Sending orders out should be the easy part of the sales process, but it can often cause more headaches than expected. For small UK businesses, simple fulfilment mistakes can carry a high price, quietly eating into time and profit while putting extra strain on customer relationships.
In this blog, Hallmark Consumer Services shares some of the pitfalls we see most often and the practical ways you can avoid them.
1. Underestimating the importance of fulfilment early on
In the early stages of building a business, founders naturally focus on getting the product right and bringing customers through the door. Fulfilment often slips down the list of priorities, but it can quickly become a pressing challenge once order numbers begin to climb.
Online sales remain a substantial slice of UK retail (32.4% according to the latest ONS data), so understanding the importance of fulfilment from the get-go protects customer experience and your ability to scale as a business.
Top tip: We always recommend designing order flows and packaging with returns and peak periods in mind from the get-go. It’s worth tracking your fulfilment metrics from day one if you can too; at Hallmark Consumer Services, we have invested heavily in secure, sophisticated systems that not only help us to deliver an efficient, first-class fulfilment service, but also produce valuable business insights to help you improve and grow.
2. Over-reliance on manual processes
When you’re just starting out, packing orders by hand and keeping track on spreadsheets can feel manageable. But as your business grows, these manual methods can start to slow you down and increase the chance of mistakes, which can be frustrating for both you and your customers.
Top tip: Even small changes can make a big difference. Simple tools like pick lists, barcode scanning or basic order-tracking systems can help reduce errors and save time, leaving you free to focus on serving your customers and growing your business
3. Inaccurate inventory tracking
Accidentally overselling can be frustrating for your customers and quickly damage trust, while overstocking ties up your cash and eats into your margins. When your inventory data is inaccurate – particularly across multiple sales channels and marketplaces – planning promotions, forecasting demand and reordering becomes guesswork. It’s a delicate balance, and one that can be especially hard to manage in the early days when you’re still finding your feet.
Top tip: Using a single source of truth for your stock makes it far easier for you to see the bigger picture. It allows you to reconcile inventory routinely and introduce safety stock rules for fast-moving lines. If you do sell via marketplaces, having real-time stock synchronisation between channels is essential to prevent overselling.
Our WMS integrates with a wide range of ecommerce platforms and sales channels, keeping your stock management aligned with your sales patterns and forecasts. Automated re-order reminders also ensure you always know when to send us more stock, helping you plan confidently for seasonal peaks well in advance. Find out more about the different platforms we can integrate with here.
4. Poor packaging choices
When your packaging isn’t quite right, it can create problems at both ends of the spectrum. Overpacking drives up costs and increases your environmental footprint, while underpacking puts your products at risk of damage, potentially leading to an increase in returns and unhappy customers. Either way, it can ultimately undermine the care and quality your brand is trying to convey.
Top tip: Take the time to test your packaging so it strikes the right balance between protection and cost. Optimising parcel size and weight can make a noticeable difference to your fulfilment and shipping spend. Where possible, try to opt for branded but recyclable materials, and be clear with customers about delivery times and packaging expectations upfront; these small touches help build trust and manage expectations.
At Hallmark Consumer Services, we are always coming up with new, sustainable packaging solutions for our clients to consider to help reduce their carbon footprint. Find out more.
5. Not preparing for seasonal peaks
Seasonal peaks squeeze a huge amount of demand into a short space of time, putting pressure on your orders, your team and your delivery partners all at once. Recent seasons have shown just how uneven peak trading can be for UK retailers, with delivery networks under strain. If planning starts too late, you’re more likely to face higher courier costs, stretched resources and slower deliveries, all at a time when your customers expect the most from you.
Top tip: Planning your promotions around key retail dates should start as early as possible, ideally around six months in advance, as part of your wider marketing strategy for the year. Use your historical sales data alongside upcoming campaigns to forecast demand, secure courier capacity early, and plan for additional labour, such as temporary pickers. Running trial runs of your peak processes can also help iron out issues before they impact customers. For more practical guidance, read our top tips for retailers preparing for key shopping events here.
6. Choosing the wrong 3PL or waiting too long to outsource
Choosing a fulfilment partner for the wrong reasons, or putting off outsourcing altogether, can quietly limit your ability to grow. While keeping fulfilment in-house may feel like the safer option, it can quickly become a bottleneck as order volumes increase. The UK 3PL market continues to attract significant investment, meaning specialist partners can offer scale, technology and carrier leverage that small in-house teams simply can’t match.
Top tip: The period immediately after a busy sales season is often the best time to take stock. Once the holiday rush is over, many businesses realise just how stretched the fulfilment operation has become and that the current setup may not be sustainable as you continue to grow. An experienced fulfilment partner brings the systems, infrastructure and flexibility to support your growth efficiently, freeing you up to focus on scaling your business rather than getting tied up in the day-to-day logistics of order management. For more insight, read our blog on when it’s the right time to outsource your fulfilment.
7. Ignoring returns as part of fulfilment
In the UK, return rates are among the highest globally, with around one in five online purchases sent back to retailers. Certain shopper behaviours, such as over-ordering, further amplify the impact. According to The Guardian, “serial returners” alone account for around £6.6 billion worth of returned purchases each year in the UK, leaving many retailers scrambling to manage the cost and operational burden.
Customers return items for a range of reasons: the fit isn’t right, the colour isn’t what they expected, the item arrives damaged, it was bought as a gift, or the delivery address was wrong, plus many others. Though returns are standard, there are practical steps you can take to reduce the volume and cost of returns while maintaining customer satisfaction.
Top tip: Designing a returns experience that feels easy for your customers, while still protecting your margins, is about finding the right balance. Even small changes can help. For instance, offering pre-printed returns labels and checking returns as soon as they arrive makes it quicker to put resale-ready items back into stock. Taking a closer look at why items are being returned can also be really helpful, highlighting common issues that you can work to reduce over time.
Paying attention to quality control is another area where small improvements can have a big impact. Spotting problems before items leave the warehouse helps avoid unnecessary returns and saves time, cost and frustration for both you and your customers. If you’d like to explore this in more detail, we’ve written a dedicated blog on how to reduce customer returns – read it here.