Selling someone else's coffee
If you sell coffee you did not grow, this is how another supplier's lot joins your lot's chain — and what each of you controls.
Last updated 2026-10-06
In short
- A sourcing link ties another supplier's lot to a lot of yours. You ask for it; they confirm it.
- Their confirmation is not the last step. Nothing appears until you choose what your buyers see.
- Endorsement is a second, separate request. Confirming a link is not endorsing it.
Who this is for
Many suppliers sell coffee they did not grow. A collector buys cherry from farmers. An exporter buys green coffee from a collector. In Indonesia that is ordinary, not advanced.
If everything you sell comes from your own farm, you can skip this entry.
It starts with a link
The other supplier sends you a sourcing link to their lot, from that lot's page. They send it themselves, outside LotsLog — over WhatsApp, or by email. There is no search that finds their lot for you, and there is no way to link their lot without that link.
Open it and choose which of your lots the coffee is in. Nothing you do here writes to their lot. LotsLog treats it as a request and tells them. If the link opened in another browser, open Sourcing, choose "Use a link I was sent" and paste it there.
They confirm, or they decline
Linking a source is a request, and the other supplier answers it. If they decline, nothing joins your chain. If they confirm, two settings — one theirs, one yours — then decide what a buyer sees. A buyer sees whichever of the two shows less, and if either is set to "Don't show", a buyer sees nothing.
Two settings, and the smaller one is what a buyer sees
When they confirm, they also choose the most you may show about their lot: "Show name", "Type and place only" or "Don't show". That is a ceiling.
You then choose how much of that you show, under "What your buyers see" on the link, with the same three words, and press Save. A buyer sees whichever setting is smaller.
Confirmation on its own shows nothing
Your own setting starts empty, and an empty setting hides their lot from your chain. Sourcing marks such a link "Choose what buyers see" and counts them at the top of your list. Until you choose and press Save, your chain looks exactly as it did before.
If a supplier confirmed your link days ago and your chain has not changed, this is why.
Either of you can remove the link
A confirmed link is not permanent. Either of you can remove it later with "Remove this link", and their lot then leaves your chain. A request still waiting can be cancelled, and one nobody answers ends by itself after 30 days.
Endorsement is a separate handshake
Endorsement goes in the opposite direction. Once your buyers can see their lot, you can ask the other supplier for permission to vouch for their part of the chain, and they allow it or refuse.
If they allow it, the marker "Supported by" and your business name appears on their parties inside your lot's chain — the chain your own buyers read. You can withdraw it at any time, and the marker disappears.
Confirming a link is not endorsing it, and an endorsement is never required. A chain with no endorsement is a normal chain.
Words used in this journal
- Lot — one batch of coffee you are selling, and the record of it in LotsLog.
- Logged — your record of the coffee is complete. It does not mean anyone can see it.
- Active for sale, Paused, Currently unavailable — one switch, three screens. "Active for sale" is the switch on the lot. "Paused" is what My Lots calls it when the switch is off. "Currently unavailable" is what a buyer reads in your catalog.
- Sold out — a separate switch from Active for sale, for a different fact: the coffee is gone, not just that you have paused selling it. A sold-out lot still shows to buyers, marked sold out, and stays in your catalog as proof of what you sell.
- Archived — taken out of your lists and off every public page, without being deleted. Restore brings it back.
- Catalog — the list a buyer browses. A lot reaches a buyer through a catalog and through no other way.
- Chain — the parties the coffee passed through, from the source at the bottom up to you.
- Sourcing link — a record that one of your lots came from another supplier's lot. You ask for it; they confirm it.
- Show name, Type and place only, Don't show — how much of one business a buyer sees. The same three words on every screen that asks: confirming a link, your own choice on a link, and each entry in the lot form's chain.
- Published — a roaster has put your lot on their own bag. It never means a catalog.