Retailer
Classic Football Shirts (CFS) has recorded the busiest period in its 20-year history as FIFA World Cup demand drove a surge in orders from customers around the globe.
Across June and July, the Hyde-based business increased dispatched orders by 101% compared with the same period in 2025.
Helping the company manage the growth was its five-year partnership with Manchester-based shipping software provider
Shipster. Earlier this year, Shipster integrated a Logopak/Adpak Ecommerce Auto Bagger into CFS's fulfilment operation, introducing automated packing and carrier label application.
Shipment and label data is transferred directly to the Logopak system, which prints and applies shipping labels as part of the packing process. For eligible orders, packing times were reduced from minutes to seconds.
During the World Cup, the automated setup handled almost two-thirds (64%) of all orders, enabling CFS to process record volumes while maintaining fulfilment performance.
The latest peak exceeded the retailer's previous record trading periods during Black Friday and Christmas. Demand was driven by football fans revisiting historic tournaments and purchasing shirts associated with iconic teams and players.
Among the strongest sellers was CFS's Away Days Mystery Box range. Between May and August, customers ordered 23,830 Mystery Box products, including almost 10,000 England-themed boxes. Argentina shirts were also among the most popular national team products.
Founded in 2006 by Matt Dale and Douglas Bierton, Classic Football Shirts has grown into a global ecommerce business serving customers in more than 130 countries and generating annual revenues exceeding £30 million. The company stocks more than one million authenticated football shirts and memorabilia items.
Over the course of its partnership with Shipster, CFS says it has more than tripled warehouse productivity, allowing staff to process hundreds of additional orders each day.
Brandon Evans, Outbound Operations Manager at Classic Football Shirts, said: "The World Cup has always been one of the biggest moments in the football calendar for us. Every tournament creates a new wave of nostalgia as supporters reconnect with the teams, players and shirts that defined previous World Cups.
"This World Cup put our fulfilment operation under sustained pressure and Shipster made a massive difference. Without the automation and flexibility we've built into the operation, we simply wouldn't have been able to dispatch anywhere near the volume of orders we achieved while maintaining the speed and service our customers expect."
Tony Cheetham, founder and CEO of Shipster, said: "Major sporting events can create huge spikes in demand almost overnight, so retailers need systems that are fast, flexible and capable of scaling quickly.
"Over the last five years, we've worked closely with the team to build a highly automated fulfilment operation that gives Classic Football Shirts the speed and flexibility to adapt as demand changes.
"The World Cup provided the ultimate real-world test of that investment, and it delivered."