Leicester to Manchester
1.FACTORY
At Boohoo as well as all other companies our distribution channels are directly linked to our sales, customer service and profits. It is essential for our success that the channels are kept as efficient as possible in order to keep our customers satisfied and our costs as low as possible. Our customers want trends, and they want them as soon as possible.
In order to understand the importance of distribution channels one needs to understand what they are. In essence a distribution channel is the process of how a product moves from a supplier to the end consumer.
There are two forms of distribution channels; direct and indirect. A direct distribution channel just involves the buyer and the manufacturer whereas an indirect channel involves more mediums. These different mediums also know as ‘middle men’ could be; the Internet, wholesalers and selling agents. An indirect channel is considered as a ‘longer’ process.
All in all there can be five parts to a distribution channel - manufacture, wholesalers, agent, retailer and consumer. The more mediums a garment travels through the more expensive it will be.
We work so hard to design and create our garments that we need to make sure we can offer our customers the exact style, colour and size of what they want. We do not want to give them an excuse to open another tab and shop another retailer – after all we are online only and the Internet is a fast place!
Our UK factory is based in Leicester, meaning that our factory and HQ are only around 110 miles away. Factory visits are easy, we can quality check on a regular basis, with 2.3 million active customers we need to ensure that our products are to the standard that they should be!
The factory can also be known as the manufacturer in regards to the distribution channel. Once the garments have been made, they can be packaged into a shroud and onto a hanger if they need to be hung or boxed and packaged if they're to be folded. We aim to fold as many garments as possible to ensure that our transportation costs are kept to a minimum.
As there is only a two hour journey to our warehouse in Manchester we are able to transport our goods via lorry. It takes a team of a few people to lift securly put the boxes of garments into the lorry, but just one driver to take them to the warehouse.