1 in 5 Retailers Invest in Ship-from-Store to Keep Pace with Amazon
64% of shoppers say they’d blacklist a brand after a poor delivery experience, with Amazon setting the new standard for speed and convenience
One in five retailers across Australia and New Zealand are now investing in ship-from-store capabilities, transforming their bricks-and-mortar locations into local fulfilment hubs to meet rising consumer expectations and counter the influence of global retail giants like Amazon, Temu and Shein.
The research from Shippit, which comes as retail insolvencies continue to soar - making retail the third-worst hit industry after construction and hospitality - highlights how ship-from-store is emerging as a key strategy for local retailers seeking to speed up delivery, reduce emissions, and improve the customer experience in a convenience-driven market.
With delivery now a make-or-break moment for consumers, expectations for speed, accuracy and transparency have never been higher. A single poor delivery experience is enough for 64% of shoppers to blacklist a brand entirely. Over half (51%) of shoppers (aged 18-34) say their delivery expectations have risen as a direct result of Amazon, with 82.8% of retailers expressing concern about the growing dominance of the global retail giant.
In response, retailers are investing heavily in supply chain optimisation, not just in fulfilment, but in delivery, as they seek to turn logistics into a driver of both customer acquisition and long-term loyalty. In fact, 20.7% of retailers have identified supply chain optimisation as their top investment priority for 2025.
“Retailers aren’t just competing on price anymore, they’re competing on experience and more specifically, the speed of delivery. In 2025, the last mile has become one of the most important moments of brand trust, and this has become the key battleground for retailers in the months and years ahead,” said Rob Hango-Zada, Co-founder and Joint CEO at Shippit. “To win trust and ultimately wallets, we’re seeing retailers investing in decentralised or hybrid fulfilment models in place of the traditional lone online distribution centre.
“Ship-from-store allows bricks & mortar retailers to unlock the scale of their physical footprint, turning inventory proximity into a competitive advantage. Speeding up order fulfilment time, lowering delivery costs and enabling greater throughput of store-based inventory, ship-from-store helps local players out-maneuver global giants. Whether it’s enabling reliable same or next day delivery, making stock work harder in stores, or supporting more sustainable delivery options, this model is helping retailers meet growing consumer expectations while driving long-term growth”.
This shift is being powered by new technologies behind the scenes. Through Shippit’s partnership with Fluent Commerce, already in action with brands like Freedom, BBQs Galore, Munro Footwear Group, and T2 Tea amongst others, retailers can now synchronise inventory and order orchestration with real-time delivery optimisation, making ship-from-store not only viable, but scalable.
“Shipping bulky and varied items across more than 50 stores and nearly 100 dispatch points used to be a logistical headache, with manual carton measurements, data entry, and reliance on a single courier inflating costs and hurting customer satisfaction, said Joshua Rich, eCommerce Operations Lead at Freedom. Since partnering with Shippit and Fluent Commerce, we’ve seen order cancellations fall from 14% to just 2%, stock accessibility increase tenfold, and freight costs drop by around 20%. More importantly, we can now respond rapidly to inventory shifts and deliver consistent and reliable experiences for our customers”.
It’s a growing trend, with Shippit data showing that 15% of deliveries now originate within just 15km of the recipient, pointing to a sharp rise in localised fulfilment as retailers position inventory closer to customers to meet delivery expectations. Supporting this trend, 10.3% of retailers have made inventory accessibility their top investment priority, highlighting the critical role of accurate, unified inventory data in powering faster, more efficient fulfilment.
“In today’s retail market, the biggest gains often come from the margins. While the challenges are significant, so too are the opportunities, especially for retailers who unlock their full inventory, not just what’s sitting in a distribution centre,” said Jamie Cairns, Chief Growth Officer at Fluent Commerce. “By improving inventory data accuracy and establishing a unified view of availability across all channels, retailers can position more stock closer to more customers, reduce cancelled orders, and increase sales.
“Our integration with Shippit empowers retailers to dynamically fulfil from the best location, balancing inventory, speed and cost, while exceeding rising customer expectations. In a world of instant gratification, fulfilment is now a frontline brand experience.”
With nearly two-thirds of shoppers ranking delivery as almost as important as price, forward-thinking retailers are reimagining fulfilment as a competitive advantage. Nearly one in five cite “increasing local competitiveness” as their biggest challenge, and ship-from-store is emerging as a key strategy to meet that head-on. By leveraging their store networks to get products into customers’ hands faster, retailers are closing the convenience gap with global giants, one local store at a time.
