Bringing effortless OMS to Shopify

Charlie's new release version 1.5 just arrived and we are very excited about sharing some thoughts about it. Since we launched three months ago, we've had the opportunity to discuss and implement Charlie with amazing brands. Some of them are major Shopify players who needed a stronger and more sophisticated version of Charlie to meet their complex operational requirements.This is what we've been building over the last 3 months ; evolving Charlie to serve the full Shopify merchant spectrum, from SMBs to Enterprise-level operations. Version 1.5 represents a significant leap forward in our mission to democratize advanced order management for all Shopify merchants.

Our approach : building effortless technology

In everything we build with Charlie, we embrace Shopify's mindset and apply core principles that define our philosophy:

• Merchant-first thinking sits at the core, everything revolves around empowering entrepreneurs and small businesses to succeed online. This means building tools that are accessible to non-technical users while remaining powerful enough for growing businesses.
• Continuous innovation and adaptation keeps us ahead of e-commerce trends. We consistently invest in new technologies and features that anticipate market needs.
• Simplicity through sophistication means handling complex backend processes while presenting clean, intuitive user experiences. The goal is making powerful commerce tools feel effortless to use.

Effortless ; this is the word you'll hear every time we speak about Charlie.

It's the same word we've been using to describe Shopify since we've been working in this space.

But what exactly is effortless technology?

Effortless technology is technology that is more powerful than you. Having worked in retail and e-commerce for 15 years, I've seen how traditional technology requires fuel at three critical stages: launching it, using it, and evolving it. Shopify disrupted this paradigm by:

• Making it dramatically easier to launch a commerce platform (months, not years; hundreds of thousands, not millions)
• Creating an appealing user experience with exceptional ergonomics
• Making evolution effortless with continuous improvements handled by Shopify itself

This is what we call effortless technology in commerce, and it's exactly what we've applied to Charlie:

• An OMS that's truly easy and fast to launch, requiring no third-party ERP integration as everything is managed before the order is placed
• An OMS with a no-code interface that makes complex operations accessible to any team member
• An OMS that complements Shopify rather than competing with it, evolving at Shopify's pace, not lagging behind

This release represents a massive improvement in the product, already rolling out to customers and ready to scale with 9-figure revenue brands across multiple locations.

Technical considerations

Checkout native OMS

Unlike other OMS solutions or custom developments, Charlie executes at Shopify checkout, before an order is paid. This allows brands to seamlessly implement Charlie without the complexity of integrating ERPs or other third-party systems. By operating at the checkout level, we ensure that routing decisions are made with complete cart context, leading to more accurate and efficient order allocation.

sequenceDiagram
    participant Customer
    participant Shopify as Shopify Checkout
    participant Charlie as Charlie OMS
    participant Payment as Payment Gateway

    Customer->>Shopify: Enters shipping address
    
    Shopify->>Charlie: Which locations can fulfill this order?
    Note right of Charlie: Apply constraints & preferences
    Charlie-->>Shopify: Return optimal locations
    
    Shopify->>Shopify: Calculate shipping options
    Shopify-->>Customer: Display available shipping methods
    
    Customer->>Payment: Complete payment
    Payment-->>Shopify: Order confirmed
    
    Note over Customer, Charlie: Effortless routing before payment

Contraints rules vs. Preferences rules

Understanding the difference between constraint rules and preference rules is crucial for optimal order routing strategy.

Constraint rules (fulfillment constraints in Shopify) act like filters, removing ineligible locations from consideration. Think of them as hard stops—if a constraint rule blocks a location and that location is the only one capable of fulfilling an order, the checkout will be blocked entirely.

Preference rules (order routing rules in Shopify) act like sorting mechanisms, ranking eligible locations to find the optimal fulfillment strategy.

The routing process follows this workflow:

1. Customer enters shipping address at checkout
2. System identifies all locations with available inventory
3. Constraint rules filter out ineligible locations
4. Preference rules rank remaining locations to determine the winner(s)

This process continues through the routing workflow until one location or combination of locations emerges as optimal—which is why "ship from closest location" typically serves as the final routing rule.

The impact on checkout

Constraint rules require careful consideration because they can prevent sales. When you apply a constraint rule, you're prioritizing operational efficiency over revenue, sometimes blocking orders rather than compromising your fulfillment strategy.

Consider a flagship store with a maximum capacity of 10 ship-from-store orders per day:

• As a constraint rule: Once capacity is reached, the store disappears from routing entirely. If it's the only location that can fulfill an order, checkout is blocked.
• As a preference rule: The store remains available but deprioritized. If it's the only option, the order still processes, ensuring no lost sales.

An addition to Shopify native rules

Charlie doesn't replace Shopify's native OMS capabilities—we enhance them. Our smart addition philosophy means working in harmony with Shopify's existing inventory management, checkout process, routing rules, and location management systems.

graph TB
    subgraph Shopify ["Shopify Native"]
        SI["Available Inventory"]
        NOR["Native Order Routing"]
        CHK["Checkout Process"]
        LM["Location Management"]
    end
    
    subgraph Charlie ["Charlie Enhancement Layer"]
        SS["Safety Stock"]
        DLC["Daily Location Capacity"]
        SSC["Split Shipping Control"]
        AR["Advanced Routing Rules"]
        CSR["Customer Segmentation"]
        FC["Fulfillment Constraints"]
    end
    
    CHK -.->|"Real-time routing request"| AR    
    SI <-->|"Sellable inventory calculation"| SS
    NOR <-->|"Enhanced routing logic"| AR
    LM <-->|"Capacity & performance data"| DLC
    
    classDef shopifyBox fill:#95BF46,stroke:#95BF46,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
    classDef charlieBox fill:#2D6953,stroke:#2D6953,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
    
    class Shopify shopifyBox
    class Charlie charlieBox

Key capabilities in version 1.5.

Advanced split shipping control

Split shipping might seem like a detail, but it's actually the backbone of any sophisticated e-commerce operation. The fundamental question every brand faces is: how many shipments can an order be split into, and what's acceptable to your customers?

We've built Charlie with split shipping as a primary consideration. Brands can set parameters from one shipment (no splits allowed) to unlimited splits, managed as fulfillment constraints. If a brand allows only single shipments and a cart requires two locations to fulfill, checkout is blocked, giving brands complete control over their shipping strategy.

Combined with Shopify's existing "minimize split shipping" routing rule, this approach provides unprecedented control over the customer experience.

Future enhancements will include contextual split shipping based on customer segments, order attributes, and automatic transfer capabilities to minimize lost sales.

Safety stock

Our safety stock functionality offers integrated API support through metafields, enabling external management and third-party service integration. The system handles large-scale location management with optimized performance while providing flexible configuration options including customizable naming, absolute or percentage-based amounts, and selective application across specific products, collections, or location groups.

Daily location capacity management

This feature has direct impact on in-store experience and creates significant improvements for staff, retail teams, customer service, and operations teams. Each location can be assigned a daily order capacity, configurable as either a routing preference or a hard constraint. This prevents location overwhelm while ensuring optimal workload distribution across your fulfillment network.

Enhanced order routing intelligence

Version 1.5 significantly enhances Shopify's native order routing with strategic, DTC-focused business rules:

We've improved data storage and calculation methods to support larger merchants while now using sellable inventory in our routing algorithms instead of available inventory, eliminating discrepancies and improving customer experience.

Charlie’s benefits for Shopify brands

Improved retail staff adoption

For brands already shipping from stores, Charlie dramatically improves routing accuracy and retail staff adoption by intelligently distributing workload across your network with sophisticated business rules.

Before Charlie: Orders often get routed to the same high-performing or conveniently located stores, leading to staff burnout, inconsistent service levels, and some locations being underutilized while others are overwhelmed.

With Charlie: Our daily capacity constraints and intelligent routing ensure workload is spread evenly. A flagship store in Manhattan might handle VIP customers and high-value orders during peak hours, while suburban locations take on standard fulfillment during their optimal capacity windows. Staff see predictable, manageable workloads, leading to better execution and higher job satisfaction.

Real impact: Retail teams report significant less fulfillment stress and double digit better on-time shipping performance when workloads are properly distributed according to each location's capacity and specialization.

Enhanced revenue potential through inventory optimization

A robust and precise OMS enables brands to confidently add all stores to their ship-from-store network, dramatically expanding available inventory and sales opportunities.

The inventory multiplication effect: Consider a brand with 50 retail locations, each carrying $100k in inventory. Without proper OMS, only 10-20 locations might be active in e-commerce fulfillment due to operational complexity. Charlie enables all 50 locations to participate safely, effectively multiplying available inventory by 2.5x.

Reduced stockouts: With Charlie's safety stock management and real-time inventory sync, brands can push inventory levels closer to zero at individual locations while maintaining service levels. This means more inventory available for sale rather than sitting as buffer stock.

Geographic coverage: Every new location added to the network improves delivery speed and reduces shipping costs for customers in that area, directly impacting conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

Seasonal flexibility: During peak periods or local events, Charlie automatically shifts fulfillment to available locations, preventing lost sales due to temporary capacity constraints.

Unmatched time-to-value and operational efficiency

Charlie's one-click integration approach delivers immediate results without the typical enterprise software implementation timeline.

Implementation speed: Traditional OMS implementations take 6-18 months and require extensive IT resources, system integrators, and operational changes. Charlie customers are typically operational within 24-48 hours of installation.

No technical debt: Because Charlie works at the Shopify checkout level and integrates natively with existing systems, there's no complex middleware, no custom APIs to maintain, and no risk of system conflicts during Shopify updates.

Immediate ROI: Brands start seeing improved order routing, reduced split shipments, and better inventory utilization from day one. The typical payback period is under 30 days for most merchants.

Charlie 1.5 represents our commitment to making sophisticated order management accessible to every Shopify merchant. By combining the power of enterprise-level features with the simplicity merchants expect, we're enabling brands to scale their operations without scaling their complexity.

Ready to bring effortless order management to your Shopify store? Let's talk about how Charlie can transform your fulfillment strategy.

charlie@autrement.studio