Turning physical stores into pickup or shipping points can reduce distances, speed up deliveries, and make better use of your network's inventory.
But this doesn't mean every store should operate in the same way.
One location might work very well for BOPIS, while another is better structured for Ship from Store. In some cases, activating these methods without evaluating inventory, staff, and demand can simply add complexity to your operation.
Start with inventory reliability
Before offering pickup or shipping from a store, there is one basic question: does the inventory available in the system match what is actually in the store?
With BOPIS, the customer makes a purchase expecting that item to be reserved for them. If accuracy is low, convenience quickly turns into cancellations and frustration.
Therefore, pay close attention to:
- inventory accuracy;
- cancellations due to unavailability;
- update speed;
- frequency of discrepancies between the system and the store.
If your operation cannot yet confidently account for the location of every product, it is worth resolving this step before expanding your fulfillment methods.
Not every store should fulfill online orders
The store closest to the customer is not always the best option. Imagine two locations with the same product. One has three items in stock and high in-store demand. The other has ten units and low turnover.
Fulfilling the order from the first store might save a few miles of transport, but it increases the risk of stockouts where that product has a higher chance of selling.
For this reason, routing must consider more than just distance:
available inventory + local turnover + store capacity + lead time + cost.
Omnichannel does not mean turning every store into a small distribution center.
Differentiate BOPIS from Ship from Store
Both strategies use store inventory, but they require different operations.
In BOPIS, the team picks the product and the customer comes to collect it.
In Ship from Store, the store needs to pick, pack, manage deadlines, and make the order available for pickup.
Therefore, a busy, easily accessible store may be excellent for pickup, but it might not necessarily have the space or staff to ship dozens of orders per day.
Define the role of each store
Before activating a model, evaluate:
For BOPIS: reliable inventory, convenient location, space for pickup, and staff capacity.
For Ship from Store: in addition to these points, consider ease of carrier pickup, packaging infrastructure, inventory volume, and logistical advantage over the distribution center.
An efficient omnichannel strategy does not need to offer everything everywhere. The goal is to have each store play the role where it can generate the most value for the network and the customer.
Starting with a smaller group of units, monitoring cancellations, picking time, cost, and inventory impact, and only then expanding tends to be a safer decision than activating the entire network at once.
