Les Raffineurs x Bigblue | Personalising thousands of orders without eating into margins

Summarize with AI:

Les Raffineurs wants to become a leading name in gifting in France. That's an ambitious goal for a brand built on unique, personalised pieces: every order needs an extra touch, whether that's an engraving, a gift pouch or a printed note. As volumes grow, logistics becomes as much a strategic decision as an operational one.

Results from the brand's 2025 peak season

A logistics partner that can engrave, wrap and personalise, not just ship

In spring 2025, Les Raffineurs moved its logistics to Bigblue. In less than a month, Bigblue's warehouse took over all the personalisation work the brand used to do in its own stores: engraving, gift pouches, printed notes and gift set assembly.

This allowed the brand to run all its sales channels (its website, three stores and flash sales) from a single pool of stock, held in one warehouse, where every order is picked, personalised and shipped.

The setup also solved a cost problem. Nearly 60% of Les Raffineurs' orders ship in the six weeks before Christmas. The brand needed capacity exactly when it needed it, and costs that scale with its volumes.

In short, Les Raffineurs wasn't just looking for a provider to store and ship its products. It needed a partner that could scale capacity up and down with demand, serve every channel from a single pool of stock and personalise every order.

"We were looking for a partner that could support our ambition to become a leading name in gifting in France. Bigblue was best placed to do that."Valentin Fleurier, Logistics Manager, Les Raffineurs

One pool of stock for every sales channel

At Bigblue, a single pool of stock, held in a warehouse near Paris, supplies the brand's website, its three stores and its flash sales.

When a product sells faster than expected on one channel, the teams decide where to allocate it from that shared stock. Les Raffineurs refreshes a quarter of its range every year, so the aim is to avoid tying stock to one channel and to keep products available wherever the demand is.

Stores are restocked on a schedule agreed in advance with the transport team. They know when deliveries will arrive and can plan staffing around them, even in the busiest weeks of the year.

Put to the test at Christmas

Before peak season, Bigblue and Les Raffineurs build volume forecasts together, plan inbound deliveries and line up the resources needed. Everything is managed in the Bigblue app and overseen by a dedicated point of contact.

During the two busiest weeks, the warehouse runs 24/7. Bigblue sets up a dedicated picking process for the brand, batching several orders into a single trip around the warehouse, and adds extra staff to its engraving and gift-wrapping teams.

As a result, 98% of orders shipped on the promised day during that period. 98% of parcels arrived within the promised timeframe, with an average transit time of one to two days.

"A smooth Christmas is never guaranteed. The real challenge is making every peak go well, because one surprise can quickly bring everything to a halt."Valentin Fleurier, Les Raffineurs

From twenty engravings a week to two thousand in December

Engraving, gift pouches and personalised notes follow the same curve as orders: volumes can rise tenfold from one week to the next without processing times slipping. That flexibility was the main thing the brand was looking for.

"Flexibility was the number one quality we were looking for in a logistics partner, and that's exactly what Bigblue offers."Valentin Fleurier, Les Raffineurs

Engraving is the clearest example. At the Bastille store, around twenty orders a week were engraved. Bigblue engraved nearly 600 orders in November and 2,000 in December 2025, all at the same pace as order picking.

The brand's other gifting services have scaled in the same way:

• •one in eight orders ships with a gift pouch
• •personalised notes are printed on demand
• •flyers and brand inserts are added during picking

Store teams no longer spend part of their day packing orders.

"We benefit from Bigblue's whole set-up: personalisation is built into picking, and I manage everything remotely."Valentin Fleurier, Les Raffineurs

Staying in control of operations, remotely

Les Raffineurs' teams track their operations in real time in the Bigblue app, including the status of every order, stock levels and deliveries received at the warehouse.

Customer service sees the same information in its own tools. Thanks to the Zendesk and Slack integrations, the team can reply to a customer, edit an order or change a pickup point without going through the warehouse.

In store, staff can now focus on selling and advising customers rather than packing orders.

"What I like is that there are real people behind it. And the app gives us all the information we need at a glance. It's intuitive, easy and genuinely pleasant to use day to day."Valentin Fleurier, Les Raffineurs

Ready for every peak

For Les Raffineurs, Christmas is just one of several peaks. Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day and Black Friday each bring their own volumes, deadlines and gifting requirements.

The brand now handles each of these moments with the same setup: one pool of stock for every sales channel, personalisation built into picking, and capacity that keeps pace with sales.

That leaves its teams free to focus on what makes the brand special: finding the gift no one else thought of.