Operations

Freshly Brewed Content by GFS

Freshly Brewed Content by GFS

Dive into unparalleled, freshly brewed content! Whether on our website, at events, or through our marketing channels, we take pride in delivering content that stands out. Take a peek at our year so far…

If you are having trouble viewing the video, please allow all browser cookies or watch on YouTube

Multi-carrier delivery and returns without the pain

Hear more from our customers

Want to know more?

2024-03-25T19:51:46+00:00November 28th, 2023|

Q&A with Rachel White from Cotswold Trading

Q&A with Rachel White from Cotswold Trading

For nearly 30 years now, Cotswold Trading has been offering uniquely stylish, beautifully designed home & garden wares and gifts through their award-winning destination store and their website to customers in the UK and internationally.

Watch our interview with Rachel White from Cotswold Trading to get insights on managing customer expectations, shipping to the EU, and what the cost of living crisis means for the business.

If you are having trouble viewing the video, please allow all browser cookies or watch on YouTube

Multi-carrier delivery and returns without the pain

Hear more from our customers

Want to know more?

2023-11-28T11:59:03+00:00May 3rd, 2023|

Quick Q&A with Fawkes Cycles

Quick Q&A with Fawkes Cycles – Sports eCommerce Brand

We spoke with Amanda Bishop, Director, Fawkes Cycles about her Sports eCommerce business in the cycle industry. What is the role of delivery in the shopping experience for their customers? And how does working with GFS protect the delivery experience?

If you are having trouble viewing the video, please allow all browser cookies or watch on YouTube

1000+ services in one place

Peak Bulletin 2022

Weekly updates on Peak straight to your inbox

Want to know more?

2024-01-10T14:28:01+00:00November 25th, 2022|

Integrating GFS and Visualsoft Services – How to Tutorial

Integrating GFS and Visualsoft Services – How to Tutorial

For Visualsoft customers using GFS as their delivery partner, we have created this ‘How To’ video, showing you how to set up specific services.

If you are having trouble viewing the video, please allow all browser cookies or watch on YouTube

Visualsoft Integration with GFS

Our technology partners

Want to know more?

2023-05-17T12:52:27+00:00July 25th, 2022|

Sarah Edmonds Illustration – Fulfilment Warehouse Tour

Sarah Edmonds Illustration – Fulfilment Warehouse Tour

Hear from Sarah and Matt from Sarah Edmonds Illustration about how GFS Fulfilment helped them adapt to the rapid growth of their business, and enabled them to sell into new suppliers and customers across the world!

If you are having trouble viewing the video, please allow all browser cookies or watch on YouTube

Flexible and bespoke Fulfilment Services

Hear more from our customers

Want to know more?

2023-11-28T12:14:41+00:00June 27th, 2022|

The Challenges of Trading into Europe from the UK – GFS & Infinity Nation Podcast

The Challenges of Trading into Europe from the UK – GFS & Infinity Nation Podcast

Bobbie Ttooulis from GFS talks to Al Keck from Infinity Nation to discuss the complexities of trading into Europe and UK eCommerce. Find out ways to overcome these challenges and reboot your sales into Europe.

If you are having trouble viewing the video, please allow all browser cookies or watch on YouTube

Multi-carrier delivery and fulfilment from the EU

Friction-Free Shipping to the EU

Contact us for IOSS Services

2023-05-17T12:53:06+00:00May 19th, 2022|

IOSS: 5 Myths on Post-Brexit Trade with the EU

IOSS: 5 Myths on Post-Brexit Trade with the EU

Is your business one of the 47% UK businesses whose sales and revenue have been impacted due to reduced or complete halt to trading with the EU?

Despite EU being the biggest trading partner for the UK, the value of UK goods exported to the EU fell by 45% between December ‘20 and January ‘21.

GFS has partnered with SimplyVAT to debunk some of the biggest myths and misconceptions that are standing in the way of qualified businesses rebooting sales with the EU and widening their market share.

If you are having trouble viewing the video, please allow all browser cookies or watch on YouTube

Multi-carrier delivery and fulfilment from the EU

Selling to the EU just got easier and cheaper…

Contact us for IOSS Services

2023-05-17T12:53:59+00:00May 4th, 2022|

How can eCommerce delivery technology help you achieve your business goals?

How can eCommerce delivery technology help you achieve your business goals?

online shopping - man holding credit card whilst shopping online

There is much more to delivery technology than just printing labels and tracking parcels. Choosing the right delivery technology can actually help you save time, cut costs and increase productivity.

So how do you know what you should be looking for? We’ve put together the 5 big questions to ask yourself when sourcing new delivery technology to see if it will support your long-term business goals.

1. Can you multi-task and manage the entire customer journey?

You probably already know that consumer expectations are impossibly demanding! But delivery doesn’t just start at despatch and end at the doorstep. You need an eCommerce delivery solution that can simplify and unify the customer experience at every touchpoint – starting at the checkout, moving to parcel despatch, all the way through the delivery journey and finally returns. Traditionally this has required multiple eCommerce delivery solutions; perhaps different eCommerce and marketplace integrations, various carrier labelling platforms and printers and then maybe a separate returns portal. But this only creates complex and disjointed view of your delivery operation. An end-to-end enterprise carrier management platform can increase visibility, accuracy and consistency throughout the customer journey resulting in greater service levels and lower operational costs.

What does multi-carrier technology look like?

2. Will it save time and free up resource?

Automation is essential for increasing efficiency and decreasing complexity especially as more channels, countries and carriers are added to the shipping mix. The level of automation you need will depend on your parcel volumes, but there are some key workflows and processes that can be simplified for retailers big and small. For example, by automating address validation, you can ensure that data entered by a customer is correct, which prevents parcels from getting lost or delayed. Automated labelling will speed up despatch and free staff from manually processing shipments. You can even automatically calculate Duties & Taxes and electronic customs documentation to help international parcels whizz through customs. At the end of the day, your eCommerce shipping solutions should make your life easy, so you can put more time and effort into selling and growing your business!

3. Can your delivery technology adapt to change?

If we’ve learnt anything it’s that you never know what’s round the corner, so your eCommerce delivery needs to be able to keep up with the rapid pace of eCommerce and potential market changes. And that means it needs to be scalable and flexible. Can new carriers be added quickly and easily? Can new channels and marketplaces be supported? Can you ship abroad with ease? Don’t just think about today’s challenges but tomorrow’s opportunities. By future-proofing your choice of delivery technology, you’ll be able to maximise your return of investment and your ability to adapt.

Want to make sure you have delivery contingency when you need it most?

From analytics to automation: what’s the outlook for delivery technology?

4. Are you able to unlock customer and delivery data insights?

To keep improving and evolving, you need to be able to monitor and analyse what’s happening at every stage of the delivery operation. From pinpointing the bottlenecks to understanding peaks in demand, where you could improve the customer experience and where you could reduce costs, analytics are essential to driving greater efficiency and accuracy. When selecting a new eCommerce delivery solution, make sure it can aggregate data from multiple carriers and sources to provide that all-important 360-degree view.

5. Can you integrate other eCommerce platforms?

eCommerce platforms. Warehouse management systems. Barcode scanners. For seamless omnichannel order fulfilment, delivery solutions need to integrate with all your other processes and tools. And these integrations need to be established and updated easily to avoid expensive development effort. But that’s just the start of the integration challenge. Your delivery platform also needs to be able to connect with carriers’ systems and online marketplaces to enable real-time order updates. By investing in a solution that enables data sharing across internal and external systems, you will be able to provide a richer customer experience.

Selecting a new solution can be an overwhelming and time-consuming at the best of times – it’s a big responsibility!

But it gets even harder when the technology landscape is constantly evolving. By focusing on the business enablers rather than the system features, you’ll be able to stay focused on the needs of your users and your customers.

GFS Enterprise Carrier Management offers a complete technology toolkit that enhances every stage of the delivery journey, from delivery options at the checkout, to labelling, tracking and reporting – across all carriers, countries and sales channels – through one single integration. This gives you everything you need to streamline operational processes, boost productivity and scale as you grow. Click here to find out more.

Want to know more?

luxury legs logo

Case Study

“GFS technology has helped us cut despatch time by 50%”

2023-09-01T13:32:50+00:00May 17th, 2021|

How to make delivery and returns to the EU friction-free

How to make delivery and returns to the EU friction-free

In this live demo we talk through how our eCommerce software can help you automatically calculate Duties & Taxes on all products, Display ‘Duties & Taxes Paid’ (DTP) or ‘Duty At Place’ (DAP) prices to consumers at checkout, generate electronic customs declarations on outbound shipments and produce customs codes and declarations for Duty relief on inbound returns.

If you are having trouble viewing the video, please allow all browser cookies or watch on YouTube

Multi-carrier delivery and fulfilment from the EU

Selling to the EU just got easier and cheaper…

Contact us – we’re here to help!

2023-05-17T15:16:24+00:00March 24th, 2021|

See eCommerce Delivery Differently and Make Your Job Easier

See eCommerce Delivery Differently and Make Your Job Easier

man on a computer in a shop with parcels around him

We all want to work for a successful, growing business. But with growth comes pressure to fulfil demand, with ever-changing customer expectations, sales channels and international regulations, which only adds to operational complexity. There’s also the added challenge of ensuring you have effective contingency plans to deal with peak periods or times of unexpected change. Efficiency is critical to ensure you can scale to sustain this growth long-term. But how can you keep delivery simple, when it only seems to be getting more complicated?

person scanning parcels in a warehouse

Multiple carriers shouldn’t mean multiple technologies

To get the range of delivery options you need to meet the needs of your customers, you’ve likely opted to use multiple carriers for shipping. But this means you may be dealing with multiple printers, labels and processes. You might also have various technology integrations to deal with, which crucially results in a disjointed and fragmented view of your overall operation.

So, what’s the best plan? The answer is simple – embrace multi-carrier technology. By consolidating all your carriers into a single multi-carrier platform, you still get all the advantages of multi-carrier shipping, but you can despatch all your parcels through one system. This offers one centralised system which will streamline your processes so you can do things faster, increase the productivity of your warehouse staff and free up precious man-hours to focus on more business-critical tasks.

Multi-carrier eCommerce technology with a one-time integration

hands holding a globe

Support global growth with expert support

Shipping internationally presents many operational challenges – what are the best carriers and most cost-effective services for each market? What customs duties need to be paid? Are there specific trade regulations to consider? It’s fair to say cross-border delivery isn’t easy!

Especially now that we’ve left the EU, eCommerce businesses should be prepared for continued disruption and changes to cross-border trade. Carriers have reported delays at the borders and have been known to switch services on/off at the drop of a hat. A global multi-carrier delivery partner can help you stay abreast of regulatory developments as they happen, and offer industry insight, breadth of service and technology automation to take the hard work out of cross-border delivery.

Access to 1000+ service options with our multi-carrier services

woman on the phone looking relieved

Have a ‘Plan B’ when you need it most

Peak is the busiest, and most lucrative, event in the eCommerce calendar. But it takes a lot of work behind the scenes to make it happen. Lots of customers depend on you, and your carriers, to get their orders to them on time.

While you can do everything possible to plan and prepare, if we’ve learnt anything in recent times, it’s that we never know what’s round the corner. What’s your plan when things go wrong? Can you switch carriers quickly and easily? Can you get extra vehicle capacity if orders overtake your forecasts? Do you know what other options are available to you?

At GFS, we combine our expertise with innovative technology to help you streamline your multi-carrier approach, maximise your resources and give you contingency, both at peak times and throughout the rest of the year. From the latest tech to global capabilities, we’ve got your back.

To test your current readiness and capabilities, take one of our quizzes now…

Delivery contingency when you need it most

Talk to us

2023-04-20T14:06:31+00:00February 11th, 2021|

Gearing up your eCommerce delivery for success in 2021

Gearing up your eCommerce delivery for success in 2021

woman on a computer happy

Gearing up your eCommerce delivery for success in 2021

Covid, Brexit, Peak – it’s fair to say 2020 was an eventful year with some big lessons learnt.

The first being that you never know what’s around the corner, and as we continue to live with Covid and get to grips with life after Brexit, we’re starting off 2021 looking ahead to a future that’s as unpredictable as ever.

2020 was massive for eCommerce. As consumers were forced to step away from the high street for the first time, eCommerce reigned supreme with consumers shopping online more than ever before.

In fact, in the UK 30% of all retail sales were online, compared to 20% in 2019. So it’s clear that Covid has accelerated eCommerce growth faster than anyone was prepared for. This really tested the resilience of retailer supply chains. Retailers and carriers were left with a bottleneck of delays, struggling to deliver orders to customers and fulfil demand.

And now we’ve entered Lockdown 3.0, and we’ve finally left the EU too, who knows what this year will bring.

The retailers that will not just survive, but really thrive this year, will be those that have taken heed of what they’ve learnt from 2020 and built the necessary contingency and agility into their delivery operation to adapt to ongoing change.

So, what can we learn from 2020 and how can you continue to deliver a consistent customer delivery experience no matter what?

people in a relaxed office chatting

1. Switch to a single multi-carrier partner

At the beginning of lockdown, carriers were overwhelmed, running over-capacity most days, and if this happens, it means they can stop collections and refuse parcels. At Christmas, carriers were operating at 90%+ capacity on most days, even 100% at times. This is not uncommon, and we see this often during peak sales periods. On the other hand, we’ve even seen major carriers go into administration at crucial times of the year.

If your carriers come up against any problems, your parcels can’t go anywhere, which just creates a traffic jam of customer orders and a cycle of delays. A single multi-carrier partner can help you easily switch carrier services if you need to, without any new contracts or integration work, so you know you always have a plan B.

It’s also the easiest way to give customers the choice and convenience they seek. 45% of customers will abandon their cart if there is a lack of delivery options. Using a multi-carrier partner gives you instant access to a wide range of options, such as same day, next day, nominated day or click and collect, all in one place so customers can choose convenience every time.

Access to 1000+ service options with our multi-carrier services

2. Streamline processes with a single multi-carrier technology platform

It’s important to protect your business from the inside out by streamlining internal systems and processes to maximise efficiencies and productivity. Just as you can consolidate your carrier services with a single multi-carrier partner, you can do the same with your despatch software.

Multi-carrier software gives you control and visibility of all parcels across all carriers to all destinations, so you can label, ship, track and trace orders all with a single integration and process.

Not only can give yourself in-the-moment flexibility and switch carrier services quickly and easily, but you can future-proof delivery and add new carrier services without any heavy integration work or additional costs. So, no matter what happens, you can adapt delivery at any time to meet the needs of your customers, operational capacity, delivery performance, budget – and avert a potential crisis too.

Multi-carrier eCommerce technology with a one-time integration

brexit puzzle

3. Prepare for the Brexit effect

While the UK has now left the EU and the beginnings of a trade agreement have been announced, we still have a long way to go. eCommerce businesses have to be prepared for continued change and disruption to cross-border trade, and in particular, shipments to/from the EU.

We’ve seen this already this year, with some carriers temporarily suspending some services to the EU due to delays at our ports and borders.

If you have a large customer-base in the EU, or have plans to expand to Europe, check you have all the required information and documentation. Shipping to the EU now requires a Customs Declaration plus evidence of the country of origin, as well as an EORI number. You may also wish to open a Duty Deferment account so you parcels can pass through customs quickly and smoothly.

Additionally, moving part of your fulfilment operation to the EU could help you avoid the cost and complexity of border controls and customs documentation altogether. This means your suppliers can deliver to your EU warehouse or fulfilment centre, and you can deliver from this location directly to your EU customers for faster shipping and a more seamless delivery experience. This will reduce the risk of delays and costs, as well as provide a base to continue growing your business in EU countries.

An expert global delivery partner will keep you updated with Brexit developments as they happen and proactively support you in implementing process changes in advance, so you’re always prepared to continue servicing your EU customers with minimal disruption.

Confused by EU shipping rules?

4. Improve Returns Efficiency

As lockdown boosted home delivery, this inevitably also led to an increase in returns.

But returns have a direct impact on the bottom line – in fact they cost UK retailers a whopping £60bn a year! (ZigZag, 2020)

With 89% of consumers checking the returns policy before making a purchase (UPS – “Pulse of the Online Shopper), retailers can’t afford to leave returns to chance. But retailers will need to manage the customer experience with operational cost – and this all comes down to efficiency.

A paperless returns portal (like GFS Global Returns Pro) can help you give customers the choice of returns options they’re looking for to clinch the sale. Electronic returns also offer better visibility of what’s being returned and why, so returns can be processed faster and goods can be returned to stock faster to help recover costs more quickly.

Returns management made simple

man scanning parcels

Make 2021 your year!

eCommerce is booming and as we enter another national lockdown, we’re expecting to see volumes soar again.

So while there’s plenty of demand, the challenge will be in ensuring your delivery operation is robust enough to fulfil this demand, from checkout to doorstep and back again, so you can secure every sale and give customers the confidence you’ll deliver every time they order again.

While customers were understanding of the longer transit times in lockdown 1.0, almost a year on consumer patience is wearing thin and the retailers that come out on top will be those that have taken the opportunity to build contingency into their supply chains.

GFS is here to offer you support and contingency whenever you need it. As one of the biggest buyers of carriage in the UK, we can offer instant access to 1000+ different global carrier services, plus our scale and influence means we find solutions fast. Whether this be escalating parcel exceptions, finding extra vehicle capacity or switching carrier services entirely – we can help you run business as usual, day after day, no matter what.

Click here to see how we could help you build your contingency plan in 2021.

Join us for our latest webinar with Tamebay: Gearing up your eCommerce Delivery for success in 2021

We’re coming out of our bunkers to see how eCommerce delivery survived the tsunami of Peak, Brexit and COVID – and to ask ourselves, what on earth happened and, most importantly, how do you gear up your eCommerce delivery for success in 2021?

Find out by registering for our webinar at 11am on Wednesday 27th January 2021!

Registering for our webinar

Talk to us

2022-03-24T14:07:02+00:00January 8th, 2021|

What does multi-carrier technology look like?

What does multi-carrier technology look like?

man holding a parcel and checking his phone

What are the key pieces of eCommerce technology needed for a multi-carrier delivery operation?

Make your shipping easy with multi-carrier technology

Thanks to customers’ continuous demand for choice and convenience (in both delivery and returns) you need to be operating at an optimum level. Add to this, the growing numbers of online marketplaces, omnichannel retail, and the need to provide in-flight delivery options, and it’s clear you need to be going above and beyond like never before. You’re no doubt already using multiple carriers to meet your customers’ needs, but this in itself presents challenges and complexity. Not even mentioning the technical integrations and multiple technologies, you’re probably finding that you have a disjointed and fragmented view of your operations. So, what is the solution? Well, given that a failure to provide customer satisfaction in today’s world can quickly result in bad reviews on sites like Trustpilot, you need to act fast.

With this in mind, what are the key pieces of technology you should look for to make multiple carrier and multi-channel shipping easy?

digitally signing for a parcel

A complete solution

There is a variety of shipping and dispatch technologies that will ultimately meet most of your needs, but they lead to a disconnection in your process, and let’s be honest… headaches. So, what you need to do is choose a comprehensive solution that requires just one easy integration that can then be added to with simple bolt-ons. This approach allows you to ‘join the dots’ in your shipping and dispatch processes and make your entire operation faster and smarter. Look for a complete solution that provides the following capabilities…

online shopping cart

1.   Point of sale

Give your customers better delivery choice and reduce cart abandonment with a delivery options plugin. Using intelligent shipping rules, the tech presents personalised delivery options at the checkout – maximising the customer experience and winning you sales. An innovative Duties and Taxes calculator will also help you decide if you want to combine duties and taxes in the cost, or let the customer choose to pay now or on delivery.

tracking a delivery on your phone

2.  Consolidate order data

Channel connector technology pulls orders from your various sales channels and extracts tracking data. You can then automatically return tracking information to your customers, no matter which sales channel they buy from. This untangles the complex flow of orders from multiple sales channels, connecting them together to unify the despatch and delivery experience.

warehouse label printer printing labels

3.  Label Production

An agile despatch platform optimises and streamlines your despatch operation, offering carrier-compliant label printing at a rate of up to 50,000 labels an hour, with automated parcel routing. This helps you get your orders out the door fast with full traceability, and ensures you send every parcel with the most suitable and economical carrier service.

man in warehouse scanning parcels on a conveyor

4.  Track and trace

A multi-carrier tracking portal provides maximum transparency and control of your shipments. Track every parcel you send in one place and raise queries to action with a built-in actions manager feature.

woman checking her laptop

5.  Analytics

With your very own delivery dashboard, you can gain a holistic view of all your shipping data, including parcel volumes, distribution across carriers, geographical locations, carrier performance and queries resolved. This enables you to make better-informed and smarter decisions in future.

customer services

6.  Customer service

Designed specifically for companies with customer service teams handling parcel issues, the latest technology empowers the team to proactively manage parcel exceptions quickly and effectively through direct contact with carriers and consignees, to reduce inbound customer queries and exceed consumer expectations.

woman annoyed about having to make a return

7.  Returns

Returns can be a horrendous drain on resource, which is why a self-serve customer portal is the next step in delivery automation. Customers can not only choose the returns service that’s most convenient, but it also takes away back-end processing that can be costly and cumbersome.

8.  Invoice reconciliation

With the right plug-ins, you can receive automated invoice analysis that evaluates charges in comparison to expected costs. The software highlights any incorrect charges, anomalies and unexpected surcharges against your agreed tariffs to ensure you never spend more than you should.

We bet you never thought that this level of capability was possible in one solution – but it is. Now, think about how much easier and streamlined your operations would be if you could do all these things via one technology at your business.

Multi-carrier eCommerce technology with a one-time integration

Simplify your shipping with GFS

At GFS, we combine our expertise and vast range of services with the latest in innovative technology to provide you all the tools you need for a complete, enterprise-level multi-carrier approach. From checkout to labelling and from dispatch through to tracking and reporting, we deliver an ‘all in one’ delivery solution. The technology is easy to integrate, simplifies dispatch and boosts warehouse efficiency, making your job easier without the need for additional resource.

You can get all of this and more with GFS Enterprise Carrier Management technology.

Talk to us

2022-03-24T14:59:47+00:00December 4th, 2020|
Go to Top