How Allbirds Cut Costs and Boosted Conversions with Shopify POS

Case Study: Allbirds & Shopify POS Ship from Store

In this case study, we look at how Allbirds, known for their eco-friendly Wool Runners, reworked inventory management and fulfillment using Shopify POS'sShip from Storefeature. By tapping into in-store stock to meet online orders, the brand slashed costs, kept popular styles in circulation, and turned idle merchandise into a growth lever.

The Inventory Puzzle

Allbirds stores carried full size runs for every style, even in locations where certain sizes barely sold. That tied up capital and shelf space, forcing the team to send unsold items back to their warehouse at season’s end. Meanwhile, online shoppers could only see central warehouse stock. Popular styles went out of stock, cart abandonment rose, and those excess pairs just sat in boxes waiting to be repacked and shipped back. It was a drain on time, labor and money.

A Phased Rollout

To solve this, Allbirds chose Shopify POS’s Ship from Store. They kicked off with a small pilot in a handful of stores, tracking metrics like pick times, shipping accuracy and order volume. The pilot delivered promising data while highlighting tricky edge cases. With that insight, the team rolled out four waves of increasing order volume across 31 stores, ensuring they could catch and fix issues before scaling further.

Custom Workflows & Controls

Beyond the default feature set, Allbirds tapped Shopify’s APIs and third-party apps to tailor workflows. They defined which days and hours each store could ship online orders, capped daily order limits per location to avoid stockouts in high-traffic shops, and built dashboards to surface key data to store managers and corporate planners. This level of control meant no shop felt overwhelmed and planners saw real-time demand signals.

Results & Impact

Once Ship from Store was fully live, Allbirds saw their website conversion rates climb as customers encountered fewer “out of stock” messages. Over half of the items shipped from stores were slow-moving pairs, which cleared shelf space for top sellers. End-of-season returns to the warehouse dropped significantly, cutting labor costs and idle time on packing stations. Overall shipping expense fell as local shipments replaced cross-country returns.

Team Feedback & Efficiency

Store teams quickly embraced the streamlined process: pick the order, create a shipping label directly in the POS interface, then mark it fulfilled. Many managers noted they’d tried similar solutions elsewhere but found Shopify’s UI far more intuitive. Support tickets around shipping errors dropped after just two rollout waves, and merchandising teams gained confidence in ordering plans driven by up-to-the-minute store data.

Key Lessons

Breaking the rollout into waves gave Allbirds the breathing room to learn, adjust, and document best practices. Clear rules around shipping schedules and daily quotas kept stores in control while protecting core in-store sales. Most importantly, treating store inventory as a shared resource allowed Allbirds to unlock hidden value without buying additional stock or renting more storage space.