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Deliver With Speed Using Shopify’s Smart Order Routing

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Updated on July 18, 2023

Shopify's shipping settings in the backend — Shopify’s smart order routing feature is available for stores with two or more locations.

Shopify’s smart order routing automatically finds the best fulfillment location to complete a customer’s order
Available for Shopify stores with two or more active locations

Shopify – one of the best website builders for online stores – first announced its smart order routing feature in its Winter ‘23 Edition when outlining new and upcoming features.

The flexible shipping tool works by automatically routing orders from the best fulfillment location, determined by a set of rules that the business owner creates. For example, this could be to shipping products from the inventory location closest to the customer or prioritizing location over another.

Simply put, once an order has been placed, Shopify will apply this smart process and find the most suitable location to fulfill the order.

How Smart Order Routing Supports Your Business

Smart order routing increases customer satisfaction due to shorter delivery times, and it’s also a great feature for businesses looking to grow online. Order fulfillment can get very complex as your business expands, especially if you have inventory spread across multiple locations, so determining the best course of action would be a hassle without Shopify’s automatic feature.

There are a ton of benefits to smart order routing, including:

Minimizing shipping fees: Shipping an order from a location close to the customer will keep shipping costs to a minimum
Reducing delays: Customers can expect faster delivery times
Improving customer relationships: With speedy delivery and reduced shipping fees, customers are more likely to be satisfied with your business
Delivery to suit your business needs: Smart order routing might be automatic, but you set the rules, which means you maintain control over your fulfillment operations

Setting Up Smart Order Routing

So how can you set up smart order routing for your Shopify store?

Smart order routing is automatically handled by Shopify, but there’s one condition. You must have at least two locations connected to your online store – these can easily be set up in Shopify’s settings under the “Locations” category.

Order routing is mentioned within the “Shipping and delivery” section, and it’s here that you can add new rules or tweak existing ones. You can choose one of the following priorities:

Minimize split fulfillments
Stay within the destination market
Ship from the closest location
Use ranked locations

Simply save your work and you’re all set! For alternative shipping options, you can check out our guide on the best shipping for small businesses, or read more about Shopify in our Shopify review.

More Information

Shopify Shipping Rates: See how Shopify helps you calculate shipping rates for your online store
Shopify Shipping: Everything you need to know about shipping with Shopify
Ecommerce Shipping Strategy: A guide to help you find the right shipping strategy for your business

Written by:

Emma Ryan Writer

I’m a Senior Writer at Website Builder Expert, which means I’m part of a great team that produces and updates content for the website. I specialize in writing highly-researched and accessible guides, comparisons, and reviews that provide readers with everything they need to know about getting started and growing online. I’ve also written about small businesses for Startups.co.uk, video optimization for Industry Today, and HTML for Digital Information World. While working for Website Builder Expert, I’ve gained expertise in website builders, ecommerce platforms, and hosting providers through hands-on testing and research analysis. I’ve also attended expos to further my industry knowledge – all of this helps me pitch fresh article ideas for the website. Additionally, I manage our website’s comments which allows me to have a good understanding of what you, our readers, care about.