Most merchants start with simple fulfillment: one warehouse, all orders go there. But as you grow — adding 3PLs, retail locations, international partners, and new customer segments — "send everything to one place" stops working.

You need orders to go to the right place, based on your logic. Order Routing Plus lets you build routing rules that handle even the most complex scenarios, all running automatically on every order the moment it comes in.

This guide covers the most common routing logic merchants need, with real-world examples for each.

🧠 How Routing Rules Work

Routing rules in Order Routing Plus (ORP) work like a decision tree:

• Rules run in sequence, top to bottom
• The first rule that matches an order wins — ORP assigns the order to that location and stops
• Each rule can check one or more criteria — all enabled criteria must match for a rule to fire
• If no rule matches, the order retains the location where Shopify originally assigned it (you can always add a catch-all fallback rule at the bottom)
• Rules run automatically when an order is created, when it's paid, or on demand

You can mix and match any combination of the criteria below.

📍 Routing by Geography

The logic: Send orders to the warehouse or 3PL physically closest to the customer.

Criteria available:

• Shipping address country
• Shipping address state or province
• Shipping address postal code

Common examples: