Most eCommerce businesses begin with one warehouse. And, of course, it makes sense: you need to manage costs and keep things simple.
However, as you grow, particularly when selling to customers in different countries, shifting orders from different sites is the platform on which international growth is built.
The business case for multi-site fulfilment boils down to three primary factors: speed, cost, and opportunity. Faster deliveries, lower shipping expenses, and the ability to properly break into new markets without the barrier of long-distance fulfilment.
Here, we’ll look at what drives businesses to make the switch, the true benefits of multi-site fulfilment and how technology makes managing multiple warehouses far simpler than most people think.
In this article
When Single-Site Fulfilment Hits Its Limits
Single-site fulfilment – when you run your fulfilment operation from one warehouse, typically in your home market – works brilliantly… until suddenly it doesn’t.
Here are some triggers, red flags or signals that show when single-site fulfilment might be limiting your growth:
1. Experiencing or Preparing for International Demand
By the time you’re considering multi-site fulfilment, there’s a good chance you’re starting to see interest from international customers.
That demand could be the result of your own organic or paid marketing efforts — or it might appear more spontaneously, such as a viral video that causes demand to surge overnight (something some of J&J’s clients know all too well).
Alternatively, you might be actively preparing to expand into new regions you’ve already researched and validated.
If you’re seeing consistent growth in specific overseas markets — despite longer delivery times and higher shipping costs — that’s a strong signal there’s untapped potential. Potential that a local fulfilment presence could help you unlock.
2. High Costs of Scaling Internationally from One Site
Yes, shipping internationally from one site can work — to a point. But the costs of doing so consistently begin to outweigh the benefits.
Long delivery distances, customs and regulatory hurdles, and unreliable timelines all start to deteriorate both operational efficiency and profitability.
It poses an awkward choice: Do you let your bottom line profitability take the full hit or pass some costs onto your customers? Both can impact growth prospects.
3. The Customer Experience Gap
While your domestic customers might receive their orders in 1–2 days, international customers could be waiting one, two, even three weeks. In an era where next-day delivery is the norm, international shipping times are more off-putting than ever.
Research suggests that up to 50% of shoppers are willing to accept a one-week international delivery time — quite reasonable until you factor in the cost.
Achieving one-week delivery from the UK to the USA, Asia, Oceania, or even parts of Europe is rarely cheap. The same goes for shipping from the US to the UK/Europe. And in most cases, those costs don’t scale easily.
4. Inventory Becomes Harder to Balance
As you scale, inventory management becomes a much greater concern. When all your stock is in one place, you’re constantly walking a tightrope between overstocking (which ties up cash) and understocking (which means missed sales).
This becomes even more difficult when you’re serving regions with different seasonal cycles, holidays, or local demand spikes.
The Strategic Advantages of Multi-Site Fulfilment
Rather than being viewed solely as a necessity to address the frictions and pain points of operating from one location, multi-site fulfilment confers many strategic advantages that truly enable international expansion.
Here’s why:
You’ll Reduce Your Shipping Costs
The most obvious and immediate benefit of basing stock closer to customers is reduced shipping costs. Domestic shipping is often less than half the price of shorter international shipments or many times cheaper than long-distance shipping.
Whites Beaconsfield, a teeth-whitening kit supplier who expanded to the US off the back of a highly successful viral marketing campaign, worked with us to secure a 66% reduction in US shipping costs after setting up in our Ohio fulfilment centre – a massive boost to their bottom line.
You’ll Accelerate Delivery Speed, Boosting Customer Experience
Instead of international shipments taking 1-3 weeks, they’ll often reach customers at domestic-level speed.
For Whites Beaconsfield, their US customers began receiving orders 11 days faster on average.
This has a massive impact on conversion rate – sports bottle brand Karta Bottle saw its US market share jump from 5% to 55% after partnering with our US fulfilment centre, in part due to the improved delivery speed and reliability.
You’ll Cut Risks and Diversify Sales
With inventory distributed across multiple locations, your business becomes more resilient to disruptions.
Whether it’s regional shipping delays, warehouse issues, or unexpected border hold-ups – which are more common than ever – localised fulfilment is a huge advantage.
Cards Against Humanity demonstrates this perfectly. While they built their own fulfilment network in the US, they partnered with J&J to handle UK and European orders, offering region-specific versions of their legendary game.
You’ll Save Valuable Time
Multi-site fulfilment dramatically reduces the time your team spends managing orders and customer queries. With proper systems in place, businesses report significant time savings that can be redirected toward growth activities.
Whites Beaconsfield’s customer service team saved an estimated 390 hours annually – time previously spent tracking down international orders and responding to delivery queries.
As their COO James Pryor explains: “ControlPort™ is all about saving time. It allows us to see more and do more so much faster.”
You’ll Truly be able to Bring Your Brand to a Global Audience
Perhaps most importantly, multi-site fulfilment opens doors to genuine market expansion.
Single-site fulfilment always risks being a bottleneck in today’s highly globalised eCommerce market – especially if a marketing campaign really explodes. When you can match or beat local competitors on delivery speed and cost, you’re no longer at a disadvantage.
J&J Can Help You Achieve Multi-Site Fulfilment Success
As we’ve explored, when businesses come to us about multi-site fulfilment, they’ve usually hit an obstacle or two with their current setup.
J&J helps brands overcome these obstacles. We’ve been supporting eCommerce fulfilment for top brands around the world since 2010, working with everyone from bedroom startups to established brands that ship thousands of orders daily.
We’ve built the perfect fulfilment network and tech stack for eCommerce brands that want to expand globally.
Our warehouses are in the right places, our systems talk to each other, and our team understands what matters to your customers.
Our Strategic Global Fulfilment Locations
We’ve established a global network of fulfilment centres, all carefully developed to provide maximum reach:
- Northampton, United Kingdom: A central hub for UK and European shipping, offering excellent connectivity and rapid delivery throughout Britain. For many businesses, this is their starting point.
- Venlo, Netherlands: Positioned in Europe’s logistics hotspot, our EU facility provides unparalleled access to major European markets without post-Brexit complications.
- Columbus, Ohio & Las Vegas, Nevada: Our dual US locations ensure coast-to-coast coverage, with Columbus serving the East Coast and central regions while Las Vegas provides efficient access to the West Coast market.
- Toronto, Canada: A dedicated solution for the Canadian market that eliminates cross-border shipping complexities.
- Brisbane, Australia: Provides access to the Oceania region, dramatically reducing shipping times compared to UK or US-based fulfilment.
Rather than committing to full global expansion at once, you can start with one additional location and expand your multi-site strategy as regional sales grow.
ControlPort™: The Technology That Stitches It All Together
Multi-site fulfilment is overwhelming when you lack powerful software to manage it.
Our proprietary ControlPort™ platform serves as the central nervous system of your global fulfilment operation, giving you total visibility and control across all locations from a single interface.
It integrates directly with your eCommerce platforms like Shopify, Amazon, and WooCommerce, creating that all-important connection between your sales channels and all our fulfilment centres worldwide.
ControlPort™ makes handling multiple warehouses straightforward by giving you:
- Centralised inventory management: Track stock levels across all locations in real-time, set global reorder points, and make informed decisions about inventory placement.
- Seamless order routing: The system automatically sends orders to the best fulfilment centre based on what’s in stock, where the customer is located, and how quickly they need their order.
- Complete order visibility: Track any order’s progress in real-time, whether it shipped from the UK, US, or Australia.
- Data-driven insights: See which products sell best in which regions, identify shipping cost variations, and spot trends across markets. This helps you make smarter decisions about inventory placement, shipping options, and regional marketing strategies.
With ControlPort™, what could be a logistical nightmare becomes a strategic advantage – giving you the tools to manage multiple global locations as easily as you would manage one.
Multi-Site Fulfilment Case Studies
Here are some key insights from clients we’ve worked with to expand internationally, moving from single-site to multi-site fulfilment in the process:
| Brand | Challenge | Solution | Quote / Impact | Key Results / KPIs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whites Beaconsfield | Viral TikTok ad campaign drove a surge in US orders. Lacked fulfilment support or presence in the region. | Activated J&J’s US site for better fulfilment and local delivery. | “After our TikTok blew up in America, J&J had us live within a week, helping us reach more happy customers in a key growth market.” – Founder, WTC | Shipments in region in under a week. 6-figure US growth unlocked in under 6 months. |
| Dotty Dungarees | Expensive & slow DTC shipping from UK. Losing basket value with long delivery windows from the UK. | Integrated into J&J’s US fulfilment site to access inventory locally for US orders. | “We genuinely wouldn’t have been able to expand into the American market without J&J.” – Alice Goldsmith, Co-founder | Enabled fast, affordable US delivery. Helped confidently expand collection to unlock US growth. |
| Dr. Squatch | International delivery-based TikTok drove huge spike in UK demand. Faced long delivery windows and low reliability. | Distributed inventory across J&J’s UK & EU fulfilment centres to shorten delivery windows and improve reliability. | “J&J’s regional experience has been a game-changer. We’re now delighting UK customers and seeing significantly better ROI from every pound spent on fulfilment.” – Senior Fulfilment Manager, Dr. Squatch | 3x faster delivery time. Significant reduction in fulfilment-related churn. |
| Karta Bottles | Overnight TikTok demand in US left them struggling operationally and manually fulfilling from UK. | Used J&J’s US fulfilment site to store, pick, and ship regionally with full integration into their tech stack. | “Inventory was in the US and live within 1 week. We now ship across the US & Canada via tracked D2C from J&J’s fulfilment centre.” | US market opened in days. Fully integrated fulfilment enabled repeat demand capture during peak trading. |
| Cards Against Humanity | Needed to expand into EU. Struggled to find a scalable partner to handle returns, VAT, and speak-off tickets. | Partnered with J&J to activate EU fulfilment site and streamline D2C shipping to all EU markets, with a tech stack built for returns and customer service. | “J&J is a great partner – helping us activate Europe quickly with the same standards we expect in the US.” – EU Operations Lead | Dedicated local fulfilment and returns in place. Helped grow market share while minimising service-related churn and ticket loss. |
The Business Case For Multi-Site Fulfilment is Clear
The case for multi-site fulfilment ultimately comes down to growth potential.
Businesses with ambitions beyond their home market need a fulfilment strategy that removes barriers rather than creating them. When you ship internationally from a single location, you place artificial limits on your business:
- High shipping costs restrict your pricing strategy or eat into margins
- Longer delivery times create friction in the customer experience
- Vulnerability to regional disruptions puts your entire operation at risk
Put simply, multi-site fulfilment eliminates these constraints. With strategically placed inventory, you can compete effectively in international markets, deliver orders faster, and build a more resilient business.
If you’re seeing signs that your business has outgrown single-site fulfilment, we’d be happy to discuss how a multi-site strategy could work for your business.
Our team can help you evaluate the right locations, technology setup, and transition plan to make the process smooth and effective.
Get in touch today to learn more about how J&J can help your business smash through geographical barriers and reach its full potential.
This is part 5 of our series on fulfilment centre strategy. You can read the rest of the series here:
- Single vs Multi-Site Fulfilment: What’s the Best Strategy For You?
- How to Develop an Effective Fulfilment Centre Location Strategy
- Strategic Inventory Management: When and how to split your stock
- How Fulfilment Software Enables Multi-Location Fulfilment
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