In short
- Broadcast routing offers one order to every selected sender in a country who has the product in stock. The first to accept ships it; the others see that it has gone.
- There is no separate switch. Tick one sender for an order or a product-and-country and it is manual routing; tick more and it is a broadcast.
- Before acceptance a candidate sees what to ship, the size, the country and the fee. The customer’s name and address appear only to the sender who accepted.
- A broadcast costs nothing extra per order — the same carrier rate, the winner’s fee and €0.85 platform fee. What it costs is stock: every sender in the pool needs their own batch.
- An offer can expire, be declined or be withdrawn by you. In all three cases the order comes back to you unshipped, and no label is bought.
- Use it for holidays, peaks and several products. For one steady product with one good sender it adds complexity without solving anything.
A warehouse does not go on holiday. That is one of the few things a 3PL gives you that a person holding your stock at home cannot — unless there are two of them.
Fulfilment without a warehouse makes redundancy a design decision instead of a line in a contract. One sender is a dependency; several senders are a network. Broadcast routing is the mechanism that turns the second into something you do not have to manage by hand.
This article explains what happens to an order that is broadcast, what each sender sees and does not see, what it costs you, and when a single sender is actually the better design.
Manual routing and broadcast: the only two options
An order reaches a sender in one of two ways. Manual: you choose one person and the order is theirs. Broadcast: the order is offered simultaneously to every selected sender in the destination country who holds the product, and the first to accept takes it.
You do not choose between them as a setting. In the second step of an order you pick a country and see its senders as cards with a checkbox. One tick is manual; more is a broadcast. Routing is a consequence of the selection, not a question before it.
For Shopify orders the same choice is made once, in advance: for a product and a destination country you tick who qualifies, and every paid order for that combination follows it. The rest of that connection is in a Shopify fulfilment app without a warehouse.
What a sender sees — and when
| Before acceptance (every candidate) | After acceptance (the winner only) | |
|---|---|---|
| Items and quantity | Yes | Yes |
| Parcel size and service | Yes | Yes |
| The fee for this order | Yes | Yes |
| Destination country | Yes | Yes |
| Customer name and address | No | Yes — revealed when the order is claimed |
| Who took it | No | The others see "already shipped by another sender" |
An offer has six states: open, claimed, missed, expired, withdrawn and declined. Only "claimed" leads to a label. Expired means nobody answered in time. Declined means a sender said no, and you can offer the order again. Withdrawn means you pulled it back before anyone took it.
If nobody accepts
The offer expires and the order returns to you unshipped. You can offer it again to the same pool, pick one specific sender, or complete it yourself. A label is never bought until someone has claimed the order.
What does a broadcast cost?
Per order, nothing extra. The label is bought when the winner buys it, at their carrier’s rate; the sender’s fee is whatever that person set for that parcel size; and the platform fee is €0.85 whether one candidate saw the offer or ten.
What a broadcast does cost is stock. Every sender who should be able to claim the order must hold the product, so three senders in a pool means three batches instead of one. For a cheap product that is a small price for a network that does not stop when one person is away. For an expensive product it is capital sitting on three shelves instead of one.
And the fee varies per order. Senders set their own rates, so in a pool of three you pay the fee of whoever was fastest, not whoever was cheapest. When you set up the order you see a range — lowest to highest fee in your selection — rather than one amount.
When to broadcast, and when not to
| Situation | Broadcast? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One product, one sender who does it well | No | You add complexity without a problem to solve |
| Your sender is going on holiday | Yes | The second person picks up orders without you doing anything |
| Promotion or seasonal peak | Yes | Sixty orders across three people is feasible; across one it is not |
| Expensive product, thin margin | Carefully | Three batches is three times the capital on a shelf |
| Fragile or fiddly to pack | No, or only after instructing everyone | You want to know who packs it and that they have done it before |
| Several countries | Per country | A broadcast is always within one country; you choose the pool for each |
The flip side of "first to accept" is that you do not know in advance who packs. For a standard product in a standard box that does not matter. For a product that needs a particular way of packing it does — so either instruct everyone in the pool first, or keep it with one person.
How to build a pool
Run a month with one sender first
Learn how it works with one person: how fast orders are claimed, how the stock runs down, where it pinches. A pool of three before you know that is three times the unknowns.
Find a second sender in the same country
Profiles on /en/senders show parcel sizes, carriers and reviews. Pick someone who accepts the same sizes as your first sender, or orders will fall through for them.
Send a smaller second batch
The second sender is your reserve, not your main route. A few weeks of stock is enough to cover holidays and peaks without too much capital sitting still.
Tick both for the product and country
From then on every order for that combination is a broadcast. You see the order line in each sender’s chat, and on the order itself who claimed it.
After a month, look at who claimed what
If one person takes everything, you effectively still have one sender with a reserve — fine. If it splits, keep both stocks topped up.
Redundancy is also the answer to one of the four situations where this model breaks, as set out in what is peer-to-peer fulfilment: the volume ceiling. Three senders in a country do not give you a warehouse’s economies of scale, but they do move the ceiling.
Frequently asked questions
What is broadcast routing?
An order offered at the same time to every selected sender in a country who has the product in stock. The first to accept ships it; the others see that the order has gone.
How do I turn it on?
Tick more than one sender for an order, or for a product and country if your orders come from Shopify. One tick is manual routing; more is a broadcast. There is no separate switch.
Do all senders see my customer’s address?
No. Before acceptance a candidate sees the items, size, country and fee. The name and address are revealed only to the sender who claims the order.
What if nobody accepts the order?
The offer expires and the order comes back to you unshipped. Offer it again, choose one sender, or complete it yourself. No label is bought without a claim.
Does a broadcast cost more per order?
No: the same carrier rate, the winner’s fee and €0.85 platform fee. The cost is stock — each sender in the pool needs their own batch.
Can I withdraw an offered order?
Yes, as long as nobody has claimed it. The offer becomes "withdrawn" and the order returns to you.
Can a broadcast span several countries?
No. A broadcast is always within one destination country. You build a pool per country.
Sources
A warehouse never goes on holiday. Two people holding your stock don’t either — as long as the order can find the one who is home.
Find a second sender in your customers’ country
Browse senders