All Collections
Inventory Planner basics
Vendors
Associating variants with vendors
Associating variants with vendors

Learn how to assign a supplier or vendor to a variant

Jansen avatar
Written by Jansen
Updated over a week ago

Inventory Planner downloads vendor-catalog associations from most inventory management systems. For ecommerce systems which don't store vendor-catalog information, you must create vendors then update their catalog associations directly in Inventory Planner.

Until the associations are made, all variants will be assigned to an "unknown" vendor by default.

There are several ways to associate variants and vendors:

  • Using the catalog

  • By brand

  • Using an import

You can also associate multiple vendors to a single variant.

Note: Managing vendors may not be possible if your account is set to only sync vendor information from your connection. Please reach out to the support team if you need to change your account configuration by opening a new conversation or emailing [email protected].

Can the same SKU be associated with multiple vendors?

You can associate a single SKU with more than one vendor, which is useful if you can purchase a product from more than one source.

Associating a SKU with all vendors it can be purchased from lets you apply attributes that are specific to those individual vendors, such as titles, vendor SKUs, cost prices, units of measurement, minimum order quantities and bulk discounts.

Using the catalog to associate variants with vendors

You can use the Catalog to assign multiple variants with a single vendor.

To do so, navigate to Catalog > Vendors, then click "x variants" beneath the vendor you'd like to associate with multiple products.

Click "+ Variant to vendor" at the bottom of the page.

Search for and select variants to associate with the vendor by selecting checkboxes on the left-hand side of the page.

Once you've selected the variants you want to associate with the vendor, click "Apply".

Using the catalog to associate multiple vendors with the same variant

You can associate additional vendors with a variant by going to Catalog > Vendor attributes. In the "Variant actions" column, press the "+" to add another vendor.

Search for and select the appropriate vendor, input any additional information, and save changes.

Associate variants with vendors by brand

You can also associate all variants of a brand with a particular vendor. To do so, go to Catalog > Vendors and click "Settings" beneath the vendor you'd like to set the association up for.

On the vendor's settings page, scroll to the "Associated brands" section. Click "+Add brand" to associate all products belonging to that brand with the vendor. Choose the brand from the dropdown list and click "Add brand", then save your changes.

Note that adding a brand automatically links all current and future products belonging to that brand with the vendor.

You can disassociate a brand by clicking the trash can icon beside the brand. Removing the brand will unlink all current products belonging to that brand with the vendor.

Importing vendor associations

You can import vendor associations by importing vendor attributes. Learn more about the process here.

Import vendor associations by filling in a vendor and a SKU on each row.

Importing multiple vendor associations for the same variant

If you wish to associate the same SKU with multiple vendors, include the vendors on separate rows with the same SKU.

When you map the columns, make sure "Remove all other vendors" is disabled.

Shopify supplier/vendors sync

Shopify's vendors differ from Inventory Planner's vendors. Please see this article for more information.

Did this answer your question?