What Is Ship From Store? Create Your Strategy (2025)

Learn the basics of a ship-from-store strategy, discover its six main benefits, and how to make a decision on whether ship from store works for you.

Ecommerce is projected to reach about $7.9 trillion in sales globally by 2027 and capture 24% of global retail sales by 2028.

Meanwhile, ecommerce customers’ expectations continue to rise, especially around fulfillment. When asked how quickly they expected to receive delivery of an online purchase, nearly two-thirds of global shoppers said within 24 hours, with 40% expecting delivery in less than two hours.

Ecommerce fulfillment is now a critical business function for retailers. In recent years, many retailers have adopted a ship-from-store approach: shipping deliveries directly from their stores, alongside, or instead of from, a centralized fulfillment center.

In this article, you’ll learn the basics of a ship-from-store strategy, discover its six main benefits, and, if you’re a retailer considering your options, find out how to make an informed decision on whether ship from store suits your business.

What is ship from store?

Ship from store refers to a retail company fulfilling an order from a physical store rather than from a warehouse or fulfillment center. It is also known as deliver from store. 

Choosing the particular store from which an order will be shipped depends on the supplying store’s inventory, the proximity to the customer’s delivery location, and other factors.

How ship from store works

Ship-from-store processes may vary among businesses. Here’s how the entire process typically works:

1. A customer places an order through your online store. 
2. The retailer receives the order, determines the nearest retail location with the item in stock to fulfill the order, and forwards the order details to that location.
3. An employee receives the order number, picks and packs the item, and prepares the shipment.
4. The store ships the item via a carrier to the end customer.
5. The customer receives the order.

Thanks to the proximity of store locations, customers can often receive their orders in as little as one to two business days.

When to use ship from store

The need to support online sales with prompt delivery has been a priority for retailers for many years—and that’s unlikely to change. eMarketer projects the ecommerce share of total retail sales to hit 20.1% in 2024, totaling $6.334 trillion, and to reach 23% by 2027.

Today, commerce happens everywhere. Retailers must be ready to sell across all their sales channels, both online and offline. 

With Shopify’s POS system, you can implement a ship-from-store strategy that supports:

• Browse-in-store, buy online.
• Ship-from-store.
• Buy-online, pickup-in-store (BOPIS).

Shopify also lets you convert customers on any device, manage orders from anywhere, and provide consistent customer experiences across all channels.

Benefits of ship-from-store fulfillment

In 2020, global ecommerce sales grew by a record 25.7%. Retailers struggled to find additional warehouse space to handle this demand, so many turned to their existing storefronts to ramp up fulfillment, which turned into a ship-from-store boom. 

Since then, many of these businesses have continued to ship from stores. Here are five primary benefits of this approach. 

1. Puts inventory closer to the customer

Centralized distribution centers and freight warehouses tend to be located away from residential areas. Instead, they are near airports, railroad terminals, ports, and major highway intersections. 

Local stores, on the other hand, are typically located where customers can find them—that is, in or near residential neighborhoods. By fulfilling customer orders from a store, retailers can reduce the distance an item travels to reach the customer.

2. Offers faster delivery speeds

It also reduces an item’s travel time: Geographical proximity means stores can offer their customers relatively quick delivery. This is very attractive to customers and a significant competitive advantage for retailers that can offer it. Offering same-day pickup can be a major convenience for customers.

3. Lowers shipping costs

By storing inventory close to online shoppers, shipping from store not only facilitates quick delivery, it enables retailers to manage their own deliveries without the loss of control and potential cost overruns of a third-party logistics (3PL) company. 

4. Supports in-store pickup

Holding inventory in-store also supports customer in-store pickup. That said, in-store pickup needs to be handled well to provide the maximum benefit. 

The package needs to be ready to go at the time given to the customer, and the overall pickup experience needs to be pleasant for them. Make sure customers are aware of your store hours, so they can plan their pickups accordingly. 

5. Improves store efficiency 

To be effective, ship from store requires precise and up-to-the-minute inventory control, a well-organized shipping and handling operation, and tight coordination with customer service employees. Otherwise, in-store customers may not get much-needed attention, or order accuracy may suffer as employees attempt to multitask.

How to create a ship-from-store strategy

A ship-from-store strategy can improve the shopping experience for your customers, build loyalty, and help your business grow. Here’s what to keep in mind when creating your retail ship-from-store strategy:

Choose a compatible POS system

Running a ship-from-store operation manually or with basic systems can quickly lead to frustrated staff and customers. With the right systems, processes, and fulfillment partners, you can create a successful ship-from-store strategy. 

Start by picking a compatible retail point-of-sale (POS) system. The right POS system not only integrates your physical and ecommerce stores, but it also alerts your staff as orders come in, updates inventory levels, offers real-time order management, and more, in a streamlined, automated way. 

With Shopify POS, for instance, you can use the ship-from-store function to fulfill ready-to-ship orders, print packing slips and shipping labels, assign tracking, and ship from your retail store locations. 

With Shopify’s omnichannel experience, you can sell everywhere your customers shop by offering browse in-store, buy online and buy online, pick up in store options. You can also convert customers on any device, review the inventory status, manage orders directly from your POS, track customer data in store and online, and more.

Create a shipping station in your stockroom 

The specific equipment and tools your staff needs will depend on factors such as the complexity and size of your retail operation. Some of the most common items in a typical shipping station include: 

• Shipping labels 
• Label printer
• Barcode scanner
• Packaging supplies
• Packing slips and invoices
• Shipping scales
• Shipping software

Optimize your shipping station’s layout and technology through proper storage and organization based on your staff’s tools. This will improve their work and maximize productivity, as they can quickly find what they require and reduce errors.

Use space organization tools, such as utility drawers, storage cabinets and shelves, CPU holders, keyboard trays, and pegboards to facilitate a smooth packing process. 

You can also organize packing materials into labeled areas, use color coding, create multiple packing zones, and automate processes like barcode scanning to update inventory and order status.

Gather your shipping materials and measure boxes

Think about how you’ll package your products (design, materials, and overall presentation), then gather lightweight, sustainable, and cost-effective packaging materials.

Before shipping any package, ensure it meets your carrier’s limits to avoid unnecessary charges and inconveniences. Measure and update the weight of each item you sell to estimate total shipping rates, pass along accurate prices to your customers, and maintain your profit margin.

Use a steel tape to measure the box’s outside dimensions (length, width, and height). Then, multiply the length of the box by its width to get its cubic dimensions and divide that number by your carrier’s dimensional weight divisor to get the dimensional weight. 

💡Tip: You can save box sizes and weight in your Shopify admin area.

Document your order fulfillment process 

The order fulfillment process might look different for different retailers, but it typically involves:

1. Receiving and storing inventory: Outline how you receive new inventory from a manufacturer or supplier, check the items for quality, and store them in a stockroom.
2. Customer order placement: Describe what happens once a customer chooses an item from your online store and places an order, including the information they’ll receive, such as costs and delivery timelines.
3. Picking and packing: List the steps your fulfillment team will take after receiving the customer’s order, from retrieving items to packing and getting them ready to ship.
4. Shipping orders: Outline how a packed order will be handed over to a shipping carrier to deliver to the customer’s address and how the customer will monitor delivery progress.
5. Returns processing: Develop a return policy for your store to manage the flow of returned orders. The policy should include guidelines customers will follow if they need to send the package back, how to receive and deal with returned inventory, and the process for issuing a refund to the customer.

Shopify allows you to create custom shipping profiles and zones, which is useful for ship-from-store strategies. Retailers can set specific shipping rates for different products and locations, so you can offer accurate shipping costs at checkout. 

Pass the parcel to your shipping carrier

When you’re finished packing your customers’ orders, pass the parcels along to your carrier, who will pick them up from your store and deliver them directly to your customers’ doorsteps. 

Work with services like Shopify Shipping to fulfill orders fast and save money on shipping labels from carriers like DHL Express, UPS, and USPS. Shopify also gives you access to discounted shipping rates from carriers like Canada Post and UPS. You can also set up shipping rates automatically based on weight, dimensions, and destination.

Enable shipment tracking

Provide your customers with clear, convenient, and informative package tracking updates and real-time notifications so that they can see when to expect their delivery.

Shopify’s shipment tracking feature is a great example. When you activate it, your customers can install the Shop app directly from your store’s order status page, track any order using a valid tracking number, and get real-time order status updates, live-map tracking, and delivery notifications.

Would ship from store work for your retail business?

Consumer demand for quick delivery of ecommerce orders continues to increase. Given that, and given the still-growing adoption of ecommerce by shoppers, ship from store can offer retailers both reduced shipping and handling costs and improved customer relations.

Shopify’s approach to unified commerce allows retailers to manage physical and online sales channels seamlessly. This ensures real-time inventory updates, smooth fulfillment operations like ship from store, and consistent customer experiences across online and in-store transactions.

Ship from store FAQ

What is the difference between ship from store and ship from warehouse?

With ship from store, an online order is forwarded to one of the retailer’s brick-and-mortar stores for fulfillment. There, store personnel pull the item(s) from inventory, package and label them, and ship them to the customer. Ship from warehouse involves sending customers’ orders from a storage facility or distribution center, which is potentially farther from the customer’s location, to their doorstep.

Why is ship from store cheaper?

Ship from store keeps inventory closer to the shopper, makes the fulfillment process faster, and reduces the lead time and average transportation costs of getting orders to customers.

Is buy online, ship to store better than ship from store?

Buy online, ship to store (BOSS) helps stores save on shipping costs and brings more people into the store to pick up their items. Ship from store gets items to customers faster by using store inventory, which is better for those who want quick delivery.

What are the benefits of ship from store?

• Reduces the distance an item has to travel to reach the customer
• Supports in-store pickup for customers
• Facilitates fast delivery speeds
• Enables retailers to manage their own deliveries without the loss of control and potential cost overruns of a 3PL company
• Promotes customer loyalty and often encourages add-on purchases while the customer is in the store
• Improves store efficiency through precise inventory control, well-organized shipping and handling, and tight coordination with customer service teams