Managing vendor information

Vendors represent the origin or source of the products that you sell. If you make all your products yourself, then you would be the only vendor. However, if you sell products from various sources, then managing vendor information can help you streamline your operations, track inventory sources, and optimize your overall sales strategy.

The vendor associated with your products can either be yourself or another merchant. For example, if you sell honey and hand make your own honey products, then you act as the vendor for all items. However, if you source honey inventory from multiple farms, then each farm that you buy honey from becomes a distinct vendor in your system.

You can use vendor information within your Shopify admin to streamline tasks such as organizing, sorting, and filtering products, as well as generating reports based on vendors. Whether you exclusively handle product creation or collaborate with various suppliers, organizing vendor details offers valuable insights into your business operations.

Benefits of managing vendor information

In addition to keeping your product data in Shopify as complete and comprehensive as possible, adding vendor information can also provide the following benefits:

• Inventory tracking: By associating vendors with specific products, you can track which vendor supplies each item. This information is essential for restocking popular inventory items and managing supplier relationships effectively.
• Performance evaluation: Assigning vendors to products allows you to analyze sales trends and evaluate the performance of each vendor. This data can help you make informed decisions about commissions or incentives based on product sales.

Using product vendors in the admin

In your Shopify admin, you can create vendors and assign them to products in the Product organization section of each product details page. The following are examples of how you can use vendor information effectively:

• Assigning vendors: Each product can be assigned to one vendor. If a new product isn't assigned a vendor, then the Vendor field defaults to your store name.
• Sorting and filtering: You can use the Product vendor value for sorting and filtering your product list, as well as generating custom reports based on vendors.

Sort products by vendor

You can sort your product list using the Vendor sort option to help you organize products within your Shopify admin product list in alphabetical or reverse-alphabetical order. This sorting feature doesn't impact the display order of products on your online store. Learn more about searching for products and filtering your product list.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products.

2. Click the Vendor column title.

Filter products by vendor

By default, all of your products are displayed in the Products list. You can use the Product vendor filter to only display products associated with a specific vendor in your product list. Learn more about searching for products and filtering your product list.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products.

2. Click the search and filter icon.

3. Click Product vendor menu.

4. Select the vendors that you want to display in the list.

5. Optional: To sort your vendors in alphabetical or reverse-alphabetical order, click the Vendor column title.

6. Optional: To save this view, click Save as to enter a name for the saved view, and then click Save view.

Sort and filter your reports by vendor

You can sort and filter your reports by vendor in the Shopify admin. Not every type of report includes product vendor as an available filter, because not every type of report displays product-focused data. For example, Acquisition and Behavior reports can’t be sorted or filtered by vendors.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Analytics > Reports.
2. Click the report that you want to filter by vendor.
3. Click the Columns icon and select Product vendor to display it as a column in the report.
4. Optional: To sort your report data by vendor in alphabetical or reverse-alphabetical order, click the Product vendor column title.
5. Optional: To filter your report data by vendor, click the filters icon, and then select Product vendor as the filter. Adjust the filter to include or exclude a specific vendor, and then click Apply filters.

Bulk edit vendors

Similar to other product information, you can edit vendor information for your products in bulk using the bulk editor or a CSV file.

Displaying product vendors in your online store

Displaying product vendor information in your online store can be useful information for your customers when they want to search for products from a specific vendor or brand that you sell.

In all themes built by Shopify, you can display vendor information on various page templates using sections or blocks in the following ways:

• In the Featured collection section, select Show vendor to display the vendor information for each product in the products grid.
• In the Featured product section, add a Text block, and then click the Connect dynamic source icon. Select Vendor to dynamically display the vendor for the featured product.

For third-party themes, you should refer to the support documentation for your theme, or contact the theme developer. Learn more about where to find support for your theme.

Tip

To allow your customers to filter your online store by vendor, install the Shopify Search & Discovery app and set up a vendor filter.

Vendors in other Shopify features

The term vendor is used in other Shopify features and might not necessarily relate to the Vendor field in your product details. Some other Shopify features that reference vendors include:

• Shopify Bill Pay: Merchants in certain regions can store invoices and invoices and pay vendors that you purchase inventory or services from right in the Shopify admin. These vendors aren’t associated with your products list in your Shopify admin. Learn more about managing vendors through Shopify Bill Pay.
• Stocky: Stocky for Shopify POS automatically imports product vendors from your Shopify admin, but you can use the app to create more detailed vendor profiles called suppliers. Creating suppliers within Stocky gives you greater control over your inventory, because products can be assigned multiple suppliers. Learn more about vendors and suppliers in Stocky.
• B2B (Plus only): If you’re a wholesaler and your customers are vendors, then you can set them up as companies and assign them unique pricing catalogs for your products. Learn more about B2B companies.