Practical Publishing International, which produces craft magazines and books, has chosen Spatial Global to provide e-commerce fulfilment and freight services.
Practical’s publications are available in most UK multiple retailers, along with newsagents and craft stores, across the country and worldwide.
Spatial is managing imports from China of Practical’s merchandise, including readers’ free gifts. It takes delivery of magazines and books from printers in the UK and stores them at its hub near Derby. It is also responsible for mounting gift items on the front of magazines.
The operator fulfils orders from customers received directly via the publisher’s retail web sites. It picks and packs these orders and despatches them by post all over the world. Bulk orders received from Practical’s sales team are also delivered to exhibitions as required.
Chris Dunbar, finance director at Practical Publishing, said: “Our move to a web order fulfilment warehouse was absolutely key for us, and is already paying dividends. In the few weeks we have been using Spatial’s service, we have doubled our magazine back-issue sales, while allowing our e-commerce team to concentrate on getting our offer right without having to worry about managing stock.
“Over coming months we will be focusing on the sale of merchandise to readers and other customers through our new websites, and on streamlining imports from the Far East. We are confident that Spatial will help us achieve our objectives.”
Spatial Global is part of Keswick Enterprises, the group formed by John Harvey, the former chairman of Tibbett & Britten.