June 3, 2026 · Case Study · 6 min read

Case Study: From 2-Channel Retailer to 5-Channel Operation in 3 Months

Sportartikel GmbH (name anonymized on request) was selling on Amazon and through their own Shopify store at the beginning of 2026. Business was solid – but the team was spending 5–6 hours daily on manual order processing: printing labels, reporting tracking, reconciling inventory, creating invoices.

Management wanted to grow: Kaufland, eBay, and netto-online were to be added as new channels. The problem: more channels meant proportionally more manual work. With the existing team, this was barely feasible without new hires.

The Starting Point

150 daily orders across 2 channels (Amazon + Shopify). Team: 3 fulfillment employees, one of whom was almost exclusively occupied with manual order processing. Cancellation rate due to oversells: 1.8%. Average processing time per order: 4.5 minutes.

The warehouse maintained one item in two separate systems: Amazon Seller Central and Shopify. Reconciliation happened manually twice daily – which explains the 1.8% cancellation rate.

Introducing Colly.io

Migration took one business day. Amazon Seller Central and Shopify were connected, all items imported, and inventory consolidated. Shipping rules for DHL were configured in two hours.

Result after week 1: average processing time per order dropped to under 45 seconds – a reduction of 83%. The employee previously almost exclusively occupied with manual processing was reassigned to other tasks. The cancellation rate fell below 0.1% in the first week.

Expansion to 5 Channels

With the freed-up capacity, the company launched its expansion in February: Kaufland and eBay were connected within a day, netto-online followed in the third week. All three channels immediately ran productively, as the shipping rules and inventory management were already configured.

After three months: 5 active channels, 310 daily orders – more than double the previous volume – with the same fulfillment team.

Results at a Glance

Daily orders increased from 150 to 310 without additional staff. Cancellation rate dropped from 1.8% to below 0.1%. Fulfillment time per order reduced from 4.5 minutes to 45 seconds. All 5 marketplace ratings improved due to more timely tracking updates.