Mục Lục

United Kingdom Fulfillment Services for UK Stores

Start shipping within the UK with ShipBob

Request a Quote

One of the most difficult parts of growing an ecommerce store is managing fulfillment as you grow and expand into new markets. Your business can only sell as many products as you can fulfill, and as more and more orders come in, you will have to find a way to tap into a robust order fulfillment infrastructure to stay competitive and meet customer expectations.

ShipBob is a 3PL with a distribution network that stretches across multiple continents with fulfillment centers across the globe, including locations in Manchester, Birmingham, as well as Swindon.

To reduce shipping costs and last-mile delivery times, our expanded distribution network allows you to split inventory across multiple fulfillment centers. Whether you’re looking to expand into new markets or specifically in the United Kingdom, ShipBob can help.

Keep reading to see how ShipBob can start fulfilling your international orders.

Better serve UK customers with ShipBob

Our United Kingdom fulfillment centers are located in Manchester, Birmingham and Swindon (all within close proximity to major airports and transport hubs). Each runs on ShipBob’s warehouse management system, SLAs, and support team to provide the same level of world-class fulfillment and transparency across our network through our dashboard.

You will only have to pay import duties once when you initially ship your products to our UK-based fulfillment center location(s), rather than paying duties on each package. Along with customs, duties, and becoming a non-resident importer, ShipBob will walk you through the process of sending freight to one of our UK fulfillment centers.

“International shipping is very important to us — not only in terms of costs but also the customer experience. When I found out ShipBob was expanding into both Canada and Europe, I knew we wanted to expand our physical footprint with them.

This offers us the ability to reduce taxes and tariffs that come with international shipping. Now, these orders see a large reduction in shipping costs.”

Nikolai Paloni, Co-founder of Ombraz Sunglasses

We’ll work with your current carrier or freight partners, or you can leverage ShipBob’s relationships with cross-border freight shipping specialists.

3 challenges of international shipping

Businesses shipping internationally face a number of added barriers versus domestic fulfillment. The goods must be legal to ship, the package must pass through customs, and unexpected fees may be incurred, just to name a few.

Complex logistics

Each country has its own rules, standards, and fees for international shipping (including the UK). Internationally shipped packages also require detailed invoices and certificates of origin. Ecommerce businesses must be aware of all these different rules and ensure each package meets the standards of the destination country.

Longer shipping times

Unsurprisingly, international shipping takes much longer than domestic. It can take as long as a month for a package to reach its destination. Estimating international shipping times is also more difficult because the supply chain is longer and more complex. Customers can grow impatient, so make sure they know how long to expect.

Customs and duties vary

You may have to pay substantial import fees depending on the country, so make sure these costs are incorporated into the shipping estimate. The customer should be notified of any import duties to prevent any big surprises when they see the shipping cost.

What ShipBob’s fulfillment services offers

Distributed inventory

There’s already a huge benefit to choosing an international fulfillment center, but distributing your inventory across multiple fulfillment centers gives you an added advantage. With distributed inventory, your products are stored in warehouses all across the globe, which reduces shipping distances and the associated costs. Distributed inventory can also get to customers quicker, which is necessary when promising two-day shipping.

“The network and team that ShipBob has are incredible. We’re able to leverage a vast network of fulfillment centers. The ability to touch base with the team and use a data-driven approach for identifying areas of improvement and where we might benefit from expanding our use of the ShipBob fulfillment center locations has saved us time and allowed us to provide better experiences for our customers.”

Stephanie Lee, COO at PetLab Co.

Optimized shipping routes

ShipBob’s platform automatically searches the top international mail carriers to find the best rate, and then routes orders to the optimal fulfillment center. We’ve helped many of our customers reduce shipping costs this way.

International shipping discounts

ShipBob has worked with thousands of ecommerce brands to ship products all over the world. As a result, we have relationships with major shipping carriers and can provide premium shipping bulk discounts for international and domestic shipments. ShipBob’s global locations make it easier to reduce the barriers to international purchases.

Order fulfillment services at ShipBob’s UK fulfillment center

ShipBob is an end-to-end ecommerce fulfillment solution, which means that once you sync your online store with our technology and ship your products to our fulfillment centers, we handle everything else. We also provide you with tools to monitor the entire process, so you’re always in the know and can answer any customer questions.

Faster and affordable international shipping

For each package, ShipBob’s technology automatically searches rates from each of the top mail carriers, and finds the cheapest and fastest route. That way, you and your customers get the best shipping option for each package without having to lift a finger.

The average transit time to all of the UK is 1-4 business days using Royal Mail and DPD. We also plan to add more carrier options and shipping destinations.

Inventory and order management

ShipBob’s dashboard is your one-stop destination for all order and inventory information. You can view outstanding orders, check inventory levels, set reorder points, and track packages in real-time.

“ShipBob has given us increased visibility thanks to the dashboard that allows us to easily manage stock and orders. That wasn’t possible for us before. Our relationship with ShipBob has been a game-changer for Quadrant, and it’s made my life so much easier.”

– Will Kerr, Apparel Lead at Quadrant

Pick and pack services

ShipBob is notified when an order is placed. The order is routed to a fulfillment center, and picking lists are generated automatically. Our professionals then prepare the package according to your packing specifications and ship orders out.

Dedicated customer support

Any problems with international fulfillment? Our enterprise customers have account managers they contact at any time to get information and solve problems. We also have onsite support reps at each fulfillment center to keep things running smoothly.

Should my expand my business into the UK?

Looking to launch into UK market, but not sure if your business is ready? Here are some signs that it’s time to invest in global fulfillment and partner with an international 3PL like ShipBob:

You are seeing an uptick in website traffic from the the UK but high cart abandonment.
You want to access UK markets, but you don’t want to deal with the complexities of international fulfillment.
You want to offer inexpensive faster and affordable shipping options to UK customers.
You don’t want to pay international shipping premiums.

Whether you need more scalable ecommerce warehousing, lower shipping rates and fulfillment costs, or a professional inventory management system, ShipBob can help.

Interested in shipping with ShipBob? Request a quote by filling out the form below.