Transfer inventory between locations in Shopify
A transfer moves stock you already own from one of your locations to another, with the move tracked at both ends. This tutorial moves 18 Trail Crew Tees from the Warehouse to the Main Street store, so the shop floor is restocked without ordering anything new.
Written · Shopify admin, desktop steps · 6 minutes read
The worked example
| Product | Trail Crew Tee, Medium Blue |
| Origin | Warehouse |
| Destination | Main Street store |
| Units to move | 18 |
| Warehouse stock before | 24 |
| Warehouse stock after | 6 |
Download the record: trail-crew-tee-transfer-record.csv (156 bytes).
A transfer record for the Trail Crew Tee: origin, destination, units moved, and the stock at both ends before and after.
1Open Transfers
From your Shopify admin, go to Products, then Transfers. The Transfers page is where inventory moves between your locations are made and tracked.
2Create the transfer
Click Create transfer. A new transfer opens as a blank form for origin, destination, and products.
3Pick the origin and destination
From the Select origin drop-down menu, select Warehouse. From the Select destination drop-down menu, select Main Street store. You can leave either blank when the other end is outside Shopify, but here both ends are your locations.
4Add the product
Click the Search products field, select the Trail Crew Tee Medium Blue variant, and click Add. You can view the inventory quantities at the origin location while you add products.
5Enter the quantity to move
In the Move column, enter 18. The inventory changes are shown for both the origin and the destination locations, so you can review the effect before saving.
6Add a reference and save
In the Add reference name field, enter a name such as Restock Main Street Nov 11, then click Save. The transfer is saved as a draft: the inventory is not committed yet, and you can still edit or delete it.
7Process the transfer
Click Move to in transit. The transfer status changes to In progress, the inventory is marked as incoming at the destination, and a shipment is automatically made for the transfer.
The arithmetic
The stock at both ends is simple subtraction and addition:
| Figure | Units |
|---|---|
| Warehouse stock before | 24 |
| Units moved | 18 |
| Warehouse stock after | 6 |
| Main Street stock before | 6 |
| Main Street stock after receiving | 24 |
24 minus 18 is 6 left at the Warehouse, and 6 plus 18 is 24 at the Main Street store once the transfer is received. The transfer itself does not add or remove a single unit from the business.
Held at the counter
A draft transfer moves nothing. After you save, the transfer is a draft and the inventory is not committed. Until you process it, the stock has not moved, so do not tell the shop the shirts are on their way.
Processing locks the two locations. After you process a transfer, you cannot change its origin and destination locations. If you picked the wrong store, cancel the transfer and make a new one.
A transfer does not activate the product at the destination. Moving stock to a location records quantity there but does not activate the product there. If the product is not active at the destination, the units sit there but cannot be sold from it.
Sources
- Creating and processing inventory transfers — Shopify's help pages: the create transfer steps, the draft status, the process actions, and the rule that a transfer does not activate a product at the destination.