Homeware fulfilment: Personal, purchase & priority
Homeware fulfilment needs to be done by a specialist company. This is because it’s a personal purchase which means a lot to the consumer – either for their own home or as a gift to someone else, which makes it important.
It’s often a higher value purchase as well, so it’s precious. Also, it is often fragile or delicate so it needs be treated with care and priority.
Therefore, if you are looking for a company to outsource your eCommerce Fulfilment and delivery you want to make sure they have experience.
We are going to showcase a couple of our clients in this article and share their website but beware – it’s impossible not to buy some of their beautiful homeware!
Our homeware fulfilment service
At Diamond we started working in homeware fulfilment about 8 years ago, and we learnt pretty quickly what our clients needed for their hard-won customers to be delighted by the delivery process:
- It’s obvious that you need to be able to go and see the warehouse where your goods are stored – and it has to be clean, tidy and secure.
- Needs can be varied – you might want the site local to you – or you may want it to be a specialist in your type of goods.
- Whatever you choose, it has to be right because the goods stored are important.
- You also need to make sure you keep accurate inventory over multiple marketplaces where you may be selling your homeware.
Delivered with reliability
Whether it’s your own Shopify store or you’re listing on Amazon, it needs to be in stock and when it is ordered it needs to be speedily picked, well packed and despatched by the appropriate carrier.
The delivery needs to be quick, so Same Day fulfilment and 24 hour delivery are certain to keep the customer coming back.
Reliability of delivery, tracking and tracing are also essential – which includes really good communication with the clients on an easy-to-read dashboard, and correspondence with their customers – either by text or email.
Presentation when unwrapping
Also, the unwrapping process is really important – particularly in the more gift-worthy homeware brands such as our clients Rory Dobner – with a pair of beetle mugs and tray being a recent purchase of mine for my daughter’s new home! With a brand like that, a delivery is something to wait for or be delightfully surprised by, so, by adding some nice detailing – some tissue paper, a ribbon, and a card – you can truly elevate the experience from average to magnificent. Your customer will remember this and be sure to come back again.
Safe delivery
What is most important, is the very safe delivery of the homeware – from curtain poles to a dinner service to artificial plants – they all have different packaging requirements and need different individual carriers. Our client Latzio has such a wide variety of goods that they despatch that they need a wide spread of carriers to ensure a safe and timely delivery.
An experienced homeware fulfilment company will have this to support your every delivery requirement. Lower cost items can go with our cheaper carriers, but a premium package deserves a premium delivery, and then maybe a longer length needs delivering by DHL.
Meeting your fulfilment needs
If you have a mixed product line you’ll need your fulfilment provider to do all of your requirements, not just some of them.
Packaging is important not just from a safe delivery perspective but also from a reputational one. If you have conscientious customers for example, they will care about the environment and will need to know that their packaging is eco friendly. It also has to do the job, which is keeping your goods safe. Geami is great for fragile goods, but we also have all types of eco friendly fillers – as well as sturdy recyclable boxes for your homewares.
And finally, don’t miss the opportunity to brand your packing slip, and add a message or enclosed marketing material with a special offer to buy again. After all, it took you time and money to win this customer first time, so to really build your homeware business you need to build a repeat user base – and its also nearly free marketing that goes to them directly if you enclose it in your delivery.
For the best customer experience
For the very best customer experience from your perspective as a homeware merchant and from your customer’s perspective when purchasing your goods you need to make sure you have:
- A system that integrates all your marketplaces so people know they are buying what is in stock.
- It need to be stored well so its in pristine condition.
- It need to be picked and packed promptly to match your customer expectation of delivery.
- It needs to be delivered by the right carrier.
- The end customer needs to enjoy the end unwrapping experience as much as possible.
- You need to maximise you remarketing opportunity at delivery – after all new clients are difficult to come by, so it is great to build a repeat user base.
Homeware delivery and fulfilment is really important, now and in the future.
If you’d like anymore help on how to build your online homeware business then see our dedicated page here, get in touch with Diamond Logistics for a quick chat or complete the below Contact Form to discuss what we can provide for your business.
