After decades of success in wholesale and trade distribution, Select Hardware set out to scale its direct-to-consumer ecommerce operation — but expanding beyond Amazon FBA quickly exposed the operational challenges of multichannel growth.

Since implementing Linnworks, the business has transformed ecommerce into a major growth engine, expanding its SKU range from 140 to 700, achieving 70% year-on-year DTC sales growth, launching across major marketplaces, and scaling order volumes without increasing warehouse overhead.

Meet Select Hardware

Founded in 1979, Select Hardware is a UK-based supplier of home improvement and hardware products, serving both trade and retail customers across the UK and Europe.

Operating from a 60,000 sq ft headquarters in the West Midlands, the business supplies an extensive range of hardware and DIY products through retailers, trade partners, and a rapidly growing ecommerce operation.

As part of the Colson Group, alongside sister companies across North America, Europe, and Australia, Select Hardware benefits from decades of global expertise in manufacturing, logistics, and home improvement categories.

Today, the company sells across Amazon, eBay, B&Q Marketplace, Temu, Shopify, and an expanding network of dropshipping partnerships.

Scaling exposed operational gaps

Before Linnworks, Select Hardware’s ecommerce operation was still in its early stages.

At the time, ecommerce activity was largely limited to Amazon FBA. Expanding into additional marketplaces introduced significant operational complexity, with listings, inventory updates, and fulfillment processes managed manually across channels.

As order volumes increased, so did the risk of inefficiencies, inventory inaccuracies, and fulfillment bottlenecks — making further ecommerce expansion difficult to scale sustainably.

“Before Linnworks, DTC ecommerce wasn’t feasible for us. Without centralized systems or automation, scaling further risked creating bottlenecks across warehouse and fulfillment operations”
— Eldair Carvalho, Head of Ecommerce, Select Hardware

When marketplace growth creates operational pressure

As Select Hardware prepared to expand beyond Amazon FBA, the complexity of multichannel selling quickly became apparent.

Managing accurate inventory across multiple marketplaces, maintaining fast fulfillment, and delivering a consistent customer experience required far more than manual processes and disconnected systems. To support long-term growth, the business needed a scalable operational foundation that could centralize and automate ecommerce workflows.

The team needed:

• Centralized inventory and order management
• Marketplace and courier integrations
• Automation to reduce manual workload
• A platform capable of supporting long-term ecommerce growth

After evaluating multiple providers, including Veeqo, Linnworks stood out for its integration capabilities, flexibility, and ability to scale alongside the business.

“Linnworks clearly stood out due to its extensive integrations and scalability. We saw it as a long-term solution that could support our growth across multiple channels
— Eldair Carvalho, Head of Ecommerce, Select Hardware

Centralising ecommerce operations in one platform

Select Hardware implemented Linnworks in 2022, establishing a single operational hub to manage its growing ecommerce business.

Following a structured onboarding and training period, the platform quickly became embedded across the business.

Today, Linnworks connects the entire ecommerce ecosystem, from marketplaces to automated product feeds. 

By centralizing listings, orders, inventory, and fulfillment workflows, the business gained the visibility and control needed to scale confidently across channels.

“We now have a single, central hub to process orders and manage listings across all our channels.”
— Eldair Carvalho, Head of Ecommerce, Select Hardware

Results: 70% year-on-year DTC sales growth

Since implementing Linnworks, Select Hardware has transformed from a small-scale operation into a major revenue and growth engine, turning ecommerce into a core growth driver

What began as an Amazon FBA-focused setup has evolved into a fully multichannel ecommerce business spanning marketplaces, webstores, and dropshipping partnerships — all while maintaining operational efficiency and avoiding additional warehouse overhead.

With centralized operations and automation in place, the business has been able to scale product range, increase order volumes, and expand into new sales channels with confidence.

Key results:

• Expanded SKU range from approximately 140 to 700 products — a 400% increase
• Achieved 50–70% year-on-year DTC sales growth
• Increased order volumes by 208% in the 3 years since implementing linnworks 
• Expanded into major sales channels including eBay, B&Q Marketplace, Temu, and Shopify
• Launched dropshipping partnerships with Wilko, Robert Dyas, and Dunelm
• Automated courier selection and order routing using the Linnworks Rules Engine
• Scaled fulfillment operations without increasing warehouse headcount

Operational excellence

Beyond growth, the most significant change has been operational efficiency and control.

Warehouse workflows are now structured and optimized, allowing teams to process higher volumes with less friction, saving a significant amount of time for the business. “Being able to sort orders by SKU rather than date has made picking and packing far more efficient and improved team satisfaction.” Centralized inventory management has also dramatically reduced the risk of overselling across channels. “Having a centralized inventory management system across all channels has made overselling almost impossible, provided warehouse stock accuracy is maintained” explains Eldair.

Building infrastructure for the next phase of growth

With ecommerce now a core part of the business, Select Hardware continues to expand into new marketplaces and automation opportunities.

Future priorities include additional marketplace integrations, expanded dropshipping operations, and greater use of the Linnworks Spotlight AI functionality to reduce manual processes further.

What began as a tool to enable ecommerce has now become the operational backbone of Select Hardware’s growth strategy.

“If you’re serious about scaling ecommerce across multiple channels, Linnworks is second to none when it comes to integrations, automation, and centralized management.”

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