FAQs

Frequently Asked
Questions

Green Story
Green Story

How long have you been operating?

We have been in the order fulfilment business since 2012. It was in 2016 we decided to specialise in eCommerce fulfilment.

Our Services
Our Services

Can you help us with any international compliance

We have years of expertise within Green Fulfilment on matters related to shipping orders within UK if you are a non UK business. Likewise if you are a UK business expanding into a new geography like EU or USA for example, we can assist within the logistics side on compliance. We are also partners with experts in these fields who we can introduce you to for more detailed assistance.

Can you ship globally

Yes we ship all over the world. We have both economy and express services. We are able to ship next day delivery basis to over 100 countries. We also have economy options with the likes for Royal Mail Asendia, DHL and Landmark.

How can you help with our packaging

We source most cost effective environment friendly packaging. You can benefit from these Green options like our recycled cardboard boxes or bio-degradeable mailing bags. If you are using branded boxes we can get our local packaging partners to quote for your branded packaging. Many a times we are able to source it at a more competitive rate.

We sell on various channels can you help streamline our orders

Our technology platform Green Portal has over 80 connectors. We can connect to any of these platforms within minutes with no cost to you for this set up. Our connections include with the big boys shopify, ebay, amazon woocommerce etc. We have connectors with multiple ERPS and inventory control systems. Whether you are already using a centralised inventory control of financial system and it is the case of connecting with that system or it is the case of connecting to your individual sales channels like your own website and marketplaces we can do it all. 

All orders will sync into the Green Portal and once the order is packed the data will flow back to sales channels. It will update the order as shipped and present the tracking number. It will also update the inventory on all the sales channels so that the stock remains correct on all sales channels.

Can you save me in shipping costs

We have been around since 2012. In all these years we have developed some deep rooted relations with most of the major shipping companies. We also are able to provide a higher volume of orders to these carriers which means we get better discounts. International shipping can be complicated as there are many stress points that can impact the costs.

  • Like where the shipment is going
  • How quickly do you want it to get there
  • What is the dead weight and what is the volumetric weight of the parcels
  • What is the value of the shipments

Our experience and selection of shipping companies allows you to leverage that knowledge first hand. You would be able to offer international shipping to your customers from day one. If you are already offering international shipping than we would be able to help with price and choice of best shipping option for your orders through our rules engine.

Can you save my logistics costs

Depends on what cost base you come from. Normally if you come from a background where you ran your own warehouse it tends to be the case that working with us brings not just efficiency gains but cost savings as well. These savings come from lower storage costs compared to own warehousing costs. You can also benefit from our preferential shipping rates. 

If you are coming from another order fulfilment company that may have lower charges than us then it may explain why you are looking to move in the first place as cheaper is not always the best option most certainly not in a crucial selection of your logistics partnership. 

No matter what your current set up we guarantee you top class service with 99.99% order accuracy and dedicated account management. You will save lots of your time that you can focus on growing your brand.

How do you help us in international shipping

We have been around since 2012. In all these years we have developed some deep rooted relations with most of the major shipping companies. We also are able to provide a higher volume of orders to these carriers which means we get better discounts. International shipping can be complicated as there are many stress points that can impact the costs.

  • Like where the shipment is going
  • How quickly do you want it to get there
  • What is the dead weight and what is the volumetric weight of the parcels
  • What is the value of the shipments

Our experience and selection of shipping companies allows you to leverage that knowledge first hand. You would be able to offer international shipping to your customers from day one. If you are already offering international shipping than we would be able to help with price and choice of best shipping option for your orders through our rules engine.

Do I have to insure my own stock?

Insurance of your stock within our fulfilment warehouse is optional. It is up to you to insure either with us or you can get your own insurance cover. Our insurance covers you from the usual perils like flood, fire, burglary earthquake etc.

How do you charge for packaging?

We give you our rate table for our wide range packaging options. You get charged for the packaging type used for your orders. Alternatively, you may have bespoke or branded packaging which you can either supply yourself or we can source it for you.

Why do products have to be barcoded?

We offer unqualified 99.9% order accuracy guarantee. In order to ensure we are able to deliver this promise, we need to use technology to assist our pickers and packers. We scan all the products going into the order to ensure the correct product is sent to your customers each time, every time.

Pricing
Pricing

Who do you work with

Our systems and infrastructure is best suited for 

  • brands which are established 
  • already shipping at least 300 orders a month
  • looking to grow their sales 
  • smaller products which are up to a shoe box size

How do we pay you?

Our preferred method is bank online transfer (wire transfer).

Will my invoice come with details of the charges?

Your invoice will be emailed to you with line charges for each service. So, it will look like. 

• Goods In 

• Storage 

• Pick Pack Charges 

• Shipping 

• Ad hoc charges

Each invoice is supported by an excel sheet which has order by order breakup of all costs linked to that order. We will invoice you at the end of your billing period which is either weekly or monthly depending on the number of orders you do. You will either get a weekly or a monthly invoice in arrears.

Technology
Technology

How do you get the orders into your system?

We offer free integration to over 80 platforms through our API connections. Orders will sync within 2 minutes of them going into your sales channel. Optionally a file upload manually, or automated through a FTP based solution. Option 3 is to create manual orders one at a time. We also carry regular bespoke integrations with platforms we don’t have direct APIs for.

What & How We Do
What & How We Do

What is ecommerce fulfilment

The process of storage pciking and packing of orders for businesses selling their products online is called eCommercefulfilment. For details on the eCommerce Fulfilment click here

What is the process of order fulfilment

Order Fulfilment has multiple steps which start with receiving products into the warehouse and end with despatching the orders to the customers. For a detailed explanation of the order fulfilment process in general and how Green Fulfilment run order fulfilment process click here

Why is accuracy in order fulfilment so important

Customers develop a negative view of brands which deliver wrong products or deliver them orders which are delayed. Research on consumer behaviour has shown a substantial percentage of customers don’t buy again from business that has shipped them an incorrect product. Also customers tend to voice their bad experience more often on social media than they do for a positive experience. It is imperative for businesses to ensure they have a very accuracy rates. We constantly hit 99.99% order accuracy at Green Fulfilment.

What is order fulfilment

Order fulfilment is the part of the logistics of the businesses that ship products to their customers. The part where products are stored, picked and shipped to customers is called Order Fulfilment. For more on order fulfilment

Do you offer any personalization services

We work with our clients to tailoer our services to meet their requirement
wherever we can. We are personalising products for customers which
includes heat transfer of vinyl onto the products. We are open to new
types of personalisations like engraving etc as we the process already in
place it will only be new equipment to handle if your is different from
what we are currently doing.

What platforms do you have ready integrations with

We have over 70 different platforms that our Green Portal has ready integrations with. This includes market place like Amazon, eBay, etsy etc. Some of the most popular shopping carts being shopify, WooCommerce, Magento. Look at our full list of integrations here.

Why is scalability a challenge if you run your own warehousing operation

When you run your own warehouse you are restricted to the four walls of the warehouse you
are in. Most places you will tie you into long leases to get best rates and terms. When you
outgrow your warehouse it often does not happen at the same time as the end of the lease.
Expensive lease breaks are often a cost ecommerce businesses incur if they have their own
warehousing.
Moving warehouses in response to growth results in major disruption in your business.
There are usually downtimes when orders are not getting shipped. Inventory can get mixed

up resulting in further delays in getting orders out. All this can damage your customer
experience and eventually your brand.
Managing a bigger warehouse team means more of your time and more HR and salary
overheads.
Unless you have run warehouses in the past you will find one of the key challenges is to find
the right warehouse management system for your business. This is often very time
consuming process and can become very expensive.

What are the issues running your own warehouse operation

Warehousing and order fulfilment is in itself a specialist area of business. As ecomerce business you
want to concentrate on your core strengths to grow your brand. Warehousing yourself does not
necessarily help that amibition but doing it can potentially slow your growth. In worse cases it can
actually damage your brand and you can loose out to your competition. Some of the key drawbacks
are:

  • split of focus from brand growth to managing challengers related to logistics
  • commit yourself to long expensive building leases
  • big overheads and bigger utility bills
  • perpetual maintenance of the facility costs
  • manpower management / payroll / absentism / hiring / HR issues
  • technology cost to of warehouse management system

Why should businesses outsource order fulfilment

Warehousing and order fulfilment are specialist areas of business. You as eCommerce business would
like to concentrate on growing your brand. Outsourcing order fulfilment frees up your time which
you would otherwise have to dedicate to your logistics. Key points in favour of outsourcing fulfilment
are:

  • allows you to focus on your key strengths as business
  • focussing on the business helps you grow your brand faster
  • flexibility to expand without being restricted by the four walls of your warehouse
  • no long term leases and expensive overheads to run and maintain the warehouse
  • choice of multiple shipping options at good rates
  • leverage the experience and technology infrastructure of the fulfilment house
  • benefit from the economies of scale of the fulfilment house in the form of lower shipping and
    operational costs
  • Open up new routes to market and new sales destinations
Where Are We
Where Are We

Do you have sites outside the UK?

We have network partners in

• USA 

• Canada 

Each of these network partners uses the same platform and standard operating procedures to give you a consistent service experience.

How many warehouses do you have?

We currently have three fulfilment warehouses in the UK. All three in the sunny Glasgow. We call refer them as GLA, GLA2 and GLA3. At the time of onboarding, you will be assigned one of the warehouses by your onboarding success manager.

Who We Work With
Who We Work With

I am a start up… Are we too small for you

We tend to work with business which are established and are now looking to go into their new stage in growth. Typically, the starting point of businesses we work with is a minimum of 500 Direct to Consumer orders a month.

Are we too big for you

We ship thousands of orders a month and have grown with a lot of our customers. One of our hero customers joined us when they were doing just about 3000 orders a month and are now doing 12000 orders a month. Our technology and processes are established and stable to handle high volume customers.

What sectors do you offer your services to

We are sector agnostic and are able to offer our services to any business. We have certain criteria though like size and weight of the product for example. We are best suited for small light weight products typically less than 1 kg in weight and size of a lap top for example in dimensions. We don’t service some sectors like Arms and Ammunition, Porn, Hazardous Material. See the full list the sectors we have lots of expertise in by clicking here

Unbeatable Services

Green by name, Green by nature. Everything we do, we do with the planet in mind.

Try Green Fulfilment Risk Free
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Talk to our friendly fulfilment experts. If you are doing 500+ D2C orders a month and have small/light products, get in touch to see how we deliver on our promises.

Fill in the form or call us and we will be delighted to have chat with you about your needs, future plans and how we can help you.

We will send you a detailed proposal including the costs of most appropriate courier partners for you. We partner with all the major couriers, and you will benefit from our negotiated discounted rates.

We will talk you through the proposal and give you a demonstration of our Green Portal. If you want to see our fulfilment warehouse you are welcome to visit us or we can arrange a virtual tour.

Fill the form or call us on +44 0141 4047465

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    Average number of orders per month

    Minimum order requirement 500+ a month