Fulfillment Service app as a Location

[spencerf2]

Hello there!

Would you please be so kind as to instruct me on how to designate a fulfillment service app as the default location?

Additionally, could you also guide me on the process of transferring inventory from one location to a fulfillment service app?

In case these features are currently not supported on Shopify, would you be so kind as to confirm this?

Your time and assistance are greatly valued.

Sincerely,

Spencer

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Extra details:

We have a test store with two locations and one fulfillment service app:

Only the non-app locations are options within "Change default location":

The fulfillment service app is not an option when attempting to deactivate Location 1 (after making Location 2 the default of course):

 

[NB01]

I have this problem too - did you find a solution?

[spencerf2]

No one responded here, and Shopify Partner Support directed me to Slack and explained they aren't developers.

I've concluded that it is not possible to designate a fulfillment service app as the default location.

I have figured out how to transfer inventory from one location to a fulfillment service app:

1. Install the Fulfillment Service App:
   Follow the instructions here to install the app.

2. Associate Inventory Items:

   • Fetch the store's ProductVariants.
   • Use GraphQL to obtain the InventoryItem IDs.
   • Activate these items using the inventoryActivate mutation and the location ID returned when creating the fulfillment service. More info here.

3. Prioritize the Fulfillment Service Location:
   Manually set your fulfillment service as the highest priority location in the Shopify store settings and configure its Shipping Rates. (No API method available for this step currently.)

4. Pause Fulfillment Updates:
   This is done on our backend, suspending updates on our fulfillment service app.

5. Sync Inventory Counts:

   • Loop through each inventory item.
   • Use inventoryActivate to set the standard location's inventory count to zero.
   • Immediately after, update the count for the fulfillment service location to the correct amount.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[NB01]

Hi, thanks for your detailed reply! I’m using a different fulfilment service app.

You’re right that it’s not currently possible to select a fulfilment app as a default location (Shopify - please fix this!) but I was able to get around the issue. 
I made sure stock was assigned to that location, used order routing rules to make it the preferred location, but it still was defaulting to the old location.
I realised that was because I hadn’t set rates for the fulfilment app in the shipping settings! Once I copied the rates over all is working as it should. 
Hope this helps someone else.