Shopify Fulfillment Updates
Intelligent Order Routing Tutorial
In this video, we introduce you to the new Shopify Fulfillment updates. The focus is on the “Intelligent Order Routing” feature – which allows you to set rules for your orders. More about this can be found in the following Shopify tutorial.
Shopify Fulfillment Updates - These are the new features
In this video, we look at the two biggest fulfillment updates for the Shopify cloud store system. If you missed our previous episodes on the big 2023 update, our Shopify playlist is linked again here.
What is Shop Promise?
Now let’s talk about a feature that we already touched upon in the first episode. Therefore, we will only briefly introduce this again. Within the store app you can secure the Shop Promis badge for your store. This increases the conversion rate by assuring the customer of fast delivery under 5 business days. So far, this is only available for the US, but may also come to Europe in some time. But the first major new feature is different and is described by the buzzwords “Intelligent Order Forwarding” and “Order Routing”. Order Routing is now an available item in the Shipping and Delivery settings. In order for this to act smartly, certain rules can now be defined. This makes it possible to control from the backend which locations would be more efficient for an order and which would be less so. This means your stock locations will be listed in a ranking.
Shopify Fulfillment Updates - The rules for order routing.
However, not all efficiency is the same, so different rules can apply. Either as little distribution as possible, i.e. that deliveries are made from one warehouse if possible, or that regardless of this, the next warehouse to the delivery address is always selected. In our example, both options are set as rules. First of all, it is checked which locations generally have the products of the order in stock. Then they look at how far the warehouse is from the customer. Accordingly, a prioritized warehouse crystallizes from this, which is then automatically assigned to the order by Shopify. There are also plans to release the new “Order Routing” feature for Shopify Functions, so that you can independently develop individual rules for your warehouse configuration.
Shopify Fulfillment Updates - The Inventory Statuses
However, to be able to see exactly where which products are available, but also where they are not, there are the new inventory statuses.
These are defined by 5 options: In Stock, Available, Committed, Not Available and Incoming. But what exactly is what? This table explains it very well. We exclude the “In stock” status for now. So the status “available” defines inventory that you can sell. That is available at the warehouse location and has not been reserved. The situation is different for the “committed” status. This inventory is then part of an order that has been placed but not yet executed. So, this number of units defined with the status “committed” cannot be purchased by the customer.
In Stock / Available / Not Available / Committed / Incoming
Also present in the warehouse, but not available for purchase, is the inventory with the status “Not available”. According to Shopify, this is “the number of units reserved for draft orders or set aside by apps.”
So the “Committed” and “Not Available” inventory are inventory units that are in the warehouse but cannot be sold. If the goods are neither physically available on site nor sellable, the status is “incoming”, because the goods are marked in the system but are still in transit. The first status “In stock” contains again all 3 first presented statuses.
So Committed, Not Available, and Available as these inventory units are physically present at this one delivery location.
Shopify Fulfillment Updates - A Practical Example
Shopify itself adds the following example.
For example, Jo’s Jams has the following inventory:
- 10 jams that are Not available because they are
f
arereserved for order designs - 6 jams that are committed to orders and must be executed
- 4 jams available and ready for sale
The total number of units of jams that Jo’s Jams has in stock is 20 jams. This is based on the total number of units that have the status Committed, Unavailable, and Available. I think the status should be clearer now. This gives you, as a retailer, an accurate real-time overview of available and unavailable quantities at your respective locations.
Shopify agency eBakery
Those were the two biggest changes within the Shopify Editions 23 update for the Fulfillment category. If you are interested in any other news from this category, write it to us in the comments and we will try to answer your questions about it. Otherwise, we still have a few categories ahead of us, so it’s all worth subscribing. If, on the other hand, you would rather benefit directly from our expertise, make an appointment with our Shopify experts. As a Shopify agency, we are very happy to support you with your project.
Do you have questions or need an individual offer? Do not hesitate to contact us.
