DHL eCommerce — switching to Parsel's optimized carrier routing produced two headline results:

• ~20% reduction in shipping costs
• West Coast transit times dropped from ~8 days to ~3.9 days on average

That transit time improvement is particularly significant. The West Coast has historically been a pain point for East Coast 3PLs and cutting delivery windows nearly in half is the kind of performance that changes how a brand thinks about their fulfillment partner.

"They were one of our top brands and this made us look like superheroes to them," Richard says.

Today, Parsel accounts for 50-70% of Highline's total shipment volume in any given month. This figure reflects both the rate competitiveness of Parsel's carrier network and how completely the integration has been adopted across Highline's client base.

Beyond the rates: Carrier strategy by brand

One of the more nuanced benefits of Parsel for Highline isn't just the rate savings; it's the ability to have a real conversation with brands about risk tolerance and carrier fit.

Regional and alternative carriers typically come with lower costs and a higher loss rate than national carriers. That tradeoff is fine for some products. It's not fine for others. Parsel gives Highline's account managers the data and framework to make that conversation concrete.

"With the Parsel team, we're able to talk with our brands about what they're comfortable with and what they're not comfortable with, and create a specific persona based on their risk tolerance," Richard explains. "If you're shipping a luxury product, you probably don't want to use a budget regional carrier. If you're shipping a pair of scissors, those are the only carriers you should really be considering, because now you're going to save a couple bucks on every shipment."

This kind of carrier strategy consultation, backed by real data, is something Highline's account managers now lead confidently. They've been trained not just on how to use Parsel, but on why the carrier mix exists and how to speak intelligently about it with clients.

Early access: Branded tracking for Highline's brands

As one of Parsel's earliest 3PL partners, Highline Commerce was among the first to pilot Parsel's branded tracking feature — a tool that lets brands replace generic carrier tracking pages with a fully customized, on-brand post-purchase experience.

For a 3PL like Highline, whose clients are early-stage brands working hard to build customer loyalty, the post-purchase moment matters. Branded tracking unifies delivery status across all carriers into a single, consistent experience, which reduces where-is-my-order support tickets and keeping the brand front and center after checkout, not the carrier.

It's a natural extension of what Highline already delivers on the fulfillment side: enterprise-grade capability, packaged for brands that shouldn't have to wait until they're big enough to earn it.

The partnership: Proactive, aligned, and built to scale

Highline's relationship with Parsel isn't a vendor relationship. It's a design partnership. The same category Highline uses for early-stage startups building the future of logistics.

"We love the Parsel team," Richard said. "We've met with them a number of times in person. The leadership are some of the best in the e-commerce industry…ex-Shopify, ex-Jet.com. These guys know exactly what they're doing and what they want to achieve."

The day-to-day experience reflects that. When a brand issue needs attention, Parsel's team reaches out proactively, sometimes directly to the brand, which Highline genuinely values. The rate card is transparent. What's quoted is what's charged.

"Compare that to working with some of these regional carriers directly," Richard continues. "There's no comparison. You're getting really proactive responses from their team. They're making suggestions. This is the sort of thing you're really hoping for from a partner in the shipping space. You're not going to get that from UPS, USPS, FedEx, or DHL…and that's for sure."

What this means for 3PLs watching the market

The carrier landscape is shifting. National carriers are getting more expensive and the regional carrier ecosystem is maturing fast. For 3PLs that want to stay competitive, especially those serving early-to-mid stage brands, the question isn't whether to diversify carriers. It's how to do it without adding operational complexity.

Highline's answer: let Parsel absorb the complexity.

"It's not much of a lift to try," Richard said when asked what he'd tell a fellow 3PL operator. "And these guys are definitely taking what I'd consider the white-glove approach of incredibly high customer service."

For Highline, the partnership has become central to their pitch: a scrappy, tech-first Brooklyn 3PL that delivers enterprise-grade shipping rates for brands that most 3PLs wouldn't even take a call from.

That "no" that started everything? With Parsel, Highline's turning it into a very loud "yes" and backing it with the numbers to prove it.

Want results like Highline's for your 3PL clients?

Parsel gives 3PLs access to an open carrier network with automated rate selection, transparent pricing, and one simple integration. No new pickups. No new SOPs. Just better rates and faster delivery.

To learn more about Highline Commerce (INC 5000 #439) or explore how a resilient delivery network could work for your operation, book a demo with Parsel.