Here is a scenario we see all too often:
A customer in Paddington wants to buy a dress online. Your website says "Sold Out" because your main warehouse in Western Sydney has run out of stock.
Meanwhile, at your Paddington retail store—literally 2km from the customer's house—that exact dress is sitting on a hanger, gathering dust.
The Result?
You lose the sale. The customer buys from a competitor. You eventually mark down the dress in-store to clear it. You lose margin twice.
This is the "Stock Trap." Your inventory is fragmented across locations that don't talk to each other.
Enter: Fulfill from Store
The strategy of using your physical retail locations as mini-distribution centres. If the warehouse is out of stock, the order routes automatically to the nearest store with inventory.
Why It's a Game Changer
When you connect your Point of Sale (POS) to your eCommerce platform correctly, you unlock three massive advantages.
Your website stops showing "Out of Stock" and starts showing the combined inventory of every store in your network. Your sell-through rate skyrockets.
Why ship a package from Melbourne to Brisbane when you have a store in Fortitude Valley? Fulfilling locally cuts transit times from days to hours.
Your retail rent is a fixed cost. By turning store staff into pick-and-pack teams during quiet hours, you get more value out of your wages and real estate.
The "But..." (Operational Reality)
If it's so great, why isn't everyone doing it?
Because operationally, it is really hard to execute.
Retail staff are hired to sell, not to pack boxes. Without the right systems, "Ship from Store" becomes a nightmare of lost parcels, angry store managers, and inventory discrepancies.
How We Build It Correctly
We build rules that prioritise the warehouse first, and only route to stores that have the capacity to handle it.
We set up easy "Click & Pack" dashboards for retail staff so they can process an order in under 60 seconds.
Bridge the Online-Offline Gap
Your customers don't care about "channels." They don't care if the stock is in a warehouse or a shop window. They just want what they ordered, fast.
Implementing a proper Fulfill-from-Store strategy is the single fastest way to unlock "hidden" inventory and boost your revenue without buying more stock.