IMPACT EVOLVE

26/08/2026

Most business cases for a second distribution centre carry one line for stock. It's four, and they don't behave the same way.

The fill is one-off and lands first - you stock the site before it ships a single order, usually the largest of the four. The other three are ongoing: two sites each carry their own buffer so safety stock rises, a second replenishment leg puts stock permanently in transit, and MOQs set a position early demand won't justify.

Size each one, date it, then let finance tell you what it costs to fund. In-market stock is worth real money - but a business case with one line for inventory hasn't been built yet.

24/08/2026

The EU's new low-value duty is charged per item category, not per parcel.

A shirt, a belt and a pair of socks in one box isn't €3. It's €9.

Which means your exposure is basket composition, not parcel volume. Two brands shipping identical parcel counts can be carrying very different costs.

Pull a quarter of EU orders and count distinct categories per order, not SKUs. That distribution is your cost driver - and your cross-category bundles just got more expensive to ship.

19/08/2026

Open three markets in one quarter and you're buying stock for three demand curves you don't have yet.

One sells through in six weeks. The other two sit on cover you can't move.

Markets two and three are far less work when there's something to copy from - stock rules tested against real sell-through, a returns path that works, a 3PL you've onboarded before.

Agree what you need to see from market one before the next opens. Otherwise whichever market is ready sets the order, not what's proven.

14/08/2026

Ask three departments in a scaling business what's in stock. You'll often get three different answers.

Nobody's careless. The business runs across tools bolted on at different stages of growth, that never learned to talk to each other.

Every extra "version of the truth" taxes every decision built on it.

Worth checking which number your business actually believes.

12/08/2026

Growth breaks something. The instinct is always the same: buy better software.

New system, same misses, just a shinier interface.

The real gap sits across three places - who's doing the work, how it happens, what's meant to support it. Miss one and the problem resurfaces elsewhere.

Fix the decision first - who owns it, who signs off. Most of the time, the software was never the blocker.

10/08/2026

Every fast-growing operator hits the same invisible wall.

Nothing breaks all at once. Small things slip first - a SKU count nobody re-checked, a sign-off that used to happen in a hallway and now needs three people in different rooms.

Same tell every time: the way decisions get made was built for a smaller business. Nobody's redesigned it for the one that exists now.

Not a tech problem. A maturity gap - invisible until growth finds it.

07/08/2026

Ask 5 3PL providers for a quote and you’ll get five different formats back. Pallet vs cubic metre. Bundled fees vs line items. Local currency vs one all-in number.

None of that is dishonest - there’s just no shared template for a rate card.

The risk is comparing headline numbers before the structure underneath is normalised. Cheapest on the cover page can flip to most expensive once everything’s converted to the same units.

The shortlist that survives contact with reality is built from a rebuilt cost model - not five PDFs side by side.

05/08/2026

Every 3PL search starts the same way: shortlist, RFP, compare responses.

But it assumes your own data is ready for scrutiny - and it rarely is. Messy SKU counts, inconsistent barcodes, stock numbers weeks out of date. A provider can only quote against what you give them.

The real test isn’t the providers. It’s whether your own data can survive being looked at by by someone outside the business.

03/08/2026

Every 3PL tender starts the same way: storage rates, pick and pack fees, inbound costs. Tidy numbers, side by side.

Then final mile turns up. It’s usually the biggest line in your fulfilment cost - and the slowest to pin down.

Lock that down first. Otherwise you’re not comparing providers. You’re comparing guesses.

06/06/2026