How to Use

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Set up dropshipping

Connect a supplier

Open “Suppliers” and press “Connect a supplier”. Pick the supplier, paste the API key it gave you, and save. AliExpress asks you to sign in instead. Posty5 checks the key with the supplier before keeping it, and stores it encrypted. Nobody can read it back, you included.

A new connection starts in test mode, switched off, with orders sent by hand. Press “Test” at any time to check it still works.

With CJdropshipping and BigBuy, a test connection sends orders to the supplier’s sandbox, which never charges you or ships anything. AliExpress has no sandbox, so a test connection there never places an order. Switch to live when you are ready to sell.
Decide how orders are sent

On the connection’s “Automation” card, “Orders are sent” has three levels.
- “Manual — I send each order myself” — nothing is sent until you press “Send to the supplier” on the order.
- “Submit automatically” — the supplier order is created when your order is confirmed, and you pay it yourself. With BigBuy, creating the order is paying for it.
- “Submit and pay automatically” — the supplier order is created and paid from your supplier balance. Only suppliers that can be paid from a balance offer it.
Automatic sending happens once, when the order becomes confirmed, whether you confirm it or an online payment does.

Limits you can set
- “Also send orders the shopper has not paid yet” is off by default. While it is off, a cash-on-delivery or manual order waits for you.
- “Most an order may cost at the supplier” — an order that would cost more stops and waits for you.
- “Most the supplier cost may be, as % of what the shopper paid” protects your margin when a supplier raises a price.
- “Only send orders going to” — orders to other countries wait for you.
- Where the supplier reports a balance, the connection shows it, so you can top it up before it runs out.
Import products
- Open “Import from a supplier”. Search the catalogue, or paste a product link or id.
- Tick the products and variants you want. The preview shows your price for each one and warns you about products you have already imported.
- Choose Draft or Active, add tags if you like, and import — up to 50 products at a time. Large imports run in the background and you are told when they finish.
Your default price rule is in Settings, on the “Dropshipping” tab. “Price imported products by” a percentage, a fixed amount or a target margin, then “Round prices”. It starts at 40% above cost, ending in .99. “Include the estimated shipping cost” adds the supplier’s freight estimate to the product’s extra delivery fee.

Already selling the product? Link it to the supplier product from its “Fulfilment” tab instead of importing a second copy. Linking never changes your price, images or description.

Each imported product has a “Fulfilment” tab — the supplier product and variants it is linked to, its price rule with a recalculate button, what stays in sync, the delivery estimate and the partner badge switch.
Publish and switch it on

Check the imported products, make them Active and switch the connection on. Keep “Orders are sent” on manual for your first orders, and move to an automatic level once you trust the flow.
Follow an order

An order with supplier items shows its parts on the order page, each with its own status. A supplier part has a supplier order card with the supplier’s status, the cost and the tracking number.

From the card you can “Send to the supplier”, “Retry”, “Pay now” or “Pay at the supplier”, “Cancel supplier order”, or choose “Fulfil it myself” to ship that part yourself.

The order becomes Shipped only when every part has shipped, and Delivered when every part is delivered. Tracking numbers arrive by themselves, from the supplier’s notifications or from checks about every 30 minutes.

Cancelling the store order also withdraws the supplier order where the supplier allows it. Once the supplier has shipped, it cannot be withdrawn, so handle it as a return.

Choose when a sale concludes

In Settings, on the “Dropshipping” tab, “When a sale concludes” has two choices.

“Standard — the sale concludes at checkout”. The shopper pays at checkout, as for any order. This is the default.
“Promise to sell — the sale concludes when you own the goods”. For an order with a supplier part, checkout only authorises the shopper’s payment. You buy the item from the supplier with your own money first. When the supplier accepts the order, the shopper is charged once and told the purchase is confirmed. If the supplier refuses, or you cancel, the authorisation is released and the shopper is never charged.

It needs a payment method that can authorise first and charge later. Cash on delivery also works. It cannot be used with an AliExpress connection that you pay by hand.

When an order needs attention

A supplier order that cannot go ahead stops instead of guessing, and appears on the “Needs attention” page with one reason. Temporary errors, such as a supplier that does not answer, are retried by themselves first.

Your supplier balance is too low — Your balance at the supplier cannot cover this order. Top it up at the supplier, then press “Retry”.
The supplier no longer has an item — The supplier no longer offers one of the variants. Re-link the product on its “Fulfilment” tab, or fulfil this part yourself.
The supplier cannot deliver to this address — The supplier does not deliver to the shopper’s country, or you excluded it. Fulfil this part yourself, or cancel it and refund the shopper.
The cost is above your automation limit — The supplier’s cost is above a limit you set on the “Automation” card. Retry to send it anyway, or raise the limit.
The supplier price changed — The supplier’s price has moved since you imported the product. Check your margin, then press “Retry and accept the new cost”.
The customer has not paid yet — The shopper has not paid online, as with cash on delivery or a manual order. Send it yourself when you are ready, or allow unpaid orders on the “Automation” card.
The payment is not settled yet — The shopper’s payment is authorised but not settled. Wait for the payment to settle, then retry.
The supplier did not answer — The supplier did not answer, or the connection is paused after repeated errors. Retry in a moment, and if it keeps failing, press “Test” on the “Suppliers” page.
The supplier refused the order — The supplier rejected the order and its message is shown on the part. Fix the cause, then retry or fulfil it yourself.
The supplier is no longer connected — The product’s supplier connection was switched off or removed. Reconnect it, or fulfil this part yourself.
The supplier already shipped it — You cancelled after the supplier shipped. Handle it with the shopper as a return.
The connection is in test mode — The connection is in test mode and this supplier has no sandbox, so no order was placed. Switch the connection to live to place real orders.
The customer payment could not be captured — With “Promise to sell”, the supplier accepted and was paid, but charging the shopper failed. Collect the payment from the shopper, or cancel the supplier order if it has not shipped.

What sync changes, and what it never touches

Every hour, Posty5 reads the supplier for each linked product and changes only what is ticked on the product’s “Fulfilment” tab.

“Stock”, on by default — your stock counts follow the supplier’s.
“Cost”, on by default — the product’s cost is kept current. Your price does not move.
“Price”, off by default — your price is recalculated from the product’s price rule when the cost changes.
“Images”, off by default — when you press “Sync now”, your gallery is replaced with the supplier’s images, up to 10. The hourly sync never changes them.
“Description”, off by default — when you press “Sync now”, your description is replaced with the supplier’s, cleaned the same way as on import. The hourly sync never changes it.

Your images, your description and anything you leave unticked are never changed by the hourly sync. A variant the supplier stops offering is marked unavailable, never deleted. “Sync now” updates a product straight away, including the images and description if you ticked them.

Who on your staff can do what

Four staff permissions cover dropshipping — seeing suppliers and their costs, connecting and configuring suppliers, importing products, and sending and paying supplier orders. Paying a supplier spends your money, so it is not part of editing products.