JMFA reduces European order fulfillment costs by 80% and improves delivery speeds by 46% with MCF

Ecommerce is rapidly growing in Europe with the number of online European online shoppers projected to increase from 523 million in 2022 to 540 million in 2023. This presents a great opportunity for ecommerce businesses, but there are added complexities to consider as well, with Europeans tending to shop cross-border and through multiple online sales channels. One company, JMFA Ltd., is up for the challenge. This retailer recognizes the importance of online selling, and aims to have a presence wherever their customers are making purchases.

Established in 2015 by Michal Aleksandrowicz, JMFA Ltd. quickly became the go-to resource for people of all ages who have a passion for innovative footwear. With a range of products all manufactured in Europe, like shoe accessories, toys, and sporting equipment, Aleksandrowicz focuses on working with small local businesses. He sources all of his exclusive products from friends and family whom are private label owners. For example, their most popular brand, Kaps, is manufactured by Kaps Company, which was started by Aleksandrowicz’s father 20 years ago.

What began as a pastime with his online Amazon store quickly became a full-time business for Aleksandrowicz, now General Manager at JMFA Ltd. The company started off as a one-man operation that used the Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN) – meaning that Aleksandrowicz handled storage, shipping, and customer service for his Amazon orders himself. Now, he manages a team of ten employees across Europe and the Philippines.

As his business grew, Aleksandrowicz started using Pan-European Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to fulfill Amazon orders across Europe. Then he became interested in scaling JMFA further and experimenting with new off-Amazon sales channels, but with 100,000 monthly orders and a catalog of 3,000 different products, he needed to enlist a third-party logistics (3PL) provider to help him expand his business.

The 3PLs Aleksandrowicz initially worked with were not meeting his needs, with their services being too slow and expensive. He knew he needed to switch 3PL providers and started looking for a 3PL that could offer:

• Optimized inventory management: JMFA Ltd. had big plans to expand into other channels, so they needed to prioritize streamlined inventory management to get the right products to the right places at the right times and avoid stockouts across their sales channels.
• A worldwide network: With customers spread out across the globe, JMFA Ltd. needed a 3PL with a vast fulfillment network to support their large customer base.
• Operational expertise: Aleksandrowicz knew he wanted to grow his business, but did not want to sacrifice efficiency. He wanted to engage a 3PL that would have technology, people, processes in place to optimize his operations.
• Cost-effective solutions: Since JMFA Ltd. sells low-cost products, with an average order amount of $10 and razor-thin margins, it was critical to find a cost-effective 3PL solution.

“As my business grew, I started looking for a 3PL that could manage my operations effectively and use their existing systems to identify opportunities to improve value within our supply chain. Since we sell on a number of different channels and across a number of different countries, it’s important that we have a 3PL provider that can handle our order fulfillment at a low cost,” explained Aleksandrowicz.

MCF is a leader in the third-party logistics space. With their extensive fulfillment network and my previous experience working with Amazon as a seller, it was easy for me to envision utilizing them as our 3PL provider.

Michal Aleksandrowicz General Manager

Once Aleksandrowicz discovered Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) solution, he knew it would be a great fit for his business because MCF provides:

• World-class delivery services: With deliveries as fast as 1-day and MCF’s 99.98% undamaged package delivery rate, ecommerce businesses can maintain a first-class customer experience, no matter which channel they sell on.
• A global footprint: Working with MCF means gaining access to the world’s largest fulfillment network, with 77 fulfillment centers across the UK and EU and over 200 globally.
• One fulfillment solution for any sales channel: MCF delivers orders on time, every time, through any channel, so that businesses can eliminate the need to engage multiple 3PLs to handle their order fulfillment operations.
• Automatic fulfillment using integrations: MCF offers over 100 integrations and apps or businesses can create their own custom API integrations to connect MCF to all their sales channels and automate their fulfillment process.

“MCF is a leader in the third-party logistics space. With their extensive fulfillment network and my previous experience working with Amazon as a seller, it was easy for me to envision utilizing them as our 3PL provider,” said Aleksandrowicz.

JMFA Ltd. connects their ecommerce channels with MCF using Listing Mirror to automate their fulfillment. Listing Mirror helps JMFA Ltd. effortlessly manage product listings and automatically sends orders from their various online sales channels to Amazon for fulfillment.

Aleksandrowicz said, “Using Listing Mirror’s reliable and robust software for the past five years has helped our business tremendously. With their excellent solution support, getting started and connected to MCF was easy. Even with thousands of products, the integration saves time and makes catalog management simple.”

JMFA Ltd. has been working with MCF since 2018. This fast-growing online retailer now sells in 14 countries across six sales channels, including eBay, Zalando, Kaufland, Cdiscount, Shopify, and Amazon. By utilizing MCF, JMFA Ltd. has realized many business benefits, including:

• Fast order fulfillment: Through MCF, JMFA Ltd. delights customers by delivering orders in 1.4 days on average, representing a 46% improvement in delivery speed. JMFA Ltd. also enjoys 99% delivery estimate accuracy.
• Consolidated inventory: JMFA Ltd. uses their existing Pan-European FBA inventory to fulfill MCF orders. They streamlined their operations to a single inventory pool that is spread across Amazon’s European Fulfillment Network (EFN), removing the headache of managing logistics providers in each European country.
• Minimized operating costs: JMFA Ltd.’s stock is strategically positioned in fulfillment centers across Europe, ensuring their products are as close as possible to their customer base. The company can now avoid cross-border shipping cost markups, leading to an 80% reduction in fulfillment costs.
• New market expansion: Since MCF supports order fulfillment for any channel, JMFA Ltd. can launch their business on new online channels without worrying about the operational costs and complexity involved in maintaining another pool of inventory.

Moving forward, Aleksandrowicz plans on building more brands, entering new marketplaces, and continuing to grow JMFA Ltd. with the assistance of MCF.

“I recommend MCF to any business undergoing rapid growth and managing orders across the EU. It would have been impossible for us to grow stock pools in all of the geographies where we are experiencing demand. MCF has truly opened the door for us to test new sales channels without large startup costs, making our ecommerce strategy a success.”