For Love & Lemons partners with Cart.com to scale US fulfillment operations

US-based commerce solutions provider Cart.com has announced a partnership with contemporary womenswear label For Love & Lemons to manage US fulfillment across its direct-to-consumer (D2C) and wholesale operations. The transition provides For Love & Lemons with greater capacity to absorb peak D2C demand, meet the requirements of major retail partners and reach customers across the country faster.

For a decade, For Love & Lemons operated as the sole brand in a dedicated California fulfillment facility. The model gave the company control over its operation, yet tied its cost structure and capacity to a facility entirely supported by its own volume. As the business expanded, those constraints became visible during high-volume periods, when semiannual sales created weeks-long order backlogs, and in wholesale, where larger retail programs placed additional demands on logistics.

“We had reached a point where our fulfillment operation was limiting how efficiently we could grow,” said For Love & Lemons co-founder, Laura Hall. “Our biggest sales could leave orders backed up for weeks, and expanding with major retail partners required capabilities our existing setup was not built to support. During this year's Labor Day sale, Cart.com was getting orders out the next day. That changes the experience for our customers and gives us more room to grow across D2C and wholesale.”

Operational performance and Texas relocation

The partnership was tested in October following the release of the brand’s ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ collaboration. Roughly 75 percent of the collection sold out within 48 hours, with Cart.com shipping 1,200 orders in 24 hours using standard operations and no added staffing.

For Love & Lemons began shipping from Cart.com’s facility in Terrell, Texas, in July. The central location has shortened transit times to East Coast customers, while the move from a dedicated facility to shared infrastructure has lowered costs across storage, shipping and handling. The shift is notable for a business where D2C represents roughly 60% to 70% of sales, with wholesale accounting for the balance.

The new operation provides For Love & Lemons with capacity to pursue marketplace, drop-ship and other retail programs that require brands to meet routing and compliance standards. Cart.com managed the physical inventory transition, coordinating with US logistics company C.H. Robinson to move the brand’s full stock from California to Texas.

Scalable infrastructure for channel growth

“Fulfillment capacity gets tested when volume spikes and when a major retail partner adds complexity at the same time,” said Cart.com president of fulfillment solutions, Joe Barth. “For Love & Lemons needed an operation that could handle both without forcing the brand to build for its single busiest week of the year. The Labor Day sale was an early proof point: orders moved out the next day during a peak period, while the same infrastructure gives the brand the flexibility to support more demanding wholesale programs as it grows.”

The partnership replaces a fixed, single-brand fulfillment model with infrastructure designed to adjust as the channel mix and order volume of For Love & Lemons change. It also extends the brand’s reach from a West Coast operation to a central US location serving major customer markets, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami.

Founded in 2011 by Hall and Gillian Rose Kern, For Love & Lemons joins US-based brands including Pacsun, Milk Makeup, Ilia, Thursday Boots, Janie & Jack and Organifi on the Cart.com fulfillment and commerce infrastructure.