East Coast vs West Coast Fulfillment: How Location Transforms Your Shipping Strategy

You’re shipping identical packages to customers in Los Angeles and New York. Same product, same packaging, same carrier. However, one costs $10 to ship, while the other costs $35…

Welcome to America, where 2,800 miles separate coasts – a distance wider than the entire European continent. This introduces some highly unique shipping dynamics where distance sees costs snowball without the right location strategy. 

Customers from Maine to California still expect the same lightning-fast delivery that has become the new standard. Average delivery times have shrunk to just 4 days from order to door, and 69% of consumers now say one-day delivery is their top shopping incentive. 

With proper planning and robust systems, you can tap into both the East and West coast populations, which cover most US population centres in those areas, as well as the north and south. We’re talking about over 200 million customers. 

This guide reveals how to scale your fulfillment across the US while overcoming its vast size and the challenges it brings. By the end, you’ll understand how distance affects shipping across the country and strategies for overcoming it to grow your business and excel over competitors. 

Understanding East Coast and West Coast Geography

The US is large in area, but it’s also very wide, with major population centres located primarily around its outer edge, mostly in the East and West coasts. 

There are also major population centres in the Southeast (like Atlanta and Miami) and across Texas and the Southwest (including Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Phoenix). But what you can say quite definitively is that the upper Midwest and Mountain West regions of America are sparsely populated.

Let’s take a short geography lesson on the genuinely interesting dynamics of East Coast and West Coast geography and how it impacts fulfillment for any US expansion strategy:

US Coastal Population Distribution 

US populations are concentrated, though the areas covered are still large area-wise. For example, California has a population of some 40 million – but did you know it’s actually 1.6 times larger than the UK? 

• Nearly 40% of Americans live in coastal counties, occupying less than 10% of the nation’s land mass
• A staggering 80% of Americans live east of the 98th meridian (roughly through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas)
• Everything west of the 98th meridian? Just 20% of the population spread across two-thirds of the country
• California dominates the West Coast with 26.8 million people in coastal counties alone
• New York commands 15.9 million coastal residents, followed by New Jersey’s 7.2 million

The concentration of potential customers creates unexpected opportunities – and expensive blind spots – for anyone shipping nationwide across the US. 

Do you concentrate just on these areas only? Not exactly. Reaching the entirety of the US – including its hard-to-reach areas such as Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii – is certainly possible with the right strategy. 

Customers in these areas can become loyal and may order more per order, which means they might have a higher customer lifetime value (CLV) than others. Moreover, it’s more complex than plonking fulfillment centers in the east and west, as this can neglect south and southwestern areas, which are heavily populated. 

The Zone Cost Multiplier

US carriers don’t charge shipping based on actual miles – they use zones. The difference between shipping to Zone 2 versus Zone 8 isn’t incremental; it can have a dramatic impact on costs.  

Here’s how zone costs stack up:

• Zone differences can increase costs by $40 for identical packages
• A 5-pound package from New York to Los Angeles hits Zone 8 rates – the most expensive tier
• Ship that same Los Angeles order from Nevada? Zone 2 prices – a fraction of the cost
• UPS adds around $3.70 per residential delivery, FedEx tacks on $5.15
• These residential surcharges affect virtually every eCommerce shipment and scale with zones

The Cost of Neglecting Geographic Strategy

Most businesses can stomach a few costly Zone 8 shipments here and some cart abandonments there, but eventually, the numbers can no longer be ignored. 

Here are some of the consequences of casting your US geographic fulfillment strategy to the wind:

When Geography Works Against You

Take a typical scenario where you’re running a successful online business from your warehouse in Florida, serving customers across the US. Your local customers in the Southeast appreciate your fast and affordable shipping. But then you start expanding nationwide, and the zone economics hit your margins.

A customer in Seattle places a $75 order. Your product costs $30 to produce, leaving a healthy $45 margin. Then comes the shipping reality check – Zone 8 ground shipping costs $28, plus a $5.15 residential surcharge. 

Suddenly, your $45 margin becomes $12, before accounting for packaging, handling, or your customer service time when the package takes six days to arrive and the customer complains.

This is more problematic today than ever, as many businesses offer free shipping for orders over $/£X, flat free shipping on everything, or simplified rates. The idea often is to average off profits from all orders – which can work well until those averages are struck by something you didn’t model for, like changes in where your customers are and their orders. 

Cart Abandonment and Customer Loss

High shipping costs create a vicious cycle where distant customers abandon purchases, leaving you with an increasingly local customer base. 

Studies show that some 39% of customers abandon their carts if the shipping rates at checkout are either too high or the delivery time is too long. That can permanently turn them off your brand.

Underutilising Your Best Markets

Perhaps the most frustrating consequence of poor geographic strategy is watching your most profitable markets slip away because you don’t cover them well enough. Many businesses unknowingly starve their highest-value customer segments simply because their fulfillment setup makes it too expensive to serve them properly.

Consider a premium lifestyle brand that’s built a loyal following in California – customers who regularly place $200+ orders and have low return rates. But shipping from an East Coast warehouse means every order faces high costs that either destroy margins or force prices too high. 

The irony is painful. Your best customers, in your most profitable markets, become financially unviable to serve. You end up optimising for lower-value, local customers while premium markets that could drive growth remain beyond arm’s length.

Strategy for Getting the Best Out of Both Coasts

There is a major upside to all of this – serve both coasts well, and you can serve most of the US population. 

When you execute your East Coast, West Coast shipping strategy properly, it doesn’t double your operational capacity and can save you considerable money in the process. 

Speeding up delivery while reducing the cost to you and your customers is a massive springboard to growth, and is something we’ve seen time and time again among our clients expanding both to the US from the UK or Europe, or across the US domestically. 

Strategic Bi-Coastal Positioning

Smart bi-coastal positioning fundamentally changes how zone costs affect your business.  

Instead of serving most customers from expensive distant zones, you serve the majority from nearby, affordable zones. Here’s how the economics transform:

• Single East Coast location: Most customers fall into expensive zones (New York is effectively covered, possibly Chicago, but not California or the South). 
• Single West Coast location: A similar problem, but with reversed geography; probably better than a single East Coast location, but not optimal. 
• Bi-coastal strategy: The  Majority of customers now ship from nearby zones

Speed And Coverage as Competitive Advantage

While your competitors struggle with zone economics, bi-coastal positioning allows you to compete on speed, even with the likes of Amazon in the market. Ticking the box for rapid shipping to both the East and West coasts gives you a very strong platform to market your US business on. 

However, while it’s tempting to concentrate only on speed, this is also about efficient coverage. 

As we’ve noted, serving customers across more rural, central, northerly, or southerly locations, as well as hard-to-reach areas such as Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, can create an enormously loyal customer base. 

Master US Shipping With J&J’s Fulfillment Centers and ControlPort™ Technology

At J&J Global Fulfilment, we’ve spent over a decade perfecting the art of strategic inventory positioning across North America. 

Our bi-coastal network isn’t just about having warehouses in different places – it’s about intelligent placement that transforms zone economics while maintaining operational simplicity. 

Combined with our proprietary ControlPort™ technology, we turn geographic challenges into competitive advantages for growing brands.

Columbus, Ohio – America’s Commercial Centre

Our Columbus fulfillment center sits at the crossroads of American commerce, strategically positioned to serve the eastern United States and much of the Midwest with exceptional zone coverage. Located close to key road, rail and air terminals, this facility transforms zone economics for businesses serving eastern markets.

What would be expensive Zone 7-8 shipping from a West Coast location becomes affordable Zone 2-3 shipping from Columbus. For businesses with significant East Coast customer bases, this single location change can result in thousands of dollars in monthly savings on shipping costs.

Key advantages include:

• 1-3 day ground shipping to major population centres, including New York
• Strategic positioning reaching high-density markets cost-effectively
• Excellent transport links to major metropolitan areas
• 98% same-day dispatch rate with 99.9% pick-and-pack accuracy

Las Vegas, Nevada – Gateway to the West and South

Located just 50 miles from the California border, our Las Vegas fulfillment center efficiently serves the entire West Coast while maintaining reasonable zone costs to mountain and southwestern states. This positioning provides what many businesses need most – affordable access to California customers. It’s also excellent for reaching customers throughout Texas and Arizona.

Shipping from the East Coast to California typically results in Zone 8 costs and 5-7 day delivery times. From Las Vegas, those same California customers become Zone 2-3 with next-day or two-day delivery options. The transformation is immediate and dramatic.

Strategic benefits include:

• Next-day delivery to America’s largest eCommerce market (California’s 26.8M coastal residents)
• Ground shipping to major West Coast cities within 1-2 days
• Cost-effective serving of Texas, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado
• Avoiding California’s operational challenges while maintaining proximity

ControlPort™ – The Brain Behind the Network

Our proprietary, award-winning ControlPort™ software serves as the brain behind our zone optimisation strategy. While our strategic locations provide the foundation, ControlPort™ ensures every order ships from the optimal location based on real-time calculations performed in milliseconds.

The system guides your fulfillment decisions by:

• Analysing inventory levels across all locations automatically
• Calculating zone costs for each potential shipping point instantly
• Considering carrier performance and delivery speed requirements
• Routing orders automatically to the most cost-effective location

Real-time optimisation features include monitoring carrier performance across all zones, adjusting routing based on seasonal patterns, tracking inventory levels to prevent stockouts, and providing detailed analytics on shipping performance.

Proven Results for Growing Businesses

Our case studies illustrate that when you nail geographic strategy, shipping stops being an operational demand and starts driving forward your growth. 

Whether it’s handling sudden viral demand or systematically expanding into challenging markets, our strategic positioning consistently delivers the kind of measurable results that make a stark difference to your business.

Client	Challenge	Solution	Results	Quote
Karta Bottle	Viral growth on TikTok created massive US demand overnight, but everything was shipping from the UK	Positioned inventory strategically in our US bi-coastal network for local fulfillment	Market share in the US jumped from 5% to 55%	“Previous to J&J my market share in the US was around 5%. Since I started using the US Fulfillment Center, it’s increased to 55%.” – Pete Anwyll, Founder
Dotty Dungarees	Expansion into the US was stalling due to complex inventory management across multiple SKUs and colours	Used our bi-coastal strategy to serve diverse American markets without operational burden	Enabled successful US market entry despite high SKU complexity	“We genuinely wouldn’t have been able to expand into America without James and James. They catered for us as a smaller, rapidly growing brand with a lot of SKUs of different styles and colours – and at a competitive price.” – Alice Goldsmith, Co-founder
Whites Beaconsfield	TikTok video went viral overnight, driving a sudden spike in US orders from their UK base	Shifted product to our Ohio centre for fast US distribution	Met demand quickly, reduced carrier costs, and accelerated US expansion timeline by six months	“After our TikTok video went viral, J&J helped us save costs on carriers, speed of delivery, and bump our US expansion targets by six months.” – James Pryor, COO

Build an Outstanding US Fulfillment Strategy With J&J 

Understanding US shipping zones gives you control over one of ecommerce’s most consequential cost drivers. Geography doesn’t have to dictate your margins when you have a smart fulfillment strategy that works with America’s vast distances rather than against them.

At J&J Global Fulfilment, we’ve spent over a decade perfecting US shipping and zone optimisation. 

Our combination of strategically positioned fulfillment centers, advanced ControlPort™ technology, and proven logistics expertise helps growing brands dramatically reduce shipping costs while accelerating delivery speeds.

Beyond our strategic fulfillment network, J&J offers comprehensive solutions for growing businesses:

• Global fulfillment centers across UK, EU, US, Canada, and Australia
• Complete order fulfillment services from receiving to returns management
• Custom packaging, kitting, and assembly services
• Omnichannel fulfillment supporting all major eCommerce platforms

Whether you’re expanding from the UK to the US or optimising your existing North American operations, our team can help you design a fulfillment strategy that turns geography from a challenge into an advantage.

Contact our team today for a no-obligation consultation. We’ll analyse your current shipping patterns and show you exactly how strategic fulfillment will transform your delivery performance and bottom line.

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