Very transfers clothing & footwear returns to its Skygate fulfilment centre
The Very Group has completed the migration of all clothing and footwear returns to its Skygate highly automated fulfilment centre in the East Midlands.
The owner of Very.co.uk said the transfer will bring considerable benefits for its customers, with returned products being made available for re-sale within 30 minutes and refunds being provided faster than ever before.
The group has processed more than 750,000 returned items at Skygate since the three month-long migration from Raven Mill in Greater Manchester, which is operated by Clipper Logistics. However, non-fashion items such as electrical appliances and tech products will continue to be processed at the Raven Hill site.
Skygate’s automated sortation, selection, picking and packaging technology has orders ready for dispatch within 30 minutes of being placed by a customer, compared to around four hours at Very’s previous fulfilment centres. Spanning 850,000 square feet, the facility launched at the start of the UK’s first Covid-19 lockdown in March last year. Skygate is now responsible for 95% of Very orders, houses six million items and processes 750,000 products every week.
Phil Hackney, chief operating officer at Very, said: “Across the retail industry, clothing and footwear return rates tend to be higher than for other categories, but also simpler to process. Bringing them under the same roof as our fulfilment operation at Skygate, where they can benefit from our market-leading automated technology, makes perfect sense for our customers and our business.
“Faster refunds and making returned product available for re-sale more quickly will create an even better customer experience and support our continued growth as we head into the crucial Black Friday and Christmas periods.”
