A proposed approach to explore with your business. Scope, implementation and outcomes depend on the engagement.
25-35% shipping cost reduction typical
Ideal for
Retailers with multiple DCs or stores shipping all online orders from a single location despite having distributed stock.
The situation
An Australian retailer with 3+ warehouses shipping everything from one location
Most retailers start with a simple fulfilment model: every eCommerce order ships from the main DC. The business grows and adds warehouses. The routing logic never catches up. A customer orders an item that is in stock at their local store and at a DC on the other side of the country, and it ships from the far one.
The cost shows up in two places. Freight, because every parcel travels further than it needs to. And delivery time, because the customers furthest from the DC are the ones with the worst experience, which is exactly backwards for regional growth.
The 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.
Expected outcomes
Average shipping cost drops 25 to 35 per cent. Delivery times improve sharply where a closer location can serve the order, from five to seven days down to one to three. Ship-from-store handles 10 to 20 per cent of volume. Manual routing decisions disappear.
Measures to validate
| Measure | Before | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Avg shipping cost/order | $7-10 | 25-35% reduction typical |
| Regional delivery time | 4-7 days | 1-3 days typical |
| Ship-from-store share | 0% | 10-20% typical |
| Manual routing decisions | 100% | Zero |