Wholesaler — someone else stores and ships your goods

A wholesaler is a company that holds goods at its own location and packs your customer’s order. You sell as usual—on a marketplace or in your store—but the goods do not pass through your warehouse. This way of selling is called dropshipping.

Two types of wholesalers

• A wholesaler that ships on its own receives your order, packs it, ships it with its own carrier and label, and provides the tracking number after a few hours or days. This is how Halmar works (Halmar — connecting a furniture wholesaler).
• A wholesaler that ships with your carrier first waits for you to create the shipment. The wholesaler then receives the order with your label, packs the goods, attaches the label, and hands the parcel to your carrier. You have the shipment number immediately; the wholesaler only lets you know that it has imported the order. This is how Signal works (Signal — a furniture wholesaler that ships with your carrier).

Wholesaler, carrier, and marketplace

In the integration catalog, wholesalers have their own Wholesaler group (Integrations list — my connections and the available catalog).

How an order reaches a wholesaler

1. An order arrives from a marketplace or store, like any other order.
2. The system selects a warehouse for each item using the warehouse mapping on the sales channel connection. It checks warehouses with the lower priority number first and chooses the first one with stock (Mappings — warehouses, carriers, price lists, categories). If you are out of stock but the wholesaler has the product, the item is assigned to the wholesaler’s warehouse.
3. An automation rule sends the order to the wholesaler (Automations — WHEN, IF, THEN)—for a wholesaler that ships with your carrier, this happens only after the shipment has been created.
4. The wholesaler packs the order and ships it with its own carrier, or hands it over to yours.
5. The tracking number—from the wholesaler or from your shipment—is handled like one from a regular carrier. It is also sent to the marketplace if the sales channel connection publishes tracking numbers.

Wholesaler stock

In the system, a wholesaler’s goods belong to a dedicated External/3PL warehouse, for example, “Halmar” (Companies, branches, and warehouses — structure). The system stores stock imported from the wholesaler (today, from Halmar) in this warehouse. If this warehouse is included in stock published on a sales channel connection, listings will also show the goods held by the wholesaler.

This warehouse is for one wholesaler only. Do not store stock from other sources there: a product that is no longer in the wholesaler’s catalog could be set to zero in this warehouse (Halmar — connecting a furniture wholesaler).

What you see in the warehouse

Items assigned to the wholesaler’s warehouse do not enter warehouse queues—no one picks or packs them. You will not see these items on the terminal (What a queue is and what it contains). Items from your own warehouse on the same order enter queues as usual.

Mixed orders

Sometimes some items are in your warehouse and others are at the wholesaler. The Send its part of a mixed order to the wholesaler switch on the wholesaler connection controls what happens:

• off (default): the system does not send the order to the wholesaler. It creates a Wholesaler: items from other warehouses issue and waits for someone to decide (Issues — what they are and what they are not);
• on: the order remains one order but ships in separate shipments. The wholesaler receives only its items; you pick and pack yours as usual. Packing works only with your shipment and does not change the wholesaler’s shipment.

For a mixed order:

• Cash on delivery applies only to your shipment, for the whole order. A wholesaler that ships on its own never receives its part as COD. The system will not create a second COD shipment either.
• Set the shipped status with the All order items shipped condition. It is met only when the last part ships, while Has a shipment number is already met after the first one (Workflow conditions — every listed condition must be met).
• The rule that sends an order to the wholesaler should not change a mixed order’s status after sending it. Your part enters the warehouse queue only when it has a status the warehouse accepts. Ready-made rules are included in the Halmar and Signal articles.

Details that cause confusion

• Delivery and Wholesaler are different integration types. Delivery integrations are carriers; they transport parcels. A Wholesaler holds stock and packs it.
• A wholesaler is not the Wholesale module. A wholesaler supplies goods and packs orders for you. The Wholesale module is for your sales to wholesale customers (Wholesale orders — a status, not a separate order type).
• Not having a tracking number immediately after sending an order is not an error with a wholesaler that ships on its own. It provides the number only after the parcel leaves its warehouse.