Order Fulfilment
It’s when a third party handles storage, picking, packing and shipping of your orders on your behalf. It’s also known as third party logistics or 3PL. Read more about the order fulfilment process.
Virtual Logistics is an ecommerce order fulfilment provider that is also able to deal with offline orders, as well as other services such as customisation, customer care and returns management.
It’s just another term for outsourced order fulfilment. See the question above for more information.
Integration
It can be as little as 24 hours! See our Clean Shaven case study for an example of this.
However, the actual lead time does depend on several factors: your ecommerce platform or offline sales channels, where your goods are currently located, how much stock you have and your packaging requirements.
If your webshop is built on Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce or Magento ecommerce platforms, then we can have your web channels integrated into our system with just a few clicks.
If you have a bespoke webshop, see the next question for more information. If you don’t have an online product inventory, then it will require manual work to set the products up in our system.
Our warehouse is in Lancashire, so there will be a short lead time to receive your goods, depending on where they are currently located. The amount of stock we receive will also affect how quickly we are able to have it stored and ready for picking.
If you have specific packaging requirements, it may require some design or training.
Yes. Our API (application programming interface) enables easy integration with any webshop. The lead time for this will depend on how much mapping is required between the 2 systems. There will also be a test period to ensure that everything is working correctly.
Yes. We are able to plug Amazon and eBay stores straight into our warehouse management system. As soon as the products are mapped, we’ll be ready to receive your goods and start shipping them.
If you would like to customise your eBay store, we can help you with that. We can also set up new marketplace stores, and even manage them on your behalf.
Yes. As part of the onboarding process, we’ll do a full review of the products you’d like us to fulfil for you and decide between us the best way of importing them. Usually, if you already have an existing website or a marketplace account (such as Amazon or eBay), we can simply connect to them, pull your listing from there and create a new one within our system.
Goods In
Yes. We have been sourcing and importing goods for over a decade, so we’re very familiar with all the relevant regulations.
See our Learning by Questions case study for an example of when our product team sourced bespoke hardware from China for one of our clients. We also dealt with the import and certification of the chosen products.
Storage
The Virtual Logistics warehouse is on the modern Burnley Bridge Business Park, Magnesium Way, Hapton, Burnley, Lancashire, BB12 7BF. The business park is just off the M65.
Not yet from our own facility. We have applied for our warehouse to become bonded, but it does take some time to go through the customs regulation process. In the meantime we do use other facilities when bonded warehousing is required.
We have full public and private insurance covering all applicable needs. A copy of our insurance policy is available on request.
In the simplest terms, our insurance covers us for 30% over and above the current value of stock held.
Yes. Sensors in the warehouse monitor temperature, moisture, light and vibration. This ensures that all products are kept within optimum ranges. If you have any other specific storage requirements, please contact us as we may be able to put in measures to accommodate them.
Our warehouse is managed in such a way that most stock is located in pick bins (open-topped containers). This makes it extremely efficient to quickly check stock.
We undertake daily random stock takes of pick bins. Our bulk storage locations are randomly checked on a weekly basis.
In addition to random pick bin and bulk storage checks (see previous question), we perform a full warehouse stock take at the end of every quarter.
Most fulfilment companies measure any stock lost against “shrinkages”. In doing so, they dictate that x % of the stock is going to be lost. Usually this shrinkage allowance is anywhere between 2 and 10%. So if you ask some fulfilment companies to store 1000 items, between 20 and 100 could be lost, stolen or broken.
At Virtual Logistics we only allow a shrinkage of 1%. Although we try our very best to handle your goods in the safest possible way, we sadly cannot guarantee that items will not be lost, stolen or suffer breakages.
Yes. We already have processes in place to manage perishable goods on behalf of our clients.
No. Our competitive storage pricing is the same all year round.
Picking & Packing
Most clients have specific packaging needs. However as part of the onboarding process, we will discuss the ideal packaging for your products. This could be off-the-shelf packaging boxes that we have available now or something more bespoke.
Basically, we can do pretty much whatever you need. Labelling and custom packaging are just some of the design services we offer, but we are equally happy to use your existing branded labels and package materials.
We can also collate multiple products and create a kit for you, then add bespoke branded labels to the outer or inner boxes.
Yes. We are already doing this for our clients. We can either use inserts that you already have, or design new ones for you. You have even the option of full customer personalisation. See our Dr Fertility case study for an example of personalised inserts.
Yes. We can also add personalised messages or labels to packages.
Shipping
Our guarantee is that every despatchable order that hits our system before 3:00pm (15:00 GMT), Monday – Friday (excluding bank holidays) will be despatched that very same day. Even orders received after this time could still be despatched.
We are currently working with our courier partners (Royal Mail and Parcel Force) to increase this to a later time. This could possibly be a cut-off time of 8:00pm (20:00 GMT), with availability at weekends too. Watch this space!
There is no maximum or minimum weight – we will ship anything and everything! However, certain weights and dimensions of products and packages are more efficiently shipped via differing couriers and methods.
Over 99.5%. We’d like to say 100% (and we do everything to ensure this), but due to unavoidable human error, either during fulfilment or once the package has been handed to a courier, we cannot offer 100% shipping accuracy.
We are fully integrated with Royal Mail. This means that every order in our system immediately generates a tracking code in theirs. As we ship so many orders with Royal Mail, we have reduced bulk shipping pricing that you can also benefit from.
We also work with couriers including UPS, ParcelForce, DPD and others. In addition, we offer specialised delivery services such as 2-person white glove.
However, we are fully flexible and will happily use whichever shipping method you specify.
We’d be happy to! We’ve been despatching all sizes of goods for over 20 years. So we have great advice to offer on the best and most cost-effective shipment methods for various types of product. We can also help you to minimise costs by advising on packaging.
Yes. We can use an internationally-recognised carrier such as UPS or any other courier of your choice.
This depends on whether you are using our courier services or your own.
In the event of a loss by our carrier (and therefore on our account), then our customer services team will log a case with the carrier and resolve it forthwith. If we have fulfilled to one of your carriers, then it will be up to you and your team to get a resolution.
Customer Care
Currently our customer services team are only available during normal office hours: 8:00am – 6:00pm (08:00-18:00 GMT) Monday – Friday, excluding bank holidays.
Returns
Yes. We already deal with returns on behalf of several clients. See our testimonials for some examples.
We can handle everything from contacting the customer (to organise the return), to processing the refund to repurposing the goods. This can involve either repacking, repair or disposal of the product.
Payment Terms
Yes. However there are some terms and conditions surrounding this. Please contact us for more information.
Our Terms and Conditions differ depending on the client’s circumstances and frequency of orders. Usually, we take weekly payments via direct debit for the previous week’s fulfilment, shipping and storage charges.
Our minimum contract is 30 days.
No. However, using Virtual Logistics to fulfil 1 order per month would not be cost-effective for either of us. Our core business is formed by entrepreneurial sellers looking to use our fulfilment capability to really scale their business.
Our preferred method is via direct debit. However, we also accept credit card, PayPal, cheque and direct payments into our account.
Service Levels
We are scaling up every month as new customers come onboard. With our current level of staff and resource, we can fulfil upwards of 3000 orders per day.
Testimonials
Yes, and we’re very proud of them! See our testimonials for references from just a few of our clients.
Our very first client, Dr Fertility, was able to grow their business by 269% in just 9 months thanks to their partnership with Virtual Logistics.
Third party logistics made easy
Info@virtuallogistics.co.uk
01254 918716
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Virtual Logistics
Unit 1 & 2
Burnley Bridge Business Park
Magnesium Way
Hapton
BB12 7BF