Delivery firm in the driving seat

Flexible delivery company One Stop Fulfillment has seen its business take off during the past year, driven by the surge in online shopping.

Founded in Co Laois in February 2019, the company’s strength lies in offering small companies flexible order fulfillment solutions. Its ‘pay per order’ business model is ideal for small local companies, particularly startups who don’t have their own delivery fleet.

“We offer price per order as opposed to price per product which offers real solutions for small startup businesses,” said Shane Murphy, owner of One Stop Fulfillment. “It’s ideal as it’s one less thing for them to worry about; small businesses need to keep things lean and we offer real savings. So small companies can do business, they don’t have to lose out.

“When I decided to launch a business, I wanted to build a business that would help other family businesses, people who were working from home, small companies operating out of a bedroom or a converted shed.

“There were a lot of small businesses out there who were getting orders online and they needed someone to deliver for them. A mix of SMEs and family-owned operations, their businesses were getting busier online due to Covid.

“Most of our clients are Irish, but we’ve had a few overseas companies who came upon our service when they were searching online. Some of our clients started with small numbers of orders, but since Covid came along many of those clients are now doing 100 parcels or more. With our help, they’ve been able to rapidly adjust their business to delivering online orders.”

Shane has also noticed another trend that he sees as encouraging for small indigenous companies. While it might be an anecdotal observation, he believes a lot of consumer loyalty to local traders has migrated from physical outlets to online.

“One thing that I’m seeing is that a lot of consumers still want to shop local, to support the same local businesses they were already buying from,” said Shane. “There’s still a family ethos out there among consumers.

“That loyalty has really helped a lot of small companies keep going through Covid.

“That’s partly loyalty. It’s also that people want to know that they’ll get their purchases quickly. They know that if they buy online from someone local, they’ll get their delivery faster than something coming from overseas.”

Based at its 5,500 sq ft warehouse in Clonminham Business Park, Portlaoise, One Stop Fulfillment is attracting business from all over the country. The order fulfillment model is the same, whether the delivery is 10 items or 10,000 items.

A convenient business model, it offers a simplified route to market for small e-commerce businesses. It has customers nationwide, and it also delivers overseas.

Solutions

Shane adds: “We’re offering real solutions to the two main headaches facing businesses, namel Covid and Brexit. We ship directly to Europe twice a week through Germany and avoid the UK altogether.

“We organise our custom clearance in Portlaoise cutting through all the hassle for customers. We must provide all correct information before we get a shipping label and this is crucial as it means that our customers are not affected by any unnecessary delays.

“We’re in quite a unique position in that we’ve got an excellent infrastructure in the midlands, we do European dispatch and Brexit is not posing any difficulties for our customers.”

Shane Murphy is delighted that the business has taken off so well. He heads up the family business, which he launched in 2019 along with his wife Carol and his father and mother. He is now looking to take on more staff as the business continues to expand.

“We saw a golden opportunity as there is no other fulfillment company in the country taking small orders like we do,” he said. “Small companies were finding it increasingly difficult and frustrating as they simply couldn’t make the numbers work for them; they might have had requirements for a few orders but other delivery companies only cater for big orders.

“They were meeting obstacles all along the way. We took them on and they’re growing with us; it makes sense that once they can get their route to market and fulfil their customers' requirements they are in a position to expand so it’s a win-win for everybody.”

Anna keeps her focus on fashion

Television presenter Anna Daly has been successfully using One Stop Fulfillment ever since she launched her own clothing brand, Little Bliss, last December.

A small business, working with One Stop Fulfillment has saved Anna significant time and cost. Initially, she was doing everything herself, including picking, packaging and shipping to her local postal sorting office.

Now that is all done by Shane Murphy and his wife Carol and their team at One Stop Fulfillment.

Anna said: “It was taking up a lot of my time as the brand grew fast, but I knew fulfilment companies didn’t come cheap.

“Shane came highly recommended from various other Irish business owners I know and he was the only one I heard of doing an affordable fulfilment solution for a start up like me.”

One Stop Fulfillment collects and delivers Anna’s goods and it also packs them in the warehouse in Portlaoise.

“I’m very particular about presentation,” said Anna. “My deliveries have been carefully packed in the way I would’ve done myself.

“Despite looking after various brands, Shane and Carol have been a wonderful team to work with.

“They’ve also given me a chance to build the business and see the bigger picture rather than doing post office runs and packing up boxes.”