Reference

Warehouse management systems, and the job they own

A warehouse management system (WMS) directs the work inside a warehouse: where each unit is stored, what gets picked next and in what order, and what leaves on which carrier. It works bin by bin, on handheld scanners, below the stock count your channels sell from.

Beside Shopify, a WMS owns the building. Shopify sells, the stock system says what exists, the order layer decides where each order ships from, and the WMS moves the stock. Name which job each system owns, and the right WMS follows from it.

What a WMS does, stage by stage

From the van at goods in to the van at despatch, and what Shopify covers at each stage on its own. Shopify is a stock record; a WMS directs the floor.

Stage	What a WMS does	Shopify on its own
Goods in	Receives against the purchase order by scan, and flags shorts and damages before the stock is counted. Shopify: Records the receipt against a purchase order and adds it to the location’s count.	Records the receipt against a purchase order and adds it to the location’s count.
Putaway	Tells the operator which bin each unit goes to, by rules you set. Shopify: No bins. Stock is held per location.	No bins. Stock is held per location.
Replenishment	Tops up the pick face from bulk storage before it runs dry. Shopify: Not covered.	Not covered.
Picking	Builds pick lists in walking order, batches orders together, and confirms every pick by scan. Shopify: Lists the orders to fulfil. No pick routing.	Lists the orders to fulfil. No pick routing.
Packing and despatch	Checks the pack against the order, prints the carrier label and records what left on which service. Shopify: Marks the order fulfilled and sends the tracking to the customer.	Marks the order fulfilled and sends the tracking to the customer.
Returns	Inspects and grades the return, then puts it back to a bin or writes it off, with the reason recorded. Shopify: Records the return and restocks it to a location.	Records the return and restocks it to a location.
Batch, expiry and serial	Tracks them per unit and picks the earliest expiry first. Shopify: Not covered.	Not covered.
Stock counts	Counts bin by bin on a rolling cycle, without closing the building. Shopify: Adjusts the count per location.	Adjusts the count per location.

What Shopify holds across locations, and the four reasons to add anything beside it, is on Shopify inventory management.

WMS, stock system, order layer, ERP: who owns what

One product can do more than one of these jobs. A WMS often holds the stock master for its building, and an ERP often includes a warehouse module. Each job still needs one named owner, and available stock needs exactly one.

Shopify

The sale, the order, and stock per location as the channels see it.

Stock control system

What exists, where, and in which of four states, across every location and channel.

Order management

Which unit, from which location, to which customer, in what priority.

Warehouse management

Where each unit sits in the building, and the work that moves it.

ERP

The business record: purchasing, finance, and often stock and the warehouse as modules.

3PL

The building itself, run on the 3PL’s own WMS.

Four kinds of WMS

Ecommerce WMS

Built around high order volumes and small parcels, with direct connections to Shopify, the marketplaces and the carriers.

For example

Mintsoft, Peoplevox

WMS inside an ERP or order system

One database for orders, stock, the warehouse and often the finance. Fewer connections to maintain, and one vendor to change if it stops fitting.

For example

OrderWise, Stok.ly, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365

Enterprise and automation WMS

For large distribution centres, often driving conveyors, shuttles and robotics as well as people.

For example

SAP EWM, Manhattan, Blue Yonder, Mecalux Easy WMS

The 3PL’s WMS

You don’t buy it; you connect to it. The question becomes whose count your channels sell from.

For example

Whichever system your 3PL runs

When the building needs directing

Pickers search for stock rather than walk straight to it.
A unit’s bin, batch or expiry date decides which one ships.
Several people pick at once, from more than one zone.
Pick errors reach you as returns and complaints.

Any one of these, and the answer is a WMS or a 3PL that runs one. Which of the two costs less is worked through on stock and fulfilment.

UK warehouse systems, as their vendors describe them

What each one is, how it connects to Shopify, how it’s priced and who it’s built for, taken from each vendor’s own site on 24 September 2026. Prices belong to the vendor, so check their page before budgeting.

Easy WMS (Mecalux)

Controls warehouse processes and resources, from manual operations to fully automated buildings. Cloud or on-premise.

Shopify: No ecommerce platform named on its WMS page. The integrations it names are ERPs: Oracle, SAP, Microsoft and Sage.
Pricing: Not published.
Built for: Medium-sized and large facilities, logistics providers and ecommerce retailers

Mintsoft

Cloud WMS covering warehouse, order, inventory and shipping management. Part of The Access Group.

Shopify: App on the Shopify App Store.
Pricing: From £159 a month for brands and wholesalers, from £375 for 3PLs, Enterprise on application.
Built for: Ecommerce brands, wholesalers and 3PLs

OrderWise

A WMS sold standalone or as part of the OrderWise ERP, with handheld scanning from goods in to despatch.

Shopify: Not named on its WMS or software-integration pages.
Pricing: Not published.
Built for: Wholesale and distribution, and trade-focused retailers

Peoplevox

An ecommerce WMS for high-growth brands. Part of Descartes.

Shopify: Shopify named on its own site as a platform it launches alongside.
Pricing: From £1,500 a month.
Built for: Direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands

Stok.ly (affiliate)

Order management, inventory and warehouse in one system: pick, pack and dispatch on every plan.

Shopify: Shopify connection described on its own site.
Pricing: From £299.99 a month (Lite Retail), £599.99 for Pro Warehouse.
Built for: Multi-location retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers

StoreBuilder Ltd earns referral commission from Shopify and holds an affiliate account with Stok.ly. No other vendor named on this page pays us. Commercial relationships

Six questions for any WMS vendor

A demo shows the warehouse on a good day. These show how the system behaves beside Shopify on an ordinary one.

01 Once the WMS is live, which system owns available stock, and how quickly does Shopify hear about a change?
02 What happens to orders if the connection to Shopify is down for an hour, and who is told?
03 Is the Shopify connection built by you, an app, or a third party, and who fixes it when Shopify changes its API?
04 How does a return get back into sellable stock, and which system records why it came back?
05 What does it cost at our order volume: per user, per site, per handheld scanner, and per integration?
06 How does go-live run: the opening stock count, any parallel running, and the way back if it goes wrong?

Warehouse management systems: questions

What is a warehouse management system?

A warehouse management system (WMS) directs the work inside a warehouse: where each unit is stored, what gets picked next and in what order, and what leaves on which carrier. It works at the level of the bin and the handheld scanner, below the stock count the sales channels see.

Does Shopify have a warehouse management system?

No. Shopify holds stock per location, records purchase orders and receiving, and restocks returns to a location. It has no bins, no pick routing, no directed putaway, no pick-face replenishment and no batch or expiry handling. A WMS connects to Shopify and runs the building.

What is the difference between a WMS and an ERP?

An ERP is the business record: purchasing, finance and usually stock across the company. A WMS directs the work inside one or more warehouses. Many ERPs include a warehouse module, and many WMSs connect to an ERP rather than replacing it. The decision that matters is which system is nominated to be right about available stock.

Is SAP the same as a WMS?

No. SAP is a software company. Its ERP runs finance, purchasing and stock, and its warehouse system is a separate product, SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), built for large distribution operations.

What is the most common warehouse management system?

Trade lists of the largest systems lead with Blue Yonder, SAP EWM, Körber and Oracle (Supply Chain Digital, October 2024), all built for large distribution centres. For a UK business selling through Shopify, the relevant field is the ecommerce WMSs and the warehouse modules inside order and ERP systems.

Is there free warehouse management software?

The free options on published lists, such as Square and the free plan of Zoho Inventory, are inventory tools: they record stock rather than direct picking, putaway and replenishment. Open-source warehouse systems remove the licence fee. They don’t remove the hosting, the connection to Shopify or the implementation, and you still pay for those.

Where a WMS fits in your operation

Tell us what the store runs on, how the warehouse picks today and what else holds a stock count. We'll reply with where a WMS fits, which kind, and what it takes to connect it.