Skip to main content

​
Overview

A supplier is who you buy stock from. Once Alius knows who serves each product at each location, it can:
  • name the right supplier on every reorder alert;
  • email that supplier a reorder request — automatically or with one tap;
  • fill in the supplier on a new purchase order;
  • use the supplier’s lead time in the Stock forecast.
Open Suppliers in the app menu, or from the button on the Stock page.

​
Adding a supplier

Click Add supplier. The form has three cards.

​
Details

​
Contact details

An optional postal address: country/region, address, apartment, city, state/province and postal code. The state and postal code fields follow the country you pick, using the same country list as the Shopify admin.

​
What this supplier serves

Tell Alius what this supplier delivers, and where. Each row is a Location plus a Product:
  • Leave Location empty to mean “every location”.
  • Leave Product empty to mean “every product”.
  • In the product picker, tick all variants to cover the whole product (new variants added later are covered too), or tick only some to cover just those variants.
Rows are saved with the rest of the form — Discard undoes them.

​
Which supplier wins

A variant can match more than one row. The most specific row wins: A product or variant row says who makes it. A location row only says where it is kept. So “Acme makes the S size” beats “Globex supplies the hoodie at the warehouse”. If two rows are equally specific, the oldest one wins.
Most shops need only a few rows: one default supplier with no location and no product, plus a row for each product that comes from somewhere else.

​
Lead time

Lead time is used in this order:
  1. The lead time you set for the variant in Reorder settings on the Stock page.
  2. Otherwise, the supplier’s Lead time (days).
  3. Otherwise, the default of 7 days.

​
Emails to suppliers

  • On a reorder alert — each row with a supplier gets an Alert supplier button. One tap emails that supplier a reorder request for that variant.
  • Automatically — on the Stock Alerts page, switch on Also email each reorder alert’s supplier. Each alert then sends one email per supplier, listing all of their variants in it.
Alius never asks a supplier for 0 units. A row with no suggested quantity is left out of the email.

​
Managing suppliers

The Suppliers list shows each supplier’s name, email and lead time. Use Search suppliers to find one. Select rows to delete them — their “What this supplier serves” rows are deleted too. Purchase orders already sent to a deleted supplier keep its name and email.

​
Plans

Free keeps 1 supplier, Pro keeps 10, and Max has no limit. Inactive suppliers count too. A downgrade never removes a supplier — you just cannot add more. See Pricing.