When you’re selling across Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and your own ecommerce store, order routing becomes critical. The right logic can reduce fulfillment costs, increase delivery speed, and even avoid late shipment penalties on marketplaces.

But what’s more important: lowest cost or fastest fulfillment? This guide breaks down how to choose and automate the right routing strategy for your business.

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What Is Order Routing?

Order routing is the logic your system uses to decide:

• Which supplier or warehouse should fulfill the order
• Based on criteria like:
  • Shipping speed
  • Product cost
  • Inventory availability
  • Geographic proximity

In a multichannel, multi-supplier model, the right routing logic can save time, money, and customer satisfaction scores.

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Lowest Cost Routing: Maximize Profit

This strategy prioritizes cost-efficiency:

• Routes to the supplier or warehouse with lowest total landed cost
• Total cost includes:
  • Product cost
  • Shipping fees
  • Handling fees
  • Platform commission (if applicable)

Best For:

• High-margin products
• Non-urgent deliveries
• Customers who chose standard shipping
• Long-term profitability

Pros:

✅ Maximizes margins
✅ Easy to measure
✅ Preferred for low-urgency orders

Cons:

❌ Slower delivery time possible
❌ May trigger marketplace late shipment metrics
❌ Not ideal during peak shopping seasons

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Fastest Fulfillment Routing: Maximize Speed

This method prioritizes delivery time:

• Chooses the supplier or warehouse that can fulfill and ship the order fastest, regardless of cost
• Typically uses:
  • Zip-code proximity
  • SLA turnaround times
  • Express shipping availability

Best For:

• Amazon FBM orders (Buy Box competition depends on fast shipping)
• Walmart 2-day delivery expectations
• Time-sensitive products (gifts, perishables)
• Premium shipping options

Pros:

✅ Improves customer satisfaction
✅ Reduces late shipment risk
✅ Increases positive feedback & repeat customers

Cons:

❌ Higher fulfillment costs
❌ May reduce margins
❌ Requires real-time inventory sync

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Hybrid Logic: Best of Both Worlds

Platforms like EcomBiz.AI allow you to implement custom, hybrid routing rules, such as:

• “If Amazon order + 2-day shipping selected → fastest supplier”
• “If cost difference < $2 → choose fastest”
• “If item out of stock at preferred supplier → failover to next cheapest with inventory”

Example Rule Set:

yamlCopyEditif order.channel == "Amazon" and order.sla == "2-day":
    route = supplier_with_fastest_shipping
elif order.total_margin < 20%:
    route = lowest_cost_supplier
else:
    route = preferred_supplier

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Key Metrics to Monitor

To measure the success of your routing strategy, track:

Metric	Why It Matters
Fulfillment Cost Per Order	Are you saving or overspending?
Time to Ship	Impacts marketplace performance
On-Time Delivery Rate	Especially for Amazon/Walmart compliance
Customer Satisfaction	Fast shipping often leads to better reviews
Margin by Supplier	Use data to renegotiate terms

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How EcomBiz.AI Helps

EcomBiz.AI offers intelligent order routing automation that:

• Imports orders from Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Shopify, etc.
• Calculates lowest landed cost and fastest options in real time
• Routes based on your logic (margin, speed, vendor priority)
• Syncs tracking and fulfillment status back to each channel

💡 Bonus: Add supplier failover rules and shipping cutoff time logic to avoid missed SLAs.

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Final Thoughts

Choosing between lowest cost and fastest fulfillment isn’t a one-size-fits-all decision—it depends on the channel, product, customer expectations, and margins. The key is flexibility.

With the right routing logic—and automation—you can optimize for profit and customer satisfaction.

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📦 Power your fulfillment logic with EcomBiz.AI. Join the waitlist and take control of multichannel order routing.