Allbirds connected its retail stores and online shop on Shopify so store stock could fill web orders. Here is what the brand reports, and a small-business version you can copy.
Allbirds is a New Zealand-born footwear brand that launched on Shopify in 2016 with its Wool Runner shoe. As it opened physical stores, it added Shopify POS. According to Shopify's published case study, the brand then turned on a feature called Ship from Store so that stock sitting in its stores could be used to fill online orders. This article explains the problem, the fix, and how a small business can apply the same idea.
Shopify reports that Allbirds had two connected problems. Its stores kept full size runs of every shoe, which meant deep inventory of styles that did not sell well at some locations. At the same time, only warehouse stock was available to online customers, so the brand lost sales to stock-outs even when a store had the shoe on the shelf.
There was also waste at the end of each season. Micah Nelson, Director of Product Management at Allbirds, says slow-moving and out-of-season items were regularly packed up and shipped back to the warehouse, which he describes as an inefficient use of time and money.
Allbirds was already using Shopify POS to give store staff an endless-aisle experience, where a customer can buy in the store and have the item shipped to them. It then added Ship from Store, which lets a store fulfil an online order from its own shelf stock.
The rollout was cautious. According to Shopify's case study, Allbirds ran a pilot first, then launched in four waves with gradually increasing daily order volumes so problems could be fixed before the scale grew. The team also built custom workflows using Shopify's developer tools and third-party apps, for example to schedule which days or hours a store is available for Ship from Store and to cap how many orders each store takes per day.
Micah Nelson also says that over half of the products shipped from stores are generally slower-moving stock, which frees up store space. These are company-reported results in Shopify's own case study, so treat them as reported and not independently audited.
Allbirds lost sales because its online shop could not see what its stores held. If you sell online and in a shop or at markets, keeping one shared stock count prevents the same problem.
The pilot and four-wave launch is a sensible habit for any business. Try a new fulfilment method with one location and a low order cap, and expand only when it works.
Allbirds capped how many orders each store could take per day. Limits like this protect your staff and your customers from an overloaded shop.
For how Shopify works for a smaller store, see our full Shopify review.
Guide Studio reviews tools based on real use cases. We may earn a commission if you purchase through our links, at no extra cost to you.
Allbirds runs 31 stores on Shopify Plus and Shopify POS. A small business with one shop, or a market stall plus an online store, can use the same idea at a much smaller scale.
Rough cost: Shopify plans start from $39 per month in our review, and POS features and extra locations can add to that. Check our Shopify review and Shopify's pricing page for current prices.
Guide Studio is not affiliated with the company featured in this article. Facts are attributed to the public sources listed above and were last checked on the date shown at the top of the page.