Stop overpaying on freight from the west coast.

If you run a Shopify store and ship everything from a single warehouse on the west coast, you already know the problem: freight costs are eating your margins. A package from Los Angeles to Miami costs nearly twice as much as the same package from Mississippi. And when 60-70% of the US population lives east of the Mississippi River, that math adds up fast.

The fix isn't complicated. Add a second fulfillment node on the east coast or in the central US, and let Shopify Flow automatically decide which warehouse ships each order based on the cheapest route. No custom WMS integration. No developer needed. Just a workflow you set up once and let run.

The single-warehouse problem.

Carriers price shipping by zones. The more zones a package crosses, the more it costs. When your only warehouse is in LA or the Bay Area, every order to the East Coast, Southeast, and Midwest crosses the maximum number of zones. You're paying Zone 7 or Zone 8 rates on the majority of your volume.

Here's what that looks like at scale:

These aren't theoretical numbers. For a brand shipping 3,000+ orders per month, the difference between Zone 8 and Zone 4 on the average package can mean $15,000-$30,000 in annual freight savings. That's margin going straight back to the business.

Why two warehouses beats one.

The idea is simple: keep your west coast warehouse for orders going to California, Oregon, Washington, and the western states. Add a second 3PL in the central or eastern US to handle everything else. The result:

• Lower average shipping zones across your entire order volume
• Faster delivery times for 60-70% of your customers (the ones east of the Rockies)
• Reduced carrier surcharges — shorter distances mean fewer peak/fuel surcharges
• Better customer experience — 2-3 day ground instead of 5-7 day ground to the East Coast

The old objection was always "managing two warehouses is too complicated." That was true five years ago. It's not anymore.

Shopify Flow changes everything.

This is the part most west coast brands don't know about yet. Shopify Flow — available on Shopify and Shopify Plus plans — lets you build automated workflows that route orders to specific fulfillment locations based on whatever logic you define. No custom code. No expensive WMS platform. No developer on retainer.

Here's what an order routing flow looks like:

That's it. When an order comes in from California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, or Arizona, it gets routed to your existing west coast warehouse. Every other order goes to your central or east coast 3PL. The customer never notices. You just pay less in freight.

Setting it up takes minutes, not months

The reason this works so well now is that Shopify Flow handles the routing logic natively inside Shopify. Your 3PL just needs to be set up as a fulfillment location in your Shopify admin — which any modern 3PL can do. There's no WMS-to-WMS integration. No API middleware. No six-figure software build.

Here's the setup:

• Add your east coast or central 3PL as a fulfillment location in Shopify
• Assign inventory to both locations (split your stock based on demand patterns)
• Build a Shopify Flow workflow: IF customer shipping state is [western states] THEN assign to Location A, ELSE assign to Location B
• Turn it on. Orders start routing automatically

You can get more sophisticated over time — routing by zip code prefix, by product weight, by shipping method selected — but the state-based split alone captures the majority of the savings.

The long-term margin impact.

The freight savings are the obvious win. But the compounding effects are what really matter for Shopify brands trying to grow sustainably:

• Lower cost per order — every percentage point you shave off shipping goes straight to your bottom line
• Faster delivery without paying for expedited — ground shipping from a central location arrives in 2-3 days to most of the country, which means you can stop paying for express shipping to meet customer expectations
• Higher conversion rates — faster estimated delivery dates at checkout drive more completed purchases
• Fewer lost/damaged packages — shorter transit distances mean fewer handoffs and less time in the carrier network
• Better unit economics for paid ads — when your cost-per-order drops, your acceptable CAC goes up, which means you can bid more aggressively on paid channels

For a Shopify brand doing $2M-$10M in annual revenue, the freight savings from a two-node fulfillment setup typically range from $40,000 to $150,000 per year. That's not a rounding error. That's a full-time hire, a new product line, or significantly better margins on your next fundraise.

The brands that figure out fulfillment distribution early are the ones that scale profitably. Everyone else just watches their margins shrink as they grow.

What to look for in an east coast 3PL.

Not every 3PL is set up for this. If you're adding a second fulfillment node specifically to reduce freight costs on Shopify orders, here's what matters:

• Central or Southeast location — a warehouse in Mississippi, Tennessee, or Georgia covers the most population with the fewest zones. Coastal East Coast (NJ, PA) is better than LA but still leaves the middle of the country at Zone 4+
• Shopify integration — the 3PL needs to receive and fulfill orders directly from Shopify without requiring a separate WMS platform you have to manage
• No long-term contracts — you want to prove the model before committing. A good 3PL will let the freight savings speak for themselves
• Transparent pricing — per-pick, per-pack, storage, and shipping costs should be clear. If a 3PL can't give you a simple cost-per-order estimate, walk away
• Carrier rate negotiation — a 3PL shipping high volume from a central location should have negotiated rates with UPS, FedEx, and USPS that are better than what you get on your own

How to split your inventory.

You don't need to keep equal stock at both locations. Start with a 60/40 or 70/30 split based on where your orders actually ship. Most west coast Shopify brands find that 55-65% of their orders go east of the Rockies. Send that proportion of your inventory to your central or east coast 3PL.

Shopify's inventory management handles this natively. You can track stock levels per location and set up low-stock alerts for each. Reorder to whichever location is running low. Over time you'll dial in the right ratio based on actual order patterns.

Start with the math.

Before you do anything, pull your last 90 days of Shopify orders and look at where they shipped. Group them by state or region. If more than 50% of your orders are going to states east of the Rockies, you're leaving money on the table by shipping everything from the west coast.

Then get a freight quote from a central or eastern 3PL for those orders. Compare it to what you're paying now. The difference is your annual savings opportunity.