- Short answer
- A Shopify purchase order records the supplier agreement; an inventory transfer moves and receives the stock — you can link them, or transfer alone.
- When a transfer can come from a purchase order
- After the purchase order is marked Ordered; you create the transfer yourself.
- What a linked transfer inherits
- It sets your supplier as the origin and includes the line items from the purchase order.
- A purchase order is not required
- A standalone transfer can set a supplier as the origin, or leave the origin location blank.
- Moves inside your own store
- Transfers also move stock between your store locations — no supplier, and no agreement for a purchase order to record.
- Since Stocky ended
- Stocky is no longer available as of August 31, 2026; both objects are native to the Shopify admin.
- As of
- Help Center pages on purchase orders, inventory transfers and the Stocky transition, read September 5, 2026.
What is a Shopify purchase order, and what is a transfer?
A purchase order is the commercial record. Shopify says it "lists the products, quantities, costs, payment terms, and supplier details for an order."
An inventory transfer is the movement itself, and Shopify documents it as moving and tracking inventory "between your store locations, or to and from external locations such as suppliers." That is the split:
The purchase order records the commercial agreement, and the linked inventory transfer handles shipments, receiving, and cost adjustments in your Shopify admin.
Do you need both for one restock?
You don't always need both, but a supplier restock can use them in sequence. After a purchase order is marked Ordered, you can create an inventory transfer from it to track the shipment and receive the stock. The transfer sets your supplier as the origin and includes the line items from the purchase order.
Shopify documents the other path too: a standalone transfer can set a supplier as the origin — or leave the origin location blank.
What about a move with no supplier — and what is native now?
When stock moves between two of your own store locations, a transfer is the whole answer: there is no supplier in that move, and supplier details are part of what a purchase order lists.
Purchase orders and transfers are both native to the Shopify admin. Stocky is no longer available as of August 31, 2026, and Shopify's transition page names "Move inventory across locations with transfers" and "Track and receive purchase orders from suppliers" among the tasks you need to complete there instead. Location limits and wider restock planning sit in our multi-location inventory guide.
This article was written entirely by AI under human editorial direction. The editor sets the topic and structure, runs multi-stage validation on facts, links, and interactive elements, and verifies the output is useful from a business perspective. All claims are checked against official Shopify sources. Details may change — always confirm critical data at shopify.com.
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