An Australian retailer with 3+ warehouses shipping everything from one location
Intelligent Fulfilment Routing Across Multiple Warehouses
25-35% shipping cost reduction typical
This blueprint describes our proven approach. Specific outcomes vary by engagement.
Ideal For
Retailers with multiple DCs or stores shipping all online orders from a single location despite having distributed stock.
The Problem
Most retailers start with a simple fulfilment model: all eCommerce orders ship from the main DC. But as the business grows and adds warehouses, the fulfilment logic doesn't evolve. A Perth customer orders a product that's in stock at the Perth store and the Sydney DC - but it ships from Sydney.
Split shipments add complexity. If a customer orders three items across two locations, the current process either ships everything from one (adding distance) or the warehouse team manually coordinates via phone calls.
Ship-from-store introduces further challenges - store staff have customers to serve and limited packing space. The routing engine must respect store capacity.
Our Approach
Fulfilment Orchestration Engine
A Celigo flow with custom io.js scripting that evaluates each order through a decision tree:
Step 1 - Identify candidates: Query NetSuite for all locations with available-to-promise stock (excluding committed, allocated, in-transit).
Step 2 - Calculate proximity: Australia Post postcode-to-zone mapping (cached in io.js for performance) determines delivery zone and speed.
Step 3 - Calculate cost: Pre-negotiated carrier rates (stored as NetSuite custom records) by weight, dimensions, and zone.
Step 4 - Evaluate splits: Two-shipment cost vs single-distant-shipment cost, with configurable threshold for packaging overhead.
Step 5 - Check store capacity: Daily fulfilment counter on NetSuite location record, reset via scheduled script.
Step 6 - Assign and create: Optimal location(s) selected, NetSuite item fulfilment records created, store POS notified or DC workflow triggered.
StarShipIT Integration
Second Celigo flow pushes shipments to StarShipIT for carrier label generation with tracking numbers written back to both NetSuite and the eCommerce platform.
Monitoring
Weekly automated SuiteQL report analysing fulfilment patterns: per-location share, average cost trending, delivery days by zone, split rate, and store utilisation.
Typical Impact
Avg shipping cost/order
Before
$7-10
After
25-35% reduction typical
Regional delivery time
Before
4-7 days
After
1-3 days typical
Ship-from-store share
Before
0%
After
10-20% typical
Manual routing decisions
Before
100%
After
Zero
Expected Outcome
Average shipping cost drops 25-35%. Regional delivery improves dramatically - Perth customers served by Sydney-only DC go from 5-7 days to 1-3 days. Ship-from-store handles 10-20% of orders. All manual routing decisions eliminated.
Want to explore this approach?
Every project starts with a conversation. Tell us what you're working with and we'll tailor this blueprint to your situation.
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