The importance of good fulfilment on childrenswear
Childrenswear Fulfilment is a delicate art. It is often an emotive, heartfelt purchase – a gift or for your own loved ones, which means it is often important and means a lot to the consumer.
The brands we work with have products that range from educational toys and book subscriptions to beautiful children’s homeware or clothing – from Smart Toys to Little Prince London and Avery Row – and they all share one common quality – the stuff they sell is great!
Therefore, the expectation from the end-user is high, and rightly so. Quality does not come cheap, so the delivery experience needs to reflect that. Sometimes the goods are delicate such as Xmas decorations or fragile such as lighting, therefore treatment with care is a priority.
Selecting a company to outsource your Childrenswear eCommerce Fulfilment and delivery is a crucial step in scaling your business – so it is important to choose one with experience.
At Diamond, we have over 7 years’ experience in Childrenswear Fulfilment.
We have learnt the absolute best methodology of working to make sure the fulfilment experience lives up to our clients and their customer expectations.
Childrenswear fulfilment checklist
If you are looking to outsource your Childrenswear Fulfilment, then here is the Diamond checklist.
1. Delivery process
Choose a carrier that matches the quality of the goods and the reliability which accompanies that.
2. Storage
Keep your goods in a very tidy, clean and organised warehouse. That may sound like a given but trust us – in 30 years we have seen plenty of warehouses that are great for storing used motorcycle parts, but you would not want your babywear in there! If in doubt visit – but if you see Mandy Watkins-Smith’s Fulfilment Centre in Bristol or the Guildford HQ, you will see multiple childrenswear brands in a very clean and tidy place.
3. Check pick proficiency
You’ll have multiple SKU’s, have goods that need to be kept dust-free, and have complicated picks with more than one item per order – so make sure your Fulfilment Centre can do all of that for you whilst maintaining efficiency and accuracy. Good sites will have 99% + pick accuracy.
4. Look for what kind of fulfilment will suit you best
Specialised Fulfilment or local Fulfilment (or both) might be important to you. You can either choose one of our sites who is already familiar with how to do Childrenswear Fulfilment – or choose a local site – so you can see and touch your stuff and build up a F2F relationship with your fulfilment team. They will be an especially important part of your business, so if the location is important to you then one of Diamond’s 30 locations is sure to suit.
5. Accurate inventory over multiple marketplaces
Keeping track of your stock while selling your Childrenswear on multiple sales channels and marketplaces is essential. Whether it is your own eBay page, WooCommerce store, Shopify store, or Amazon listing, your lovely items need to be available if shown on your website. There is nothing more frustrating for the consumer to pick something and then be told later on it is out of stock so having great inventory management technology that enables that is essential.
6. Speed of Supply Chain
People want their childrenswear purchases quickly, and certainly on time as many are for birthdays or Christmas, so reliability in the pick, pack and despatch process is a must.
7. Delivery speeds to maintain customer expectations
Same day fulfilment and 24-hour delivery is certain to keep customer coming back. Reliability of delivery, tracking and tracing are key – excellent communication enables you to meet customer expectations.
8. Environmental packaging – make your brand stand out
Childrenswear brands such as our clients Little Box of Books, not only wow with their contents every delivery, but they also know that environmentally the packaging must be low impact. After all, we all want to preserve the earth for our little ones. It also needs to be sufficiently robust to make sure it arrives in pristine condition. The best retailers invest in making the delivery something magnificent – with beautiful tissue paper, string or ribbon bows, cards and inserts, and sometimes even personal notes. With great packaging, your customer will remember how wonderful the unwrapping was and certainly buy again.
9. Safe Delivery
From mini sofas and porcelain gifts to clothing, they all have individual packaging requirements, and may need different carriers too. An experienced Childrenswear Fulfilment company must be able to support your every delivery requirement. Lower cost items may go with Evri (previously Hermes – a cheaper carrier), compared to a more expensive product may require a premium delivery, and then maybe a larger consignment need a carrier such as DHL.
If you have a varied list of goods for sale, you will need your Fulfilment provider to do all your requirements. (Rest assured with Diamond not only do we have all the carriers you need but it is all managed by a simple to use online logistics system pre-set to your requirements, so the right thing gets delivered by the right carrier every time!)
10. Pristine Packaging
This is a big part of the Fulfilment process – It is essential for goods to arrive in pristine condition, but every childrenswear consumer is now conscious of the impact on the environment, so your packaging should be eco-friendly. It is also to keep your goods in excellent condition but leaves little to no trace on the planet. Products like Geami is great for fragile goods and all types of eco-friendly fillers – as well as the sturdy recyclable boxes for your childrenswear fulfilment.
11. Marketing YOUR Service
Finally, the best Childrenswear retailers make sure they remarket their hard-won new customers too. Brand your packing slip, add a discount flyer, tell them something about you and what you do – its maximising the marketing bang for your buck – using the delivery process to support your future sales.
If you would like any advice about your online childrenswear business and how Diamond can assist your eCommerce Fulfilment, then get in touch with Diamond. Call us on 0333 567 5888, email sales@diamondlogistics.co.uk or complete the below Contact Form to speak with our expert team:
