Smart automation for ecommerce

Your warehouse, running itself.

A complete fulfilment automation system for Shopify stores. Pick lists, packing slips, Royal Mail scanning, printer orchestration — built from the warehouse floor up, deployed and supported by someone who actually ships orders for a living.

mcs-fulfilment · live
# new orders since 09:00 47 orders ingested from Shopify picklist #2,103 generated 47 packing slips printed Royal Mail manifest synced # total time elapsed: 11s waiting for next batch
~70%
reduction in pick & pack time per order
0
manual data entry between Shopify and Royal Mail
3+
Shopify stores managed from a single hub
£0
per-order or per-shipment software fees, ever
The reality of off-the-shelf fulfilment

Most fulfilment software is built for the software company, not for you.

ShipStation, Veeqo, Linnworks — they all charge per order, per user, per shipment, or per integration. The numbers look manageable until you scale, and then they don't. And none of them mould to your warehouse.

Generic SaaS fulfilment

  • Monthly fees that scale with order volume — punishing growth
  • Cookie-cutter workflows you bend your warehouse to fit
  • Per-user licensing that taxes you for hiring
  • "Premium" tiers for the features you actually need
  • Vendor lock-in to their printers, scanners, label formats
  • Support tickets in a queue with hundreds of others

SmoothProcessing

  • One-time install, predictable flat support — no per-order tax
  • Workflow tailored to your products, your pickers, your floor plan
  • Unlimited users, unlimited stations, unlimited stores
  • Every feature included from day one
  • Works with your existing printers, scanners and PCs
  • Direct line to the engineer who built your system
What you get

A full warehouse operations layer, not just a label printer.

Everything below ships as one integrated system. No add-on modules, no per-feature unlocks.

Intelligent picklists

Auto-generated picklists from Shopify orders across multiple stores. Grouped by SKU, sorted by warehouse zone, with variant images for fast visual matching.

Branded packing slips

Beautiful, on-brand packing slips with product thumbnails generated and printed automatically. Reprint any historical order with a single click — no rebuilds, no broken images.

Royal Mail integration

Barcode scanning straight into Royal Mail's manifest. Void labels, reconcile dispatches, and close the loop end-to-end without ever leaving the pack station.

Printer orchestration

CUPS-based printer management with a watchdog that auto-restores connections, balances jobs across devices, and works with whatever hardware you already own.

Live operations dashboard

Home Assistant dashboard showing live order status, in-progress picks, completed packs and pending dispatches. Mobile-responsive so your team can check from anywhere on the floor.

Audio order announcements

Configurable voice announcements as orders come in. Keep the floor aware without anyone having to watch a screen — works with smart speakers you already have.

Multi-store hub

Run MCS, Speedy Feet, EscapeRoss — or any combination of Shopify stores — from one unified queue. No more bouncing between admin panels.

Smart status tracking

Filter cancelled orders, flag exceptions, track in-progress prints separately. The system knows what's been picked, packed, dispatched — and what's stuck.

Yours, on your hardware

Self-hosted on a small PC in your warehouse. No data leaves your premises. No subscription to cancel. No cloud vendor to disappear.

From first call to first pick

A typical engagement, end to end.

Site visits are part of the service. I come to your warehouse, I see how you actually work, then I tailor the system to it.

i
Week 0 · Discovery

Free 30-minute consultation call

We talk about your current workflow, your pain points, your store(s), your volume, and what good looks like for you. No commitment, no sales script. If SmoothProcessing isn't right for you, I'll tell you.

ii
Week 1 · Site visit

I come to your warehouse

Anywhere in the UK or Ireland. I spend a day with you — watching your team pick and pack, mapping your hardware, understanding your SKU structure and any quirks. You get a quote and a spec document by end of week.

iii
Weeks 2–4 · Build & install

System deployed on-site

I configure the stack — Node-RED flows, Home Assistant dashboards, CUPS printer setup, Shopify webhooks, Royal Mail integration. Then I'm physically on-site to install it, plug it in, and walk your team through it.

iv
Week 5 · Go live

First real orders run through the system

I stay with you for the first day live, working alongside your team. Any tweaks, any edge cases — we sort them on the spot. By the end of the day your system is running production.

v
Ongoing · Support & iteration

I'm a message away

Direct support, no ticket queue. Routine improvements, new feature requests, hardware swaps — all covered. As your business grows, the system grows with you.

Under the hood

Battle-tested open-source building blocks, not vendor lock-in.

The system is built on proven open-source infrastructure. Nothing proprietary you can't audit, no SaaS dependencies that can vanish on you.

Core platform

  • Home AssistantOrchestration & UI
  • Node-REDWorkflow logic
  • CUPSPrinter management
  • MQTTEvent bus
  • pdfmakeDocument generation

Integrations

  • Shopify Admin APIOrders, products, fulfilment
  • Royal Mail Click & DropLabels & manifests
  • Webhook ingestionReal-time order capture
  • Barcode scannersUSB / Bluetooth, any model
  • Thermal & A4 printersWhatever you own
Pricing

Pay for the build. Pay for support. Never per order.

No revenue share. No per-shipment fees. No surprise tier upgrades. A fair installation fee for the bespoke build, a modest monthly retainer for ongoing support and improvements.

// Illustrative starting prices · Final quote after site visit
Starter
Single Shopify store, single pack station, Royal Mail integration.
from£2,950
one-time installation + £95/mo support
  • Full system install on your hardware
  • One on-site day for setup & training
  • Picklists, packing slips, Royal Mail flow
  • Email & remote support (next business day)
  • Quarterly system health checks
Get a quote
Bespoke
Larger operations, unusual hardware, deep workflow customisation.
Let's talk
scoped per project · custom retainer
  • Everything in Operator
  • Unlimited Shopify stores
  • Custom integrations (couriers, ERPs, EPOS)
  • Bespoke automation flows
  • On-site days as required
  • Phone support, dedicated number
Start a conversation
Why no per-order pricing? Because punishing you for growing is what generic SaaS does — and the whole point of building your own system is to escape that. The system runs on your hardware. The ongoing fee covers me — improvements, support, hardware swaps, new feature requests as your business changes. If you don't need me, you can cancel any time and keep using the system as it stands.
About

Built by an actual operator, not a software vendor.

I run the warehouse fulfilment operation for Modern Combat Sports, a UK ecommerce brand with multiple Shopify stores. The system you'd be buying is the system that runs my own business every single day.

It started because nothing on the market did what I needed — at least not without charging me by the order. So I built it. Then I refined it. Then customers and friends in the trade started asking if they could use it too.

"I'm not selling you software I think might work. I'm selling you the exact system I bet my own livelihood on."

If you're a Shopify store owner doing your own fulfilment and you're tired of either bleeding money to per-order SaaS or duct-taping spreadsheets and printers together — let's have a chat.

What I bring to your site visit

  • 01
    Operator's eye I've spent thousands of hours doing exactly what your team does. I see things software-only vendors miss.
  • 02
    Engineering depth The full stack — Linux, networking, Node-RED, Home Assistant, Shopify APIs, CUPS — I built and maintain it all personally.
  • 03
    No middlemen You speak directly to the person who builds and supports your system. Same number, same email, every time.
  • 04
    UK & Ireland coverage Happy to drive or fly. Travel within the UK/IE is included in installation pricing.
Common questions

Frequently asked.

If yours isn't here, just ask on the call.

Almost certainly, yes. The system uses CUPS, which supports thousands of printer models — thermal label printers, A4 laser printers, multi-tray office printers, the lot. Barcode scanners are typically USB or Bluetooth HID, which means they "just work" out of the box. During the site visit I'll audit everything you have and confirm.

The system runs on open-source software (Home Assistant, Node-RED, CUPS) on hardware you own. If I went under tomorrow, your system would keep running. You'd lose ongoing improvements and support, but you wouldn't lose the system itself — no cloud server going dark, no kill switch.

Those are excellent products if you fit their mould and don't mind paying per-order forever. SmoothProcessing is for operators who want something tailored to their workflow, who don't want monthly fees scaling with their growth, and who'd rather speak to one person than a support portal.

If you ship tens of thousands of orders a month and need huge marketplace breadth (Amazon, eBay, multi-courier optimisation), a SaaS platform may still be the right answer. SmoothProcessing's sweet spot is Shopify-first brands shipping anywhere from 50 to a few thousand orders a week.

A small PC — a mini PC or even a decent Raspberry Pi 5 in some cases — running 24/7 in your warehouse. I can supply and configure one as part of the installation, or you can provide your own. Total power draw is around 10-20W. It sits on your network and quietly does its job.

No. Your team uses a clean web dashboard — click to print, scan to dispatch, simple visual queues. The technical complexity is hidden. The only technical person in the loop is me, and you only need me when something needs changing.

Customer data lives on your hardware, in your warehouse, on your network. It never leaves your premises except for the API calls back to Shopify and Royal Mail (which you're already making anyway). No third-party cloud, no data shared with a vendor — that's me.

Absolutely. The free initial call usually includes a screen-share demo of the live system. If you want to come to my warehouse and see it in real production use — for serious enquiries, yes, that's possible too.

Let's get your warehouse running itself.

Tell me a bit about your operation and I'll come back to you within one working day — usually the same day.

No sales script. Honest assessment. If it's not a fit, I'll tell you that too.