Making Order Payments

[Jose0821]

I’m sorry, I’m a beginner. I was wondering, if once you open the store and get orders, can you use the money from that same order to fulfill the payment to the supplier? 

For example:

My store ABC gets a payment of $10 for a product called “wonderberry”, can I use the funds used for the payment on the Shopify platform to pay the supplier “berryfactory” their cost of product $4 and the shipping $2, with the $10 payment I received intially? Meaning I would use that I would stay with $4 dollar profit and a $6 expense paid WITHOUT it coming directly from my bank account? 

[Trevor · Accepted solution]

@Jose0821 

Great question! The short answer is no, but let me explain. 

When your customer pays for their order, the funds are then deposited to you. The funds can't be separated to also pay your supplier as the payment processor wouldn't have the means to know where the funds need to be directed to and for how much. The transaction from your customer and the transaction to your supplier must be separate. 

That said, you're welcome to wait for the funds to be deposited to you before you process the transaction with your supplier; however, I would avoid this if possible as doing this will cause delays in the fulfillment process which can cause a poor customer experience. 

In the end, you earn the same profit but will need to pay out of pocket to start the fulfillment process before receiving the funds for the order.