Inventory availability and fulfillment speed can make or break a retailer’s crucial first impression with customers—research shows that 37% of in-store shoppers will visit a different store if the item they’re looking for is out of stock. Not to mention how fragmented order processing and fulfillment leads to higher shipping costs, limited visibility into inventory, and frustrated customers. That’s where Shopify’s new Ship from Store feature comes in.
Ship from Store transforms your retail stores into functional fulfillment locations in just a few clicks, giving your customers access to your full product catalog while empowering your staff with the tools they need to pick, pack, and ship orders—all within Shopify’s powerful point of sale (POS) system.
Let’s explore how Ship from Store supports endless aisles selling strategies, helping you simplify, speed up, and streamline in-store order fulfillment.
1. What are endless aisles?
Endless aisles is a selling strategy that helps in-person shoppers shop products through an online store or another retail location. Endless aisles is built into Shopify’s unified commerce platform, giving staff crucial visibility into inventory and helping them close sales on the spot.
Every order represents an opportunity to win a lifetime customer—when your online and in-store channels are connected through a unified POS, you keep customers happy and, ultimately, keep them coming back.
2. Introducing Ship from Store
The benefits of endless aisles are only as good as your fulfillment operation—and a successful fulfillment operation puts the customer first. Shopify’s new Ship from Store feature in Shopify POS gives your staff the tools they need to process and ship orders right from the store. This saves the customer from feeling the friction and frustration that comes with outsourcing fulfillment, like high shipping costs and inefficient order routing.
Ship from Store bypasses barriers such as admin access and empowers sales associates to complete fulfillment tasks directly in the Shopify POS, including printing packing slips and purchasing and printing shipping labels, helping you create exceptional customer experiences at every stage of the shopping journey.
3. Turn retail locations into mini-fulfillment centers
How much time and money would you save if you never lost track of an order? In addition to making it easy for sales associates to place, pack, and ship orders, Ship from Store also includes new permissions designed to allow staff to update orders as they make their way to the customer. These new capabilities, including enabling staff to mark orders as fulfilled and canceling or reassigning orders to another store, help create a powerfully simple workflow straight from your POS system and powered by order routing logic.
Delivering directly from your retail location gives you control over every part of the fulfillment process while reducing wait times for customers. Plus, processing orders directly from your POS platform doesn’t just cut down on shipping costs—it also increases efficiency and reduces error at every step, so your retail staff can focus on getting it right for the customer, every time.
4. Take your showroom beyond the store
Showrooming, another type of selling strategy, brings online and offline channels together to create a showroom where you’ve stocked display items or just a portion of your inventory. Shoppers browse items in-store and complete purchases through a virtual cart. This blend of experiential and traditional retail is especially appealing to customers as they’re able to peruse your full product catalog and choose a checkout method that’s most convenient for them.
The bottom line is shoppers are much more likely to return to your store when they aren’t hindered by limited inventory. Guaranteed easy checkouts and seamless delivery gives customers confidence that they won’t leave empty-handed, and empowers sales staff to deliver exceptional shopping experiences.
5. Speed up fulfillment and supercharge sales with Ship from Store
Great customer experiences depend on the success of your fulfillment operation. When your staff is equipped to help customers find the perfect product, provide flexible shopping options, and pack and ship orders directly from the store, they’ll be able to focus on what matters most: making sure no order gets left behind.
The best part is that Ship from Store comes built-in, so your team can always offer your full product catalog from any location while prioritizing order fulfillment speed and efficiency. Learn how to get started with Shopify Ship from Store today.
