Solved

Fullfill order with nearest inventory location based on the customer shipping address.

radhakrishnan
Shopify Partner
7 0 0

i have four inventory, what my concern is when customer placed an order that order was fulfilled based o the priority i set in location but i want them to fulfil based on nearest inventory to the customer, is that possible?

Accepted Solutions (2)
Elias
Shopify Staff
2771 274 483

This is an accepted solution.

Hey, @radhakrishnan .

 

Thank you for following up. That’s correct, the system is based on your fulfillment priorities so you will need to manually change the fulfillment for the nearest location. That said, I’m not sure if there's an app that can automate this process, but you can try something like Advanced Shipping Manager or Easyship. I recommend reaching out to the developers directly through the contact information found in the Support section of the app’s page and inquire more about their app capabilities. I hope this provides a couple of options for you to look into, feel free to keep me posted!

Elias | Social Care @ Shopify 
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Elias
Shopify Staff
2771 274 483

This is an accepted solution.

Hey, @TheExtraSmile & @JasonHH.

 

Thank you for voicing your thoughts and we value your feedback. I understand that having geolocation for the inventory and shipping zones can be beneficial, and I’d be happy to share this feedback as a feature request with our developers. That said, adding new features and implementing a system change won’t be something that we would have a timeframe for. If Shopify moves forward with this feature request - you will be able to find it in our changelog or announcements page. If you have any other questions or feedback on this topic, don’t hesitate to let me know in this thread!

Elias | Social Care @ Shopify 
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Replies 21 (21)

Elias
Shopify Staff
2771 274 483

Hello, @radhakrishnan.

 

Elias here with Shopify Support. That’s a great question!

 

I understand you want to fulfill the order based on the nearest inventory to the customers. If you’re fulfilling orders from multiple locations, you can fulfill parts of the order separately based on their locations. By default, the system will fulfill them based on your fulfillment priority; however, when you fulfill an order, you can manually change the fulfillment location so that it’s being fulfilled based on the nearest inventory to the customer. 

 

Is this what you were looking for? If you have any other questions on locations and order fulfillments, don’t hesitate to let me know in this thread!

Elias | Social Care @ Shopify 
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radhakrishnan
Shopify Partner
7 0 0

Hi @Elias,
  Thank you for the reply, let me tell you my understanding on your comment! correct me if i was wrong.

Fulfilment based on nearest location of order is not possible in shopify but we can do manually. if i am  right, is there any apps which can do this job?

Elias
Shopify Staff
2771 274 483

This is an accepted solution.

Hey, @radhakrishnan .

 

Thank you for following up. That’s correct, the system is based on your fulfillment priorities so you will need to manually change the fulfillment for the nearest location. That said, I’m not sure if there's an app that can automate this process, but you can try something like Advanced Shipping Manager or Easyship. I recommend reaching out to the developers directly through the contact information found in the Support section of the app’s page and inquire more about their app capabilities. I hope this provides a couple of options for you to look into, feel free to keep me posted!

Elias | Social Care @ Shopify 
 - Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know! 
 - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution
 - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog

TheExtraSmile
Excursionist
10 0 9

Hi Elias,

 

Nowadays, it is possible to match language and currency according to the browser location and preferences of the visitors.

Could Shopify also make this possible to match the location of the inventory?

We create shopping zones and inventory locations. Would be great to be able to make a link between the shipping zones and the diffferent inventory locations.

 

Your suggestion to connect shipping apps doesn't really solve the question. It would not be sustainable or cost-effective to ship goods that were bought in Thailand from our location in Belgium. What if the item is out of stock in Thailand, and a Thai person chooses this product?

 

These are simple questions, that Shopify could easily solve, I believe.

 

Thanks!

JasonHH
Tourist
3 0 3

I totally agree. For a global product/company like Shopify to use such a silly-simple method as which warehouse has inventory to decide from where to ship is really not a solution. That might work if a company has warehouses in perhaps one city, but for any reasonable sized business it's just not a solution.

 

Shopify needs something like what you suggest: a way to link zones to locations for default fulfillment is a great idea. That would get a lot of us a long way there.

 

Seems like such a very basic feature of a multi-location business.

jfbaro
Excursionist
24 0 5

Any update on this? It is actually quite an important feature to be provided by SHOPIFY (either as a native feature or a paid app)

Elias
Shopify Staff
2771 274 483

Greetings, @jfbaro.

 

Thank you for joining the thread!

 

I'm afraid there aren't any updates on this feature at the moment. However, if you're open to using an app for this functionality, then you can use a third-party app like Product Inventory Information.  Product Inventory Information can display multi-location inventory and they offer geolocation features that can help your customers see relevant inventory. If you need any help with this third-party app, then the app developer is always available to assist you. Simply reach out to them through the contact information found in the Support section of their app's page.

 

I'd also be happy to add you to this feature request as it can help our developers prioritize development of new features for the platform. If Shopify moves forward with any new features or updates to the platform, then we'll be sure to announce them on the Shopify Changelog.

 

That being said, I'd love to hear more about your business! What kinds of products are selling? How you're handling inventory and customer locations at the moment?

 

Elias | Social Care @ Shopify 
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summerglau
Tourist
12 0 2

Just adding my voice to emphasise the need of this feature for a small business. We store inventory in UK and EU. We prefer that Shopify accepts orders only for local inventory (UK to UK and EU to EU).

 

But when a UK customer buys a product that is not in stock in UK location, Shopify will still accept the order and put the inventory on -1 (minus one) because it is in stock in EU location. This requires us to ship the product across customs barrier costing a lot more in the process.

 

This happens even when there are no shipping rates defined for EU to UK zone.

 

Conversely when the product is in stock in both locations, Shopify often picks the primary location (which has a higher shipping rate to the customer's address) even when a local location with free shipping has inventory. This leads to a lot of abandoned carts due to high shipping rates.

 

Overall, Shopify lacks awareness of customer location and its proximity to inventory locations leading to all sorts of mix-ups and bad customer experience.

High time this goes into the features list.

 

P.S. To my understanding even the Markets feature can not handle this yet and not very well when this is implemented.

andrewklimek
Shopify Partner
3 0 0

Wow, how does it assign the wrong location if you have no shipping methods defined for EU to UK?

JasonHH
Tourist
3 0 3

The apps sited do not do this automatically. You can manually update each order, so that is true, but this is really poorly solved by Shopify right now. 

Elias
Shopify Staff
2771 274 483

This is an accepted solution.

Hey, @TheExtraSmile & @JasonHH.

 

Thank you for voicing your thoughts and we value your feedback. I understand that having geolocation for the inventory and shipping zones can be beneficial, and I’d be happy to share this feedback as a feature request with our developers. That said, adding new features and implementing a system change won’t be something that we would have a timeframe for. If Shopify moves forward with this feature request - you will be able to find it in our changelog or announcements page. If you have any other questions or feedback on this topic, don’t hesitate to let me know in this thread!

Elias | Social Care @ Shopify 
 - Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know! 
 - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution
 - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog

TheExtraSmile
Excursionist
10 0 9

Thanks Elias!

Anything that Shopify can do to facilitate the work of small businesses, is direct growth for Shopify. A business idea worth exploring, methinks.

Clochette
Tourist
7 0 4

Hi! Has there been any changes on what Shopify can do about this since last year? Thanks!

Elias
Shopify Staff
2771 274 483

Hey, @Clochette.

Thank you for joining the thread! 

Though there hasn't been any changes on the feature request at the moment, I was able to find a third-party app that can help with fulfilling orders based on the shipping address - Location Based Fulfilment. Also, I've found another app, called Product Inventory Information, which offers geolocation and it can sort the local pickup locations based on their distance to the customers. If you need any help with these apps, you can always reach out to the developers through the contact information found in the Support section of their app pages. 

I hope this gives you a couple of solutions for the time being. If you have any other questions on this topic, don't hesitate to let me know!

Elias | Social Care @ Shopify 
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 - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution
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Clochette
Tourist
7 0 4

@EliasThanks. I've seen this app you mention (the 1st one) but the reviews are not that great and it doesn't seem to manage multiple inventories for the multiple warehouse... which is a real problem... I hope that Shopify is working on doing this a native possibility as it seems that a lot of people are asking for it. Thanks

keg302
Visitor
1 0 0

I'd like to pile on to the list of people requesting this functionality be native in Shopify. I have a warehouse in the US and the EU, and we only ship to the US folks from the US, and EU folks from the EU, because otherwise shipping costs are insane. Currently folks like us only have 3 solutions: 

1. Maintain multiple Shopify stores per warehouse location, which involves having to keep 2 websites that are identical up to date (I do this and it SUCKS big time) It's also costly, as it requires a Shopify Plus subscription, which we literally use for nothing else. 

2. Use a very pricey inventory management software like Skubana, Cin7 or BrightPearl, which has a ton of other inventory stuff that's completely unnecessary for the task at hand

3. Use Location Based Fulfillment app, which has very bad reviews, to the point where I personally wouldn't trust it. 

Shopify claims that they're working on making it easier for small businesses to expand internationally, and this is a huge blocker to being able to do that at the moment. We have been considering leaving Shopify because this is such a problem. 

 

Rezurrekt
Tourist
5 0 1

I too have a store that requires a 3PL in the US to ship to US customers, and a 3PL in Canada to ship to my Canadian customers.



Without this, the shipping rates would be at least 3x the cost. Hopefully we can see this in Shopify changelog sooner than later.

ecephalonbrian
Tourist
3 0 15

Why is it literally every time I try to search for a seemingly basic function for an eCommerce platform, "Shopify can't do that"?

Merging customer accounts? Nope
Multiple automatic discounts at the same time? Not without hacking and tricking your cart
Fulfill orders based on warehouse proximity? Nah, just use multiple websites and confuse your existing customer base.

smj_90
Shopify Partner
54 1 15

https://apps.shopify.com/order-fulfillment This app is answer to all the queries stated above.

If this helped you, please
mark this reply as 'Accepted Solution'
Thanks 🙂

smj_90
Shopify Partner
54 1 15

https://apps.shopify.com/order-fulfillment Try this out

If this helped you, please
mark this reply as 'Accepted Solution'
Thanks 🙂
wumico
Tourist
7 0 3

@smj_90 you do this marketing without reading this page and checking if your app can really solve this?

did you understand in general the problem of all users here? 

products that arent available in an location inventory which is connected to a certain geo-location (market region) should not be possible to be added to a shopping cart or at least not checking out with soldout products. regards