Name: Wild Results with Fulfil
Creator: Fulfil

Overview

When Wild launched in late 2019 with a simple mission—removing single-use plastic from bathrooms worldwide—they never imagined they'd be managing operations across 10+ markets, serving 50+ blue chip retailers across the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and Australia, and ultimately catching the eye of Unilever for acquisition.

But as this UK-based eCommerce brand scaled from a DTC deodorant startup to an omnichannel powerhouse selling across Amazon, Shopify, Faire, and major retail partners, their legacy ERP system, Brightpearl, couldn't keep pace with their ambitions.

The refillable personal care brand needed a modern ERP for Shopify merchants that could handle the complexity of their rapid expansion: 4 Shopify stores, 11 Amazon marketplaces, 34 warehouse locations across 6 3PLs, and manufacturing operations, all while maintaining the agility required in today's fast-moving eCommerce landscape.

When Wild switched from Brightpearl to Fulfil as their ERP platform in 2024, they gained more than just better software. They found a partner that understood the technical challenges facing modern UK eCommerce brands and could move at the speed of the market, ultimately providing the operational foundation that helped position them for acquisition by Unilever in 2025.

The Challenge: When Legacy ERPs Can't Keep Pace with Growth

Rigid Systems Creating Manual Bottlenecks

As Wild's operations grew increasingly complex, Brightpearl's limitations became clear. The system's rigid structure forced the team into manual workarounds that consumed valuable time and created operational inefficiencies.

Anna Stafford, Head of Finance, recalled the friction: "Things were a lot more manual with our old ERP - it was quite difficult to get information. Fulfil makes things a lot easier to analyze data within the ERP rather than needing to take things into spreadsheets."

For a fast-growing brand competing in the competitive UK eCommerce market, this manual approach wasn't just inefficient; it was unsustainable.

Reporting That Required Too Much Manual Work

Perhaps most frustrating was the time wasted on basic reporting tasks that should have been automated.

Aviraj Gohil, Senior Operations Executive, described the weekly burden: "It used to take 30-40 minutes each week downloading exports from Shopify and matching numbers in spreadsheets to get actual numbers and trends to report on. With Fulfil's AI reporting capabilities, it gets done in one click."

For a lean team trying to scale rapidly, these cumulative inefficiencies added up to significant lost productivity.

Limited Audit Trail and Compliance Capabilities

As Wild's operations grew more complex and they moved toward acquisition, having robust audit capabilities became increasingly important.

Josh Mackrill highlighted this need: "I really like Fulfil's audit trail - being able to see who's edited what and when is helpful."

Disconnected from Modern Technology Stacks

A fundamental issue was that Brightpearl hadn't kept pace with the modern eCommerce technology ecosystem that Wild needed to leverage.

Arthur Edson, Director of Finance, noted: "We needed a more sophisticated offering, which could handle our volume on DTC and our retail complexity."

Freddy Ward, Co-Founder & CEO, explained: "We found that a lot of legacy providers just weren't up to date with the modern technology stacks and how to plug into those."

As Wild integrated with more sales channels, 3PLs, and operational systems, they needed an ERP that could seamlessly connect with their expanding tech stack.

The Decision: Why Wild Chose Fulfil as Their Shopify ERP

1. Built by Entrepreneurs, for Entrepreneurs

What immediately differentiated Fulfil from other ERP providers was the team behind the platform.

Freddy Ward noted: "It's really hard, when you're starting out and trying to figure out which ERP system to choose, who to work with, what's going to fit with your business. When we initially started chatting with the Fulfil team, what really struck us was that they're entrepreneurs themselves. They really understand the technical challenges, and they built Fulfil's ERP for where the market is today, building for the Shopify generation."

This wasn't just marketing speak. The Fulfil founding team's entrepreneurial background meant they understood the real operational challenges facing fast-growing UK Shopify brands—not just in theory, but from lived experience.

2. Purpose-Built for Modern Ecommerce Operations

Unlike Brightpearl and other legacy systems built for a previous generation of eCommerce, Fulfil was designed from the ground up for the complexity of modern omnichannel operations.

Wild's operational footprint demonstrated this complexity:

4 Shopify stores serving different markets
11 Amazon marketplaces across regions
11 EDI connections with major retailers
3 Faire connections for wholesale
6 manual order channels for additional flexibility
34 warehouse locations with 108 storage locations
6 integrated 3PLs for distributed fulfillment
Multiple entities for global operations

This level of complexity required an ERP built specifically for modern eCommerce brands that could seamlessly manage inventory across multiple locations.

3. Native Shopify ERP Integration

As a Shopify-native brand managing multiple storefronts, Wild needed an ERP that treated Shopify as a first-class citizen in their technology stack.

Fulfil's direct Shopify integration eliminated the middleware complexity that plagued their Brightpearl usage, enabling:

Automatic synchronization of orders, inventory, and customer data
Seamless order editing without system conflicts
Unified visibility across all Shopify stores

For UK Shopify brands looking to scale, this native integration meant one less potential breaking point in their operations.

4. Handling Complex Manufacturing Operations

Wild's business model included significant in-house assembly work that required sophisticated system support.

Arthur Edson, Director of Finance, explained: "We do a huge amount of assembly work in-house and that requires a system to capture that complexity seamlessly."

Fulfil's native manufacturing capabilities provided the flexibility Wild needed without requiring custom development.

5. Scalability for Future Growth

Wild wasn't just solving for their current scale; they were building for where they were headed.

Arthur Edson noted: "I expect the sheer amount of complexity to change in our operational setup. We used to run a single warehouse; we now have six warehouses and will likely expand to ten in the next few years, serving different customers with different products and different channels."

He continued: "We needed an ERP that was right for the scale of our business at the time, and also for the complexity we see coming two to three years from now with continued omnichannel expansion across geos, markets and new products. We're really confident that Fulfil is the right system for the future as they're building for the future, adopting AI and constantly rolling out product improvements."

This forward-looking approach was critical for a brand with acquisition aspirations.

6. Handling Peak Volume and Intensity

For eCommerce brands, peak trading periods can make or break the year. Wild needed confidence their ERP could handle the pressure.

Arthur Edson explained: "Black Friday Cyber Monday is a huge event for us. That week is worth another month of revenue and orders in a really condensed period. That's why we needed the system to be running seamlessly to ensure we're not creating any operational delays and that we can get orders out to consumers quickly."

He added: "We moved to Fulfil because of the sheer volume we were pushing with subscription orders, manipulating orders with order routing through different warehouses due to SKU availability and shipment times to optimize shipping experience, doing custom orders…Fulfil is used to handling this kind of volume and intensity of orders way beyond us, which is really reassuring."

Brightpearl's limitations during peak periods created operational risk that Wild couldn't afford.

7. Exceptional Partnership and Support

Beyond the technology, Wild valued Fulfil's approach to customer partnership.

Freddy Ward emphasized: "The level of support and the level of knowledge we get from the Fulfil team has been exceptional."

For UK eCommerce brands evaluating ERP options, this distinction matters. Legacy providers often rely on third-party implementation partners and tiered support models. Fulfil's in-house team and direct partnership approach meant Wild had access to the people actually building the product.

Why We Visit Merchants Onsite: Real Impact Beyond the Screen

8. Commitment to Continuous Innovation

Perhaps most importantly for a forward-thinking brand like Wild, Fulfil demonstrated an ongoing commitment to product development and innovation.

Freddy Ward captured this perfectly: "I think the great thing with Fulfil is they're never happy with where they're at. They're always looking to improve the software, take on feedback. Whether that's putting AI into the ERP system, improving the way we manage inventory, looking at ways we can constantly upgrade and evolve together. It feels like a genuine partnership. And having worked with other ERP systems, I can tell you that's not always the case. Make sure you choose a partner that can move at the speed of the market."

Arthur Edson echoed this sentiment: "One of the key reasons we chose Fulfil as a partner is the commitment to growing the product. It's really encouraging that the founding team is still involved, and we have direct access to people developing the product. We've been using Fulfil for two years now, and we've seen massive improvements in a number of our daily workflows as things actually ship - I wasn't confident we'd get that with another ERP."

See related: Claude Skills for Fulfil

The Impact: How Fulfil ERP Transformed Wild's Operations

1. Financial Visibility as Single Source of Truth

Moving to Fulfil fundamentally changed how Wild's finance team could analyze and understand their business performance.

Arthur Edson, Director of Finance, explained: "From a financial reporting perspective, Fulfil is our key source of truth for every channel, every market, every customer's revenue, all the way through down to product margin. We can track revenue, COGS and inventory across all channels"

This level of granular visibility—impossible with their previous Brightpearl setup—enabled more informed strategic decisions and gave leadership confidence in their financial data during the acquisition process.

Pushkar Gupta added: "I use Fulfil to track our financials on a day-to-day basis. The ability to delve into the data, cut it by channel or by market, and extract information and business performance insights from it is the best part."

2. Dramatic Improvement in Reporting Efficiency

The time savings from automating reporting workflows had a compounding effect across the organization.

Aviraj Gohil quantified the impact: "It used to take 30-40 minutes each week downloading exports from Shopify and matching numbers in spreadsheets to get actual numbers and trends to report on. With Fulfil's AI reporting capabilities, it gets done in one click."

This efficiency didn't just save time—it enabled more frequent analysis and faster response to market trends.

Anna Stafford noted the broader impact: "Our retail reporting has come a long way with using Fulfil. We can filter by retailer and SKU a lot more easily than before as we used to do a lot of that offline. Across the board, Fulfil has been super helpful for driving efficiencies."

3. Enhanced Gross Margin Management

With Fulfil's comprehensive cost tracking and allocation capabilities, Wild could finally optimize profitability at a granular level.

Josh Mackrill explained: "A big focus for us is gross margin improvement. Storing all our supply chain costs and bookings in Fulfil and understanding exactly how cost allocations for freight have been booked and landed has been really helpful."

This visibility into landed costs across their complex supply chain was particularly valuable as they scaled internationally and needed to optimize profitability across markets.

4. Better Data Analysis Within the ERP

Rather than constantly exporting data for external analysis, Wild's team could now work directly within Fulfil.

Anna Stafford noted: "Things were a lot more manual with our old ERP - it was quite difficult to get information. Fulfil makes things a lot easier to analyze data within the ERP rather than needing to take things into spreadsheets."

This shift from external spreadsheet analysis to native ERP reporting reduced errors, saved time, and made insights more accessible across the organization.

See related: Fulfil's Data Warehouse

5. Career Development Through System Flexibility

The impact of moving to Fulfil extended beyond operational metrics to team development and satisfaction.

Aviraj Gohil shared: "Fulfil has really helped me in my career. Our old ERP was very rigid, leading to many manual tasks. Since we've implemented Fulfil and Fulfil is very flexible, it's easy to generate reports, integrate with things easily and bring trust, automation and efficiency."

When your ERP enables your team to work more strategically rather than being bogged down in manual processes, everyone benefits.

6. Robust Audit Trail for Compliance and Visibility

As Wild prepared for acquisition, having comprehensive audit capabilities became increasingly important. This level of transparency and control gave leadership and their acquirer confidence in their operational data and processes.

Building for Acquisition: How the Right ERP Positioned Wild for Success

Wild's journey from startup to Unilever acquisition in 2025 demonstrates how operational excellence, enabled by the right technology infrastructure, can create enterprise value.

Several factors enabled by Fulfil were critical to making Wild an attractive acquisition target:

Operational Scalability: Fulfil's ability to handle Wild's six warehouses demonstrated the business could scale efficiently.
Financial Transparency: Having Fulfil as the single source of truth for financial performance across all channels and markets gave acquirers confidence in Wild's reported metrics.
System Reliability at Scale: Fulfil's proven ability to handle BFCM peaks—representing another month of revenue in one week—showed the operational infrastructure could support continued growth.
Modern Technology Stack: Unlike legacy ERPs, Fulfil's modern architecture meant Unilever was acquiring a business with a technology foundation that wouldn't require immediate replacement.
Operational Efficiency: The automation and efficiency gains from Fulfil meant Wild could scale without proportionally increasing headcount, improving unit economics.

Arthur Edson summed up Fulfil's role in Wild's growth trajectory: "We needed an ERP that was right for the scale of our business at the time, and also for the complexity we see coming two to three years from now with continued omnichannel expansion across geos, markets and new products. We're really confident that Fulfil is the right system for the future as they're building for the future, adopting AI and constantly rolling out product improvements."

What Wild's Success Means for UK Ecommerce Brands Evaluating ERPs

Wild's journey from frustrated Brightpearl users to successfully acquired eCommerce brand demonstrates several critical lessons for UK Shopify merchants evaluating ERP options:

1. Legacy ERPs Weren't Built for Modern Ecommerce Complexity

Brightpearl and similar legacy platforms were designed for a previous generation of eCommerce operations. As Freddy Ward noted, these systems "just weren't up to date with the modern technology stacks and how to plug into those."

If your brand is managing multiple Shopify stores, numerous marketplaces, 3PL integrations, and complex fulfillment logic, you need an ERP built for this reality.

2. The Right ERP Enables Strategic Focus, Not Just Operational Execution

When your team spends 30-40 minutes per week manually matching Shopify exports to spreadsheets, or can't easily analyze performance by channel and market, they're stuck in execution mode rather than strategic thinking.

Fulfil freed Wild's team to focus on gross margin improvement, retail expansion, and the strategic initiatives that ultimately made them acquisition targets.

3. Entrepreneurial Understanding Matters

Wild valued that Fulfil's founders "really understand the technical challenges" because they're entrepreneurs themselves. This wasn't just about empathy; it meant Fulfil anticipated needs and built capabilities that legacy providers wouldn't think to prioritize.

4. Speed of Innovation Becomes Competitive Advantage

In fast-moving eCommerce, the speed at which your ERP evolves matters. Arthur Edson's observation that "we've seen massive improvements in a number of our daily workflows as things actually ship" over two years demonstrates Fulfil's commitment to continuous improvement.

Legacy providers typically have annual or semi-annual release cycles. Fulfil ships improvements continuously every few weeks, including AI capabilities that keep pace with market evolution.

5. Peak Performance Matters

BFCM represented another month of revenue and orders for Wild in one week. An ERP that struggles during peak periods doesn't just create operational headaches—it directly impacts revenue and customer experience.

Fulfil's ability to handle subscription complexity, order routing logic, and peak volumes gave Wild confidence to push growth during their most critical trading periods.

6. The Right Partner Accelerates Growth

Freddy Ward's advice to "make sure you choose a partner that can move at the speed of the market" encapsulates Wild's experience. The exceptional support and genuine partnership approach meant Wild could focus on growing their business rather than managing their ERP vendor.

Looking Forward: Building a Sustainable Refill Revolution with Fulfil

As Wild continues their mission to mainstream refills under Unilever ownership, Fulfil provides the operational backbone to support their next phase of growth.

"The business has grown very quickly over the last five years. We're now operating across multiple markets, across DTC, Amazon and retail and processing hundreds of thousands of DTC orders a month across five Shopify stores while growing in the US super quickly."

— Arthur Edson, Director of Finance

With plans to expand from six to ten warehouses, launch new products beyond deodorant and body wash, and continue omnichannel expansion across geographies, Wild's operational complexity will only increase.

But unlike their experience with Brightpearl, where increasing complexity meant increasing manual work and decreasing visibility, Fulfil's architecture is designed to scale with them.

Freddy Ward captured the partnership's value: "I think the great thing with Fulfil is they're never happy with where they're at. They're always looking to improve the software, take on feedback. Whether that's putting AI into the system, improving the way we manage inventory, looking at ways we can constantly upgrade and evolve together. It feels like a genuine partnership."

For a brand built on sustainability and innovation in personal care, having an ERP partner that shares those values of continuous improvement and forward thinking makes all the difference.

Why UK Shopify Brands Choose Fulfil Over Brightpearl

Wild's experience highlights why fast-growing UK eCommerce brands are increasingly choosing Fulfil over Brightpearl and other legacy ERPs:

Purpose-built for Shopify: Native integration without middleware complexity
Modern technology stack: Built for today's omnichannel reality, not retrofitted
Scales with complexity: From single warehouse to multi-3PL operations
AI-native reporting: One-click insights instead of 40-minute manual processes
Manufacturing capabilities: Seamlessly handles in-house assembly operations
Peak performance: Proven to handle extreme volume during BFCM
Continuous innovation: Regular feature releases, not annual or semi-annual updates
Direct partnership: In-house team, not third-party implementers
Financial transparency: Single source of truth for acquisition readiness
Entrepreneurial understanding: Built by operators who've felt your pain

Ready to see how Fulfil can transform your UK eCommerce operations? Wild went from frustrated with Brightpearl to being successfully acquired by Unilever while using Fulfil's ERP. Whether you're scaling from DTC to omnichannel, managing complex manufacturing, or preparing for acquisition, Fulfil provides the operational foundation you need to succeed.

Schedule a demo to see how Fulfil's ERP for Shopify merchants can eliminate manual work, improve financial visibility, and scale with your growth—just like it did for Wild.

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Wild's Journey: From Brightpearl to Fulfil ERP - How the Right Shopify ERP Enabled Acquisition by Unilever