Overview
In this article, you will learn how vendor SKU’s and vendor prices work and how to assign them to your products. Each product can have multiple vendors stored at the same time but only one Default vendor. In Sellercloud, you can set a product’s Default vendor and default vendor SKU for individual or multiple products. By doing this, you never have to worry about inventory being out of stock. This is because of our Predictive Purchasing and Predictive Restocking for FBA functions that automatically alert your vendors when you need another shipment of products.
There are two ways to assign vendors to a product. Both options will appear on the product level under Toolbox > Purchasing:
- Set the vendor as the Default Vendor and the default Vendor SKU.
This is useful when you buy from one vendor. - Set one or more vendors along with the Vendor SKU and Price.
Use this option when you have several vendors.
Assign Vendor SKU and Price Manually
Assign a Default Vendor
Assign a default vendor if you are using only one vendor or for your most frequently used one among multiple vendors. Each product can have multiple vendors at the same time, but only one Default Vendor.
Default Vendor, Vendor SKU and Price are used for the related POs by default. To add Default Vendor and Vendor SKU:
- Go to Catalog > Manage Catalog > select a product.
- Click Edit.
- On the Purchasing panel set Default Vendor and Vendor SKU. Make sure that you select the vendor you use most frequently.
- Click Save.
Assign Additional Vendors and Vendor Price
If you use multiple vendors, you can configure additional vendors under the Vendor Prices panel.
Vendor Prices are the amount it costs you to buy a product from a vendor. It is stored on the Vendor SKU. Vendor pricing can be set manually on the vendor SKU. It can also update automatically through a PO.
When the item is entered on a PO, the cost gets saved as the new vendor price.
- Go to Catalog > Manage Catalog > Select a product > Toolbox > Purchasing.
- Click Edit.
- On the Vendor Prices panel click the + icon.
- Fill in Vendor, Vendor SKU and Vendor Price.
- Click Add.
- Click Save.
Assign Vendor SKU and Price in Bulk
You can also assign vendor-related information to your products in bulk via a file upload by following the steps below.
- Navigate to Purchasing > Tools> Import Purchase Info > Import Vendor Price.
- Download and fill in one of the templates.
- For your columns, use:
- Product ID – Product SKU used by Sellercloud as the unique identifier for the item
- Vendor – The vendor name
- Vendor SKU – SKU the vendor wants people to use when submitting purchase orders
- Vendor Price – Price the vendor charges you for the product
- Is Default Vendor For Product – If there are multiple vendors for a particular product, one can be labeled as the main vendor (valid values: True, False)
- Is Available – States if the product is available from the vendor (valid values: True, False)
- Select your File and click Import.
Vendor SKUs on Purchase Orders
When adding an item to a PO, the vendor SKU will automatically populate based on the vendor on the purchase order. Likewise, the vendor price of that vendor SKU will automatically populate as the cost of the item.
The Vendor SKU field is where you can enter the product’s identifier as it is known to the vendor. This is separate identifier from your own internal Product ID. Vendor SKUs enable you to refer to the item correctly when you are buying it from a vendor. Each product in SellerCloud can have multiple vendors = multiple vendor SKUs.
Let’s say you have a Dell Laptop, with your internal product ID = DELLPC. You are able to order that DELLPC from two different distributors. Those two vendors are Dell and Microsoft. Dell does not use the SKU “DELLPC” to refer to this laptop. They have a different SKU, for example DELLN4010. If you decide to order this DELLPC from Dell, then telling them that you want to order “DELLPC” will not make any sense. You need to use the their SKU when making a purchase order to buy this laptop from Dell. Same thing as Microsoft. They do not call this item “DELLPC”. They call it MKUK1903. So when you make a purchase order to buy this item from Microsoft, you will need to use the MKUK1903 SKU.
Vendor SKUs on Purchase Orders
Using the example above, Dell may charge $100 if you buy the SKU from them. Microsoft may charge $120. If the vendor on the PO is DELL then DELLN4010 will be placed automatically on the purchase order with a price of $100. If the vendor is Microsoft, MKUK1903 will be used with a price of $120.
Managing Vendor SKUs
- Navigate Settings > Select a company > Toolbox > Vendors > Select a Vendor.
- Select Products from the side menu to view, add and manage the vendor SKUs associated with the vendor.
You can see all the Vendor SKUs for a given product under the product’s toolbox, on the Purchasing tab.
Setting and understanding default vendors
You can also assign a default vendor in a bulk update using the column header VendorName. To assign the SKU for this vendor, use the column header VendorSKUThis method of assigning vendors is important for using Search filters on the Manage Inventory
and Manage Orders pages, Predictive Purchasing and Predictive Restocking for FBA.Note: It is also important in the Reports module, where default vendor is used, but only for non-dropship orders.
Importing vendor SKUs and prices
Go to Inventory > Import Product Info > Import Vendor SKU/Prices.
You can add Vendor SKUs and Vendor Prices to a particular product in bulk using the VendorSKU.txt template. (Purchase orders created with that vendor selected will auto-populate their Unit Cost field with the vendor price.) The file can also be created in Excel and saved as a .txt file.
Template columns are:
- Product ID— product SKU used by Sellercloud as the unique identifier for the item
- Vendor— Use the vendor name
- Vendor SKU— SKU the vendor wants people to use when submitting purchase orders
- Vendor Price— price the vendor charges you for the product
- Is Default Vendor For Product— if there are multiple vendors for a particular product, one can be associated as the main vendor (valid values: True, False)
- Is Available— states if the product is available from the vendor (valid values: True, False)
You can export this information and template with the Product ID and other data populated to match what is entered in Sellercloud by selecting the items in the Manage Inventory page and Action > Export Vendor SKU.
Assigning Vendors to a Product
There are two ways to assign vendors to a product. You can find out more about each option on the related articles below. Both options will appear on the product level under Toolbox > Purchasing.
- Setting the vendor as the Default Vendor and the default vendor’s SKU, which is visible in the field circled in red (below).
- Setting one or more vendors along with the vendor SKU and price, which is visible in the field circled in blue (below).
