If your Shopify purchase order isn't updating inventory, it's almost always the same reason: a purchase order alone never moves stock in Shopify. The PO records what you agreed to buy; inventory only changes when you create an inventory transfer from the purchase order and mark items as received. If you created a PO, marked it Ordered, and expected quantities to rise when the boxes arrived — nothing is broken. There's a second step, and this page walks through it, plus the other four reasons receiving looks wrong, and the one that surprises everyone: received costs never update the product's cost field, by design.
Fix 1: create the transfer and receive it
Since Shopify connected POs and transfers (June 2026), the flow is:
- Open the purchase order (it must be marked Ordered, not Draft)
- Create a transfer from the purchase order — the supplier becomes the origin, and the line items prefill
- When the shipment arrives, open the transfer and accept items — in bulk or per line
- Accepted quantities become available at the destination location immediately
If you skipped steps 2–4, your PO is just a record of intent. Create the transfer, receive it, and inventory updates.
Fix 2: check the destination location
Accepted inventory lands at the transfer's destination location. If the PO's destination was set to your warehouse and you're staring at the retail store's inventory (or vice versa), the stock updated — somewhere else. Multi-location stores hit this constantly. Open the product, check inventory , and check which destination the transfer used.