Hi everyone, since Stocky is being sunset I’m finding the Shopify purchase order system a little frustrating. I want to be able to link suppliers and vendors so that when I start a purchase order (i.e. Levis) only products related to that supplier/vendor appear. Anyone have any suggestions, or know any workarounds for this?
Not native, but FyreTrail can do that.
I actually just had a store ask for a very similar feature that I’ll also be putting in simply because they asked for it and it makes sense: to associate Brands (like Levi’s) to Suppliers such that all products of a given brand associate directly to a supplier (the instant it’s created too) because the brand is associated to the supplier. It’s on the list and will be in shortly. I’ll commit to working with you the very same way.
One thing that seems to be coming up across these Stocky discussions is that merchants often distinguish between brands/vendors and the suppliers they actually purchase from.
In a lot of businesses, a brand like Levi’s can be available through one or more distributors, while other brands may only come from a single supplier. That’s why simply assigning a single supplier to every product doesn’t always match how purchasing works in practice.
The purchasing workflow becomes much smoother when those relationships are already defined, so starting a PO for a supplier automatically narrows the catalog to the products that supplier can provide, along with details like case quantities and ordering rules.
It feels like the challenge isn’t creating the PO itself it’s preserving those purchasing relationships so buyers don’t have to rebuild them every time.
I think that’s one of the biggest pain points merchants have mentioned since Stocky started being phased out. Having the purchase order automatically filtered to products from the selected supplier seems like a basic workflow that would save a lot of time and reduce mistakes.
As a temporary workaround, if your products are consistently assigned to the correct vendor, you could filter by the Vendor field before adding items to the purchase order. It’s not as seamless as having suppliers directly linked to POs, but it may help until Shopify improves the workflow or a third-party inventory app fills the gap.
I’m also curious to hear what other merchants are using after moving away from Stocky.
@LottieM
A simple workaround is to make sure the Vendor field is populated consistently for all products from the same supplier. Then when creating a purchase order you can search by vendor name to narrow down the product list.
Its not as convenient as Stockys supplier filtering but it does make managing larger catalogs much easier until Shopify adds more advanced purchase order features.
Hi @LottieM ,
Shopify’s native purchase order system is still quite limited compared to what Stocky offered especially when it comes to automatically filtering products by supplier/vendor.
A possible workaround is to make sure your product Vendor fields are properly organized (for example, assigning all Levi’s products to the Levi’s vendor) and then use an inventory management app that supports supplier based purchase orders.
If you have a large catalog or work with multiple suppliers a dedicated inventory management solution may be a better fit, as it can provide features like:
- Supplier management
- Vendor specific product lists
- Purchase order workflows
- Inventory forecasting
Hopefully Shopify continues expanding the native purchase order features as Stocky is phased out.
Thank You !
Hey @LottieM,
There isn’t a workaround because this is a native Shopify limitation. Shopify’s purchase order features are not as flexible as Stocky for creating and managing POs.
Most inventory management tools can help with this. If you haven’t chosen a Stocky alternative yet, you may find Channel Bay’s free plan useful, as it shows only the products assigned to each supplier or vendor.
Cheers!
That’s a useful suggestion. One thing many merchants are realizing after Stocky is that supplier-based purchase order workflows aren’t handled as well by Shopify’s native tools. Hopefully Shopify continues improving this area, but for now, dedicated inventory management apps seem to offer a much smoother experience.
Hello there @LottieM
The stock purchase order flow has rudimentary supplier filtering by products, so this can get out of hand when you’re dealing with big catalogs. A useful workaround to use supplier data such as tags, vendors, or metafields and then organize products by these fields before creating purchase orders. For advanced purchasing workflows, some inventory management apps with supplier maping can provide a similar experience to Stocky.
Hey @LottieM ,
hope you are doing well!
If your products have the correct vendor assigned, you could consider filtering by vendor or using tags as a work around. Otherwise, a purchase order or inventory management app may offer more advance supplier base filtering.
The native purchase order screen does not filter by supplier, so most people lean on the Vendor field. Set Vendor consistently on every product, then filter by vendor when you add line items.
One catch. Vendor is a single field, so a product you buy from two suppliers cannot sit under both. If that happens to you, tags work better, because a product can carry several.
Worth exporting your product CSV first and checking the vendor column for typos and blanks. Inconsistent vendor names are usually why the filter feels broken. 