If you sell consumables, refills, or anything else customers reorder predictably, you have a quiet recurring-revenue business hiding inside your Linnworks account. Here’s how to find it — and how to decide what to automate.
What “repeat order” actually means
A repeat order isn’t a subscription. It’s a customer who reorders the same set of items at predictable intervals — weekly cleaning supplies for a B2B office, monthly cat food for a pet shop wholesale, fortnightly print cartridges for an accountancy firm.
You probably know who these customers are. They’re the ones whose orders feel like Groundhog Day.
Three flavours of repeat to consider
- Fully automated — schedule fires, order goes straight into Linnworks Open Orders, customer never sees a confirmation step. Best for true subscriptions.
- Pre-approved — customer gets an email two days before their next scheduled order with a one-click confirm. Best for B2B where buyers want to vet the order before despatch.
- One-click repeat — no schedule; operator clicks “Repeat last order” on a known customer. Best for trade counter / phone orders where the rhythm is irregular.
When to automate
Automate when all three are true:
- The customer’s order is predictable in items, quantity and interval.
- The customer has authorised standing orders (you have a written or contractual agreement).
- Failure to deliver would not be catastrophic — you can still skip a week if needed.
When to keep it manual (or one-click)
Keep it manual when any of these apply:
- The customer’s mix changes frequently (different items each time, even if the rhythm is regular).
- Pricing is bespoke or trade-rate negotiated per order.
- The customer expects a human to confirm before despatch.
How MCP-G’s tools handle this
For the one-click flavour, our Trade Order POS has a “Repeat last order from this customer” shortcut on the customer-lookup screen — perfect for a trade counter where customers reorder irregularly.
The benchmark to aim for
Talk to your operators. If a quarter of their time is spent re-creating the same orders for the same customers, you have a clear ROI for repeat-order automation. Most merchants who try it never go back.