Receiving payments and paying suppliers

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

A new merchant is planning to launch a Shopify store selling products ranging from £80 to £2000+ and is concerned about payment timing logistics.

Main concerns:

  • Payment delays (typically 3 days) before funds reach their account may conflict with dropshipping model requirements
  • Need to pay suppliers quickly to maintain fast delivery promises
  • Products already have a 2-week lead time from suppliers, and payment delays would extend this further

Specific question:
Seeking clarification on whether Shopify or PayPal actually hold 50% of payments for up to 45 days, or if this is just a rumor.

The merchant is trying to understand how to manage cash flow between receiving customer payments and paying suppliers while maintaining reasonable delivery times for their dropshipping business.

Summarized with AI on November 3. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hi all,

I’m after a bit of advice please on how payments work.

I haven’t currently got a store set up but I’m working on it this week.

I’ve got my suppliers ready to go etc but the thing I’m struggling to find info on is how payments work.

The items I’m selling can range from £80-£2000+ depending on how much of the product the customer buys. What I’m reading is that payments can take a few days to reach my account.

Now, I’m not expecting to hit massive amounts of sales within the first year but if I have to wait 3 days for payment to teach my account, then pay the suppliers before they bleep, surely that defeats the purpose of fast delivery and dropshipping? This certain product I can potentially have a 2 week lead time as most suppliers of this are around that but this just adds to the delivery time.

Also, I read somewhere that sometimes shopify or paypal can hold 50% of thebpayment for upto 45 days. Is this true? Or just hearsay

Thanks all

Jay