September 24, 2025 
In today’s fast-changing landscape of retail operations, customers expect flexibility in how they shop, purchase, and receive their orders. In response to this, retailers are introducing a variety of options to address the customers’ needs. These options include:
BOPIS (Buy Online and Pick up in Store)
- BOPAK (Buy Online and Pick Up Kerbside)
- BORIS (Buy Online and Return in Store)
- BIMBO (Browse in Store, Mobile, Buy Online)
- Ship from Store
- Endless Aisle
- Fulfilled by Store
This poses an array of operational challenges that require precise coordination across systems. According to recent omnichannel retail statistics, 73% of retailers struggle with real-time inventory visibility across channels.
For example, a customer wants to buy online and pick the item in store, and it is up to the operational systems to ensure that the item is available in the store when the customer shows up and the item is blocked for purchase to a different customer. POS and WMS just by themselves aren’t enough; retailers need real-time (or near real-time) integration to ensure reliable, up-to-date information.
Understanding the Fulfillment Alphabet Soup
Before we delve into the integration steps between the POS and WMS, let us first understand the alphabet soup of fulfillment terms that are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Various in-store fulfillment options: BOPIS, BOPAK, BORIS BIMBO, Ship from Store, Endless Aisle, Fulfilled by Store
BOPIS (Buy Online and Pick Up in the Store): A foundational omnichannel model where customers order online and pick up in-store, ensuring product availability at pickup time.
BOPAK (Buy Online and Pick Up Kerbside): This option first became popular during the pandemic where customers bought goods online and the store personnel delivered the items to the customer at a designated spot in the parking lot when the customer came to the store. This option has the benefit of quick pick up and ensuring the goods, the customer wants, is waiting for them to be picked up.
BORIS (Buy Online and Return in Store): A customer-friendly way to return online purchases in-store—simplifying reverse logistics for retailers while speeding refunds for shoppers.
BIMBO (Browse in Store on Mobile, Buy Online): Shoppers often browse in-store, research via mobile, and complete purchases online later—blending physical and digital touchpoints.
Ship From Store: Shipping from Store to fulfill orders is a practical approach for retailers. A store becomes a micro-fulfillment center and enables a customer’s online order to be fulfilled quickly and more cost effectively when the address to be delivered is near a store.
Endless Aisle: Consider this scenario—a customer walks into a store, does not find the item they desire or finds the item (a shirt perhaps) in a color or size that is different from what is desired. Instead of a lost sales, a customer service agent can take the order in the Endless Aisle app that shows not just the inventory available in the store but also the inventory that is available in other stores, warehouse location or even a marketplace warehouse and the agent can order the item, collect the payment and assign the delivery to a location of customer’s choice. In this scenario, instead of a lost sale, the retailer has made a sale and can sell items that are not even in the store.
Fulfilled by Store (FBS): In FBS, store becomes an important fulfillment operation center for retailers to practically fulfill online orders using the store. A FBS (Fulfillment by Store) app can provide the store personnel to see a consolidated list of orders received from various sales channels to be picked, packed and shipped from the store and updating the inventory automatically.
The POS-WMS connection: The Glue That Binds Orders and Fulfillment Together
POS manages in-store transactions, while WMS tracks inbound, in-stock, and allocated inventory—creating a real-time, centralized view of inventory. Without integration, stores risk overselling, missing replenishment signals, and frustrating customers. Most companies with integrated POS-WMS see 23% reduction in stockouts.
Fundamentals of Integration Success: POS-WMS integration is typically achieved via (Application Programming Interfaces) that exchange data seamlessly in real or near real time. Retailers can choose full or partial integration depending on business needs. Figure 2 shows a schematic of WMS-POS integration.
Figure 2: Schematic of real-time data flow between WMS, POS, and OMS
With integrated POS-WMS it is possible to ensure:
Real-time inventory visibility: When a customer orders an item, those items are blocked and reserved for fulfillment thereby accurately informing the OMS (order management system) of the correct quantities that are available for future orders, store systems and POS to prevent the item from being sold to another customer and providing this information to the Endless Aisle and Fulfilled by Store apps.
Efficient and Accurate Order Fulfillment: Store associates fulfilling an order need to know where to pick the items, how to pack and how to ship and have the inventory updated in the operational systems to prevent data mismatches. Similarly, returned items must be stocked in locations suggested by WMS. This ensures fulfillment options in store are managed efficiently.
Making “Endless Aisle” and “Ship from Store” Profitable: Endless Aisle offers an opportunity for stores to prevent lost sales and to enable the sale of items that are not available in the store. Automated routing of orders to an efficient location for fulfillment makes it profitable and this requires visibility of inventory across all storage locations and to inform the OMS of the new orders. Similarly, shipping from a store is useful only if it does not affect the sales of items within the store and ensures that the customer who walks into the store to make a purchase can see the item and is not prevented from making a purchase. For ensuring all this, a tight integration between the store systems and WMS is necessary.
Integration of POS and WMS: An Operational Necessity
POS-WMS integration is not a back-office IT task, it’s a strategic capability. It is essential to ensure omnichannel operations success. It directly impacts:
Customer Satisfaction: Faster, efficient order processing, pickups ensure customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Sales: Prevents stockouts and endless aisle capabilities to ensure no sales are lost.
Operational Efficiency: Reduces labor hours looking for items that are available and ensuring smooth pick, pack and ship in addition to handling returns.
Profitability: Ensuring optimal shipping costs and turning store inventory into an asset for omnichannel success.
As AI-driven personalization, rising return rates, and sustainability pressures reshape retail, only integrated systems will deliver the agility customers now expect.
The question for retailers is simple: is your retail nervous system fully connected—and ready for the next wave of omnichannel demands?
