E-commerce Fulfillment Automation

The Challenge

Nordic Home Goods, a fast-growing online furniture and home decor retailer, was processing 200+ orders per week manually. Their team spent over 15 hours each week copying order details between their Shopify store, inventory spreadsheets, and shipping platform. This manual process led to frequent data entry errors, delayed shipments, and frustrated customers waiting for order confirmations.

As order volume increased, the business owner faced a difficult choice: hire additional staff for repetitive data entry, or find a way to automate the workflow. They needed a solution that would integrate their existing tools without requiring a complete platform migration.

The Solution

We built a custom automation workflow using n8n that connects Shopify, Google Sheets (inventory management), and their shipping provider API. When a new order arrives, the system automatically:

• Extracts order details and customer information from Shopify
• Updates inventory counts in their Google Sheets tracking system
• Creates a shipping label through their fulfillment partner's API
• Sends a branded order confirmation email to the customer with tracking information
• Logs the complete transaction in a Supabase database for reporting and analytics

The entire workflow runs in the background 24/7, processing orders within minutes of purchase without any human intervention. We also implemented error handling and notifications to alert the team if any step fails or requires manual review.

Results

• 15 hours saved per week – Time previously spent on manual order processing now redirected to customer service and business development
• 80% faster order processing – Orders now confirmed and shipped within 2 hours instead of next-day turnaround
• 95% reduction in data entry errors – Automated data sync eliminated human mistakes in inventory tracking and shipping details
• ROI achieved in 6 weeks – Automation costs recouped through labor savings and increased operational capacity

Technologies Used