How will your fulfillment process change if you start shipping to Belgium and Germany as well?

Most online stores are expecting a redesign and will be expanding. Your inventory will remain in one place, your orders will come in through the same integration, and the warehouse will pack them the same way. The changes are in the final step: which carrier will pick up the package, how long it will take to arrive, and how returns are handled.

Your inventory isn't splitting

Maintaining separate inventory for each country sounds logical but rarely works. You end up storing the same items in two different locations, you have to reorder for each country, and if an item is out of stock in one country, it blocks an order that could have been fulfilled from the other country. A single central inventory that serves all countries keeps reordering simple and ensures high availability.

The carrier changes, but the process doesn't

We ship via PostNL, DHL, and bpost. Which carrier will deliver your package to Belgium or Germany depends on its size and destination, and we’ll discuss the specifics during our initial conversation. Nothing changes at the warehouse: picking, packing, and pre-shipment checks remain the same, and in your account, you’ll be able to see which carrier picked up each order.

Plan for an extra day

A shipment to Belgium or Germany covers more kilometers and is transferred more often. That doesn’t mean your customer has to wait a long time, but it does mean that the delivery promise on your product page is different than for the Netherlands. List that promise separately for each country instead of giving an average that doesn’t make sense anywhere.

Packaging that just meets the requirements is no longer sufficient

What arrives in good condition in the Netherlands often has a rougher time internationally. When making your first international shipments, check to make sure the packaging is still appropriate, especially for fragile or heavy items. A box that gets jostled around a little extra has to be able to withstand it.

Returns come in from a different direction

A customer in Germany doesn't return items to the same address as a customer in the Netherlands. Agree in advance where international returns will be sent, who will cover the costs, and how quickly an item will be back in stock. That's the part that online stores most often forget to set up.

Your cutoff remains the same

Orders received by 11:59 p.m. will be shipped the next business day. This also applies to your international orders. What happens after that varies by carrier and by country, but the deadline by which you must have your orders forwarded remains the same.

Start before you need to

Many online stores don’t set up their international logistics until orders are already coming in, and then they run up against their own capacity limits. Laying a solid foundation early on costs very little extra and prevents your growth from being slowed down by a lack of warehouse space or manual labor.