Why is my bank account charged for a customer order?

[Nathan-H]

  I'm just beginning this journey of selling on Shopify and I received my first customer order. The order was charged to my bank account... then it said that I would get a payout of "X" amount in about a week.

Is this how it's supposed to work or did I do something wrong when setting up my store?

  It would be preferred if the customer was charged for the order and then I get "X" from it depending on what my margins are set at. Any help or info would be greatly appreciated!

[Skye · Accepted solution]

Hi, @Nathan-H 

Thanks for posting to the Shopify Community. 

It sounds like you're dropshipping. Is that correct? If so, Shopify, and the app/supplier you use are separate platforms. Thus, its not possible for us to send money to your supplier when an order is placed. We only process your customers order, not your order to the supplier, if that makes sense. 

If you can provide the dropshipping platform/app you use, I can provide the relevant document for how to set things up. However, it sounds like everything was set up correctly!

Keep in mind, you can adjust your payout settings under Settings > Payments to receive payouts every business day. However, there is a 2-3 day processing period after the order is placed. This means you receive your payout roughly 3 business days after your customer makes their purchase.

[Nathan-H]

Hi @Skye ,

            Appreciate your quick response and help! This makes sense with the drop-shipping as I am using Printful as my POD supplier for now (Until I get everthing setup at home). There's a lot to learn and I'm excited for the adventure. Thank you again for all your help!

Have a great day!

- Nathan

[BenR_PB]

I'm experiencing the same thing. I set up a friends ans family discount to test some POD products and how everything works. I just noticed that two invoices have been processed and send to my company email. They show that the Ship To address is the customer, but the Bill To is me.

What you are saying makes sense but to reiterate, does that mean that if the  item was $50, with a cost of $40 from dropshipper (for easy math and witholding the fees for cunfusion), then the customer pays my website $50 (which is kind of in limbo), I am (or the business account) is charged the $40 to the POD site to be fulfilled, and then I am reimbursed the $40 plus the $10 profit a few days later? Therefore showing a negative and a positive in my account for every purchase?

I'm wanting to make sure I have this set up before promoting my business and getting myself in a hole. 

[Skye]

Hi, @BenR_PB 

Thanks for joining the conversation!

To simplify the process, it's important to consider that there are two separate transactions that take place when dropshipping. Your customers transaction with you, and your transaction with your supplier. 

With a traditional business model, a business would purchase thousands of dollars of inventory before opening for business. Thus, one would start in the negative, and each sale slowly chips away at the inventory and business cost, to bring you into the positive. 

With dropshipping, you are purchasing your inventory after you make a sale, order by order. This is to mitigate the risk associated with a traditional business model. As such, if you have an order come through Shopify, your payment processor will deposit that full order total (less any processing fees) into your bank account. Then you use your own funds to purchase your inventory for this order. Using your scenario, this would leave you with a $10 profit. As Shopify is the ecommerce software, not the dropshipping software, these are two separate transactions. 

I hope that makes sense!

[Greengoodgoods]

Hello! Skye,

I am encountering the same issue as above "Nathan" had a year ago! As a beginner, I did a real test order in my Shopify store for understanding the whole process of a dropshipping transaction. I picked a product and paid with my PayPal credit card, the amount was charged, and the transaction appears in my Shopify store, BUT, the order did not show up on my CJ Dropshipping although I tried to sync all orders on CJ many times. Then I noticed "collect payment" was available under the order in Shopify, I thought that collecting payment could be the last step to complete the transaction in Shopify and Shopify will send the order information to CJ dropshipping center, so I processed "collect payment" with my Shopify payout bank account,  right away, the transaction showed up on CJ dropshipping order list! I paid the products in CJ dropshipping as CJ dropshipping price to complete the transaction, which seems alright currently going forward in CJ Dropshipping cener.

BUT, I turned around noticing that the amount I "collected" actually was a "charge" in my bank account! I was charged and not collecting payment when clicked that "Collect payment" in the order! Now I paid for the merchandise twice in Shopify for this test purchase.  Could you help me to resolved this issue as following manner?

1. How can I get one of my payment back?

2. What are the correct steps to process a customer's dropshipping order? (please show me the steps.)

3. What are the steps to collect customer payment? (I can not find anywhere to "collecting payment" in my store, and currently I see "$0" available to collect in my account although I have paid $13.09x2 for that transaction a day ago.)

Hope to receive your respond soon! Thank you very much!

Li

[Elias]

Hey, @Greengoodgoods.

Thank you for joining the thread.

We're unable to access merchant accounts over the Shopify Community, so we're unable to determine where the issues might be coming from. However, if you're experiencing an issue with a third-party app, then we'd recommend getting help with third-party apps from the app developers. For CJ Dropshipping, you can get in touch with them here: CJ Dropshipping - Contact Us.

1. Since you've placed the orders using your own credit card card, then you can consider refunding the orders from your Shopify admin.

2. We wouldn't be able to provide the steps on how to use the CJ Dropshipping app, and we'd recommend contacting the app developer as mentioned. On the other hand, CJ Dropshipping does have a step-by-step guide on placing orders that may be able to help you with this.

3. Collecting the payments or receiving the payouts will depend on the payment gateway that you're using on your store. If you're using Shopify Payments, then you can learn more about getting paid with Shopify Payments. However, if you're using a third-party gateway (eg. PayPal, Stripe, etc.), then you'll need to contact them directly regarding your payouts. 

If you have any other questions on this topic, then don't hesitate to let us know.

[Greengoodgoods]

Hi! Elias,

Thank you for your respond, the issue and question are not about third party CJ dropshipping but Shopify.

Li

[Elias]

Hey, @Greengoodgoods.

Thanks for following up!

It looks like your multi-part questions have some related to Shopify, such as the refunding, which can be done directly in the Shopify admin. However, the fulfillment of orders through CJ Dropshipping is something that you'll need to do within their app. As for collecting payment, this will depend on which payment gateway you're using on your store. Since we don't recommend using your own credit card to make real purchases on your store, then we'd recommend refunding the order as soon as possible. That being said, order payments are generally automatically captured unless you've enabled the feature to capture payments manually. 

If you need further support with refunding or capturing payments, then please reach out to us through the Shopify Help Center and we'd be happy to provide guidance through live chats.