Essential Partners for Fashion and Apparel Ecommerce 

essential partners for fashion and apparel ecommerce

Navigating the competitive world of the fashion industry and apparel ecommerce in 2025 requires more than just great products—it demands the right tools and strategies to scale effectively. 

Strategic partnerships with key platforms and leveraging innovative resources can streamline operations for clothing stores, apparel brands, and online clothing stores—expanding your market reach, enhancing the customer experience, and ensuring you remain competitive in the evolving fashion industry. 

From powerful integrations to data-driven insights, these solutions can transform your business by simplifying processes, connecting you to your market, and ensuring you stay ahead of the competition.

In the fast-moving world of fashion, including both fast fashion and sustainable fashion segments, partnering with the right experts opens doors to new opportunities and keeps your fashion brand ahead of the curve.

To help you gain a competitive advantage,we have compiled a list of key platforms, tools and service providers that offer various services and solutions to help fashion and apparel businesses. Whether you’re looking to simplify shipping, master returns, or gain clarity on profitability, these solutions have you covered.

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The Value of Strategic Partnerships

Streamlining Shipping and Fulfillment

Efficient shipping and fulfillment processes are the backbone of any successful ecommerce operation. Today’s fashion customers expect their orders to arrive quickly, accurately, and in perfect condition, making it essential for sellers to optimize these processes. Achieving this not only ensures higher customer satisfaction but can also reduce costs and create a competitive advantage.

Minimizing Delays

Delayed deliveries are one of the quickest ways to lose customer loyalty. Whether due to mismanaged inventory or poorly coordinated shipping routes, these hiccups can result in negative reviews and lost sales. Streamlined fulfillment ensures that inventory is accurately tracked, orders are dispatched on time, and customers are updated throughout the process. 

Reducing Costs

Shipping inefficiencies often eat into profit margins, especially when sellers rely on manual processes or are trying to juggle multiple carriers. Optimized fulfillment systems reduce these inefficiencies by introducing automation and access to discounted shipping rates. Such cost savings allow sellers to reinvest in other areas of growth, like marketing or developing new product lines.

Enhancing Customer Satisfaction

enhancing customer satisfaction

Fast, transparent, and accurate delivery builds trust and loyalty, which are critical in the competitive fashion market. Customers value clear communication regarding their order status, simple returns processes, and the ability to track their shipment in real time. By integrating shipping platforms into their operations, sellers can offer branded tracking pages and timely updates, giving customers peace of mind. Exceptional delivery experiences also lead to positive reviews and word-of-mouth marketing, both of which contribute to long-term growth.

Here are some shipping and fulfillment platforms and providers that can help you operationalize last mile delivery and exceed your customers expectations.

Virtualstock

Virtualstock stands out as the UK’s leading Dropshipping SaaS platform, trusted by some of the most prominent names in retail, including John Lewis, Sainsbury’s Argos, Robert Dyas, B&Q, Currys, Screwfix, Ryman, and Toolstation. By offering seamless access to such top-tier retailers, Virtualstock empowers ecommerce sellers to expand their reach and collaborate with established brands. Its innovative platform simplifies dropshipping operations by streamlining inventory management, order processing, and smooth coordination with retailers. 

The Linnworks and Virtualstock integration offers a seamless solution for ecommerce sellers aiming to streamline their operations and expand their reach. Key features like syncing inventory in real time and automating order routing ensure that sellers maintain accurate stock levels and handle orders efficiently across multiple channels.

Easyship

With access to over 250 shipping solutions and pre-negotiated discounts from global couriers, sellers can offer a variety of cost-effective delivery options to meet customer expectations. Easyship provides powerful tools to track shipping expenses, connect seamlessly with couriers, and aggregate shipments for smoother logistics management. Additionally, it simplifies the management of return labels, ensuring that sellers can deliver a hassle-free post-purchase experience to their customers. By optimizing shipping efficiency and enhancing customer satisfaction, Easyship helps fashion ecommerce operations—whether fast fashion or online clothing stores—focus on scaling their brand and driving growth.

Easyship users can seamlessly track their shipping expenses, connect to their preferred couriers, and aggregate shipments for efficient multi-order processing—all from within the centralized Linnworks platform. Additionally, the ability to manage return labels effortlessly ensures a smoother post-purchase experience for customers, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty. 

ShipBob

ShipBob is a global 3PL solution that has earned the trust of thousands of brands by delivering exceptional supply chain services. With the ability to ship orders from multiple locations, including the US, UK, EU, Canada, and Australia, ShipBob empowers ecommerce sellers to meet customer demands around the world. It goes beyond traditional logistics by providing faster shipping options and creating memorable unboxing experiences that enhance the customer’s overall impression of the brand. By offering best-in-class supply chain solutions, ShipBob allows sellers to focus on growing their business while ensuring a seamless fulfillment process that drives customer satisfaction.

For ecommerce sellers aiming to scale globally, ShipBob stands out as a critical partner. Its worldwide fulfillment capabilities ensure that orders are shipped quickly and efficiently, no matter where the customer resides. ShipBob’s integration with Linnworks creates a powerful solution for ecommerce sellers seeking to optimize their fulfillment operations. By combining ShipBob’s global omnifulfillment capabilities with Linnworks’ centralized platform, this integration streamlines every aspect of inventory management, order processing, and fulfillment.

Related: ➡️ TikTok Your Shop: Transforming your sales strategy for explosive growth

Landmark Global 

Landmark Global is a trusted partner for expert solutions to simplify the complexities of international shipping. With comprehensive services, including global shipping, seamless customs clearance, and reliable delivery, Landmark Global enables businesses to break into new markets. Their logistics expertise ensures that orders are shipped smoothly across borders, reducing delays and eliminating the stress often associated with international fulfillment. 

The integration between Landmark Global and Linnworks combines Landmark Global’s expertise in global shipping, customs clearance, and reliable delivery with Linnworks’ centralized platform, to create a seamless process for managing inventory and orders across borders. Fashion and apparel sellers benefit from enhanced efficiency as they can effortlessly expand their global reach.

ShipStation

ShipStation is a premier shipping software solution for ecommerce businesses to take control of their fulfillment operations. With its features such as multi-carrier shipping, real-time order tracking, and automation tools, ShipStation simplifies the complexities of managing deliveries. Sellers can effortlessly connect with top shipping carriers, choose the most cost-effective options, and streamline workflows to save time. Its automation capabilities handle repetitive tasks like printing labels and updating order statuses, allowing businesses to focus on growth and customer satisfaction. 

By connecting Linnworks’ inventory management system with ShipStation’s shipping tools, sellers gain a unified platform to manage and simplify operations. The integration enables features like automated label printing, efficient order routing, and easy carrier selection, helping businesses save time and reduce errors. 

Spark Shipping

Spark Shipping is a comprehensive automation platform for US sellers designed to simplify supplier management for ecommerce businesses. It connects your online store and marketplace accounts directly with suppliers, automating key processes to save time and reduce manual effort. From loading product data and updating inventory levels to adjusting prices, processing orders, and receiving tracking information, sellers can keep their product listings current, avoid stockouts, and improve delivery transparency for their customers.

The integration between Spark Shipping and Linnworks offers ecommerce sellers a practical way to streamline operations by connecting inventory and supplier management tasks. Linnworks’ robust inventory and order management system pairs with Spark Shipping’s automation tools, enabling features like inventory synchronization, automated order routing, and real-time tracking updates.

Customer Support

For fashion and apparel sellers, providing quick, accurate, and personalized assistance can significantly impact customer satisfaction and retention. Effective customer support not only helps resolve issues but also builds trust and strengthens brand loyalty. By investing in the right tools and strategies, businesses can streamline their operations, reduce response times, and create an outstanding customer experience.

customer support

Customer Loyalty

When buyers feel heard and their issues are resolved promptly, they are more likely to return for future purchases. Positive interactions foster trust and build emotional connections with the brand, leading to higher retention rates. Additionally, satisfied customers are more inclined to leave positive reviews and share their experiences with friends and family, creating a ripple effect that enhances a brand’s reputation and attracts more customers.

Faster Issue Resolution

Faster issue resolution and operational efficiency go hand-in-hand with optimized customer support systems. Effective tools and processes enable businesses to handle inquiries quickly, minimizing frustration for the customer. By automating repetitive tasks and centralizing customer interactions, support teams can focus on complex issues that require a human touch. Streamlined workflows save time and resources, allowing businesses to scale their operations without compromising on service quality. This improved efficiency translates into better customer satisfaction and support teams that feel empowered to perform at their best.

Here are a few that we recommend:

Gorgias

Gorgias is a powerful support platform designed to simplify and enhance customer service for ecommerce sellers. By integrating customer and order details into helpdesk tickets, Gorgias enables support teams to access all necessary information in one place, significantly speeding up resolution times. Its automation tools, such as pre-written macros and AI-driven workflows, help businesses handle high ticket volumes efficiently while maintaining a personal touch. Additionally, Gorgias supports multichannel communication, allowing sellers to manage inquiries from email, live chat, and social media on a single platform. By streamlining operations and enabling personalized interactions, Gorgias helps e-commerce sellers deliver fast, effective support that meets customer expectations.

eDesk

Tailored specifically for e-commerce sellers, eDesk offers a comprehensive helpdesk platform that centralizes all customer interactions. With AI-powered tools and over 250 integrations, eDesk connects messages from emails, marketplaces, webstores, and social platforms into one smart inbox. This centralized approach ensures smoother communication and speeds up response times by providing agents with access to a customer’s full order history. eDesk’s multilingual support and global reach make it an excellent choice for sellers managing inquiries across time zones. Its automation features and AI insights also empower teams to predict common issues and handle them proactively, ensuring a seamless support experience. 

Insights with Data and Analytics

By leveraging insightful metrics, ecommerce sellers can make informed decisions, optimize their operations, and identify opportunities for growth. Whether it’s tracking profitability, understanding customer behaviors, or optimizing marketing campaigns, data provides the foundation for business scalability. For fashion and apparel sellers in particular, investing in robust analytics tools ensures they remain competitive in a fast-paced marketplace where consumer expectations are constantly evolving.

data and analytics insights

Better Decision Making

By analyzing key performance metrics, ecommerce sellers can better understand which products are performing well, where their ad spend is most effective, and what areas need improvement. This level of insight mitigates guesswork and allows businesses to implement strategies with confidence. Furthermore, data-driven decisions contribute to smarter inventory management, reducing overstocking or stockouts, and improving overall operational efficiency. Better decision-making results in optimized resources, increased profitability, and a more strategic approach to growth.

Profitibility

Another significant benefit revolves around tracking profitability and identifying trends. Tracking key metrics like cost of goods sold (COGs), shipping expenses, and marketing ROI helps sellers pinpoint problem areas and capitalize on scaling opportunities. 

Analyzing trends in customer behavior and market performance enables sellers to adapt quickly to shifts in demand and stay one step ahead of the competition. With the right tools, ecommerce businesses can monitor their real-time spending, optimize budgets, and ensure their path to sustained profitability is on solid ground.

Platforms like Conjura and WhatSales offer tailored solutions for ecommerce analytics, enabling sellers to gain valuable insights and optimize their performance with precision. By leveraging these tools, businesses can harness the power of data to drive growth, improve profitability, and maintain a competitive edge in the evolving e-commerce landscape.

Conjura

Conjura is a global business intelligence and analytics platform designed to meet the unique needs of ecommerce brands. It brings together data from multiple sources, such as sales platforms, marketing channels, and customer relationship management systems, into a centralized dashboard. This provides sellers with a comprehensive view of their performance, helping them identify trends and make data-driven decisions. Conjura’s toolset is particularly valuable for spotting inefficiencies, reallocating spend toward higher-performing areas, and analyzing costs to boost profitability. 

The integration of Conjura with Linnworks provides a unified platform to analyze performance across trading, merchandising, operations, and marketing. 

WhatSales

WhatSales is a real-time profitability and performance tool that identifies scaling opportunities and addresses problem areas. By consolidating data from COGs, expenses, shipping manifests, and advertising efforts, it enables sellers to achieve a clear picture of their business performance. WhatSales maps this information against orders to deliver real-time profitability insights, helping businesses track losses, calculate spends, and optimize profitability on the fly. 

Returns Management 

Efficient returns management is a crucial component of any successful fashion ecommerce strategy—whether you’re a clothing brand, apparel brand, or expanding into new social commerce channels. While seamless shipping and stellar customer support build an initial positive impression, how a brand handles returns can greatly influence customer loyalty and retention. A well-optimized returns process not only minimizes operational headaches but also improves customer sentiment, reduces costs, and ensures profitability in the long run. 

Automated Returns Improves the Experience

Returning customers are often your most loyal, and a smooth, hassle-free return process is key to earning their trust. A seamless system increases the likelihood that customers will exchange an item instead of seeking a refund or, worse, turning to a competitor. Automated return processes can delight customers by providing instant updates and transparent communication, leaving them with a positive impression despite the initial dissatisfaction with a product. This builds long-term customer loyalty and strengthens your brand image, making it clear that you value their convenience and satisfaction.

Cost Savings

Returns management can also save costs and improve operational efficiency. By automating repetitive tasks like generating return labels or tracking return statuses, sellers can free up resources for other mission-critical functions. Additionally, a centralized returns tracking system helps identify patterns in returns, such as frequent faults with specific products, which can be used to inform product improvements or quality control measures. Efficient returns management also ensures accurate inventory updates, preventing overstocking or underselling on platforms due to unaccounted stock. These cost savings and efficiencies add value across the entire supply chain.

Loop Returns

Loop Returns is a leading post-purchase platform designed to optimize returns, exchanges, and reverse logistics for over 5,000 Shopify brands globally, including those on Shopify Plus looking to provide an enhanced shopping experience for their fashion shoppers. With features like Workflows, Instant Exchanges, and Shop Now options, Loop gives ecommerce sellers the tools to retain revenue, reduce fraud, and enhance lifetime customer value. By customizing return policies with intuitive workflows and no-code editing, sellers can create specialized return experiences tailored to different customer segments or product types. 

Loop’s powerful data integrations ensure that inventory levels in Linnworks are updated based on return data, streamlining operations and minimizing errors. With over $2 billion in retained revenue managed in just five years, Loop proves invaluable for forward-thinking -commerce businesses looking to elevate their returns process.

Related: ➡️ The Ultimate Returns Playbook: How to Retain Revenue, Prevent Fraud, and Increase Customer LTV

SendCloud

SendCloud offers a versatile returns solution that blends automation, sustainability, and efficiency. Through its easy-to-use, branded self-service return portal, customers can generate their own return labels and track returns in real-time, eliminating the need for manual intervention. Sellers benefit from access to over 1,000 return methods and pre-negotiated rates, making international returns both economical and streamlined. SendCloud’s commitment to green solutions, such as digital QR codes and Europe’s largest service point network, caters to eco-conscious brands. 

Integrated with Linnworks, SendCloud empowers e-commerce businesses to automate RMA creation and monitor returns data with ease, ensuring a smooth and organized transition from returns to restocking.

Payments & Reimbursements 

payments and reimbursements

From ensuring smooth transactions to recovering operational costs, these systems play a critical role in maintaining cash flow, streamlining operations, and enhancing customer trust. For ecommerce sellers, having the right tools to manage payments and reimbursements can mean the difference between operational chaos and sustained growth.

Improved Cash Flow

By automating payment processes and centralizing management, ecommerce sellers can minimize delays and errors when processing transactions. Quick and accurate reimbursements—whether for operational costs or customer returns—ensure businesses remain financially agile. Additionally, these systems allow sellers to access real-time financial insights to better manage resources and optimize performance. This leads to a healthier bottom line and more strategic decision-making.

Operational Efficiency

Integrated payment platforms simplify complex tasks like reconciling transactions, managing reimbursements, and syncing financial data across multiple channels. This ensures businesses save time and reduce costly errors. Furthermore, a reliable payments system improves customer satisfaction by offering fast and flexible payment options, secure transactions, and easy refund capabilities.

Platforms like Getida, Lightspeed, and Square offer tailored solutions to enhance payment processing, reimbursement accuracy, and financial insights. 

Getida

Getida has established itself as the global leader in Amazon FBA auditing and reimbursements. Designed specifically for Amazon sellers, Getida helps recover 1-3% of annual FBA revenue, operating solely on a commission-based model—charging only when funds are successfully retrieved. With over 11,000 active users, Getida combines advanced auditing technology with seasoned expertise to identify reimbursement opportunities and errors that others often miss. Recognized as a top Amazon software partner, Getida ensures ecommerce sellers reclaim lost revenue while keeping their finances optimized.

Lightspeed

Lightspeed is a robust cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) and payment platform trusted by businesses in retail, hospitality, and more. With its integration capability, Lightspeed ensures accurate stock levels, pricing, and seamless order tracking directly from EPOS tills to e-commerce platforms. It also offers flexible payment methods, over 40 built-in reports for real-time insights, and intuitive tools for managing inventory across multiple channels. 

Square

Square is an all-in-one payment and point-of-sale solution powering over 4 million businesses globally. With its seamless integration to e-commerce platforms, Square simplifies payment processing while offering features like inventory syncing, order imports, and payment tracking. Retailers can accept multiple payment methods, including credit cards, with Square’s user-friendly tools. Additionally, Square’s data pooling capabilities provide comprehensive reporting on payment trends, customer orders, and stock levels, allowing businesses to make informed decisions. Ideal for managing both online and physical sales, Square stands out as a versatile tool for e-commerce sellers looking to streamline their payment workflows.

Ecommerce Agencies

For ecommerce businesses aiming to scale and optimize their operations, partnering with specialized agencies can amplify your marketing strategy and provide a significant competitive edge—especially in a dynamic fashion retail landscape. These agencies bring targeted expertise, resources, and innovative strategies that drive growth, enhance customer engagement, and solve unique challenges. Whether focusing on social media, content creation, or paid media campaigns, ecommerce agencies allow businesses to leverage specialized skills that might not exist in-house, achieving stronger outcomes and more efficient operations.

Expertise

Agencies often specialize in areas like TikTok marketing, creative content, or advanced advertising, providing businesses with cutting-edge strategies that maximize impact. This expertise ensures campaigns are crafted to align with customer behavior across specific platforms, delivering results that resonate with target audiences. For growing brands looking to optimize their presence in competitive markets, these tailored services offer a level of proficiency and insight that can be difficult to achieve internally.

Scalability

Ecommerce sellers can tap into resources and talent pools without the operational costs of hiring in-house teams. Agencies also stay updated with the latest tools and strategies, ensuring your campaigns utilize best practices. This level of adaptability enables brands to manage seasonal spikes, launch new products, or enter new markets seamlessly. Ultimately, a strategic partnership with the right ecommerce agency enhances marketing outcomes while freeing internal teams to focus on core operations.

Specialized ecommerce agencies like Unsociable, Optimison, and AdQuadrant offer essential expertise and resources to help brands excel in today’s competitive market. 

Unsociable

Unsociable is a TikTok marketing agency dedicated to helping brands connect with audiences on one of the fastest-growing social platforms. Their comprehensive services include TikTok strategy, shop setup, content creation, influencer marketing, and paid advertising. With a team of seasoned marketers, Unsociable uses data-driven strategies to ensure your campaigns are both impactful and ROI-focused. By understanding the nuances of TikTok, they help brands capture attention, increase engagement, and drive sales. 

Optimizon

Optimizon specializes in creating high-quality video and photo content designed to captivate target audiences. By combining engaging storytelling with visually striking content, this creative agency crafts impactful narratives that resonate with customers across various platforms. Their polished production standards and attention to detail set brands apart, while their versatile content solutions cater to the needs of ecommerce sellers in competitive markets. 

AdQuadrant

AdQuadrant is a full-service digital marketing agency focused on scaling direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. Their suite of services includes paid media advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, creative services, and data analytics. With a team of experienced and data-savvy marketers, AdQuadrant delivers tailored strategies that drive measurable outcomes for e-commerce sellers. From scaling ad performance to refining customer acquisition strategies, their approach ensures clients achieve sustained growth and enhanced brand visibility. 

Summary

At Linnworks, we understand the demands of ecommerce sellers and the need to integrate seamlessly into a variety of platforms to boost efficiency and drive growth. Our powerful ecosystem empowers your business by connecting you to these essential resources, synchronizing inventory and operations across channels, and ensuring you have the insights needed to thrive in today’s competitive marketplace. Discover how Linnworks helps fashion and apparel sellers—ranging from independent clothing stores to global apparel brands—maximize their potential by streamlining operations and growing their brand identity. Check out all our core integrations and partners

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Caroline Schmid VP Marketing Linnworks

Caroline Schmid

VP of Growth Marketing

Caroline Schmid is a seasoned marketing leader with over 25 years of expertise in crafting and executing innovative marketing strategies. She specializes in developing integrated, best-practice-driven global growth and go-to-market (GTM) programs, with a track record that spans Fortune 500 companies to dynamic start-ups. Caroline’s work has impacted businesses in over 50 countries, showcasing her ability to drive results across diverse markets and industries.