Boots has been a trusted name in health and beauty for over 170 years, with thousands of stores worldwide. But when their Dutch online store hit rapid growth, their old logistics system built for wholesale couldn’t keep up.
The result? Slow deliveries, costly mistakes, and overwhelmed customer support.
By connecting every step of their shipping process, they increased order volume by 58% and significantly reduced support calls.
REGION
The Netherlands
Features
company Size
Enterprise
Integrations
Industry
Health & Beauty
more orders shipped year over year
online orders processed monthly
years of brand trust
CHALLENGE
When Boots launched its online store in the Netherlands, it had a solid brand and loyal customer base, but behind the scenes, the setup wasn’t ready for direct-to-consumer scale.
Unlike a typical e-commerce retailer, Boots didn’t have its own warehouse stock. Every online order triggered an internal request to their wholesale parent company. This meant Boots had to manually pull customer order info from Magento and re-enter it, five orders at a time, into a warehouse system meant for bulk shipments, not individual packages.
The process was slow and error-prone. Orders would go out late, or tracking numbers would be missing entirely. And with their Magento-Bol.com integration struggling, marketplace orders created even more friction.
As orders ramped up, reaching over 12,000 per month, the cracks turned into crevasses. Support teams were overwhelmed with WISMO calls. Customers left frustrated reviews. The Boots brand was being let down by its own backend.
“Our systems were never built for B2C logistics. Every online order was a manual challenge, and our customers were starting to notice.”
SOLUTION
Boots turned to Sendcloud to overhaul their fragmented logistics. The first step? Cut manual order processing.
With Pack&Go, warehouse staff could now scan packing lists to instantly generate shipping labels, no more retyping order data. This cut fulfillment time dramatically and reduced human error, especially as online volumes grew.
Next, Boots implemented smart shipping rules to automate carrier selection. Instead of manually choosing a delivery method for every order, Sendcloud now automatically assigns the best-fit carrier based on destination. For example, all German shipments are routed through DHL, while domestic ones go through PostNL, saving time and improving delivery performance.
But the biggest change came post-checkout. With branded tracking emails, Boots now offers customers real-time updates in their own language: complete with logos, color schemes, and even embedded Instagram posts or promo banners. What was normally a shipping update became a memorable branded moment.
For international orders, multi-language support ensures communication clarity from checkout to delivery. And Sendcloud’s API plays nicely with both Magento and Bol.com, ensuring tracking data flows seamlessly between systems.
“Since we implemented Sendcloud, our customer reviews have gone up and the number of customer service questions has gone down. This is partly due to the fact that customers are now well-informed about the status of their parcel.”
RESULTS
With Sendcloud running in the background, Boots was able to scale operations smoothly, without adding headcount or rebuilding their stack. What changed? Shipping got faster, service questions dropped, and the online store finally matched the polish of the Boots name.
Marijn Soetekouw
Online manager at Boots
“Before Sendcloud, we had to slow down to keep up. Now, we’re faster even with more volume.”
Marijn Soetekouw
Online manager at Boots
“Sendcloud has helped us to get rid of common mistakes and reduce the time-consuming admin we were always struggling with.”
Dewi
Customer
“My first order ever from Boots and I am very pleased with the speed with which my package was delivered.”
Marijn Soetekouw
Online manager at Boots
“We used to fix Bol.com orders by hand. Now, it’s all synced automatically, a huge time saver.”
Boots story is proof that shipping it’s a fundamental of the customer experience. And when you get it right, everything changes.
With Sendcloud, they turned complex logistics into a simple, automated machine. Orders increased, support questions dropped, and their brand started to shine through every delivery.
From a B2B system to a B2C success story, Boots made it happen.
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