Shopify Purchase Orders: Order Stock From Suppliers

Shopify purchase orders let you record what you order from a supplier, with products, quantities, costs and payment terms, directly in the admin under Products > Purchase orders. A purchase order starts as a draft, becomes Ordered once the supplier confirms, and then gets an inventory transfer, which is where you receive the stock into a location. Payment to the supplier happens outside Shopify.

The steps come from Shopify’s Help Center pages on purchase orders, creating and managing purchase orders, managing suppliers, creating inventory transfers and receiving inventory, read on 23 and October 31, 2026.

The flow at a glance

Marking a purchase order as Ordered can’t be reversed, so do it only after the supplier has confirmed quantities and prices.

Add your suppliers

You create suppliers from inside a purchase order:

1. Go to Products > Purchase orders and click Create purchase order.
2. In the Supplier section, open the Select supplier drop-down and click Create new supplier.
3. Enter the supplier’s details and click Save.

To change a supplier later, choose it in the same drop-down, click View details, edit the contact or address card and click Save. The change updates every existing purchase order from that supplier.

Payment terms and the supplier currency aren’t stored on the supplier. They belong to each purchase order, so agree them with the supplier before ordering and set them per order. Shopify doesn’t pay suppliers for you; you arrange payment with them directly.

Create a purchase order

1. Go to Products > Purchase orders and click Create purchase order.
2. Select or create the supplier and choose the destination location, which has to be set before you can mark the order as ordered.
3. Add products by searching, browsing, scanning barcodes or importing a CSV.
4. For each product, enter the quantity, and optionally the supplier’s SKU, the cost and a tax percentage.
5. Optionally add a reference number, a note to the supplier, tags, and set Payment terms and Supplier currency.
6. Review the cost summary and click Save as draft.

The cost fills in from earlier purchase orders from that supplier, with a choice when there are several, or from the variant’s cost per item if there’s no earlier order; you can overwrite any value that was filled automatically. The currency defaults to the supplier’s currency, and you can change it with the currency selector.

For long orders, the CSV import is quicker: open the purchase order, click Import, then Add file, select the CSV and click Import products. Each variant is identified by SKU, barcode or both. A row for a variant that’s already on the order doesn’t import and shows as an error, so change existing quantities on the order itself.

Shopify’s page describes one way to share the order: open it, click More actions > Export PDF, and send the PDF to the supplier yourself. Shopify’s page on moving from Stocky says it outright: “You can’t email a purchase order from your Shopify admin.” When the supplier confirms, click Mark as ordered and confirm.

You can still edit an ordered purchase order: click Edit, change it and click Save. Only drafts can be deleted; an ordered one can be archived from More actions > Archive, and archiving doesn’t cancel its linked transfer.

Receive the stock

The stock arrives through an inventory transfer. On an ordered purchase order, click Create transfer, select the destination location and click Save; the origin and the items come from the purchase order. Each purchase order can have one linked transfer at a time, and Link transfer attaches an existing one from the same supplier.

When a delivery arrives:

1. Go to Products > Transfers and open the transfer.
2. Click Receive items.
3. For each item, choose Accept, Reject or Cancel in the Receive action column and enter the quantity in Receiving, or use Accept all.
4. Add a note with the comment icon if you want to record why, and click Save.

Accepted units become available at the destination. Rejected units stay recorded on the transfer without adding stock anywhere, and canceled units are removed. If the supplier ships in several deliveries, receive each one as it arrives; the transfer stays In progress until every unit is accounted for, then changes to Transferred.

Freight and duties go on the shipment: open its menu, click Edit shipment, then Manage in Cost summary, and add Shipping amount, Customs duties or other adjustments. The summary then compares what you agreed with what the order actually cost.

What native purchase orders don’t do

• Send the order to the supplier from the admin. Export the PDF and send it yourself.
• Pay the supplier. Payment happens outside Shopify.
• Keep payment terms per supplier. They’re set on each order.
• Undo Ordered. Correct the order by editing it.
• Suggest what to reorder. Quantities are yours to decide.
• Import old purchase orders, report total spend by supplier, turn a customer order into a purchase order or merge two of them.
• Connect to other software through an API. Shopify’s page on moving from Stocky (read October 31, 2026) says the Transfers API is available but “purchase order APIs aren’t generally available”; read access to purchase orders is in developer preview.

Shopify’s Stocky app, the older route to purchase orders, was delisted on February 2, 2026, and stopped working on August 31, 2026; the native flow above replaces it.

In our view the native flow covers a store that orders from a handful of suppliers and wants incoming stock and landed costs on record. If you need reorder suggestions or a supplier portal, look for a purchase-order app in the Shopify App Store and check its listing for those features. For deciding the quantities, see inventory forecasting; for receiving into more than one warehouse, multi-warehouse inventory. Both are in the inventory and catalog hub.

FAQ

Where are purchase orders in Shopify? Purchase orders are in the Shopify admin under Products > Purchase orders, and the inventory transfers that receive them are under Products > Transfers.

Can I email a purchase order to my supplier from Shopify? You can’t send a purchase order from the Shopify admin; Shopify’s Stocky transition page says so plainly. Export it as a PDF from More actions > Export PDF and send it to the supplier yourself.

Can I edit a purchase order after marking it as ordered? You can edit most details of an ordered purchase order with Edit and Save; the linked transfer’s origin and destination lock once it reaches Ready to ship. What you can’t do is return it to draft, because marking it as ordered can’t be reversed.

How do I receive a partial delivery? Open the linked transfer, click Receive items and enter only the quantities that arrived. The transfer stays in progress until the remaining units are accepted, rejected or canceled.