Product
For a dropship order, the tracking number is the fulfillment
When you hold no stock, nothing arrives for you to receive. The supplier's shipment is the last physical event, and its tracking number is what fulfills the order.
Two kinds of purchase order, two different last steps
A purchase order is an agreement with a supplier, but where it ends depends on where the goods are going. In stocked retail the goods come to you. The order closes when cartons reach your location and someone receives them, which is the step that moves units from incoming to on hand. Until then the purchase order stays open, because the stock isn't on your shelf to sell.
In dropshipping you never take possession. The supplier ships straight to your customer, so the only physical event in the whole order is the supplier's shipment leaving their door. There is no dock, no count, nothing to receive. The purchase order still needs a last step, but it's a different one, and it happens somewhere you can't see.
Assisty handles the two cases as separate apps with separate flows. Purchase orders in the inventory app end in receiving. Assisty Dropship POs is built for the other case, where you hold no stock and your suppliers ship straight to your customers. Its three steps are arranged so the last one closes the loop in Shopify.
| Aspect | Stocked PO (inventory app) | Dropship PO (Dropship POs app) |
|---|---|---|
| Starts from | Items staged on the Purchase List from the buying table | A paid order's fulfillment orders |
| Split | By supplier; you're asked which location receives the stock | By supplier; each PO carries the customer's ship-to |
| Shipped to | Your receiving location | Your customer, blind-shipped by default |
| Currency & cost | Supplier tax & currency; tax types & landed cost per line | The supplier's currency |
| Sent how | Emailed straight to the supplier | Branded PDF, sent as you already do; marked as sent with a note |
| Closing event | Receive against it when stock arrives; stock synced | Enter carrier + tracking number |
| What it completes | Your stock levels, synced | The Shopify order is fulfilled and the customer notified |
What "fulfilled" actually means in Shopify
It helps to be precise about what Shopify counts as fulfilled. When an order is placed, Shopify groups its items into fulfillment orders, which are sets of items expected to be fulfilled together. When the shipping work happens, a fulfillment is recorded against them, and that record can carry a tracking number. If you choose to notify the customer, recording the fulfillment is what sends the shipping confirmation email.
So the tracking number isn't a note added after the fact. On a dropship order it is the evidence that the one physical event happened, and recording it is what moves the order from unfulfilled to fulfilled. If a dropship purchase order has been sent but never gets its tracking number, your customer is still waiting to hear about their order, however promptly the supplier actually shipped.
Notice the difference from a stocked store. There, the customer's order and your purchase order are separate events. You fulfill orders from stock you already hold, and the purchase order that replenished that stock closed earlier, at your receiving location. In dropshipping the two collapse into one. The supplier's shipment both ends your purchase order and fulfills your customer's order, so one piece of information, the carrier and tracking number, has to complete both.
The third step: tracking onto the purchase order, fulfillment into Shopify
Dropship POs turns each paid order into one purchase order per supplier, carrying the customer's ship-to. You send it as you already do and mark it as sent.
The last step is the one this post is about. When the supplier ships, you enter the carrier and tracking number on the purchase order. The order is fulfilled in Shopify and your customer is notified. That is the whole closing move: the supplier tells you it has shipped, the tracking goes onto the purchase order, and the same entry fulfills the Shopify order. You don't need a second trip into the order in your Shopify admin to type it again. The purchase order and the order it came from close on the same fact.
Where the stocked-store habit breaks
Merchants who moved into dropshipping from a stocked store, or who run both, tend to carry the stocked habits with them. That breaks in two recognisable ways.
The first is waiting for something to receive. On a stocked purchase order, done means counted and shelved, so an open dropship purchase order can feel like it's waiting on a delivery. Nothing is coming to you. If the supplier has shipped and the purchase order is still open, the order is stuck at the step that matters while you wait for one that will never happen.
The second is closing the loop in the wrong place. You copy the tracking number from the supplier's reply and type it into the Shopify order by hand. The customer may still get a confirmation, but the tracking now lives only on the order, not on the purchase order you keep with that supplier. Entering tracking on the purchase order keeps both on one fact, which is exactly what the app's third step does.
None of this makes receiving less important where you do hold stock. If your purchase orders come through the inventory app, the closing step is still receiving against them when stock arrives, and that is what syncs your stock. We've written about why that step deserves care, and what goes wrong when a signature stands in for a count. A dropship order simply has a different last step, and it is a tracking number.