Suppliers: Selling Stock to Businesses & Ordering From Suppliers

Suppliers sell stock, materials and consumables to the other businesses on Informativ: restaurants, venues, vendors, organisers, artists, lessors and providers. It's business-to-business only. Buyers pay up front, so a supplier is never chasing an invoice.

Becoming a Supplier

Turn on Supplier Management in Profile → Feature Access. Then fill in Dashboard → Supplier → Profile: business name, description, address (pick it from the suggestions so it has map coordinates), the types of supplier you are, and your delivery options.

Your catalogue goes live once everything below is in place. The hub shows what's still missing:

• Business name, description and a full address
• At least one published product
• Approved banking details (Profile → Banking)
• Approved verification: your CIPC registration, plus a food-safety certificate if you sell food or drink
• An active return policy and an active cancellation policy

Your Products

Add products one by one on Dashboard → Supplier → Catalog, or upload many at once from a spreadsheet with Bulk Upload. Each product has a price, a minimum order and stock. Add bulk-price tiers to make larger quantities cheaper (e.g. 50+ at R9 each); the tier matching the buyer's quantity applies automatically. A published product is locked; unpublish it to edit its details.

Bulk Upload works in three steps: download the template (or Download My Products to edit what you already list), fill it in in Excel or Google Sheets, then upload the CSV. Before anything is saved you'll see a review of what will be created or updated and any rows that can't be used, with the row number and the reason. Type categories by name from the searchable list on the page (where two categories share a name, use the slug shown). Add an image_url column with a link to each product's photo (Google Drive and Dropbox share links work) and it's downloaded for products that don't have a photo yet. Products synced from your online shop keep the stock their feed sends; other changes you upload stay yours.

Selling by weight. Choose Sold: By weight to price a product per kg (or per g). Set a quantity step (e.g. 0.25 kg) and a minimum that's a multiple of it (e.g. 0.5 kg). Buyers order in those steps and pay for the weight they order. Stock can be a decimal, like 20.5 kg. Products uploaded from a spreadsheet start as per-item; switch them to by-weight on their edit page.

Connect Your Online Shop

Already sell online on WooCommerce, Shopify or PrestaShop? On Dashboard → Supplier → Connected Shop, enter your shop's address (PrestaShop also needs a read-only Webservice key from your web developer). We read your shop's public catalogue on a schedule and keep your Informativ products and stock in step with it. We never change anything in your shop.

• Nothing syncs until we have your written permission. Our team contacts you to confirm it, then the first sync runs.
• Map your shop's categories to Informativ categories. Products come in once their category is mapped, and arrive unpublished for you to check (or turn on auto-publish).
• Your edits stick. Change a synced product's price, name, description or category and the sync never overwrites it. Stock always comes from your shop.
• Set an optional business discount off your shop prices. If your shop price changes under a price you set yourself, the product is flagged in your Catalog instead of being repriced.
• A product that leaves your shop is hidden here, and comes back if it returns.
• Shops that only show in or out of stock (WooCommerce and Shopify's public catalogues) sell without a quantity. If your shop can't be read for 24 hours, synced products pause until it can, and we tell you if syncing keeps failing.
• Disconnect any time: your products stay, unpublished, ready for you to manage by hand.

Delivery Options

• Pickup: free; the buyer collects from your address.
• Your own delivery: a flat fee you set, paid to you in full with no commission on it. You can waive it on orders over an amount you choose.
• Platform delivery: switch on Offer platform fleet delivery and buyers can pay a same-day delivery partner at checkout, wherever a fleet is in range. A driver collects from your address; the delivery fee goes to the fleet, not to you.

Handling Orders

An order reaches your Orders inbox only once the buyer has paid, so there's no accept step. Prepare it, mark it Dispatched, then Completed (the buyer can also confirm receipt).

• Packed less by weight? Before dispatch, use Record Packed Weights. The difference (plus VAT if the order had VAT) is refunded to the buyer straight away and taken off your balance. Packing more is at your cost. Each line can be recorded once.
• Platform delivery: have the order packed for the driver's pickup time. If the fleet declines, the buyer gets the delivery fee back and you deliver another way, or cancel.
• Can't fulfil it? Cancel with a reason. The buyer is refunded everything still outstanding, and the platform commission already collected isn't returned to you. Once a delivery driver has collected the order, it can't be cancelled from your dashboard.

Your Money

We take a single commission on the goods only (the current rate is on the Pricing page), never on your own delivery fee. Each sale is credited to your supplier balance, net of commission, as soon as it's paid, and paid out to your verified bank account. Every order has a downloadable invoice.

Ordering From a Supplier

Any business account can order: Organizer, Artist, Lessor, Vendor, Venue Manager/Owner or Provider. Browse /suppliers, add products to a cart (one cart per supplier), and check out:

• Choose Pickup, the supplier's delivery, or platform delivery where offered. The platform delivery price is quoted live and checked again when you pay.
• Pay by card through our payment gateway. Your order is confirmed the moment payment clears, and tracked under My Supplier Orders (platform deliveries also appear in My Deliveries).
• By-weight products are ordered in the supplier's steps. If they pack less than you ordered, the difference is refunded to your card automatically.
• If the delivery fleet declines, the delivery fee is refunded and the supplier gets your order to you another way. If the supplier cancels, you're refunded in full.

Restaurants and bars can reorder ingredients straight from Venues → Ingredients → Reorder, which suggests quantities (or weights) from your stock levels and fills the right supplier carts.

Ordering Together (Group Orders)

Several businesses can order from the same supplier together and share one delivery trip. On the supplier's page, choose Start a group order, pick the group's delivery and when orders close, then share the group's link. Find your groups under My Group Orders.

• Joining: anyone with a business account can open the link and join while it's collecting. Choose to collect or to have your order delivered to your address. One trip takes up to 5 drop-off addresses; businesses at the same address share a stop.
• Your order: add your own items on the group page. Other members see your business name and order total, never your address or items. You can leave (or leave and rejoin to change your address) until the group closes.
• When it closes: prices are confirmed at the supplier's prices that day, the supplier's minimum order applies to the whole group, and anyone whose items are out of stock is removed without being charged. The delivery fee is split between the stops by distance and then by order size, and never costs you more than ordering alone. Collecting is free.
• Paying: you pay only your own share, within 48 hours. It's all or nothing — if anyone doesn't pay in time, the whole group is cancelled and everyone who paid is refunded in full.
• Delivery: the driver drops each order at its own stop. If nobody can receive yours, your goods go back to the supplier for you to collect (the delivery share isn't refunded).
• For suppliers: groups that are still forming show under Orders → Group orders forming, with what's being ordered. Once every member has paid, the orders arrive in your inbox, and the group page becomes a packing list by drop-off stop. Cancelling a paid group order cancels it for everyone and refunds every buyer.

Reviews, Standing & Your Sales Report

• Reviewing a supplier: once an order is completed (you confirmed receipt, or the supplier marked it completed), open it under My Supplier Orders and choose Review this Order. Rate the goods and the supplier's service separately, from 1 to 5 stars. One review per order; in a group order each business reviews its own share. Reviews show on the supplier's public page with your business name.
• Dispatch on time: suppliers promise to dispatch within their lead time (set on the supplier profile, or 24 hours if none is set), counted from when the order reaches them - for a group order, from when the last member paid. The deadline shows on the order. Each order (or group order) dispatched late, or still not dispatched once the time has passed, costs 2 points on the Supplier standing. Changing the lead time later doesn't move the deadline of orders you already have.
• Cancelling: cancelling a paid order costs the supplier 1 point - a group order cancelled as a whole counts once. The buyer is still refunded in full.
• Reviews and standing: a service rating above 3 stars earns the supplier a point, below 3 costs one (the goods rating doesn't affect standing). See Points & Account Standing.
• Sales Report: suppliers (and team members with Supplier Orders access) can open Supplier → Sales Report for a period: goods sales, commission, short-pack refunds, own delivery fees and estimated net earnings, orders completed and cancelled, on-time dispatch rate, ratings, best-selling products, who buys and sales by month. Download it as a CSV, or see it in the app under More → Supplier. Reviews are under Supplier → Reviews.