Orders were flying in. Business was glowing (literally).
When Janos Hampel launched Stellar Lighting UK, it wasn’t just about selling lights. It was about creating moments. LED and fibre optic star ceilings that mimic the night sky. Automatic stair lights that look like something out of a sci-fi film. Carefully engineered designs that didn’t just illuminate a room, but transformed them.
And for a while, everything worked. Customers loved it. Sales were strong. Business looked unstoppable from the outside.
But behind the glow?
It was duct tape, spreadsheets, and far too much caffeine. “We were processing every single order manually, picking, packing, and dispatching from the office. It quickly became extremely challenging and inefficient,” said Janos.
In the beginning, that manual touch felt personal. There was pride in being hands-on. But eventually, charm gave way to overwhelm. Bigger orders rolled in. Repeat customers returned. Product lines expanded.
And what once felt intimate now felt like a daily sprint with no finish line in sight.
“When several orders arrived at the same time, it put a strain on our resources. We simply didn’t have the staff or space to handle everything as efficiently as we wanted.”
Every spike in sales became a scramble. Their warehouse system didn’t integrate with their online store. No automation and definitely no syncing. Just endless copy-paste loops and the constant fear of dropping the ball.
Here’s the part no one talks about: growth doesn’t break a business. Broken systems do.
Stellar Lighting UK didn’t have a demand problem. They had an operations problem and fulfilment was maxed out. “Growing the team or moving to a larger space just wasn’t feasible at that point,” observed Janos. “We found ourselves bottlenecked—unable to keep up with demand while still relying on manual processes.”
That’s when Janos went searching for a better way.
The search for something smarter
What they needed wasn’t another warehouse or off-the-shelf software. They needed a system that could connect the dots between their store, their fulfilment partner, and their unique workflow.
Something powerful, but not so complex it required a full-time developer to maintain: something that could grow with them. “That’s when I stumbled across Order Desk,” said Janos. “Order Desk had exactly what we needed, and more.”
But what stood out wasn’t just the features. It was the support. “From the start, their team was incredible. They didn’t just send us to a help doc. They actually took the time to understand our business,” Janos emphasized.
From messy manual chaos to fulfilment that runs itself
With Order Desk, Janos rebuilt their backend, but this time, with automation at the core.
- Orders now flow automatically from their web shop to the warehouse with no human handoffs, no risk of duplicate or lost info.
- Custom rules take care of fulfilment quirks, like bundling products or sending surprise gifts to loyal customers.
- Order updates are sent to customers automatically.
- Even their CRM syncs with Order Desk, keeping marketing and support aligned.
The shift was more than just operational. “The entire fulfilment process is automated now. From order to dispatch, it just… runs. No errors. No delays. No panic.”
What would’ve happened without the switch?
“If you’re still dragging CSVs around or entering order info manually, try it. Order Desk is reliable, flexible, and built by people who actually want you to succeed. You’ll wish you made the switch sooner.”
– Janos Hampel
Order Desk didn’t just save time. It gave them back control. Stability. A way to grow without breaking under the weight of success.
Today, Stellar Lighting UK runs lean, calm, and confident. And Janos gets to focus on what he set out to do in the first place: building a business that lights people up.
