T&B is providing support services for lens-online.com as a pilot for its eCommerce support service.
UK-based logistics provider Tibbett & Britten (T&B) is launching the UK’s first one-stop-shop eCommerce support service. B2B Internet startup lens-online.com, which launched in October, has all of its fulfillment operations located in T&B’s distribution center, whilst its customer relations management (CRM) operations are handled by T&B’s partner Vertex Data Science.
The alliance is a pilot scheme for the new support product, aimed at both the B2C and B2B markets. It is made up of a complete package of services, including web design, order management, payment processing and customer contact management, as well as conventional logistics. Clients will be able to select individual elements to fit into existing applications, or the entire package.
Lens-online.com is a good test for the service. Aimed at 6500 UK opticians, and ultimately at the 50,000 opticians across the EU, the company had originally planned to build its own infrastructure in-house. T&B’s package allows it instead to concentrate on its core strength of ophthalmic knowledge, without having to focus on how orders will be taken and followed up. As a relatively low-profile operation, it also provides T&B with a suitable soft launch of the product as a platform for further business interest.
T&B already has a number of eCommerce operations worldwide, including Track One Logistics – its UK based joint venture launched in January last year, which specializes in home and retail delivery of music, videos, books and computer games. This new product builds on its existing skill-base of supply chain management, adding CRM strength to provide a solution that should be ideal for startups in areas where product knowledge is more important than technology knowledge.
The only question surrounding the service is whether there will be a sufficiently large market for startup services, as the market focus switches to ‘bricks-and-clicks’ players. But as long as standalone eCommerce firms in the UK can continue to raise enough capital to pay for it, T&B’s new operation looks like it could be a success.
