Fulfilment services For Shopping Channel: Thane Direct UK

Thane Direct UK – the leading UK shopping channel Thane UK is part of Thane International Inc. one of the largest direct response and retail marketers in the world.

In business for over 6 years and with an annual turnover of £7m, Thane Direct UK has created highly successful brands in such diverse product  ategories as health & beauty, fitness, weight loss, kitchen/house wares,  entertainment, selfimprovement and pet care.

In 2006, Orbital Response & Fulfilment (Orbital R&F) won the pitch to manage Thane UK’s mail order fulfilment.

Objective - Fulfilment Task

• To fulfil orders
• To manage stock and despatch
• To handle returns
• To manage quality checks

Fulfilment Activity

Orbital R&F is providing a same-day fulfilment and stock management service for UK and Ireland customer orders generated by viewers of Thane’s two shopping channels, broadcast on Sky and FreeSat and their substantial Internet shop business.

On a continual basis Orbital R&F manage and fulfil all orders by going onto Thane’s stock management system via a VPN link or web browser to retrieve
customer orders. Orbital R&F hold hundreds of stock sku’s and despatch thousands of consignments per week. The items ordered are ‘pick and packed’ at the specialist mail order fulfilment warehouse in Rushden and sent via Royal Mail or courier to the UK, Ireland and across Europe.

As part of the account management role, Orbital R&F produce weekly and monthly reports for analysis, accounting and audit purposes. These consist of documenting weekly stock held, quantities of goods returned, items ‘reprocessed’ and returned to stock, goods out for re-delivery, wholesale product sales to third parties and stock management.

Of the consignments despatched to customers, Thane receive a number of returns back per month which are processed by Orbital R&F. A dedicated quality assessment team handle these returns, relevant quality checks are carried out to determine whether they are suitable for reprocessing so the goods can be returned to prime or seconds stock, or to be disposed of.

Result

The relationship between Orbital and Thane UK has gone from strength to strength.

“Thane Direct UK is delighted to be working with Orbital R&F. When we first set up the contract, the move to Orbital’s warehouse in Rushden was seamless, and the team were extremely professional. We have always sought partners capable of working and adapting to our quite unique, fast moving and dynamic distance selling environment.

We firmly believe that we have made the right choice in selecting Orbital R&F to manage our fulfilment. Two years on, we are still pleased with their dedication and pro-active approach to managing our account”.

Thomas Parrott, Managing Director Thane Direct UK Ltd