Supply Network
This guide covers seller-facing supplier workflows in Partner Portal: working with approved suppliers, adding supplier-backed products, routing dropship orders, and reconciling the commercial result.
Supplier-operator work in Supplier Portal remains documented in the supplier documentation set. Partner docs describe what sellers can do and what they should expect from the connected supplier path.
Status for sellers
Dropship sourcing and wholesale purchasing are account-gated workflows for eligible seller accounts. Source products, Sourcing, and Wholesale remain fail-closed until the account contract enables them, and supplier cost and commercial terms remain hidden until a connection is approved. A wholesale PO still requires an approved wholesale-enabled connection plus that connection's credit and terms.
Supplier scorecards, SLA/remedy operations, automated routing, and other advanced supplier tooling are separate capabilities; access to the basic sourcing path does not turn them on.
Use Partner Portal navigation as the practical guide to what you can open today.
Roles and Responsibilities
| Role | Owns | Does not own |
|---|---|---|
| Seller | Customer promise, listing price, product content, customer service, order acceptance where applicable, returns coordination, and seller settlement reconciliation | Supplier inventory truth, supplier warehouse dispatch, supplier-side account verification |
| Supplier | Supplier catalog, wholesale or dropship availability, stock truth, dispatch, tracking updates, supplier reliability, and agreed commercial terms | Customer-facing listing claims, marketplace customer service tone, seller payout reconciliation |
| OKNowShop | Marketplace order routing, buyer payment capture, seller ledger, supplier connection controls, and dispute escalation paths | Replacing seller or supplier accounting systems |
How a supplier becomes available to you
From a seller point of view:
- The supplier joins Supplier Portal and publishes catalog + stock.
- They agree standard commercial terms (channels, credit, payment terms, margins as applicable).
- You request a connection from Source products / Sourcing, choosing only a capability the supplier offers.
- The connection is approved (supplier and/or marketplace ops, depending on the terms path).
- Only then can you list supplier-backed products or place wholesale POs under that connection.
Supplier-side setup detail lives in supplier documentation — you do not manage their warehouse login from Partner Portal.
Connection status (what you will see)
| Status | Means for you |
|---|---|
| Pending | You requested; waiting on approval. |
| Approved | You can trade on the channels enabled for that connection. |
| Suspended | New orders stop; in-flight orders keep their prior commercial terms. |
| Rejected | Request denied before go-live; you may re-apply after the portal’s cooldown (typically 30 days) unless ops override. |
| Revoked | Active relationship ended; reopening is ops-controlled. |
Commercial terms (plain language)
- Approvals capture a version of commercial terms (discounts, credit, channels, margins).
- New listings and POs use the current approved terms.
- Existing live offers and in-flight orders keep the terms they started with until you supersede or they complete.
- To stop new commerce, suspend the connection — changing terms alone does not silently rewrite live offers.
Wholesale pricing glossary
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Wholesale list price | The supplier's seller-facing base price. A product without one cannot be added to a wholesale PO. |
| Volume tier | The unit price for the highest eligible minimum-quantity tier. If no tier applies, the wholesale list price remains the base. |
| Connection discount | The percentage in your current approved supplier terms, applied after the list/tier price is selected. |
| Goods subtotal | Final unit price × quantity, summed across the PO. |
| PO / invoice total | Goods subtotal + any displayed freight + tax + platform fee. Freight and tax are zero unless the quote explicitly shows an amount. |
| Supplier cost | The supplier's private cost record. It is audit information only and is never substituted for the wholesale list price. |
The catalog shows the wholesale list price. Cart quantities are re-quoted for volume tiers and your approved connection discount before checkout. The PO and its invoice preserve the list, tier, discount and final unit-price breakdown, so later catalog or terms changes do not rewrite an in-flight purchase.
Receiving wholesale stock
Goods receipt is also the inventory hand-off from supplier-owned stock to your seller-owned stock:
- Map the supplier product to an active
seller_fulfilledlisting and one of your active store or warehouse locations on its first receipt. - Enter cumulative received quantities. A partial receipt adds only the new quantity and leaves the PO shipped until every line is fully received.
- Each positive receipt delta increases both the location inventory and the listing's sellable stock exactly once. Replaying the same cumulative receipt does not add stock again.
- Use the return-to-vendor action for stock sent back. It must reference the original receipt event and removes only stock that is still available.
The receipt history is append-only and retains the PO line, supplier product and SKU, seller listing, location, inventory record, quantity, and audit cost. Unknown PO lines, over-shipped quantities, foreign listings or locations, and unmapped first receipts fail before inventory changes. Receiving stock does not bypass product approval: the mapped listing must still be approved before it is visible on the storefront.
Dropship listings (seller view)
| Action | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Add to store | Needs an approved dropship connection, visible supplier cost, and available stock. It creates or reuses a supplier-backed product draft. |
| Set retail price | Retail must be above current supplier cost. The displayed gross margin is retail - supplier cost, as dollars and a percentage of retail. |
| Pause / deactivate | Listing stops selling; history is kept for reconciliation (not hard-deleted). |
| Reactivate | Portal re-checks current connection terms before going live again. |
Gross margin is not net profit. It excludes marketplace and payment fees, shipping, returns, and tax; use Financial Records → Fees & Pricing for the fuller estimate. Adding the product does not bypass product review or catalog media requirements, and supplier availability remains supplier managed.
In Product management, these offers are labelled Supplier fulfilled. You can manage the retail price and seller-level listing controls, but seller stock and variant inventory controls are unavailable: live sellability follows the supplier allocation rather than the stock value captured when the offer was first added.
Buyer Disclosure
Every supplier-backed order line carries a fulfilled_by_name derived from the buy-box winner's allocation contract. For supplier-dropshipped products this is the supplier's business name; for seller-fulfilled products it is the seller's name.
| Surface | Display |
|---|---|
| Product detail page (PDP) | Subtle line under seller attribution: "Fulfilled by …". Shown only when the field is populated. |
| Order details / tracking | Dedicated "Fulfilled by" tile next to the "Seller" tile, on every line item. |
| Order confirmation | Same line-item attribution. Multi-seller orders display per-line seller and fulfiller side-by-side. |
This is the durable answer to "sold by Seller A, fulfilled by Supplier B" for marketplace order confirmations and post-purchase tracking.
Catalog Sync Behavior
Supplier-backed catalog is not a blind copy into the seller store.
| Step | Behavior | Seller check |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier publishes SKU | Supplier owns source SKU, stock, cost, lead time, regions, and discontinuation state. | Confirm the supplier is verified and available for the required region. |
| Seller creates listing | Partner Portal maps supplier SKU to a seller listing. | Set customer-facing title, price, tax treatment, shipping promise, exclusions, and claims evidence. |
| Inventory updates | Supplier stock and availability updates feed seller-visible availability. | Watch low-stock and out-of-stock states before promoting a supplier-backed item. |
| Discontinuation | Supplier soft-deactivation should remove or pause seller listing availability. | Replace, unpublish, or redirect traffic before customers hit dead stock. |
Supplier catalog sync should preserve traceability: seller listing, supplier SKU, supplier product ID, connection ID, and the commercial terms used when the listing was created.
Seller Connection Evaluation
Seller-side connection review helps sellers decide whether an approved supplier relationship is worth operational commitment. Eligible sellers can discover verified suppliers; governed scorecards and operational monitoring remain separately entitled.
Expected seller workflow:
- Review available supplier profile, catalog, regions, fulfillment model, and commercial fit.
- Review basic capability and lead-time information. Use governed scorecards and SLA history only when those tools are enabled for your account.
- Request a connection with intended channel: dropship, wholesale, or both.
- Wait for supplier approval and commercial terms.
- Import or map supplier-backed products only after the connection is approved.
- Monitor ongoing reliability and replace suppliers whose SLA or cancellation behavior damages the customer promise.
Discovery and commercial fields remain relationship-scoped: pending, declined, suspended, and revoked connections cannot expose approved trading actions.
Dropship Order Flow
| Stage | What happens | Customer-visible expectation |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer order placed | Marketplace captures buyer payment and creates order items. Supplier-backed items route to the dropship path. | Buyer sees the seller of record and line-item delivery expectations. |
| Supplier sub-order created | Supplier receives the dropship order queue item. | Tracking may not exist until supplier accepts and dispatches. |
| Supplier accepts | Supplier confirms availability, credit, and ability to fulfill. | Seller can continue the promise. |
| Supplier rejects or cancels | Inventory, credit, or operational issue prevents fulfillment. | Seller/marketplace must communicate cancellation, refund, replacement, or remedy. |
| Supplier ships | Supplier posts carrier and tracking. | Buyer sees tracking update for that seller item. |
| Delivery and returns | Delivered items become reviewable and returnable through order-linked flows. | Buyer can message the seller, start a return, and review after delivery. |
Multi-seller orders can move at different speeds. Buyer-facing order tracking should show line-item seller status, delivery expectations, cancellation availability, return paths, and review prompts.
Settlement and Reconciliation
Supplier-backed orders create two commercial views:
| Ledger view | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Buyer payment and seller settlement | Marketplace captures buyer payment, applies fees/refunds/escrow, and settles seller proceeds through the seller financial ledger. |
| Seller-supplier commercial terms | Supplier discount, margin, credit, wholesale PO terms, or dropship payable is reconciled between seller and supplier according to the approved connection terms. |
Sellers should reconcile:
- Buyer order item revenue.
- Marketplace fees, loyalty levy, payment processing, refunds, and escrow release.
- Supplier cost or payable for the linked supplier-backed item.
- Supplier cancellation, rejection, credit release, or replacement adjustments.
- Tax invoice and GST treatment for both customer-facing sale and supplier-side purchase where applicable.
Supplier-side invoicing and tax treatment remain the supplier's accounting responsibility. Partner Portal should not be treated as the supplier's tax source of truth.
Before using this workflow
Before selling volume through the supply network:
- Confirm supplier capability flags and account verification.
- Confirm seller-supplier connection terms are approved.
- Verify at least one catalog sync from supplier SKU to seller listing.
- Verify stock, lead time, delivery region, and discontinuation behavior.
- Complete a real test of dropship order acceptance, rejection/cancellation, shipment, tracking, delivery, return, and refund handling with your account before processing live volume.
- Reconcile one completed supplier-backed order from buyer payment to seller settlement and supplier payable.
- Keep claims in product content backed by supplier or product evidence.