Fulfilment Centre Question

[coors]

Hello,

We have an Ecommerce business selling products to the UK, Europe and Rest of the world (split is 70%, 20%, 10%).

Suppliers deliver stock to us and we work out of our home address. Stock comes from the US, UK and Europe mainly.

We have lost one bedroom in the house due to stock, as you can imagine we have boxes of stock some a bit static but many being replenished up to three times per week.

In the last 12 months, we have gone from wandering to the post office with one parcel every two days and monthly revenue of about £400 to now needing Royal Mail to pick up from us on a business account and sending over 70 parcels per week and taking monthly revenue of about £15,000.

We don't want to be tied into being in the house all the time waiting for deliveries of stock, labelling and packing and writing notes etc to customers as it is keeping us tied down and is taking up a lot of time.

• Our business is travel related and we want to travel whilst we work remotely.
• We need to free up some time from the operations to focus on the business plan, digital marketing, brand establishment and design and manufacture of our own products

The next logical step I see is us using a fulfilment centre but I have some concerns:

1. We package in eco friendly packaging and use eco friendly labels, and bubble wrap etc.
2. I worry that things may be thrown around, damaged, not packaged with care
3. We do personalised notes on each order which would be hard to achieve
4. We use royal mail and shopify for integration of orders.
5. We use back orders and pre orders for stock and keep this clear with customers.

Does anybody have any affordable recommendations for a UK fulfilment centre to help free up some space, time and would take care and not be heavy handed or lacking in attention to detail when fulfilling and sending out orders?

Thanks,

 

[Washington]

Where are you based ?

Is it important to have the fulfilment centre close to you or can you be completely remote ??

It may be hard to give the personal attention if you are growing your sales (how do you manage 70 personal notes if it becomes 170 personal notes a week). Fulfilment centres need to be efficient and cost effective. What you want will not be impossible, however the time to achieve what you want may fall outside of normal fulfilment activities therefore affect the cost per package

 

[SIU]

Congratulations on growing your business.

I use a company called FBA Label Service based in Kings Park close to Felixstowe and I have found them to be very efficient. I sell air purifiers (in single boxes sent via DPD) and filters (in boxes of 12 which they unpack for me and ship singly via Royal Mail). I know they offer other services such as boxing, labelling etc - look at their website as all their prices are online. I like a company that is transparent about their pricing and doesn't make you sign up or contact them for bespoke pricing.

I did originally look at having my own storage unit but it would have been too much effort, time and costs. I have no regrets (yet ) in the decision I made. I run the business from home and my sales are online via my own website and Amazon. Using a logistics centre means I have the free time and am not tied to my house. By the way, I am London based so not close to the fulfilment centre but I chose them as they were close to the port where my goods arrive.

I understand completely the eco-friendly packing. The padding in our boxes are eco-friendly but this is done at source rather than at the logistics centre. They are a friendly bunch so I suggest you give them a call and ask if they can offer this service.

 

[Mr D]

Hello,

We have an Ecommerce business selling products to the UK, Europe and Rest of the world (split is 70%, 20%, 10%).

Suppliers deliver stock to us and we work out of our home address. Stock comes from the US, UK and Europe mainly.

We have lost one bedroom in the house due to stock, as you can imagine we have boxes of stock some a bit static but many being replenished up to three times per week.

In the last 12 months, we have gone from wandering to the post office with one parcel every two days and monthly revenue of about £400 to now needing Royal Mail to pick up from us on a business account and sending over 70 parcels per week and taking monthly revenue of about £15,000.

We don't want to be tied into being in the house all the time waiting for deliveries of stock, labelling and packing and writing notes etc to customers as it is keeping us tied down and is taking up a lot of time.

• Our business is travel related and we want to travel whilst we work remotely.
• We need to free up some time from the operations to focus on the business plan, digital marketing, brand establishment and design and manufacture of our own products

The next logical step I see is us using a fulfilment centre but I have some concerns:

1. We package in eco friendly packaging and use eco friendly labels, and bubble wrap etc.
2. I worry that things may be thrown around, damaged, not packaged with care
3. We do personalised notes on each order which would be hard to achieve
4. We use royal mail and shopify for integration of orders.
5. We use back orders and pre orders for stock and keep this clear with customers.

Does anybody have any affordable recommendations for a UK fulfilment centre to help free up some space, time and would take care and not be heavy handed or lacking in attention to detail when fulfilling and sending out orders?

Thanks,

2 - any time you send anything out it can have all that done to it except the packaged with care bit.
We use a 6 foot drop test, all items packed to survive a 6 foot drop. And have dropped the packages to check.
Doesn't help when someone slams a 65 inch TV down on top of the parcel but we do the best we can...

3 - yes, unless the fulfilment centre does that too. Possible - though expect to pay extra.
4 - can often link to whatever software the fulfilment centre has. Either entering manually or else pulled automatically from your data.
5 - that you may have to handle yourself. Not come across that being offered.


Using a fulfilment service can be great - especially at busy times they can be doing the same work as 3 or 4 trained members of staff without the wages bill or supervising needed. Not always much more expensive than you yourself sending items.

 

[ian turnbull]

I would recommend a company called McGregor Dispatch. (Call Carol on 01383 626668) They would give you an exclusive area for your stock and packing materials, and can totally handle the eco packaging etc... They already manage personalised/handwritten notes for another client, so this is easy for them too. Everything you are looking for is their business model, including daily Royal Mail collections.

 

[Carol Learmouth]

I would recommend a company called McGregor Dispatch. (Call Carol on 01383 626668) They would give you an exclusive area for your stock and packing materials, and can totally handle the eco packaging etc... They already manage personalised/handwritten notes for another client, so this is easy for them too. Everything you are looking for is their business model, including daily Royal Mail collections.

Many thanks Ian for the recommendation. We are here to help small business take the first steps out of the back bedroom/shed and into a warehouse. The personal touch remains very important to us. Carol

 

[coors]

Appreciate the recommendations. I will revisit this thread in the coming months. For now we are going to temporarily hire a family member to help us with fulfilment to give us a break on weekends. Going forward we will no doubt need one of the solutions above. Appreciate all of the advice!