Order Fulfilment Centres in the UK: Costs, Benefits & How They Work

Martin Jezy11 July 20259 min

How Fulfilment Centres Work in the UK – and Whether Outsourcing Your Logistics Is Worth It:

Running an online shop in the UK and seeing orders flood in? That’s great news—until your living room starts looking like a warehouse and your to-do list never ends.

Picture this: your business is growing fast, sales are up, but keeping on top of packaging and shipping is eating into your time (and sanity). You and your team are already putting in long hours just to get orders out the door. Suddenly, that boom in business starts to feel more like a bottleneck.

If that sounds familiar, it might be time to look into using a UK-based fulfilment centre. In this article, we’ll walk you through how fulfilment centres work, what they can offer, and whether outsourcing your logistics could be a smart move—for your UK operations and beyond!

What is an Order Fulfilment Centre?

  • An “order fulfilment centre” (or “fulfillment center”, sometimes also called “fulfilment house”) is the central hub in logistics that facilitates the movement of goods from merchants to their customers. These warehouses are specifically designed to take over the logistics processes of e-commerce retailers and efficiently deliver products to customers.

In a fulfilment centre, orders are received, processed, packaged, and ultimately shipped to the customers. Modern order fulfilment centres employ automation extensively, saving valuable time and resources and alleviating the workload on companies.

Some logistics service providers opt to utilize external fulfilment centres to handle fulfilment operations for their customers. However, there are fulfilment providers like Quivo that operate their own warehouse in the UK, functioning as dedicated Order Fulfilment Centres. This approach ensures consistent quality in logistics services across multiple countries. 

Quivo for example offers 8 proprietary order fulfilment locations, forming the core of our global logistics network.

What Is Order Fulfilment?

  • “Fulfilment” or “order fulfilment” covers everything that happens after a customer places an order in your online shop. That includes processing the order, storing the product, picking and packing it, dispatching the parcel, and even handling returns.
     
  • A professional e-commerce fulfilment provider — with its own order fulfilment centres — takes care of all these steps. Think of it as a highly efficient, fast-moving warehouse that handles thousands of orders every single day.

Their main goal is to relieve you of all logistical worries so that you can focus on your core business, which is marketing your products. The more your business grows, the more it makes sense to outsource your fulfilment. As the order volume increases, so does the effort required on your part, while the cost-benefit factor improves by utilizing an order fulfilment centre.

Order fulfilment centre in the uk

When to Use an Order Fulfilment Centre

  1. Your online store is growing and the order volume is increasing. The packages are stacking up and the pressure is mounting. Ultimately, you want your customers to receive their orders as quickly as possible so that they are satisfied with your service.
  2. You'll need to rent additional storage space and hire staff purely to handle the shipping of your products. This entails salaries, insurance, regulations,
  3. Organising packaging materials and pick-ups and managing returns is very time-consuming and costly.
  4. You no longer get round to developing new ideas and taking care of your marketing channels, or you have less time and energy for enquiries from your customers.

What You Can Expect from an Order Fulfilment Centre

  1.   Your products will be received and stored professionally.
  2.  Orders will automatically arrive in the order fulfilment centre and will be processed.  
  3.  Orders will be picked – that is, put together and packed – by employees. 
  4.  Labelled parcels will be handed over to shipping service providers:
  5.  Returns: returned parcels will be checked, classified and managed appropriately according to customer requirements.
  • 3PL fulfilment providers like Quivo with their own transport department will also take care of the pallet transport of goods for companies on request – whether from the production site to the customer or to the fulfilment centre.  

What’s the Difference Between an Order Fulfilment Centre and a Warehouse?

  • An Order Fulfilment Centre acts as a dynamic hub where products move in and out quickly. Its main role is to process customer orders efficiently—not to store stock long-term. The faster items are packed and shipped, the better, since extended storage just takes up costly space. Fulfilment Centres also handle a wide range of logistics tasks beyond basic storage, including picking, packing, and shipping.
     
  • Traditional warehouses, on the other hand, are more static. They're designed for long-term storage and usually focus on holding stock and managing inventory, with fewer day-to-day logistics processes.

How Does an Order Fulfilment Centre Work?

The goal of an Order Fulfilment Centre is to get online orders from the customers of a webshop to their doorstep as quickly as possible. This requires various processes that intertwine in a fulfilment centre:

  1. The systems are connected to each other so that the so-called order fulfilment functions and orders are automatically sent from the webshop to the fulfilment centre. E-Commerce Fulfilment providers use modern logistics management tools that continuously synchronise the data.

    The Quivo Connector, for example, connects all common webshop systems, such as Shopify, WooCommerce or Billbee, in no time at all through prepackaged interfaces. The entrepreneurs then only create the items that need to be stored in the logistics tool and can already deliver their products to the Fulfilment Centre.
     
  2. Of course, a company's inventory must first reach the Order Fulfilment Centre. Companies can have the goods delivered themselves or, for example, commission all-in-one Order Fulfilment Providers like Quivo to pick up their products and take them to the fulfilment centre.
     
  3. Employees receive the companies’ inventory and store it in a strategically favourable manner so that the subsequent picking of the products requires as little effort as possible. As soon as an order comes in, the prepared products are packaged and handed over to shipping service providers with their labels ready.
     

Logsta works with a variety of shipping partners – from Deutsche Post to DPD, GLS, RoyalMail and FedEx, etc.

shipping service providers

The Pros and Cons of Using an Order Fulfilment Centre

(3PL) E-Commerce fulfilment providers are strategic partners for companies due to their extensive experience and well-established processes, as they ship thousands of parcels every day.
 

  • Efficiency:
    An Order fulfilment centre can greatly accelerate the processing of your logistics since all processes in the warehouse are designed for maximum efficiency. This leads to greater customer satisfaction as orders are sent out immediately, which, in turn, strengthens your brand.

In addition, order fulfilment centres are usually very flexible: whether during peak times around Christmas or during the silly season where nothing is going on – business remains the same. You don't have to hire any additional staff or worry about not keeping up. Your logistics are scalable and simply grow with you.

The disadvantage is that you have less control over the logistics procedures, since the processes in an order fulfilment centre, which are often automated, vary depending on the service provider. Customised branding  or personalisation of packages is carried out at an additional cost.
 

  • Effort:
    Every order that comes in is automatically forwarded, processed and dispatched. You no longer have to worry about anything being overlooked. The order fulfilment centre will handle tim—consuming aspects such as:
     
    • Inventory management in the warehouse
    • Negotiating favourable rates with shipping service providers
    • Packaging, labelling and shipping parcels
    • Coordinating with shipping services and customs clearance
    • Returns management, incl. classification
    • Additional service at Quivo: B2B shipments

In the case of very low order volumes or large, bulky products, the entire process can be too laborious or will hardly pay off for you once all costs are factored in. In the case of returns, especially, consultation and precise coordination are often necessary, which can take quite some time.
 

  • Costs:
    Time is money. And an order fulfilment centre gives you an enormous amount of time to focus on the essentials. Outsourcing your operational logistics means you can focus on marketing and growing your e-commerce store. This allows you to plan things more strategically and to take care of the things that only you and your employees can do. However, you keep a full overview of all your logistics processes.

The disadvantage with this: in the event of a very low order volume, outsourcing to an order fulfilment centre can often be more expensive than shipping items oneself. In most cases, it is only worthwhile outsourcing a certain quantity of packages per month. It will depend on the individual case in question. Contact us – together we will find a suitable solution for you.

How Much Does It Cost to Use an Order Fulfilment Centre?

If you handle your logistics yourself, you will face various costs and obligations, which are often underestimated. Without taking into account the time involved, these would include:

  • Renting storage space
  • Using warehouse management software
  • The salaries of (warehouse) employees
  • Warehouse vehicles, equipment and insurance
  • Boxes and packaging materials
  • Postage and shipping costs

The fulfilment process itself is highly individual and depends on the products and shipping volume. One major advantage of Order Fulfilment is its scalability. It grows with your business and the increasing order volume. By outsourcing your logistics, you can significantly reduce concerns and fully focus on the growth of your company.

In most cases, it is worthwhile to outsource your logistics as it saves you a lot of time and effort, while the fulfilment center effectively relieves you of the workload. It is best to clarify the specific details with your fulfilment provider.

Typically, as the shipping volume increases, your logistics become more cost-effective due to process optimization, resulting in reduced effort per package.

Fulfilment centre Operations

Order Fulfilment itself is a very individual process – it can sometimes be even more expensive for you to outsource things. Most of the time, however, it is worthwhile even in that case, because you can save a lot of time and effort, and the Order Fulfilment Centre can take a great deal off your hands. It is best to clarify the details with your particular E-commerce Fulfilment Provider.

The more you ship, of course, the cheaper your logistics will become, because the optimisation of the processes will result in less outlay per package.

  • The rule of thumb is:

Aggregate all the logistics costs involved in shipping items yourself and compare these with the costs of using an Order Fulfilment company – if you arrive at approximately the same price, it is worth using an Order Fulfilment Centre.
 

Write to us if you are looking for an Order Fulfilment Centre – we will find a flexible logistics solution that will pay off for you!

 

 

Sources

Page: What is a Fulfillment Center and why is it important?
URL: www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net

Page: Fulfillment Center
URL: https://simplexity.news

Pictures: Logsta / Quivo © 2025, pexels, pixabay

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