Key Points:
- Ship from store is a fulfillment process in which the retailer ships customers' purchases from their physical stores rather than warehouses
- Using the ship-from-store service will help you and your customers save money on deliveries and get the orders to your customers in time
- Using your brick-and-mortar stores to fulfill customers' orders makes sense since businesses can use their existing store inventory and the store's proximity to their customers
Since the advent of eCommerce, consumer expectations are, without a doubt, higher than ever. Online consumers not only want high-quality goods at competitive rates but also for those goods to be delivered at an affordable rate without delay.
According to statistics, 69% of consumers are likely to stop purchasing from a merchant if their purchased items are not delivered within two days of the date promised. Therefore, order fulfillment is a significant concern for most online shoppers, and late deliveries can affect customer retention.
So, as an eCommerce merchant, how do you keep up with this? How do you ensure that your customers get their items on time?
One solution is to implement a service called ship from store, which will speed up your order fulfillment and help you retain more customers.
Please continue reading to learn more about ship from store and how to implement it in your business.
Table of Contents
What Does Ship from Store Mean?
Ship from store is a fulfillment process in which the retailer ships customers' purchases from their physical stores rather than warehouses. In addition, storefronts are being turned into fulfillment centers, so customers' orders are picked, packed, and sent from the retailer's store location.
As online shopping becomes more prevalent, offering ship-from-store services can help merchants stay relevant in the eCommerce industry.
Let's examine a few benefits of ship-from-store services:
- Increased speed of deliveries
- Improved customer satisfaction
- Increased inventory turnover
Using the ship-from-store service will help you and your customers save money on deliveries and get the orders to your customers in time.
3 Retailers That Follow the Ship from Store Model
Most major retailers use the ship-from-store model. The service has been around but recently gained popularity due to the surge in eCommerce shopping during the pandemic.
Examples of popular companies that fulfill online orders from their store location are:
Target
Target's strategy to ship merchandise from stores has garnered attention from the trade media. According to estimates, about 75-90 percent of customer orders were sent from their stores as of December 2020.
And with the increase in their digital store, the shop-from-store model has helped Target provide faster deliveries to their customers.
Walmart
Although the shipping from store program has always been a part of Walmart's long-term goal, the surge in their eCommerce sales during the pandemic accelerated the process.
Now, Walmart is sending out orders from about 2500 stores.
Kohl's
Unlike many eCommerce merchants who have shut down their local stores to channel their energy into eCommerce distribution, Kohl's believes otherwise.
According to Sona Chawla, the chief operating officer (COO) at Kohl's, using physical stores as distribution centers helps them get their products to their customers more quickly since they are already in the existing inventory.
Related post: Warehousing and Fulfillment: Definitions, Benefits, and Finding the Right Logistics Company
When Should You Ship from Store?
You may think that implementing the ship-from-store model isn't necessary. And you might be asking if there are many advantages to it. Well, there are.
It would be best if you used ship from your local store:
If you want to turn inventory faster
Shipping from the storehouses helps put more inventory closer to the customers. And as a result, you can sell more items and prevent overstocks.
If you want to improve in-store resource efficiency
When there is less work to be done in the store, the idle workers can work on order fulfillment with in-store products.
An excellent retail order management system will route a customer's order to a specific store for fulfillment. Then, if the workers and resources are available, they can either complete the order or pass it on to another store location.
If you want to lower the overall cost of shipping
Shipping costs are naturally reduced when shipping from a store rather than the warehouse. This is because the supply chain is shorter with shipping from the store, resulting in less mileage being covered along the delivery path. Also, the customer can pick up the item by themselves, which means reduced shipping costs for the consumer.
If you want to ship faster to customers
Shipping products from your physical stores rather than fulfillment centers can reduce shipping and delivery time since your stores are closer to your online shoppers. As a result, you'll be able to get orders into people's hands faster, or they might opt to pick them up themselves.
The Best Way to Ship from Store with Easyship
Using your brick-and-mortar stores to fulfill customers' orders makes sense since businesses can use their existing store inventory and the store's proximity to their customers, resulting in an excellent customer experience.
With Easyship, you can ship your merchandise quickly and faster to your customers from your physical stores. Easyship offers swift and seamless deliveries, as well as unique features such as:
- Free Shipping Rates Calculator: Access high-volume discounts from major couriers. Plus, get instant access to delivery lead times from premium shipping couriers
- Global Fulfillment: Easyship has warehouse partners on four continents to reach customers worldwide. Plus, Easyship helps scale up fulfillment capabilities without increasing overhead costs
- Shipping Policy Generator: Our shipping policy generator helps merchants and crowdfunding campaigns generate their shipping policy by providing tracking and insurance options, plus other vital information for your shipping process
Ready to ship? Sign up for a FREE Easyship account and create your optimized shipping strategy when you ship from store
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