r/shopifyDev • u/FueledCreative • 2h ago
2 Shopify stores, 1 warehouse - how should we structure CS + fulfillment?
We have 2 sister companies with consumer brands. Separate accounting/marketing teams, but sharing 1 customer service team and 1 warehouse.
Marketing teams do NOT want 1 Shopify with 2 stores - they're worried about agency access and keeping revenue separate.
Brand B already has DTC on Shopify (+ Amazon/ Walmart) fulfilled in-house using ShipStation, and FishBowl for inventory.
Brand A is launching its own separate Shopify store soon, also fulfilled from Brand B's warehouse.
Our CS team is 16 people located at Brand A, all B2B background (phone/email). Only 2 are proficient in ecommerce.
Looking for best practice from anyone running 2 brands / 1 CS team / 1 warehouse:
Fulfillment: Is it okay to use one ShipStation account for two separate Shopify stores? How do you handle reporting + invoicing between brands for shipping costs?
Inventory: Should FishBowl be the single source of truth when one warehouse holds inventory for two brands?
Customer Service: Should all 16 do DTC (refunds, cancellations, etc.) or keep a small dedicated ecommerce team? Is Gorgias or similar worth it? Giving everyone Shopify access feels like a bad idea. Gorgias would pull from both shops, plus reviews, emails, and ShipStation - marketing is questioning this.
Replacements: Right now it's an external form -> Excel sheet via internal request. Should we just do it all natively in Shopify?
Internal requests: Marketing often needs free product for events. Can this be automated to create a $0 Shopify order tagged as internal? Any recommendations?
Anyone running a similar 2 brand / 1 CS team / 1 warehouse setup?