Order routing is a fundamental process in omnichannel retail that determines the most optimal fulfillment location for each customer order. When properly executed, it enhances customer satisfaction by ensuring timely deliveries and improves operational efficiency by intelligently allocating resources.
Shopify's Smart Order Routing offers basic automation by allowing retailers to prioritize fulfillment locations based on four predefined rules. These rules include shipping from the closest location, staying within the destination market, minimizing split fulfillments, and using ranked locations. While these features provide a starting point for order routing, they are relatively rigid and may not cater to the nuanced needs of larger, more complex retail operations.
Shopify Smart Order Routing has several limitations. For example, it does not support multiple scheduled runs, meaning orders are routed as soon as they are placed, with no option to schedule routing based on the operational schedule of fulfillment locations. Additionally, Shopify lacks support for batch order routing, which can lead to misallocations when handling orders with high delivery priorities as inventory is allocated in real-time when each order is placed. Moreover, Shopify’s allocation logic is static and less equipped to manage complex exceptions, as there is no support for multi-retry inventory allocation rules.
In contrast, HotWax Commerce offers a highly configurable and dynamic order routing engine designed to meet the diverse needs of omnichannel retailers. Its order routing logic is organized into three core components: Runs, Routings, and Rules. HotWax Commerce supports scheduled runs, allowing retailers to tailor routing schedules to different operational needs. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for retailers managing multiple fulfillment locations with varying operational hours.
HotWax Commerce also enables retailers to re-prioritize orders into logical groups, ensuring efficient fulfillment, especially for orders with different delivery priorities. Furthermore, its sophisticated inventory allocation rules handle exceptions and fallback scenarios, ensuring that orders are fulfilled even when preferred conditions are not met.
Fig 1: Order Routing in HotWax Commerce
To gain deeper insights into use cases where Shopify order routing may fall short compared to HotWax Commerce, read our comprehensive blog: Shopify Order Routing vs. HotWax Order Routing.
Store fulfillment involves leveraging physical retail locations to quickly fulfill online orders by implementing omnichannel strategies like Buy Online Pick Up In Store (BOPIS) and Ship From Store.
Shopify provides basic store fulfillment features, such as local delivery and in-store pickup, designed primarily for smaller-scale operations. However, these features have limitations that may hinder scalability for enterprise retailers. For example, the local delivery feature is restricted to retailers with 20 or fewer locations, making it unsuitable for larger operations. Additionally, Shopify requires custom checkouts to be deactivated to use local delivery, which limits flexibility during the purchasing process. This restriction also affects checkout from other sales channels like Amazon, Instagram, or Facebook, and prevents the use of fast payment methods like Apple Pay or Google Pay for local delivery.
Moreover, Shopify does not support splitting orders across multiple locations, which can delay fulfillment if all items are not available in a single store. Another limitation is the forced participation requirement, where any store offering pickup must also accept shipping orders. This can disrupt individual store capacities and specific roles within the overall fulfillment strategy.
HotWax Commerce is designed to fulfill every order in the most optimal way, ensuring that customers benefit from local delivery speed and efficiency, even if they do not choose Shopify's local delivery option during checkout.
The sophisticated order routing engine automatically routes orders to the best fulfillment location, whether a nearby store or another optimal location. This ensures fast fulfillment across multiple sales channels, including Instagram, Facebook, and Amazon, and accommodates fast checkout orders.
HotWax Commerce also allows retailers to strategically split orders and choose specific locations for BOPIS (Buy Online Pick Up In Store), Ship From Store, or both. This end-to-end control over in-store fulfillment processes provides a robust solution for addressing complex omnichannel retail scenarios, ensuring that every order is intelligently fulfilled to meet customer expectations for fast and reliable delivery.
Fig 2: Store Fulfillment in HotWax CommerceTo gain deeper insights into where Shopify store fulfillment processes may fall short and how HotWax Commerce provides a more robust solution, read our detailed blog: Shopify Store Fulfillment vs. HotWax Store Fulfillment.
Effective inventory management ensures that the right products are available at the right locations and times to meet customer demand, while minimizing holding costs and avoiding stockouts or overstock situations.
Shopify offers basic inventory management features suitable for smaller retailers. It allows applying buffer stock to prevent overselling but it falls short in other critical areas. For example, Shopify lacks flexible threshold management to account for network-wide inventory discrepancies, which can lead to potential overselling or stockouts. Additionally, lacks support for applying safety stock levels in bulk.
Another significant limitation is the absence of support for configuring separate inventory pools for different sales channels, which restricts strategic allocation and control. Managing exceptions for specific products, such as fragile items or store-only exclusives, is also not straightforward. Moreover, Shopify provides limited capabilities for in-store inventory functions, such as receiving transfer orders, processing purchase orders, and conducting cycle counts, which can impact inventory accuracy and efficiency.
HotWax Commerce delivers a robust and flexible inventory management system designed for complex retail operations. It allows retailers to set company-wide safety stock and threshold levels that adapt dynamically to sales trends and inventory health. Additionally, HotWax Commerce supports efficient bulk updates for safety stock and other inventory parameters, streamlining inventory management for extensive product ranges.
HotWax Commerce also enables retailers to allocate specific inventory pools to different sales channels, such as Shopify, Amazon, and B2B, ensuring optimal stock distribution and fulfillment performance. Furthermore, handling product exceptions like excluding specific products from shipping from specific locations but allowing pick-up is also configurable. Finally, it provides dedicated apps for stores to receive and process transfer orders and purchase orders, perform directed cycle counts, and maintain accurate, real-time inventory records.
To gain deeper insights into Shopify inventory management limitations and how HotWax Commerce bridges the gap, read our detailed blog: Shopify Inventory Management vs. HotWax Inventory Management.
Pre-order management is critical for retailers who want to capture sales for out-of-stock or upcoming products, ensuring that they can meet customer demand while managing inventory flow efficiently.
Shopify offers basic pre-order management capabilities but falls short in providing a comprehensive solution. Retailers can take pre-orders using Shopify’s purchase option, enabling them to sell inventory that is not yet available. Shopify supports deferred payments, allowing retailers to collect payments at a later time rather than upfront. However, Shopify lacks a native feature for labeling pre-orders, making it challenging to differentiate these products from regular ones.
Shopify also does not provide built-in tools for managing promise dates, which are crucial for keeping customers informed about when they can expect their items. Additionally, Shopify does not offer native automation for scheduling the fulfillment of pre-orders when inventory arrives, requiring retailers to rely on third-party apps to handle these aspects of pre-order management effectively.
HotWax Commerce offers a robust, end-to-end solution for pre-order management, addressing the challenges faced by retailers using Shopify. It has a ready integration with ERP systems like NetSuite, syncing latest purchase orders and identifying products eligible for pre-orders and backorders. HotWax Commerce enhances the Product Detail Page (PDP) experience by displaying pre-order and backorder buttons, making it clear to customers which products are available on pre-order or backorder. HotWax also provides customers with promise dates directly on the PDP, ensuring transparency and building trust.
When a customer places a pre-order, HotWax Commerce automatically tags the line items as pre-orders and moves them to a dedicated Pre-Order Parking. This queue holds all pre-orders until the physical inventory is received, preventing the brokering process from starting prematurely. Once the inventory arrives and the promise date is reached, HotWax Commerce automatically releases all orders from the Pre-Order Parking to the Brokering Queue, where inventory is allocated for fulfillment. Retailers can also choose to release pre-orders manually, offering flexibility and control over the fulfillment process. This comprehensive approach ensures that retailers can manage their pre-orders efficiently, providing a seamless experience for both the business and its customers.
To gain deeper insights into Shopify pre-order management limitations and how HotWax Commerce provides a more comprehensive solution, read our detailed blog: Shopify Pre-Order Management vs. HotWax Pre-Order Management.
