Fulfilling the potential of trade as aid...

The remarkable Created brand is synonymous for beautiful and useful gifts handcrafted by skilled artisans in the world's poorest communities... a pioneering third sector success story supported by exemplary fulfilment and customer service.

The high-profile evangelical Christian relief and development charity TearFund is using Prolog's cost-effective fulfilment capabilities and integrated customer service infrastructure to bring help and hope to disadvantaged peoples around the world.

For more than three decades, TearFund - through its trading arm called Tearcraft (renamed Created in 2009) - has been supporting skilled craftspeople in developing countries such as India, Africa and Bangladesh by opening up fair trade outlets in the UK and Ireland for their hand-made high-quality, gift-based products.

A pioneer of the concept of 'trade as aid', TearFund supports hundreds of projects worldwide, and since 2002 Prolog has been the force behind the charity's e-retail success through the provision of flexible storage and multi-channel order fulfilment for the myriad of items offered online and in the twice-yearly Created 'fair trade' catalogues.

The Created range of handcrafted gifts is wide and varied and includes toys, games, jewellery and greeting cards, to highlight just some of the 500,000 or more items in stock at Prolog's massive distribution hub in the East Midlands near Nottingham.

Prolog also distributes support materials and display equipment to the trade and to a national network of more than 1200 volunteer TearFund agents.

By providing hands-on added value service, Prolog is maximising its client's return through stringent stock control and by keeping the costs of order fulfilment and despatch to a minimum. A further crucial element of the service, and fundamental the client's healthy cash flow, is prompt and efficient banking, which is carried out at Prolog's bespoke financial processing centre at Sherwood Park.

With more than 13,600 orders and 144,500 items moved in four months, volumes are substantial, but Prolog has the capacity and scalability to cope with high volumes and seasonal peaks.

Irrespective of whether the order is presented by mail, phone, email or Internet, Prolog offers a seamless experience for customers, charity representatives and the trade.

This includes first-time, every-time resolution of queries by a dedicated contact centre team, and sensitive but effective up-selling and cross selling to enhance order levels.

Prolog also helped to develop the Tearcraft website, which has full shopping basket facilities and a dedicated section for the representatives to place their orders.

Like all retailers, Tearcraft, and now Created, face two challenges: Anticipating customer demand and then ensuring there is the stock that customers want. Through their marketing partnership with Prolog, they are winning through on both fronts, and so are the many thousands of needy people that they represent.

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