A niche worth celebrating: How Peacock Supplies scaled with ShipStation and Temu 

When Sarah Gulfraz went looking for party supplies for Ramadan and Eid in the early 2010s, the options were nearly nonexistent. Millions of UK households mark these celebrations each year, yet the decorations, tableware, and gifts were almost impossible to find. She launched Peacock Supplies in 2013 to fill that gap—and built something nobody else was offering.

More than a decade later, the catalogue runs to almost 1,000 products: Eid Moon Trees, handmade wooden Ramadan calendars that light up, and chocolates and sweets made in an on-site commercial kitchen for all celebrations. Every detail is considered. Tableware is designed to handle heavy curries and comes in packs of 10 rather than the standard 8, reflecting the larger gatherings typical of many family celebrations. Peacock Supplies grew steadily into the shelves at Morrisons and TK Maxx across the UK and Europe.

Then, over the past couple of years, the big party and gift brands noticed the market Gulfraz had spent years developing—and moved in. 

“I don’t mind competition. It’s healthy,” she said. “But spending years building up demand, showing supermarkets and department stores that there is a market for these products and then getting beaten by the big guys on price—it’s frustrating.”

Rather than fight for shelf space on someone else’s budget, she looked elsewhere.

Eleven channels and nowhere to put them

By April 2020, Peacock Supplies was already spread across five online sales channels. Gulfraz had always been averse to putting all her eggs in one basket. And managing everything through individual carrier portals—copying and pasting order details into Royal Mail, DPD, and whoever else—wasn’t going to scale. When COVID hit and online sales took off, the cracks became impossible to ignore.

“I just needed everything to feed into one hub,” she said. “That’s how I found ShipStation.”

Today, Peacock Supplies runs across 11 marketplaces. Order management became the foundation that made that possible. With all channels feeding into a single dashboard, Gulfraz could see what was selling, on which marketplace, and in which season. 

“When someone asks me what’s my best seller, I’d have to ask them, ‘Well, which marketplace?’” she said, “because what I sell on one looks very different to my top seller on another or on our website.”

Inventory management followed, and with it came the end of a persistent problem: overselling. Before ShipStation, selling out fast on one channel meant other marketplaces kept accepting orders that couldn’t be fulfilled—customers contacted, refunds issued, and trust eroded. 

“We love inventory sync for all marketplaces,” Gulfraz said. “It means we don’t oversell, we don’t undersell.”

Physical stock counts that used to happen monthly now happen just twice a year. The system accuracy made the manual checks unnecessary.

The 3PL nobody planned

Something unexpected happened as the operation tightened: other businesses noticed. Peacock Supplies was dispatching so reliably—everything received by 2 pm goes out the door the same day—that other ecommerce brands started approaching them about fulfillment. Gulfraz didn’t set out to build a 3PL. The efficiency ShipStation unlocked created the conditions for one. 

Peacock Fulfilment now handles pick, pack, and ship for more than 40 ecommerce clients. Each gets its own warehouse environment inside ShipStation—inventory, orders, and carrier preferences contained and managed separately. During peak season—when Ramadan and Eid celebrations drive the biggest surges—orders climb from around 3,000 to 4,000 a month to upwards of 10,000. Nearly triple the volume, out the door the same day. 

Automation Rules do the heavy lifting across both the core Peacock business and its 3PL clients. Carrier routing and service levels are built into the rules. A luxury jewelry client sends everything the next day regardless of order value—that preference lives in the automation. Clients taking pre-orders get those orders tagged and held from the main dashboard until stock arrives. They’re not canceled or clogging the queue. They’re just waiting.

“We use automation rules for everything,” Gulfraz said. “I think I get the most out of my money.”

Without ShipStation, Gulfraz estimates Peacock would need up to 50% more staff than it currently runs. A single order takes a third of the time to fulfill compared to the old process of manually copying details into individual carrier portals. The difference showed up immediately—and has compounded across six years of growth.

Selling on Temu—and checking ShipStation first

In late 2025, Temu’s UK director of partnerships reached out to Gulfraz. One of the first things she did was check whether ShipStation integrated with the platform.

For Gulfraz, that check isn’t a formality. ShipStation integration is a non-negotiable before committing to any new marketplace. The operational cost of running a disconnected channel outweighs whatever volume it brings. Temu had the integration, and that sealed it. 

She uploaded 300 of her nearly 1,000 products. Her first order arrived within 24 hours of listing. 

“You can’t deny the traffic that Temu has,” Gulfraz said. 

Selling on Temu now brings in at least 10 to 15 orders on a quiet day, all flowing into ShipStation alongside her other channels—same automation, same dispatch window, same standards her 3PL clients depend on.

Peacock Supplies occupies a niche that mainstream retail has only recently started to pay attention to. For a brand like that, Temu’s reach matters. A 2025 Ipsos survey found that 80% of respondents consider Temu good value for money. For a brand like Peacock Supplies—with quality products in an underserved category—that kind of consumer trust is a direct line to new customers. Selling on Temu has opened Peacock Supplies to an audience they couldn’t easily reach before.

It’s particularly valuable for confectionery, the company’s fastest-growing category. Peacock’s on-site commercial kitchen and food accreditation allow it to produce celebration-specific sweets and hampers that are difficult to replicate at scale. Selling on Temu has helped accelerate that growth.

ShipStation’s analytics help Gulfraz track where those trends are heading. Her team runs regular item demand reports, scan verification reports to keep warehouse accuracy tight, and monthly shipment breakdowns for every 3PL client. Over the years, those reports show a clear shift: themed party collections gave way to mixed, personalized buys, and food and gifting are now pulling ahead. The data shapes what’s next.

What she’s building toward

Confectionery is expanding—pouches, shareable bags, and new formats alongside the signature hampers. A US version of the Peacock Supplies site is in development. And through all of it, the mission hasn’t shifted since 2013.

“We’re becoming part of people’s family traditions,” Gulfraz said.

Selling on Temu, running fulfillment for more than 40 brands, dispatching same-day with a core team of six—it’s all in service of getting the right product to the right family at the right moment. ShipStation is what makes the operational side of that possible. The heart behind it has always been Sarah Gulfraz’s. 

Ready to see what ShipStation can do for your multichannel operation? Start shipping with ShipStation today.