Date: October 14, 2019
Brilliant Fulfillment is a woman-owned third-party logistics warehouse business that evolved out of the desire to offer quality employment to staff and growth opportunities for small businesses. After a year of hard work, owner Nancy Henger opened her 1,000 sq. ft. warehouse in October of 2013 and named it Brilliant Fulfillment—fondly abbreviated as ‘BFF’. Primarily focused on serving the health and beauty industry, Brilliant Fulfillment takes pride in being a woman-owned warehouse that helps its customers grow. “It’s a passion of mine to take on start-up businesses that are turned away by other warehouses due to lower volume,” says Nancy Henger, Founder and CEO of Brilliant Fulfillment. “It has been truly rewarding to watch them grow and help them succeed—much like a true BFF would.”
Brilliant Fulfillment By The Numbers
| Year | Warehouse size |
| 2013 | 1,000 sq. ft. |
| 2014 | 5,000 sq. ft. |
| 2015 | 12,000 sq. ft |
| 2016-Present | 42,000 sq. ft. |
After a year of managing the warehouse using spreadsheets and juggling single-point software systems, Brilliant Fulfillment’s IT team found 3PL Central for their warehouse management system (WMS) needs—moving away from paper and Excel. “Automating our warehouse with 3PL Warehouse Manager WMS transformed our operational efficiency,” says Michael Bryant, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Brilliant Fulfillment. “Spreadsheets just aren’t scalable to meet customer needs when you grow.”
As the health and beauty industry grew, Brilliant Fulfillment’s success followed the same trend. “A year after implementing 3PL Warehouse Manager, we grew order volume by 175% ,” said Nancy. “By the next year, we increased order volume by 141%”. So far, Brilliant Fulfillment grew order volume by 794% from their first year. They also quickly outgrew their 1,000 sq. ft. warehouse and continued expanding, consistently doubling the previous year’s warehouse size. Brilliant fulfillment continued to win new business through word-of-mouth about their exceptional service. Employee count even quadrupled.
"Spreadsheets just aren’t scalable to meet customer needs when you grow."
- Michael Bryant, CTO, Brilliant Fulfillment
Michael believes that partnering with 3PL Central played a large part in their success. “3PL Central allows us to gain credibility with our customers and offers the services they want and need.'' Thanks to 3PL Warehouse Manager, Brilliant Fulfillment is able to offer a multitude of value-added services - ecommerce connectivity, EDI capabilities, kitting and assembly, triple-checked quality control, real-time inventory, real-time tracking, and reports, just to name a few. These offerings, delivered through best practice workflows built directly into the WMS, have helped Brilliant Fulfillment attract and retain their customers.
In addition to offering enhanced functionality, Michael also reported that over 90% of Brilliant Fulfillment customers utilize 3PL Warehouse Manager’s customer portal. This helps free up warehouse team members time since customers are able to run their own reports, view order statuses, and input their own orders.
“3PL Central allows us to gain credibility with our customers and offers the services they want and need.''
- Nancy Henger, Founder, Brilliant Fulfillment
As a CTO, Michael appreciates the open REST API that allows him to do custom development work for their customers. “When a customer asks if we can connect to the systems they’re already using,” Michael said, “I have the confidence to say ‘yes, we can do it.’”
This high level of service and flexibility attracted more and more new business for Brilliant Fulfillment, and customers love the visibility and control into their inventory. “We would struggle to win business without these real-time tools,'' said Nancy. “Our competitors are still doing fulfillment the old-fashioned way. I’m glad that we can set a standard as industry leaders in our market.”
After five years in operation and unprecedented growth, Brilliant Fulfillment hired its first marketing role this year. This can only mean more growth and success for Brilliant Fulfillment for years to come.
"We would struggle to win business without these real-time tools. I'm glad that we can set a standard as industry leaders in our market."
- Nancy Henger, Founder, Brilliant Fulfillment
About Brilliant Fulfillment
Brilliant Fulfillment is a woman-owned, full-service logistics company with a focus on the health and beauty industry. When it comes to fulfillment and kitting, our outstanding experience in working with health and beauty clients enables us to understand their unique challenges and needs.
