Importing products to your store from the Shopify Collective app
After you connect with your supplier, you can import their products to your store, adjust product details, add the supplier's Shopify Collective location to your shipping profile, and then make products available in your store.
You can sell the supplier's products only at their specified retail price. You can't sell products at a lower or higher price.
On this page
Product information
Supplier's products are available for you with the original product details, such as title, description, images, variants, and price. You can view the original product details when you click a product title or after you import a product to your store. When you import a product to your store, you can adjust product details in your Shopify admin, but you can't edit the product's price.
The following product information is imported from a supplier's store to your store:
- price
- inventory
- product title
- product images
- product description
- variants
- vendor (the supplier)
- product type
- cost price (cost per item)
The following product information isn't imported from a supplier's store to your store:
- SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)
- collections
- tags
- barcode
- country (region of origin)
- HS (Harmonized System) code
- compare-at price
- product discount
Shopify Collective creates a unique SKU for any imported product. You can edit the SKU, but it needs to be unique.
Product information sync
After supplier's product information is imported to your store, Shopify Collective continuously syncs product price, cost price, and inventory, but doesn't sync other imported product information. The average sync time is less than 30 seconds, but can take up to five minutes.
When a customer places an order that contains Shopify Collective products on your store, the supplier's product inventory is automatically adjusted in both your store and your supplier's store.
Out of stock products
If a product that's shared with you by your supplier goes out of stock, then you need to contact your supplier to decide how to manage the out of stock product. You can't deactivate the Continue selling when out of stock option for a product that's shared with you by your supplier.
Restrictions
Collective allows a product to have up to 100 variants. If a product exceeds this limit, Collective might not be able to synchronize the product's inventory and pricing information. If you've imported a product with over 100 variants, contact your supplier to discuss the best way to manage this product.
Product pricing details
Review the following table to learn more about product pricing details in Shopify Collective:
| Pricing detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Retail price | Retail price is a fixed product price that's defined by the supplier. You have to sell a product at this price in your online store. You can't edit a product's retail price. |
| Cost price | Cost price is a product's retail price minus the percentage retailer margin set by the supplier. It's the amount you will owe your supplier when you sell the product. You can't edit a product's cost price. |
| Margin | Margin is the percentage deducted from a product's retail price to determine its cost price to the retailer. |
| Profit | Profit indicates the amount of money that you earn when selling a product. Your profit is the product's retail price minus the cost price. |
If a supplier changes a product's retail price or the cost price, then the retail price and cost price are automatically recalculated and updated in your store.
Your customers can use discount codes for products that are imported using Shopify Collective, but the cost price (amount you owe your supplier) for each sale of a product doesn't change.
For example, you import a product from a supplier with a retail price of 100 USD and a cost price of 70 USD. If your customer uses a discount code of 20 USD, then you still need to pay your supplier 70 USD and your profit is only 10 USD, instead of 30 USD.
View supplier's shipping costs
Suppliers that you're working with can have different shipping costs and zones. You need to review each supplier's shipping costs before you start selling their products in your online store.
The supplier's shipping information shows how much a supplier charges you for shipping and which zones they ship to.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Apps and sales channels.
From the Apps and sales channels page, click Collective (Retailer).
Click Open app.
From the Collective (Retailer) app, click Suppliers.
In the Connected tab, click the supplier that you want to view.
Click View shipping costs to view supplier's shipping rates and zones.
Step 1: Import products to your store
To import supplier's products to your store, a supplier needs to make them available to you.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Apps and sales channels.
From the Apps and sales channels page, click Collective (Retailer).
Click Open app.
From the Collective (Retailer) app, click Suppliers.
Click a supplier that you want to import products from.
From the Available tab, select the products that you want to import to your store.
Click Import products.
If you installed the Collective app after April 3, 2023, then a dialog box displays information about the new shipping profile creation on your first product import which you can edit later. Review and click Import. This modal is only visible on the first import, all later imported products are automatically moved to this shipping profile. You can find your new shipping profile in Shipping settings.
After you import products to your store, they're moved from the Available tab to the Imported tab.
Step 2: Edit product details
You can change the following product details:
- Product title
- Description
- Media
There are some details that you're not currently permitted to edit on products that you import and sell using Shopify Collective. Any changes made to the following details will be reverted automatically:
- Product price
- Inventory quantities
- SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) — a product's SKU must match the SKU used in the supplier's inventory location
- Track quantity — ensure this checkbox remains selected
- Inventory location from where your supplier fulfills orders
- Shipping – ensure the 'This is a physical product' checkbox remains selected
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Products.
Click the name of the product that you want to change.
Edit the product title, description, or media.
Click Save.
Step 3: Setup shipping
Depending on whether you installed the Collective app before or after April 3, 2023, complete the relevant step.
Before April 3 - Add supplier's Shopify Collective location to your shipping profile
The products that you import from a supplier have the supplier's Shopify Collective location assigned to them. Newly imported products are always assigned to the general shipping profile, but you need to make sure that the supplier's location and products are in the same shipping profile.
If you have multiple shipping profiles or multiple location groups within your general shipping profile, then you need to do one of the following:
- Add or create new flat shipping rates for the Shopify Collective location in your general shipping profile.
- Create a custom shipping profile for products imported using Shopify Collective. When you create a custom profile, you need to select the Shopify Collective location and all supplier's products individually.
After April 3 - Manage your shipping rates
View and manage what your customers are charged at checkout in shipping settings.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Products.
From the Collective (Retailer) app, click Suppliers.
Click a supplier that you want to edit shipping rates.
Click View shipping costs to view supplier's shipping rates and zones.
Click Manage rates.
Edit your shipping rates in the custom shipping profile, and then click Save.
Step 4: Make products available in your store
After you import supplier's products to your store, the products are created with a Draft status. They're not available in your store yet. You need to change their status to Active.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Products.
Click the product's name to open its details. The product is included in the sales channels listed in the Publishing section.
Click ⋮ > Manage sales channels.
Select the sales channels and apps that you want to include the product in.
Click Done.
Click Save.
Delete products from your store
From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Apps and sales channels.
From the Apps and sales channels page, click Collective (Retailer).
Click Open app.
From the Collective (Retailer) app, click Suppliers.
Click a supplier that you want to delete products from.
Go to the Imported tab, and then select the products that you want to delete from your store.
Click Delete products, and then click Delete.
After you delete products from your store, they're moved from the Imported tab to the Available tab.