Letting suppliers add products without losing control

Pick the right access level, decide whether to approve, and keep your catalogue consistent.

Why let suppliers into your shop

If you sell products made or held by other businesses, keeping their stock and listings up to date can become a second job: emails with new products, spreadsheets of stock counts, orders forwarded by hand. Letting suppliers do it themselves means fresher stock, faster listings and fewer mistakes from copying.

The worry is control: will a supplier upload blurry photos, write titles in capitals, or sell something you’ve run out of? With the right access level, an approval step and a clear guide, you keep control without doing the work yourself.

Pick the right access level

In DripFunnel, suppliers only ever see their own products and order lines. You choose how much each one can do:

Start with less access and add more once a supplier has shown they keep to your standards. Changing a supplier’s access level can take a few minutes to take effect.

Decide whether to approve

With approval turned on, products that suppliers add or change wait for you to check them before shoppers see them. Turn it on when:

• a supplier is new and you haven’t seen their listings yet;
• products need legal or safety details that must be right, such as warnings or ingredients;
• your brand depends on a consistent look across every product.

You might leave it off for a long-standing supplier with stock-only access, where there is nothing new for shoppers to see. The guide is in the help centre: Turn on approval for supplier products.

Write a one-page supplier guide

Most catalogue problems come from suppliers guessing what you want. A short guide, shared when you invite them, answers those guesses. Cover:

• Titles: the pattern to follow, for example “Product type, material, colour”, and words to avoid, such as capitals and “best”.
• Photos: how many, the background, the minimum size, and at least one photo showing scale.
• Versions: how to name sizes and colours, so filters and size charts work across suppliers.
• Required details: material, care, country of origin, warnings, and product codes such as HSN codes in India.
• Prices: who sets them, and your market’s rules for “before” prices, such as never going above the MRP in India or using real MSRP in the US.
• Stock: how often to update it, and what to do when something sells out.

Orders, packing and returns

When suppliers pack their own orders, an order with products from several suppliers can ship in parts. DripFunnel supports partial shipping, and tracking goes to the shopper automatically for each parcel. Agree dispatch times with each supplier, so your delivery promises stay true.

For returns, each supplier handles their own items, and you can step in and override when needed. You can also filter the order list by supplier to see what each one has to do.

Keep an eye on things

• Stock history records every change to every version, who made it and when, on every plan.
• The supplier report, from Growth Pro, puts each supplier’s figures in one place, ready to export.
• The approval queue, if you use approval, shows what is waiting for you.

How to invite a supplier in DripFunnel

1. Go to Settings › Team and suppliers and press Invite a supplier.
2. Enter the supplier’s business name and their contact’s email address.
3. Choose the access level: stock only, products and stock, or also packing their own orders.
4. Send the invitation. It stays open for 7 days.

Suppliers are available on the Business plan. The full guide is in the help centre: Invite a supplier. Compare plans on Pricing.

Questions