What actually happens after someone clicks buy
Five stages, in order, with the awkward parts left in. If you are comparing providers, this is the page to compare — capability lists all sound the same.
What you do, and what we do
Connect your store
We link your storefront so orders arrive here without you forwarding anything. SKUs are mapped once, deliberately, because a bad mapping is how the wrong product gets shipped correctly.
Agree the product and the price
Either we source it or you send existing stock. Either way the cost is broken into lines and the spec is fixed against an approved sample before a run starts.
Your stock arrives and gets checked
You ship stock in, or we take delivery from the factory. It is counted and inspected against the approved spec, and photographed. Only then does it become sellable in your store — not when the supplier says it shipped.
Your orders go out
You keep selling; nothing is forwarded to us by hand. Orders are picked to your packaging spec, dispatched on the carrier chosen for that product and destination, and tracked back into your store.
It lands, and you get a statement you can read
You do not chase the exceptions. Held, refused and damaged parcels are worked by a person on your account, and at the end of the period you get a statement that lines up with the shipments, not a lump sum.
Integration, honestly
The truth about stock sync
Every provider says "real-time sync". None of them are instantaneous, and pretending otherwise is how sellers get oversold orders they then have to cancel. Here is what the mechanism actually is, so you can plan around it rather than trust it blindly.
- Stock changes push to your store as they happen; the store still needs a moment to apply them.
- Two buyers hitting the last unit within that window is the oversell case, and it is unavoidable in any system.
- We flag it immediately rather than quietly cancelling one of the orders.
- A safety buffer per SKU is configurable, which trades a little availability for far fewer oversells.
- SKU mapping is verified before launch, because a mismatched mapping ships accurately and wrongly.
- Bundles and variants are mapped explicitly, not inferred from a product title.
The same five stages, three different pressures
The flow above does not change. What changes is which stage hurts — and that depends on what kind of seller you are.
DTC brands
Your pressure is the unboxing and the repeat purchase. Packaging, insert content and consistency between batches matter more to you than shaving cents off a unit cost, so the inspection and packaging stages are where we spend your attention.
TikTok Shop sellers
Your pressure is a spike you cannot forecast. Stock has to be staged before the video lands and the pack line has to absorb a peak without silently building a backlog, so stage three and four are the ones we plan with you in advance.
Agencies and operators
Your pressure is running several stores without holding the operational risk personally. You need per-client separation, a line-by-line statement you can pass through, and one contact who does not need re-briefing each time.
Process questions
The five things sellers ask once they have read the flow.
The buyer returns to an address in their own market. Items are consolidated back to us, inspected, and then restocked, repaired or written off on your instruction — one of those three, recorded, so your stock figure and your statement agree.
We find out why before deciding what to do, because a refusal over an unexpected duty invoice needs a different fix than a wrong address. You are told the reason and the options: redeliver, return, or abandon where returning costs more than the goods.
Shipments, with product, packaging, handling and freight as separate lines, so you can tie a cost to an order. Adjustments — returns, write-offs, claims — appear as their own lines rather than being netted off quietly inside a total.
Yes, itemised and issued per period, which is also what you need if you ever have to substantiate a landed cost or a customs valuation. Ask us for the exact format your accountant wants before you start rather than after the first month.
You give us the campaign dates and the volume you expect; we stage stock and staff the pack line against them. If we cannot cover the number you have given us, you hear that in advance — an unacknowledged spike becomes silent delays, which cost more than a rescheduled launch.