Video: inside the Chain Reaction warehouse

Ever wondered what happens when you click the buy button on the Chain Reaction website? Well wonder no longer, because CRC have put together this video to show the process from basket to post van. And there's some clever stuff along the way that's helped the online giant increase the number of orders they can fulfil and reduce the number of delivery vans leaving Ballyclare.

I went to the giant Chain Reaction warehouse a couple of months ago to look at the new Vitus bikes, and we had a whistlestop tour of the picking and packing facilities then; this vid gives a really interesting rundown of how their system can ship out up to 24 orders a minute to over a hundred countries across the world.

The pickers all wear a wirelessly networked voice recognition system; it's trained to recognise their voice and also means that pickers can work in whatever language they choose. The picking routes are calculated by the system to be as efficient as possible; after they've selected an item the picker speaks the last digits of the product code into their headset to confirm they've got the right product in the right size. Then it's on to the next product. Some of the guys in the warehouse will be picking ten or more orders at a time.

Once your order box has been filled it goes on the rollers down to the packing room, which is chock-full of a spaghetti junction of box runs and machines. Once your order is in its box CRC use a very clever box sizing process which measures the height of all the products in the order and collapses the box to the minimum size possible. This simple addition to the packing process means 30% less lorries leaving the warehouse every day.