Child and Baby Product Fulfilment refers to the process whereby your customers orders are picked, packed, and shipped directly to the customer or B2B retailer. This process can be managed and carried out by yourself, or with a 3PL (Third Party Logistics) provider.

In 2023, it is estimated that the overall child and baby market will amount to an impressive £4.01bn, with a projected annual growth rate of 4.38% between 2023-2027, which will lead to a projected total market value of £4.76bn!

Currently, China generates the most market value, with a projected value of £26,980m in 2023. It is also estimated that the number of consumers for products within the market will increase to 16.8m by 2027, demonstrating that there is an abundance of opportunity

Due to the nature of the products that are being sold, child and baby product brand owners may face a unique set of challenges when it comes to handling and fulfilling their products and orders. Lets discuss some of the challenges you may face with child and baby product fulfilment.

Child and baby products is a pretty broad term, but could be used to describe anything from toys, to diapers, to baby formula and food. Regardless, it is crucial that all products are kept in clean, safe areas. With food, the products may need to be kept at certain temperatures to avoid things such as spoilage. If these requirements can not be met, you may end up with damaged or spoiled products, meaning they cannot be sold so you miss out on sales. The products need to constantly be checked before being shipped out too, for quality control and safety purposes, making the fulfilment process more complex and long.

Most brands, regardless of the products they sell, will find that they have seasonal fluctuations, and spikes in demand. Knowing how to keep up with the demand is the challenging part. You need to ensure you have enough stock to meet demand, because if you don’t you may end up missing out on sales since your customers may decide to shop elsewhere. Customers have higher expectations now, which you need to be able to meet. On the flipside, overestimating how much stock you need to meet demand could leave you with too much excess stock. This can be costly in other areas, such as storage or disposals.

The more and more your brand grows, the more and more likely you are to increase the number of products you sell. With child and baby products, you tend to find there are a lot more pieces and parts, and managing this successfully can be challenging without proper inventory management processes in place. Good management of your SKUs and inventory levels will help you manage demand properly, since you can use different formulas to calculate how much stock you’ll need based off of any historical data you have. However this in itself can be challenging since it requires a good level of accurate data and management.

As mentioned, if you sell things like baby formula or baby food, or any other food product, these will have expiration dates which need to be followed. You need a fulfilment process that takes this into consideration. In instances like this, it is best to use the FIFO method, to ensure that older products with closer expiration dates are being sent out first as this helps to avoid sending out expired products.

Although sometimes inevitable, returns and exchanges are a universal experience for eCommerce brands and retailers. It is important to a good returns/exchange process in place, as well as a good inventory management process to accompany it. This will help to ensure you aren’t losing out on extra money.

Depending on the type of product, the shipping process can be a little more complex. If you are sending food, these products need the right type of packaging to protect it during the shipping and handling process. Toys, also need to be shipped carefully to avoid damage. If you dont have access to the right type of packaging you may end up having to refund more customers than usual due to damaged, faulty items.

With the market continuously growing, it’s important to stand out amongst the crowd so that you can successfully reach new customers, drive sales and grow your business. So, lets discuss how outsourcing your fulfilment can give your brand the competitive edge it needs to really thrive…

Unsure of why you should outsource with a fulfilment centre? As a 3PL company, these are some of the common pain points we hear when brand owners are deciding whether or not to outsource…

• Can’t get their orders out on time
• Struggling to meet demand
• Struggling with inventory management
• High returns volume due to order inaccuracy, damaged products, etc
• Slow shipping times
• Can’t grow and scale their business
• Can’t access the global market
• Don’t have time or money to focus on other areas of the business, such as sales, marketing, product development, customer service, etc
• Struggling to manage orders across multiple platforms
• Don’t have enough space

So, if you relate to any of these pain points, outsourcing may be the solution for you…

We offer world-class fulfilment and supply chain services. Our tailored services are designed to take the hassle out of operations, enabling you to focus on what you do best.

We also understand how important it is to ensure orders arrive on time, every time which is why we offer a money-back guarantee. Taking the risk away from losing repeat business, allowing you to increase sales, customer base, and customer loyalty.

Onboarding and setting up fulfilment is a breeze, set up can take as little as 7 days but giving yourself 4 weeks can ensure the smoothest set up prior to delivery.