Ersatzteil-Check Case Study - Thousands of SKUs, Pan-European Scale

About Ersatzteil-Check

Client since 2019

Industry: Household appliance spare parts

Sales channels: Amazon, eBay, WooCommerce, Otto, Kaufland, Allegro, Cdiscount, Metro

Market: European Union

Services: Fulfillment; returns processing; FBA prep; Prime

Ersatzteil-Check is a German online retailer on a clear mission: repair instead of replace.

The company helps keep washing machines, refrigerators, and vacuum cleaners out of landfills by offering thousands of spare parts—including components for appliances that are 10+ years old.

With a deep catalog covering hundreds of brands and competitive pricing, Ersatzteil-Check quickly built a loyal customer base and secured a strong position in the German market.

Scaling across Europe was the natural next step. But that’s where logistics became a bottleneck.

The Challenge

In the spare parts niche, delivery speed and picking accuracy directly impact customer loyalty and reviews. A broken washing machine can’t wait a week—and neither can the customer.

As order volumes grew, Ersatzteil-Check ran into a classic growth problem:

more orders meant more picking errors
delivery promises became harder to keep
warehouse operations turned increasingly chaotic

What was once a reliable “2-day delivery” promise started to feel like a gamble.

Partnering with a professional fulfillment provider became essential—not just to protect service quality in Germany, but to scale across Europe without operational risk.

“We were looking for a fulfillment partner with a strong warehouse network in Western Europe and a warehouse in Germany was non-negotiable.

Automation was the second key factor. We needed absolute confidence that order picking would be fast and extremely accurate. Fulfillment-Box delivered exactly that.”

Elisabeth Ponomar,
Senior Manager at Ersatzteil-Check

The Solution

Key Challenges

Managing a large number of SKUs and complex product listings
Handling seasonal peaks
Processing returns efficiently
Reducing errors in order fulfillment
Shortening processing and shipping times
Preparing infrastructure to expand into new sales channels and EU markets

The partnership between Ersatzteil-Check and Fulfillment-Box began in 2019, initially with all logistics handled from a single warehouse in Bremen.

This was the foundational setup phase. We integrated sales channels (at that time, only Amazon and eBay), implemented real-time data synchronization, introduced fragile-item labeling, and set up packing accuracy controls to minimize errors and damage from the start.

Thanks to automation, we achieved 99.8% picking accuracy and reduced damages to just 0.9% right from the beginning.

The next priority was delivery speed. Fulfillment-Box opened warehouses in Kodersdorf and Lahnstein—partly to strengthen logistics for one of their key clients, Ersatzteil-Check. Inventory was distributed based on demand, orders began shipping from the closest location, and the share of 1–2 day deliveries increased from 63% to 92%.

Returns are a major challenge in spare parts e-commerce. 15–20% of orders are returned, not due to defects, but because customers ordered the wrong model. Previously, return processing on an overloaded in-house warehouse took up to one week, directly hurting customer satisfaction.

Together, the teams focused on:

automated return label generation
faster inbound inspection and restocking

As a result, 90% of returns are now processed within 2 days instead of 5–7 days.

Once processes stabilized, the client expanded their sales channels. Otto and Kaufland joined the existing marketplaces, followed by a proprietary WooCommerce store.

This solid foundation made European expansion straightforward: sales extended across the continent, a Polish warehouse was added to the network, and new local platforms, Allegro and Cdiscount, came online.

What began as a single warehouse had evolved into a transparent, manageable European network.

"The most valuable thing is having one system for everything.
I log into the dashboard and see orders from all channels, inventory movement, and shipment status in real time.
It makes management easier and gives you a real sense of control."

Elisabeth Ponomar,
Senior Manager at Ersatzteil-Check

Results

Key Metrics

700,000+ orders processed in the last year
98% of orders shipped within 2 business days
73% shipped the same day
Picking error rate reduced from 3–4% to 0.2%
Average delivery time in Germany cut from 2–3 days to 1–2 days
38% reduction in negative reviews

Ersatzteil-Check came to Fulfillment-Box with a classic scaling challenge: logistics that could not keep up with growth.

Seven years later, the company has transformed from a local German store into a pan-European ecommerce player.

The key wasn’t just outsourcing fulfillment—it was a systemic approach:

strategic inventory placement
deep process automation
fast, customer-friendly returns

All working toward one goal:
getting the right spare part to a customer with a broken appliance as fast as possible.

"When we started working together in 2019, Fulfillment-Box wasn’t yet a top-tier 3PL. But the team genuinely cared about our business, our products, and our challenges. That made the difference.

We were new to outsourced fulfillment and worried about becoming ‘just another client’. With Fulfillment-Box, you always feel there’s a real team behind every question—one that listens and understands. I hope our partnership continues just as reliably in the years ahead."

Elisabeth Ponomar,
Senior Manager at Ersatzteil-Check

How a High-SKU E-commerce Business Scaled Across Europe with Fulfillment

About Ersatzteil-Check

The Challenge

The Solution

Results

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