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Whitehouse Solutions is more than your average eCommerce fulfilment provider. We see ourselves as your partner, working together to create the best experience for your customers. We also grow with our customers, with Ooni Pizza Ovens being a great example, as we have increased our warehouse space to accommodate their growing needs. This means that, as your business grows and becomes more and more successful, you never need to think about a new fulfilment provider.
We also like to do things a bit differently at Whitehouse: we don’t charge any account set-up fees and we don’t impose any minimum order quantities on our clients. This means you can get your account set up and start shipping orders without worrying about quiet periods or having to fork out a large set-up fee.
We also offer both B2C and B2B/trade order fulfilment without the need for separate accounts or more paperwork. B2B/trade orders can require specialist expertise to get right as retailers are working on fine margins. They require goods to be packaged & barcoded correctly as well as the ability to scale order volumes quickly if your product proves popular in-store. We have many years of experience in these types of orders as we have been delivering to Lakeland, John Lewis and Superdrug.
Our fulfilment centres are based across Essex in the UK which gives us quick and easy access to major transit routes in the UK including the A12/A14, the ports of Felixstowe, Harwich and Tilbury as well as Stansted airport. This means we are able to quickly receive your goods, get them stored in our warehouse and shipped out without any delays.
We have many years of experience in international order fulfilment and understand the confusing world of customs duty, EORI numbers and the additional paperwork required since Brexit. We can ship to over 200 countries across the world including Europe and North America.
As with everything in life, there are costs to consider when it comes to eCommerce fulfilment, however, at Whitehouse Solutions we do our best to keep this cost as low as possible and pass any savings onto you. The cost per order is relatively low and can be much cheaper than spending your own time fulfilling orders. The fulfilment costs breakdown looks something like the below.
Find out more about eCommerce fulfilment costs in our blog. If you would like a tailored quote please contact us and we’d be happy to help.
As your products arrive at our warehouse, we carefully inspect and barcode (unless already barcoded) each product. This cost will vary based on the total number of products & SKUs.
This is based on the size and number of products stored in our warehouse. This cost could be offset by ordering in larger volumes from your supplier if they offer a reduced cost per unit.
This is the cost charged for a member of our team to locate, pick and pack your products in our warehouse to complete an order. We charge a flat fee with a small additional cost for additional items in the order.
This will depend on the shipping speed and providers you choose. We are able to secure reduced rates from couriers with these savings passed on to you.
This will depend on how you have customised the return process, but this could include a return shipping cost as well as a restocking fee.
We don’t just do pick and pack eCommerce fulfilment at Whitehouse, we also offer a whole range of value-added services that are ideal for eCommerce businesses.
We can take your individual items and pack them together into a kit. This allows our customers to offer promotional bundles, which is ideal for industries such as the beauty or pet product sectors.
Our contract packing service takes the products that have been delivered by your supplier and we then carefully apply your own branding and packaging to each product.
We provide a range of plain packaging materials for all orders we send out to ensure their safety in transit to the customer. However, we also offer you the option to provide us with your own custom-sized or branded packaging which we can use instead.
Need new labels added to your products? Our contract packing team will take your products and carefully label them according to your specifications.
For extra peace of mind, we offer a shrink wrapping value-added extra. This is ideal for products which are sensitive to moisture or to show that products haven’t been tampered with in transit.
If you offer gift sets that contain a range of your products that need to be collated, our contract packing teams are on hand to help.
In the eCommerce fulfilment process there are 5 key steps involved in getting your products into the hands of your customers. Getting all 5 steps right ensures seamless order fulfilment and equals happy customers. If you get it wrong, you’ll be dealing with frustrated customers asking where their product is.
The first step in the eCommerce fulfilment process is getting your products to one of our specialist eCommerce fulfilment centres. This can be via direct delivery from your supplier or, if your products are shipped via container, we can arrange haulage from ports across the UK to our fulfilment centres.
Once your delivery arrives at one of our fulfilment centres, our warehouse team will carefully inspect the products to ensure they are damage free. Once all items have been confirmed to be damage free, each product will be barcoded (unless already barcoded) and scanned into the warehouse. This links up to our order management system so you always know the level of stock stored in our warehouse. Learn more about our fulfilment centres.
When an order is placed on your eCommerce store, it is passed from your website to our pick-and-pack teams via the order management system. Our team will then locate your products within the warehouse, pick the items in the order and then carefully pack them away and apply a shipping label. Find out more about our pick and pack process.
The last step in the process of getting your order out is the shipping process. Once the label has been applied, the order is carefully placed in the outbound order area of the warehouse ready to be collected by your chosen courier. We’ve partnered with a range of shipping providers including APC Overnight, Royal Mail, DPD, DHL and Yodel so you can offer your customers a range of delivery speeds and costs. As we send large volumes each day, we have been able to negotiate discounted shipping costs as well as later collection times.
Depending on your sector, you might see a high level of returns, for example, the fashion and apparel industry typically sees high levels of returns as people order multiple sizes to try on at home. At Whitehouse, we have many years of experience in dealing with customer returns and making that process as smooth as possible for all parties involved. This is why we offer a customised returns process so you can decide whether to offer free returns and what we do with the returned item. Explore our returns system.
Customers don’t care about the fulfilment process itself, however, they expect their delivery to arrive on time, contain the right product and not be damaged. With Whitehouse Solutions this is exactly what they get, every time.
The first step in the customer journey starts with them visiting your site and purchasing your products. Once the order is placed, it’s over to us to start the fulfilment process.
Once the Whitehouse pick and pack team have collected all the individual products in the order, it is carefully packed and a shipping label is applied ready to be collected by the courier.
The other part of the customer journey comes into play when an order needs to be returned. Depending on your returns process, we can provide the customer with a return label so they can ship it directly back to our fulfilment warehouse or you can choose to have the item sent back to you for inspection, before releasing the refund.
We are able to fulfil a range of products from our fulfilment centres with a focus on fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). We specialise in the sectors below and also cater to many more which you can find on our sectors page.
Our food-safe fulfilment centre has been designed to safely handle and store food in dated, sealed containers and beverages. We have been operating in this sector since 2017 and have a strong track record.
We have worked with several beauty brands and understand the needs of this sector. This is why we have created specially designated storage rooms and can fulfil trade orders to clients such as Superdrug.
Fashion & apparel fulfilment can be tricky due to the high levels of returns. We understand that this is a part of life for this sector and have invested heavily in making our returns process smooth and affordable for both you and your customers.
44% of all UK households own a pet and, with an ever-growing premium market segment, we are able to fulfil a range of products including pet food, pet treats and pet toys. We have worked with HayPigs to fulfil both B2C and trade customer orders in the UK, Europe and across the world.
Toys and games are typically given as gifts and, throughout most of the year, this is a manageable order volume, but when it comes to Christmas, things can quickly become overwhelming. Our decades of experience mean we can easily scale up and handle the Christmas rush.
Our large fulfilment warehouses mean we’re not restricted by the size of your products making it ideal for outdoor living products.
There are various different eCommerce fulfilment models including in-house fulfilment, drop shipping, third-party fulfilment, fulfilment by Amazon and more. If you’re unsure which fulfilment service model suits you best, take a look at our blog posts on the pros and cons of each.
The eCommerce fulfilment process encompasses all the steps required to receive, process, and deliver customer orders placed through an online store. It involves a series of interconnected tasks to ensure that products are picked, packed, and shipped to customers accurately and efficiently. Here’s an overview of the key stages involved:
The success of an eCommerce fulfilment process hinges on the integration of technology, effective logistics management, and attention to detail in each step. An optimised fulfilment process contributes to customer satisfaction, repeat business, and a positive brand reputation.
In the context of eCommerce, fulfilment methods refer to the various strategies and approaches used to handle the processing, packing, and delivery of customer orders. These methods can be tailored to suit the specific needs of the business and its customers.
Here are some common fulfilment methods:
Find out more about the pros and cons of each fulfilment method in our blog.
eCommerce fulfilment refers to the entire process of handling customer orders placed through online stores, from the moment an order is received to the successful delivery of the purchased products to the customer’s designated address.
This comprehensive process involves various steps, including inventory management, order processing, picking and packing of products, labelling, shipping, and tracking. The primary goal of eCommerce fulfilment is to ensure that customers receive their ordered items accurately, securely, and within the expected timeframe.
Once an order is placed, it enters the processing phase. Before the order is picked, you can cancel or amend the order via the order management system at no cost. Once the order has been picked, it can still be cancelled or amended, however, this picking cost is not refunded.
We support a wide range of eCommerce platforms with our simple integration. These include:
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