Fulfilling an order based on the customers location relative to the nearest outlet

[BryanPal]

I have a client that has 6 physical stores that are geographically diverse across the country and they all store the same products. I want the customer to be able to place their order and for the nearest store to receive the notification and fulfil the order.  is this possible within Shopify or with an add on app?

[JoesIdeas]

a) Notifying a store would be easy, if they can log in and fulfill orders in other stores (or send back a notification). 

b) Duplicating the order in another store would be possible via a custom app, though a little messy (delete an order in Store A and create it in Store B).

The challenging part here is how to determine which is the closest store.

If solution A above would work, then you could use Order Automator (automation app my team built) can handle the notification or fulfillment request. Then we'd just need to know the algorithm you'd want to use for determining the closest store. For example: If order shipping state is equal to CA, AZ, NV, OR, WA, notify store A, if it's in states ... notify store B, etc.

[BryanPal]

Hi Joe

thanks for the reply, looks like you Order Automaton might be just what we are looking for. 

Yes agreed that the rules for determining closest store will be most challenging, especially given that the stores all within a 15km radius of each other and inconsistently spaced with two of the stores being as close as 200m apart. 

Can we use the geo-locating target the closest store to the users address? 

[JoesIdeas]

I'm not sure.