Your customers don’t think in channels, and when they buy from you, they’re not thinking about DTC, wholesale or retail – they just see your brand.
The problem is, a lot of fulfilment operations are designed around single channels. DTC orders live in one system, your wholesale orders in another, and trying to get them to work together can feel like doing a jigsaw with pieces that don’t quite fit.
This area is where effective omnichannel fulfilment can take your brand to a new level.
Omnichannel fulfilment is the process of managing and completing customer orders across multiple sales channels from a unified system.
Instead of running separate fulfilment operations from your website, Amazon store, wholesale partners and retail stockists, everything runs from one connected platform with a shared inventory pool.
Omnichannel fulfilment is about more than just selling everywhere; it’s about ensuring that your channels are connected, coordinated and working from the same real-time data.
Whether a customer buys your product on your Shopify store, through a retail partner like TK Maxx or via a social marketplace like TikTok Shop, your fulfilment process knows about it instantly and responds accordingly.
The result? Companies with effective omnichannel strategies hold an average customer retention rate of 89%, compared to 33% for those with a weaker approach.
Customers enjoy flexibility, whether that’s click-and-collect or returning online orders in-store. When you get omnichannel right, you make shopping with your brand suit a wider portion of consumer preferences.
Rather than trying to manage separate inventories and systems for each sales channel, omnichannel fulfilment centralises everything in one intelligent platform.
Here’s how it all fits together:
The beauty of an omnichannel approach is that it doesn’t require you to build your entire operation up again from scratch to add a new revenue stream.
Most omnichannel fulfilment platforms integrate with existing sales channels, marketplaces and systems, creating a unified view without forcing you to abandon any tools that have contributed to your business’s success.
The numbers tell a pretty compelling story when it comes to omnichannel. According to CapitalOne research, 73% of retail consumers identify as omnichannel shoppers, meaning they’ll flip between channels and expect a consistent experience regardless of where they buy.
But beyond just meeting the expectations of the modern shopper, omnichannel delivers some key business advantages if you get it right:
Omnichannel can be a tough nut to crack when you’re trying to get off the ground – only 15% of retail leaders say they use omnichannel systems to their full potential, with the rest being held back by ‘fragmented digital add-ons’ and ‘manual workflows’.
Here’s how forward-thinking brands are getting ahead.
The days of managing fulfilment at scale through spreadsheets and manual process are over.
Modern fulfilment – especially omnichannel – demands effective tech, so look for platforms that offer real-time inventory syncing, intelligent order routing and quick integrations with your existing sales channels.
At fulfilmentcrowd, our proprietary technology connects DTC and B2B operations under one roof, eliminating the fragmentation that holds many brands back.
If you’re selling into retail (or planning to), compliance isn’t optional. Every major retailer has its own requirements for accepting shipments, from labelling and packaging to delivery windows.
Get something wrong, and you might be faced with rejections or chargebacks that eat into your margin.
Choose a fulfilment provider with built-in compliance for partners like Tesco, TK Maxx, M&S and other major retailers. That way, you’re retail-ready from the off, not scrambling to adapt when an opportunity presents itself.
Nearly half (46%) of retailers are prioritising enhancing their omnichannel experience to drive growth in 2026, placing more importance on improving omnichannel than anything else. When it comes to enhancing omnichannel, speed matters, but so does flexibility.
Your fulfilment operation should handle everything from next-day DTC deliveries to scheduled bulk shipments. Having fulfilment centres strategically placed closer to your customers will help you reduce delivery times and costs, all while making it easier to meet international consumer expectations.
A huge advantage of omnichannel fulfilment is the intelligence you gain. When your sales channels feed into one system, you can see patterns that would be much harder to spot in siloed operations.
Which products are trending in retail but slow online? Where are stockouts costing you sales? Which channels deliver the highest revenue? When you’ve got visibility, you transform fulfilment from a business necessity to something that actively drives your growth.
Your fulfilment operation should never get in the way of growth; in fact, it should contribute to it.
Whether you’re scaling into new regions or adding new sales channels, your fulfilment partner should have the infrastructure and expertise to make it happen without friction.
With fulfilmentcrowd, brands leverage our global network of 16 warehouses to expand into new markets with ease, as well as taking advantage of our integrations capabilities to support the use of impactful channels.
Thanks to the number of providers available to growing businesses, omnichannel fulfilment isn’t reserved only for massive enterprises with unlimited budgets.
If you’re currently selling DTC and considering wholesale or retail expansion, effective omnichannel fulfilment gives you the right platform for B2B success. Rather than building separate systems that you’ll need to unpick later, you’re creating a foundation that supports growth across every channel.
If you’re already selling across multiple channels but fragmented systems and disconnected inventory are holding you back, an expert omnichannel fulfilment provider can bring it all together. A transition might feel daunting, but could be necessary to start your next phase of growth.
And finally, if you’re purely DTC with no immediate plans to expand into other areas, omnichannel fulfilment should still be on your radar. A huge 90% of retailers plan to invest in omnichannel fulfilment technologies, making it likely that your competitors will entertain the idea of omnichannel at some stage – if they’re not doing it already.
The success of your business lies with your customers: their preferences, where they buy from and whether they choose you over competitors.
Brands that treat sales channels as isolated operations will struggle to compete with those who’ve built connected, efficient fulfilment systems – the good news is that you don’t need to be Amazon to deliver an effective omnichannel experience.
All you need is the right partner, the right platform and the willingness to take a leap beyond traditional channel boundaries.