Matrixify does not support Shopify inventory transfers. If you move stock between locations in bulk, manage incoming shipments from suppliers, or need to reconcile received and rejected quantities across multiple warehouses, Matrixify can’t help — it has no inventory transfer columns, no shipment tracking fields, and no integration with Shopify’s Inventory Transfers API.
Altera supports full import, export, and bulk editing of Shopify inventory transfers — including line items, shipments, tracking numbers, and the full Draft → In Transit → Received workflow.
What Are Shopify Inventory Transfers?#
Inventory transfers are the Shopify object used to move stock from one location to another — for example, replenishing a retail store from a warehouse, receiving a shipment from an external supplier, or redistributing inventory between fulfillment centers. Each transfer tracks:
- Origin and destination locations — internal locations, or an external supplier when one side is blank
- Line items — the variants and quantities being moved, looked up by SKU or barcode
- Status — Draft, Ready to Ship, In Transit, Partially Received, Received, or Cancelled
- Shipments — one or more shipments per transfer, each with tracking company, tracking number, tracking URL, ETA, and barcode
- Received and rejected quantities — per line item and per shipment, for reconciliation against what was actually delivered
- Reference name, tags, and notes — for tying transfers back to purchase orders or internal workflows
Transfers are managed in the Shopify admin under Products → Transfers, or through Shopify’s GraphQL Admin API.
What Matrixify Does (and Doesn’t Do)#
Matrixify cannot:
- Export inventory transfers from a store
- Import or create new inventory transfers
- Update existing transfers, line items, or shipments
- Manage tracking numbers, tracking URLs, or ETAs in bulk
- Transition transfers through the Draft → In Transit → Received workflow
- Reconcile received and rejected quantities against shipments
Matrixify’s supported data types include products, collections, customers, orders, discounts, pages, blogs, metafields, metaobjects, and more — but inventory transfers are not among them. Merchants with multi-location stores who need to move stock in bulk are left doing it one transfer at a time in the Shopify admin.
The Multi-Location Inventory Problem#
Shopify’s built-in transfer UI works well for a handful of transfers, but breaks down quickly at scale:
- Creating dozens of draft transfers by hand is slow and error-prone
- Updating tracking numbers across many shipments means clicking into each one individually
- Reconciling received vs. rejected quantities across multiple shipments requires manual data entry
- There is no way to export a full history of transfers for reporting or auditing
- Agencies and 3PLs who manage inventory for multiple stores have no way to script or automate transfer workflows
Without a bulk tool, high-volume merchants end up building spreadsheets in parallel to Shopify — or skipping the Transfers feature entirely and losing visibility into in-transit stock.
How Altera Handles Inventory Transfers#
Altera treats inventory transfers as a first-class data type with full import, export, and bulk update support.
Export:
- Pull every transfer, line item, and shipment into a single spreadsheet
- Columns for status, reference name, tags, origin and destination, and aggregated received and rejected quantities
- Filter exports by status, origin, destination, product, variant, tag, or creation date
- Include metafields for custom metadata storage
- Leave the origin or destination blank to represent stock from an external supplier
Import:
- Create new draft transfers in bulk by listing line items with a SKU or barcode. Origin and destination can be looked up by location name.
- Update existing transfers by ID — edit the note, tags, reference name, and line items. Line-item deletions are supported via
Line Item: Command = DELETE. - Manage shipments inline using
Shipment 1:,Shipment 2:, etc. columns. Set tracking company, tracking number, tracking URL, ETA, and barcode. - Walk the workflow — move a transfer from Draft through Ready to Ship, In Transit, Partially Received, and Received in a single import.
- Cancel stale transfers without leaving your spreadsheet.
Line items and shipments:
- Line items matched by SKU or barcode, with Product and Variant titles included on export
- Per-line-item shippable, shipped, received, and rejected quantities exported for reconciliation
- Multiple shipments per transfer using numbered column prefixes
See the inventory transfers field reference for the full column list and a sample file.
Frequently Asked Questions#
Does Matrixify support Shopify inventory transfers? No. Matrixify does not support inventory transfers. It cannot import, export, or update transfers, shipments, or tracking details.
Can I create new transfers with Altera, or only update existing ones? Both. You can create new draft transfers from a spreadsheet by listing line items with a SKU or barcode, and you can update existing transfers by ID to edit notes, tags, line items, and shipments.
Does Altera support tracking numbers and shipment statuses? Yes. Each shipment supports tracking company, tracking number, tracking URL, ETA, barcode, and status. You can walk a shipment from Draft through In Transit to Received in a single import.
How do I represent a transfer from an external supplier? Leave the Origin Location column blank. Altera treats a blank origin or destination as an external party, matching Shopify’s native behavior. This is useful for inbound purchase orders or stock leaving for an external destination.
Can I use Altera’s inventory transfers with Matrixify for everything else? Yes. Altera uses the same Matrixify-compatible spreadsheet format. You can use Matrixify for data types it supports and Altera for inventory transfers, translations, metafield definitions, metaobject definitions, and other data types Matrixify doesn’t cover.
See our full Altera vs. Matrixify comparison for a breakdown of all the differences between the two tools, or check the FAQ for more common questions.
