A ship-from-store strategy turns your stores into local fulfilment hubs, allowing you to lower delivery costs by shortening the distance your deliveries travel to customers. In-store fulfilment allows you to use fast local deliveries and access your inventory regardless of where it is, making sure you get the right orders to your customers fast.
This article discusses what a ship-from-store strategy is, some things you might need to consider when setting up ship-from-store, and provides links to some Shippit features that can help you get started. For more information about ship from store, download the ebook from the Shippit website.
What is ship from store?
Ship from store is a fulfilment model where online orders are picked, packed, and shipped directly from your physical store locations, either instead of or in addition to your central warehouse or distribution centre. This strategy allows you to use your in-store inventory to fulfil e-commerce demand, effectively turning each store into a mini fulfilment hub.
A ship from store strategy allows your stores to become efficient local fulfilment hubs, leading to significant advantages:
Lower delivery costs: By fulfilling orders from the store location that is closest to the customer, you can significantly reduce the distance your deliveries need to travel, leading to lower shipping costs.
Faster local deliveries: Proximity to customers means quicker delivery times, enhancing customer satisfaction and meeting the growing demand for rapid shipping.
Greater inventory reach: Ship from store means you can access your entire inventory, whether it's in a warehouse, fulfilment centre, or a retail store. This helps you sell more stock, reduce markdowns, and minimise clearance events.
Considerations for setting up ship from store
Implementing a successful ship from store strategy involves several key considerations:
Inventory visibility and order orchestration
To effectively use your store inventory, you need real-time visibility across all store locations. Intelligent order routing is crucial to automatically fulfil online orders from the optimal store, based on factors like stock availability, proximity to the customer, and store capacity. This helps convert more sales and turn stock faster. Discover Shippit integrations like Fluent Commerce and Peoplevox that can give you stock visibility across all your locations. For more information on the integrations available, see the ecommerce and warehouse integrations collection.
In-store fulfilment processes
Empowering your store teams with efficient tools and processes is vital for seamless in-store fulfilment. This includes features like barcode scanning, seamless printing of picklists, pack slips, and manifests, and customisable shipping labels. Streamlined workflows ensure staff can fulfil online orders quickly while maintaining their focus on in-store customers. For more information on the benefits of Shippit's pick and pack process, see the pick and pack collection.
Automated shipping decisions
Remove the complexity of manual carrier choices for store staff. Automation that intelligently selects the best delivery option for the order that you're sending out, whether you want cheapest or fastest, or different carriers in different lanes, Shippit's intelligent carrier selection tools ensures orders are shipped efficiently, smoothly, and on time, every time. This frees up store staff to focus on other tasks. For more information about how to add more carriers and take the hassle out of shipping, see the carrier allocation collection.
Carrier integrations
Seamless integration with a variety of carriers, including on-demand services, traditional couriers, and potentially your own fleet, is essential to provide flexible and efficient delivery options from your stores. For more information about the carriers Shippit support, see the carrier information collection.