Can you dropship And keep stock in Shopify? How do you set up a dropship order? Do I need an app?

[Kyle_]

Good Afternoon,

                One of the companies that we are using as a vendor offers dropshipping as an option. Which would be ideal for the type of business that we are putting together on behalf of another company we work for. How do I set up a dropship? In the traditional manufacturing software I am using it is easy, but I do not understand how I complete this here. Do I absolutely have to use an app in order to dropship? 

[guest4]

Howdy Kyle, you need to get familiar with "fulfillment" and "fulfillment orders" on Shopify: 

• https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/orders/fulfillment
• https://shopify.dev/docs/api/admin-rest/2023-04/resources/fulfillmentorder

Shopify considers your dropshipper a "fulfillment service". If the fulfillment service can accept fulfillment orders via email, then you may be able to do this without another app. See:

• https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/shipping/understanding-shipping/dropshipping-and-fulfillment-serv...
• https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/orders/fulfillment.

If they can't accept orders via email, then you may be able to find a 3rd party app that works with them. Or you could develop it yourself.