Multi-Supplier Management allows a single Product within Retail Express to maintain purchasing relationships with multiple Suppliers. This provides greater purchasing flexibility for businesses that source the same Product from different vendors, distributors, manufacturers, or regions.
Traditionally, Products were linked to a single Supplier relationship. Multi-Supplier Management expands this model by allowing Products to store supplier-specific purchasing information such as Supplier Buy pricing, Supplier SKUs, Lead Times, and Currency values for multiple Suppliers simultaneously.
Although Products can now contain multiple Supplier relationships, Retail Express still maintains a single Default Supplier for each Product. The Default Supplier remains important because many existing workflows across Retail Express continue to reference the Default Supplier relationship for reporting, replenishment, searching, and operational purchasing behaviour.
This functionality is particularly useful for businesses that:
- Purchase the same Product from multiple distributors
- Compare supplier pricing before raising Purchase Orders
- Manage regional or international suppliers
- Maintain backup suppliers for stock continuity
- Use different Supplier SKUs for the same Product
To access
Go to Inventory > Product Search & Management
On Product Search Page, Search/Edit Products > Edit Product
Navigate to Suppliers Tab
Supplier-Specific FieldsSupplier-specific fields exist because purchasing information often varies between suppliers for the same Product. Even when the physical Product is identical, suppliers may use different SKU references, pricing models, currencies, or purchasing lead times.
Each Product Supplier relationship can maintain its own purchasing information independently.
The following fields are maintained at the supplier relationship level.
Field | Description |
|---|
Supplier Buy | The supplier-specific purchase price for the Product. |
Supplier SKU | The supplier’s primary product reference or code. |
Supplier SKU2 | Additional supplier reference code used for secondary identification. |
Lead Time | Supplier-specific delivery timeframe for replenishment calculations. |
Notes | Internal purchasing notes related to the supplier relationship. |
Currency | Currency used for supplier purchasing values. |
Multi-Supplier Management allows a single product to be linked to one or many suppliers. Each supplier linked to the product is stored as a separate product-supplier record, so supplier-specific purchasing details can be maintained independently.
Products and Suppliers
- A product can have one or many suppliers
- Each supplier is stored as a product-supplier record
- Every product must always have one Default Supplier
- The Default Supplier represents the product across Reporting, Replenishment, POS, Core product views.
- Only one supplier can be set as Default at any time. Changing the Default Supplier automatically updates the product’s supplier-specific fields: Supplier, Supplier Buy, Lead Time, SKU2 (where applicable) These product‑level fields always reflect the detail setup against the current Default Supplier.
Supplier-Specific Fields
Each product-supplier record can store its own purchasing and supplier reference details. This allows different suppliers for the same product to maintain different pricing, lead times, SKUs, and internal notes.
Field | Description |
|---|
Supplier Buy | Optional. If this is not specified, the Default Supplier’s buy price is used. |
Supplier SKU | Required. Used to identify the supplier’s product reference. |
Supplier SKU2 | Optional. Used as an additional supplier-specific reference. |
Lead Time | Optional. Used to record the supplier-specific replenishment timeframe. |
Notes | Optional. Used for internal supplier-related purchasing notes. |
Currency | Displayed for clarity of the Supplier Buy price currency. |
Currency is derived from the supplier’s country, where configured, and is shown to avoid ambiguity. No currency symbol is assumed.
Supplier SKU2 Behaviour
SKU2 values are supplier-specific, not product-wide. This means multiple suppliers can have different SKU2 values for the same product.
Only the Default Supplier’s SKU2 is searchable, scannable, and used in POS and lookup features. When the Default Supplier changes, the product’s SKU2 automatically updates to match the SKU2 configured against the new Default Supplier.
SKU2 values that belong only to non-default suppliers are not searchable.
Add Suppliers
In Retail Express, the Relationship Manager is used to create and maintain the link between the Product and the Supplier. Once the Supplier is added, Retail Express treats this as a separate supplier relationship for that Product, allowing the Product to store purchasing details specific to that Supplier.
To add a Supplier:
- Go to Product Search and Management, and navigate to the Suppliers tab.
(Follow the steps above) - Enter Supplier Details and Select Add Supplier.
- The new Supplier will be added for that product. This way, each Product can maintain multiple Supplier relationships.
Edit Suppliers
Existing supplier relationships can be edited directly within the Suppliers tab by clicking the pencil icon.
Editable fields include:
- Supplier Buy
- Supplier SKU
- Supplier SKU2
- Lead Time
- Notes
- Default Supplier status
Changes apply only to the selected supplier relationship.
Set Default Supplier
To set a Supplier as the Default Supplier, open the Supplier relationship, select the Default checkbox on the Edit Supplier page, and save the changes.
When the Default Supplier changes, Retail Express automatically updates inherited product-level purchasing fields to maintain compatibility with existing workflows.
This ensures older purchasing logic continues operating correctly while still supporting multiple supplier relationships in the background.
Disable Product Suppliers
Suppliers can be disabled against a specific Product by editing and unchecking the Enabled checkbox.
Before removing a default supplier, you must assign another supplier as default.
Disabling the Supplier removes the supplier relationship from the Product, making it unavailable for purchasing and supplier selection workflows for that Product. The Supplier itself is not deleted from Retail Express nor is the supplier itself disabled globally. This can be done though, via Settings > Suppliers if you are no longer working with that supplier at all.
Duplicating Products with SuppliersWhen duplicating a Product in Back Office, you can choose whether the new Product should include the supplier relationships from the original Product.
Use the supplier checkbox during duplication if you want to create a true duplicate, including all associated product-supplier records. This is useful when creating:
- Similar Products
- Seasonal variants
- Supplier-linked duplicate inventory
- Product families with shared suppliers
Mass Upload & Download – Product Suppliers
Retail Express provides bulk tools to export, review, and manage product‑supplier relationships using a dedicated Product Suppliers CSV template.
This template is separate from the standard product upload and download files, but uses the same familiar UI and workflow. Using the Product Suppliers template, you can perform the same actions available on the Edit Product page — applied in bulk across multiple products and multiple suppliers, even within the same file.
This is particularly useful when you receive a price list from a new supplier for products you already stock. As long as you have the Product ID or SKU, along with the supplier details (Supplier Code and pricing), you can quickly upload the file to create new additional suppliers for those existing products.
- Add new suppliers to a list of product codes and upload the file to create in bulk.
- Update buy prices and supplier‑specific details for existing product suppliers (lead times, pricing etc).
- Change the Default Supplier for a product
- Disable alternate suppliers when you no longer work with a supplier
Mass Download – Product Suppliers
Supplier data can be exported by searching for products using existing filters in Product Mass Download (CSV) and then selecting a new option within the “Export” button called “Product Suppliers”. The downloaded file contains
Go to Inventory > Product Management > Mass Download
Then under Export, select Product Additional Suppliers
Each row within the export represents:
- One Product
- One Supplier relationship
This file can be used for adding new suppliers to product/s as well as editing, and ongoing maintenance of product‑supplier relationships including defaults, lead times and other values.
Mass Upload – Product Suppliers
To create a Product Supplier upload file, you can use a blank CSV file, modify an existing Product Supplier export, or download and use the preformatted Product Suppliers Template provided by Retail Express.
The template can be downloaded via:
Inventory > Product Management > Mass Upload > Download Template > Product Suppliers Template
Using the provided template helps ensure the upload file contains the correct structure and supported fields required for validation.
Upload File Requirements
Upload File Requirements
- Any suppliers you are adding must exist in the system before uploading.
- Create those first via Settings > Suppliers.
- Each row must include at least one product identifier/code to know which product to assign the changes/new suppliers against.
- If multiple identifiers are provided, they are applied in the following priority order, Product ID, Supplier SKU, Supplier SKU2. Product ID always takes precedence when present.
- Upload Rules & Validation
- Supplier Buy is required when creating a new supplier record
- Only one supplier per product can be marked as Default in a single upload
- A Default Supplier cannot be removed unless another supplier is set as Default in the same upload
Example Upload file format
The file can be a mixture of products and suppliers, both existing suppliers and new ones to be added to products. The Product ID, Supplier SKU and Short Description Fields are read-only and are there to assist users when working with the file.The supplier-specific fields are editable, as per the Back Office Edit Product > Suppliers page.
Purchase OrdersSupplier‑Aware Pricing Logic when Creating Purchase Orders
When adding a product to a Purchase Order, pricing is applied automatically based on the selected “PO Supplier” that is assigned to the PO:
- If the PO supplier matches the Default Supplier
- The Default Supplier buy price is used
- If the PO supplier matches an alternative product supplier and is enabled
- That supplier’s buy price is used. Disabled Product Suppliers are skipped/ignored.
- If the PO supplier is not listed against the product
- The Default Supplier price is used as the best known value
Users can still manually adjust pricing on the Purchase Order as normal. The behaviour here is intended to pick the best available price by checking for associated supplier specific pricing if configured.
This behaviour applies to:
- Manual Purchase Orders
- Purchase Orders created via upload (excel)
- Purchase Orders created via API
Auto‑generated POs and replenishment continue to follow the Default Supplier. When adding items to a PO, any alternative product suppliers that are marked as disabled, are not considered in the price inheriting logic.
Changing the Supplier of an Incomplete PO
If you have an incomplete purchase order and need to change its supplier (for example, if the original supplier is out of stock), Retail Express allows you to update the supplier directly on the purchase order from within the PO Details Page.
To complement Multi‑Supplier Management, you will be presented with the below prompt: “Do you want to inherit pricing from any products which have this new supplier listed as an additional supplier?”
- If you choose Yes, the Supplier Buy price is updated only for products that have the newly selected supplier configured as an alternative supplier.
- If the new supplier is not configured as an additional supplier of the product, pricing will be inherited from the product’s current default supplier, as the best known price.
- If you choose No, the supplier is updated but no pricing changes are applied.
API Endpoints – Product Suppliers
New API endpoints have been introduced to support managing multiple suppliers per product, including creating, updating, retrieving, and removing supplier‑product relationships.
- Create suppliers for a product
POST /products/{id}/suppliers - Retrieve suppliers for a product
GET /products/{id}/suppliers
GET /products/{id}/suppliers/{supplier_code} - Update suppliers (single or bulk)
PUT /products/{id}/suppliers
PUT /products/{id}/suppliers/{supplier_code} - Remove suppliers (single or bulk)
DELETE /products/{id}/suppliers
DELETE /products/{id}/suppliers/{supplier_code}
Note: All delete operations are soft deletes. Product suppliers are flagged as disabled and excluded from active supplier logic, rather than being permanently removed.
These APIs are used by Retail Express internally and can also be leveraged by integrators to maintain supplier data programmatically.
SummaryMulti-Supplier Management allows Products within Retail Express to maintain multiple supplier purchasing relationships while preserving existing Default Supplier workflows.
This functionality provides greater purchasing flexibility through:
- Supplier-specific pricing
- Multiple Supplier relationships
- Supplier-specific SKU management
- Flexible purchasing workflows
- Bulk supplier maintenance
Retail Express continues using the Default Supplier for core operational workflows while allowing businesses to manage more advanced purchasing structures behind the scenes.