Odoo Dropshipping: Setup and Common Pitfalls

Dropshipping lets you sell products you do not stock: the vendor ships directly to your customer. Odoo handles this with the dropship route, which creates the purchase order and delivery automatically.

How it works

1. A customer orders a dropship product.
2. Confirming the sales order creates a purchase order to the vendor, with the customer's address as the delivery address.
3. The vendor ships to the customer.
4. You validate the dropship transfer when the vendor confirms shipment.
5. You invoice the customer and pay the vendor bill.

Setup

• Enable the dropshipping option in Purchase or Inventory settings.
• On dropship products, set a vendor with price and lead time.
• Tick the Dropship route on the product, or on specific sales order lines.

If a product is sometimes stocked and sometimes dropshipped, leave the route off the product and select it on the order line when needed.

Vendor communication

The purchase order shows the customer's delivery address. Send it to the vendor by email, portal or EDI. Ask vendors to send tracking numbers so you can pass them on.

Delivery status

Validate the dropship transfer when the vendor ships. This updates the sales order delivered quantity, which matters if you invoice on delivery.

Invoicing

Choose the invoicing policy:

• Ordered quantities: invoice right away
• Delivered quantities: invoice after the dropship is validated

Delivered is safer, but needs vendors to confirm shipment promptly.

Accounting

Dropshipped goods do not pass through inventory, so the cost goes straight to cost of goods sold when the transfer is validated, depending on your valuation settings. Check this with your accountant before go-live.

eCommerce

Dropshipping works with the Odoo website and connectors such as Shopify. Show realistic delivery times based on vendor lead times.

Common pitfalls

• Forgetting to validate dropship transfers, so orders look undelivered
• Missing vendor prices, so purchase orders have zero cost
• Vendors not sharing tracking, so customers chase you

See our Odoo inventory routes explained for how routes work.