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From Delivery Girl 🚲📦 to Outsourcing Logistics Despite Industry Norms 🚚

Foto del escritor: Melanie KalfaianMelanie Kalfaian



This morning, I had to swing by the warehouse in Kings Cross, the very first one where the whole What a Host Home journey started, and I had a flashback to the early days. “Delivery girl” was my first job title in the company. 🚚📦


Logistics was one of the biggest challenges I faced in those early days. 😩 There’s that tricky gap where you’re growing, but not quite ready to hand off responsibilities yet... it can be exhausting.


Like many entrepreneurs, at first, I handled everything myself, including packing and shipping orders. Every day, I'd load up my bike 🚴‍♀️ with packages and take them to the Royal Mail drop-off point 📮 (I was too small to meet the free pick-up minimum, and adding that extra cost just wasn’t an option). Let’s just say, my legs were definitely in better shape back then 😂


Then, in 2023, after much deliberation, I made the smartest decision I could have made: outsourcing logistics to a fulfillment company 🤖, allowing me to focus on what really mattered, the strategic development of the brand💡


To be honest, I hesitated a lot. Most of my competitors manage logistics in-house, which made me worry I’d lose control over the order preparation process. 😬


But after talking with industry veterans with over 20 years of experience 👩‍🏫, I came to the humble conclusion that it’s best to keep the internal structure lean and outsource as much as possible.


I realised that the reason my competitors didn’t outsource was likely because, once you’ve built a large internal setup (with a loan for a warehouse or a team of 10 employees), it’s really hard to scale back. 📉


Now, I can scale quickly in both B2C and B2B, handling anywhere from 10 to 1,000 orders per day. 📦📈 I don’t have to worry about staffing or training employees who might leave. Plus, my outsourced logistics setup offers a low fixed storage cost and, most importantly, a variable cost per order prepared. This significantly reduces my fixed costs and, therefore, the risk of the company folding. The same goes for returns. It’s all sorted. ✅


And not to mention, I can track and manage my orders from anywhere in the world 🌍 through their platform.


The journey with a fulfillment company hasn’t been without its challenges. I had to professionalise my internal processes, especially when receiving products from my suppliers and applying barcodes to everything for better control (something I didn’t do before). But two years in, and I’m glad I made the switch. 😊


I’d love to hear from others who sell physical products how did you manage your logistics? Let me know! 💬


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© 2021 by Melanie Kalfaian

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