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Manufacturers with multiple facilities need to track inventory as it moves between locations. Raw materials ship from a central warehouse to production sites. Finished goods transfer from manufacturing floors to distribution centers. Components move between plants based on production schedules.
Shopify's inventory transfer feature lets you reserve stock at an origin location and track its movement to a destination, maintaining accurate inventory counts across your operation. This guide covers how manufacturers can use transfers to manage stock movement between Shopify locations.
Inventory transfers track stock moving between your Shopify locations. When you create a transfer:
This visibility prevents overselling, supports production planning, and keeps inventory counts accurate across locations.
You could adjust inventory manually (subtract from one location, add to another), but transfers provide:
For any meaningful stock movement, transfers are the better approach.
Transfers move through defined statuses that reflect where inventory is in the process.
The transfer is created but not yet active. Inventory is not reserved at the origin location. You can still edit everything: origin, destination, products, quantities.
Use draft status when:
The transfer is marked ready, and inventory is now reserved at the origin. Reserved inventory won't be available for orders or other allocations.
This status signals that:
Shipments are in transit between locations. The inventory is still reserved (not available at either location for other purposes).
All shipments have been received at the destination. Inventory is now available at the destination location and can be sold or allocated.
The transfer was canceled. Any reserved inventory becomes available again at the origin location.
Here's how to set up a transfer between locations.
The transfer saves as a draft. Inventory isn't reserved until you mark it ready to ship.
When creating transfers, you can add:
These fields help with organization, especially when managing many transfers.
Move transfers through the workflow as inventory physically moves.
When inventory should be reserved and prepared:
Inventory is now reserved at the origin. Warehouse staff know to pull and prepare these items.
When shipments leave the origin:
This indicates goods are in transit.
When all inventory arrives at the destination:
Inventory is now available at the destination location.
When inventory arrives, the receiving process lets you verify quantities and handle discrepancies.
- Click Accept all to accept the full quantity, or
- Enter specific quantities in Accept
Accepted quantities become available at the destination.
If quantities don't match:
Rejecting items: If items are damaged or incorrect:
Unexpected items: If items arrived that weren't on the transfer:
If you need to adjust after receiving:
This handles situations where counts were initially wrong.
For large transfers, you can import items via CSV rather than adding them one by one.
You can bulk add variants and quantities to a new or existing transfer using a transfer CSV file. This is useful when:
If you import into an existing transfer and a variant already exists on it, the import overwrites that variant's quantities. Plan accordingly when updating existing transfers.
Speed up transfer creation and receiving with barcode scanning.
You can create transfers and receive shipments using:
When creating a transfer with scanning:
Barcode-created transfers save as drafts. Inventory isn't reserved until you mark the transfer ready to ship.
Barcode scanning is particularly useful for:
Different manufacturing operations use transfers in different ways.
Transfer raw materials from central warehouses to production facilities:
This ensures production has materials available while central warehouse knows what's allocated.
Move completed products from manufacturing to distribution centers:
This makes products available for order fulfillment.
Move components or inventory between manufacturing sites:
Some manufacturers stage inventory at shipping locations before customer delivery:
Develop a naming convention for transfers:
Example: "2024-01-15-WH1-PROD2-PO4521"
Use tags to categorize transfers:
Tags enable filtering and reporting on transfer activity.
Use draft status for planning:
Once marked ready, inventory is reserved and changes are limited.
Always receive shipments properly rather than just marking transferred:
The few extra steps prevent inventory accuracy issues later.
Transfers connect with other aspects of your Shopify operation.
When orders can be fulfilled from multiple locations, accurate inventory (including in-transit stock) affects routing decisions. Transfers keep location-level inventory accurate so orders route correctly.
For order routing configuration, see Order Routing Logic in Shopify.
Manufacturers using ERP systems often need transfers to sync:
For ERP connectivity, see Shopify ERP Integration - A Guide.
Use Shopify Flow to automate around transfers:
For automation guidance, see Automating Back-office Processes with Shopify Flow.
No. Once a transfer is marked ready to ship (or beyond), you cannot change the origin or destination locations. If you need to change locations, you'll need to cancel the transfer and create a new one, or duplicate and modify.
When you cancel a transfer, any reserved inventory becomes available again at the origin location. The inventory isn't lost; it's just no longer committed to that transfer.
Yes. A transfer can include multiple shipments, and you receive each shipment separately. This handles situations where inventory ships in batches rather than all at once.
Start by mapping your physical inventory flows to Shopify transfers.
Document your regular inventory movements:
Ensure all relevant locations exist in Shopify:
Each location that needs separate inventory tracking should be set up.
Create clear procedures for your team:
Ensure warehouse and production staff understand:
For an overview of B2B and manufacturing features, see Essential Shopify Features for B2B.
Inventory transfers provide the visibility manufacturers need to track stock movement between locations. By using transfers rather than manual adjustments, you maintain accurate inventory counts, prevent overselling, and create an audit trail of inventory movement across your operation.
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