When an IHR order is fulfilled by a store that did not sell it, the retailer margin splits 60/40: 60% to the store that packs and ships, 40% to the store that took the order. That single rule is what makes a shared fulfillment network work in practice, and it is the part of IHR that has never been spelled out in public.
The network idea itself is not new, and we have written about it before: independent shelves pooled into one catalogue, orders routed to whoever is nearest with stock. What retailers keep asking, and what no explainer has answered, is simpler and more practical. When that order lands, who gets paid, how much, and when.
Walk one order through the money
A customer in Sherbrooke buys a $60 bottle from a store in Montreal. The Montreal shop does not have it. A shop in Magog does.
- The vendor’s wholesale cost comes off the top. That money is the brand’s and is never in play.
- IHR’s platform fee comes off the sale. On the entry plan that is 5%.
- What is left is the retailer margin, and it is the only pool the two stores divide.
- Magog packed and shipped, so Magog takes 60% of that margin. Montreal made the sale and takes 40%.
- Stripe Connect settles each share directly to each bank account. Neither store invoices the other.
If Montreal had the bottle on its own shelf, it would have shipped it and kept the whole margin. The split only exists because two different businesses did two different jobs.
| Who did what | Share of retailer margin |
|---|---|
| Packed and shipped the order | 60% |
| Took the order on its own site | 40% |
| Did both | 100% |
Who absorbs the shipping?
The customer pays shipping by default. The exception matters more than the rule: if a store advertises free shipping, that store eats the cost, and only that store. The shop that fulfilled the order is never billed for a promotion it did not run.
This is the first question most owners ask, and it is deliberate design. A fulfilling store’s economics cannot be quietly degraded by another retailer’s marketing decision, or nobody would agree to fulfil anything.
What happens on a refund?
IHR does not impose a return policy. Each store sets its own window, its own restocking fee and its own position on who pays return shipping, and that policy is what governs the refund.
Behind the customer-facing part, three things happen automatically:
- The vendor and retailer shares are clawed back, so no party keeps money on a sale that reversed.
- The IHR commission is not refunded and is excluded from the customer’s refund amount.
- The return cost follows the selling store, not the fulfilling one, mirroring the shipping rule.
What does the platform actually charge?
Earlier coverage of the plugin described it as free during beta. That was accurate then and is worth correcting now that the plans are set. IHR earns a percentage of fulfilled sales rather than a per-seat licence, so the entry plan carries unlimited products and full network access with no monthly fee, and the paid tiers buy a lower rate plus growth tooling.
| Plan | Fee per fulfilled sale | Seats | Adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 5% | 3 | Unlimited products, full network access, MAP enforcement |
| Growth | 4% | 5 | AI ads, automations, subscriptions, SEO tooling, funnels |
| Professional | 3% | 12 | Multi-location, API access, priority routing |
| Enterprise | Negotiated | 25+ | White-label, ERP integration, dedicated support |
The fee is charged on sales that are fulfilled, not on listings, traffic or catalogue size. A store that lists ten thousand network products and sells none of them pays nothing.
Who decides where an order ships from?
The retailer does, not the network. Each store picks a fulfillment strategy and the routing engine works inside that choice: the full IHR network, up to five of the store’s own distributors, a third-party logistics provider, a corporate centre for chains, or an IHR distribution centre. If the chosen fulfiller is out of stock the order backorders and alerts the store, unless network fallback is switched on.
Within whatever pool the store has authorised, the engine scores each node on proximity, shipping cost, stock depth, rating and node type, then reserves the unit atomically so two orders can never claim the same last bottle.
Where does the brand sit in this?
Vendors are not passive suppliers here. They set minimum advertised pricing, authorise which retailers may list their catalogue, define territories, and receive alerts when a price floor is broken. Where no retailer in the network holds an item, the vendor can ship it directly and stay inside the network rather than watching the sale leave it. In that case the originating retailer receives a reduced share, because it made the sale but did not fulfil it.
That is the trade brands are being offered: open distribution without losing governance over price and channel.
What about compliance?
The network operates under Canadian rules rather than adapting American ones. PIPEDA and Quebec’s Law 25 govern the handling of customer data, CASL governs the marketing side, and natural health product disclaimers are built into the flows rather than left to each retailer to remember. Every order, split, payout and refund is recorded, which is what makes a multi-party split reconcilable at year end.
Frequently asked
How much does a store earn for fulfilling another store’s order?
60% of the retail margin on that order. The store that took the order keeps the remaining 40%.
When does the money arrive?
Each party’s share settles to their own bank account through Stripe Connect as part of the transaction. There is no inter-store invoicing and no month-end reconciliation between retailers.
If I offer free shipping, does the fulfilling store pay for it?
No. Only the store that advertised free shipping absorbs that cost.
Is the IHR commission refunded when a customer returns an order?
No. The commission is retained and excluded from the customer’s refund, while the vendor and retailer shares are clawed back automatically.
Do I have to let the network ship my orders?
No. A store can fulfil from its own distributors, a 3PL, a corporate centre or an IHR distribution centre instead, and decide separately whether the network acts as a fallback.
Does joining mean rebuilding my website?
No. IHR connects to the store already in place, with native connections for Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, BigCommerce and Amazon, and an embed widget for anything else.
