Forums: Multi Channel Management Software (Page 1 of 1)

Contributions: 3
Joined: Dec 21, 2009

Multi Channel Management Software
« on: Dec 21, 2009, 5:15pm »

Hi,

We are looking for a complete order management system for our business. We sell on our own website, eBay and Amazon. We handle roughly 3000 orders per week and have around 10,000 SKUs.

Ive heard of Channel Advisor but dont want that. The best from what I have seen is eSeller, however, I have a friend who uses it and I know it can be difficult getting hold of them.

Im really after something where the company offers a better service (even if they charge a bit more). Ideally id like something with some sort of service level guarantee on the part of the provider built in. Does anyone know of a system that offers this?

The other option is to have a bespoke system made. Can anyone recommened someone?

What sort of system do the big players like BUY.COM and ARGOS.COM use?

Thanks

Andy

London, England United Kingdom

Contributions: 774
Joined: Jan 1, 2001

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #1 on: Dec 22, 2009, 11:54am »

Hi smithster1,

You might be falling between two camps here. The marketplace (eBay, Amazon etc.) software providers aren't always very strong when it comes to your own independent web store, and the web store providers tend to be weak when it comes to marketplace integration. If marketplaces bring in the majority of your sales you would probably be better served by a company like ChannelAdvisor or eSellerPro who aim their products at sellers like you and have offices in the UK so can provide the service level you want. Other UK-based companies include Cascade and 247 Top Seller.

The biggest online retailers in the UK, such as Argos, have annual technology budgets in the millions and internal development teams along with specialist software providers and consultants. Take a look at the Web Retailer directory to see what's available at that kind of level.

Web Retailer - Join us on Facebook or Twitter! Grin

smithster1

Contributions: 3
Joined: Dec 21, 2009

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #2 on: Jan 6, 2010, 3:54pm »

Has anyone here has eSeller pro linked with their own website (i.e. a website that eSellerpro did not originally create)?

jacobjacob

California United States

Contributions: 7
Joined: Jan 6, 2010

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #3 on: Jan 6, 2010, 11:38pm »

Hi smithster1,

Do you only list on ebay.com or also list on the other eBay website

JacobJacob

Jax Music Supply

Richmond, VA United States

Contributions: 56
Joined: May 25, 2009

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #4 on: Jan 7, 2010, 6:01am »

I have Channel Advisor. it is a good tool for listing on eBay and Amazon as well as managing inventory. Their webstore basically sucks and their "Upgraded" version is a rip - off. Unfortunately, we have not found a good solution that handles the 2 primary marketplaces while allowing you to maintain your own webstore of your choice.

Linnworks comes close in that it manages inventory between Amazon, Ebay, and many shopping carts. It also handles much of the processing for shipping, etc. Unfortunately, we've not gotten any of the features to work. We have an evaluation license we have been using for a few items on alternative account. The program crashes when trying to print. We haven't been able to get the postage system integrated (Endicia/Dazzle). We did get the inventory to increment down but it did not relist the item and only decreases upon shipment - not upon sold. This could create an overselling situation. Looking at writing our own at this point.

Jax Music Supply

Web: www.Jax-Music.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Jax-Music-Supply/141868042681

jacobjacob

California United States

Contributions: 7
Joined: Jan 6, 2010

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #5 on: Jan 7, 2010, 8:42am »

Jax Music Supply,

Mind if I ask what are the Channel Advisor fees?

JacobJacob

smithster1

Contributions: 3
Joined: Dec 21, 2009

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #6 on: Jan 7, 2010, 3:49pm »

We list to eBay UK, Amazon & Our own website at present. Im trying to figure out if anyone has sucessfully integrated eSeller pro with their own website though?

Regards

Jax Music Supply

Richmond, VA United States

Contributions: 56
Joined: May 25, 2009

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #7 on: Jan 7, 2010, 10:21pm »

They have a couple of programs that would make it different based on your volume. We are on the cusp point (for the last few months) that make it the same for either program. In any case, the basic fees we are paying is $500 a month plus 1% of gross sales. It may have changed and you can probably negotiate some.

However, I feel they are too expensive for what they offer. Additionally, their service is not very good. There is no phone number for tech support, you have to put in a ticket. You call their published number, which is for sales, and they refuse to transfer you. This is pretty bad for what you pay, considering that we pay maybe $200 per year for one of our hosting companies and they have 24x7 support by phone and chat.

Jax Music Supply

Web: www.Jax-Music.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Jax-Music-Supply/141868042681

Linn Systems

Contributions: 23
Joined: Mar 20, 2009

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #8 on: Jan 8, 2010, 10:35pm »

may I jump in rather biasly here Wink

Jax Music Supply, give us a shout on a live chat to determine the problem with Endicia integration. They have recently released an update which may have caused some labels to report Address Verification problem. It is fixed in the latest version.
Also the system may not relist your listing on eBay because of several reasons you can find this out from the logs quite easily.

smithster1, I am afraid nobody will give you a phone number for technical support for order management systems or similar systems. The reason is quite simple:
- in order to anwer your questions the person on the other end would have to be very clued up and knowledgable on both fronts - technical aspects and know online selling very well. Basically the person on the other end of the phone would be a high end developer who costs at least 50 quit an hour. Since you would have about a million questions to ask (this being a business system - there are a million questions to ask) you could be on the phone for hours - making it rather unprofitable venture for the software vendor.

We at Linn Systems had a technical support phone number for a bit, but its just not worth it - most questions asked can be answered by reading documentation. So we resorted to Live Chat for product enquiries and ticket system for support. This seems to work well with most of our users. When urgent support is needed users go into live chat and get transfered to a developer (although a developer costs as 50 quit an hour, live chat can be a background thing - so works pretty well).

From what I know most big online sellers these days use SAP Business One, it costs around £70k plus around £5k maintance. There you have a phone number.

Jax Music Supply

Richmond, VA United States

Contributions: 56
Joined: May 25, 2009

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #9 on: Jan 9, 2010, 4:14pm »

Linn folks..we've tried several times. In fact, we have gotten up early to catch you all as we are on the eastern us. Nobody has been on live chat. We will keep trying. You guys have been good about responding to emails except for a couple ofdays this week which I assume you were on holiday for Orthodox Christmas.

Jax Music Supply

Web: www.Jax-Music.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Jax-Music-Supply/141868042681

chris0241

Contributions: 3
Joined: Jul 4, 2010

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #10 on: Jul 4, 2010, 11:11am »

We have had the same issue with Linn Systems for the past 10 months or so... they are NEVER on live chat despite what they promise. We've left numerous voicemails and emails in an attempt to get systems setup and working.

Such a shame as the system seems awesome!

gixxercat

gixxercat United States

Contributions: 5
Joined: Jul 25, 2010

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #11 on: Jul 25, 2010, 12:23am »

We signed up for Channel Advisor about 6 weeks ago and so far it seems to have been the worst business decision I have made to date. No call in customer service, only email. When you email, they send you a generic reply stating that the problem has been addressed, thank you. No call backs from my account representative, no complaint department and the most confusing set up we have ever seen.
They make an appointment with you to help you get set up then they try to rush you along and send you a screenshot as your help. Thanks a lot Amanda!
Our last appointment we were told, " it looks great so we can close this out now right?" We are no where near ready to go it on our own but it is 2 weeks from one appointment to the next.
They also told us that help getting started with Amazon is an additional fee, even though it was in our original contract.
11 months to go in this contract. Welcome to the hell that is Channel Advisor!

Jax Music Supply

Richmond, VA United States

Contributions: 56
Joined: May 25, 2009

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #12 on: Jul 30, 2010, 4:13am »

Yes, we had CA for a year. I cannot recommend any one using them or Zoovy

Jax Music Supply

Web: www.Jax-Music.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Jax-Music-Supply/141868042681

gixxercat

gixxercat United States

Contributions: 5
Joined: Jul 25, 2010

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #13 on: Jul 30, 2010, 4:29am »

Hey, Jax. Who are you using now?

Jax Music Supply

Richmond, VA United States

Contributions: 56
Joined: May 25, 2009

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #14 on: Jul 30, 2010, 4:42am »

We wrote our own system to synchronize our shopping cart and eBay. We are going to add Amazon eventually but or Amazon volume is not that much. Jack

Jax Music Supply

Web: www.Jax-Music.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Jax-Music-Supply/141868042681

Stone Edge Technologies

Contributions: 5
Joined: Jul 2, 2005

Re: Multi Channel Management Software
« Reply #15 on: Jul 30, 2010, 12:28pm »

Sorry for coming to this discussion so late, but I can offer at least a partial solution. We do not have anything to offer on the listing side, but the Stone Edge Order Manager (stoneedge.com/ordermanager.htm) should be able to handle most, if not all, of your back-end order management requirements. The Order Manager can import orders from Amazon, eBay and about 40 popular shopping cart systems. There is also an API that lets you integrate it with custom shopping carts. It is designed for multi-channel merchants: you can import orders from any combination of sources into one database, where they will share the same customers and inventory, while retaining the branding of your various channels. The Order Manager is used by over 2,500 merchants. Most of them handle 10 to 500 orders per day, but we also have 11 users in this year's Internet Retailer Top 500, shipping as many as 4,000 to 5,000 orders per day.

And sorry, Linn Systems, but we do give telephone support for our order management system. Yes, it is expensive (currently 10 full-time employees for tech support alone), but we find that it is the only effective way to give our users the level of support that they need. And our prices are much closer to yours than to SAP's!

I will be glad to answer any questions about our systems here in this forum, or give us a call at 610-994-3699.

Barney Stone, President
Stone Edge Technologies, Inc.
www.StoneEdge.com