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Multi-Channel Inventory Management + Order Processing?

by PerilousActs
23 replies
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What are people using for their multi-channel listings and order management?

I am looking to list approximately 800 items across both amazon and ebay. I have tried looking at just about every solution I can find googling around, but it always seems that there is some huge lack of feature that prevents me from using the product I find.

I am looking for a product that will allow me to manage my products in a single site and push them out to amazon/ebay at the minimum. It would be even nicer if the software allowed me to automatically email my vendors so the products could be drop shipped.

Below are some of the products I have looked into. If someone is familiar with any of these please comment and let us know how it is working for you. The post may help someone else in a similar situation to me.

Stitch - Increase Inventory Control with Stitch | Stitch Labs
Looks like it would work great, decent analytics, okay interface, but does not support drop shipping and constantly wants to generate PO's when product inventory is low, screwing with the accounting side of the system.

Lettuce Apps - https://lettuceapps.com/
Looks like it has every feature I want, but does not integrate with the channels I need to list my products on (confirmed via email with them). Even has a wholesale login setup so you can sell to other people in your niche and "dropship" for them.

Ordoro - http://www.ordoro.com
This is my favorite of the products I've looked at, but there is no inventory management in their software. If I could find a way to handle inventory management across all of my channels efficiently (for cheap) I could justify paying for this. I also love their UI and the overall flow of how processing works. They really shoot themselves in the foot by offering ZERO analytics though.

TradeGecko - Inventory Management Software - TradeGecko
Their product also looks very good, however I did not bother trying the demo. They lack every channel integration I need. Pricing really isn't horrible though if this would work for you.

eCommHub - Drop Shipping Software & Third-Party Fulfillment Automation for eCommerce | eCommHub
This does exactly what I want, but their pricing structure is nuts. Monthly fees similar to competitors + per order fees. Way too expensive for the niche I'm trying to work in where I'm going to have to drive high volumes to make it worth my time.

OrderHive - Orderhive: India's 1st Multichannel Order And Inventory Management System
Interface looks simple and easy to use. Sometimes I've had slow page loads and the eBay integration link does nothing in their demo. Haven't found a whole lot of reviews on them so up in the air if it is worth the time to use them.
#inventory #management #multichannel #order #processing
  • Profile picture of the author kjamesnv
    If you are interested in using the Magento platform there are nice some extensions that meet your requirements.

    M2EPro- is a great solution for listing merchandise on eBay and Amazon and some other sites like Play.com. M2Epro is a very solid system and the best part is that its totally free because its subsidized by eBay (which owns Magento).

    Embedded ERP- is a sophisticated Order Management and Warehouse Management system. It handles ordering, multiple warehouses (including supplier warehouses), printing invoices and shipping labels via Shipworks. It also manages purchasing and inventory as well optional as bar code scanning for your warehouse.

    We recently started using Embedded ERP and so far have been pleased. The cost including installation was $1400 but there are no ongoing monthly fees so its actually cheaper than most if the solutions you mentioned.

    Embedded ERP has has a sophisticated drop ship module ($500) that will automatically send orders to your drop ship suppliers. We have not used the Drop Ship module but it has received great reviews.
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  • Profile picture of the author MatthewOgborne
    Howdy PerilousActs,

    That's a fab question.

    I've actually worked for two software companies that do this, the first was MarketWorks, which is now owned by ChannelAdvisor and the second was a UK based company called eSellerPro (if you Google my user name you'll be able to verify this).

    Out of the ones you've mentioned, eCommHub is the only one I've heard of before.

    However when anyone says "autopilot" in their marketing, my BS indicator goes off, as nothing is autopilot, especially running a product based business.

    Originally Posted by PerilousActs View Post

    I am looking to list approximately 800 items across both amazon and ebay. I have tried looking at just about every solution I can find googling around, but it always seems that there is some huge lack of feature that prevents me from using the product I find.
    kjamesnv mentioned M2E Pro above. He's right it is subsidised by eBay and it's currently free to use.

    It's worth noting that M2EPro is an extension to Magento, so that it "extends" Magento beyond it's current capabilities and adds in listing & order collection support for eBay, Amazon (which is getting better), Play.com / Buy.com.

    Because it's Magento every man & his dog has an integration into Magento, so when it comes to order processing and your dropship requirement, you can either find something off the shelf from Magento Connect or as the Magento API is actually easy to use and well documented, have your own customised order sending scripts running to filter the orders off to each supplier as needed.

    Oh and on the the flip side you have the option to have a Magento website to. But not required as you just want it for the listing, inventory management and order collection side from what as said above.

    The one thing that you can't skimp on with this route is super cheap hosting, Magento needs quality hosting. I'm based in the UK and we suggest to smaller users (800 lines is small) to start with £16 a month shared hosting which is about $26.67 USD.

    $1.99 hosting will be dire for Magento and you'll soon get fed up with it running slow, as Magento is a bit of a beast when it comes to hosting requirements.

    M2EPro's documentation is "not great" and Magento is a bit scary to begin with (it took me 3 attempts to get my head around it), once you work out what's going on it's pretty slick. We made some (ok a lot) video guides at understandinge.com which should make it easier for you.

    Hope that helps PerilousActs,

    Matt
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  • Profile picture of the author Etoot
    Give a try to magento. I am sure it will solve all of your problems. Far more better than opencart, woocommerce, prestashop and many more like that! Its my personal guarantee because I am using it for years.
    Signature
    Etoot - Social Shopping
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  • Profile picture of the author tiana with ecomdash
    ***Hi PerilousActs,

    I'm not sure, but I think I may be able to help. Ecomdash automatically manages inventory, orders, shipping and listing across the seller's marketplaces and websites. We currently integrate with Amazon and eBay as well as a few website platforms. You can manage your inventory across marketplaces from our dashboard, and we do support dropshipping.
    We also offer email marketing. You can even automate emails to be sent to customers based on SKU. Would that be helpful for you? If we sound like a good fit for you, I'd love to talk.

    I hope you find exactly what you're looking for! Best of luck, and happy selling!

    Tiana with ecomdash
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  • Profile picture of the author repricerexpress
    SellerExpress will handle Amazon, eBay and Rakuten's Play.com
    Signature
    Amazon repricing software that helps you win the Buy Box more often. eBay repricing also available.
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  • Profile picture of the author Skubana
    Hey PerilousActs,

    I can offer some insight and solutions to your quandary. My names Jim with Skubana and we're an all in one cloud-based ecommerce software that has you and your company fully covered when it comes to running your business efficiently.

    Here's a simple breakdown of what Skubana can do for you:

    Order Management - Supporting in-house fulfillment, printing your labels off the cloud, 3PL, Dropships and Multi-Channel fulfillment from Amazon Distr. Centers to your Ebay customers

    Automate business processes - Our 'Orderbots' will push your tracking to all the channels, even if you do multi-channel fulfillment from Amazon Distr. Center to your eBay customers. You can create a series of 'If Then' statements to make organizing and shipping easier than its ever been.

    True Multi-Channel Inventory Management - Including kits/bundles, variations. We push the inventory to all the channels, manage your replenishment alerts, picking locations, FBA replenishment alerts - this way you can grow your business and not worry about overselling and underselling across marketplaces.

    We have out of the box integrations with Amazon.com (US, UK, CA) along with eBay, Rakuten, Sears, Newegg. For shopping carts, we integrate with Magento, BigCommerce and Shopify. No custom dev required, no extra support hours to purchase, no massive contracts to lock you into.


    We're currently signing up Beta testers. Hope this can help. PM or email me for further info.

    Jim
    Skubana.com
    Info (at) Skubana.com
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    • Profile picture of the author fuzz
      Originally Posted by Skubana View Post

      Hey PerilousActs,

      I can offer some insight and solutions to your quandary. My names Jim with Skubana and we're an all in one cloud-based ecommerce software that has you and your company fully covered when it comes to running your business efficiently.

      Here's a simple breakdown of what Skubana can do for you:

      Order Management - Supporting in-house fulfillment, printing your labels off the cloud, 3PL, Dropships and Multi-Channel fulfillment from Amazon Distr. Centers to your Ebay customers

      Automate business processes - Our 'Orderbots' will push your tracking to all the channels, even if you do multi-channel fulfillment from Amazon Distr. Center to your eBay customers. You can create a series of 'If Then' statements to make organizing and shipping easier than its ever been.

      True Multi-Channel Inventory Management - Including kits/bundles, variations. We push the inventory to all the channels, manage your replenishment alerts, picking locations, FBA replenishment alerts - this way you can grow your business and not worry about overselling and underselling across marketplaces.

      We have out of the box integrations with Amazon.com (US, UK, CA) along with eBay, Rakuten, Sears, Newegg. For shopping carts, we integrate with Magento, BigCommerce and Shopify. No custom dev required, no extra support hours to purchase, no massive contracts to lock you into.


      We're currently signing up Beta testers. Hope this can help. PM or email me for further info.

      Jim
      Skubana.com
      Info (at) Skubana.com

      I would love to beta test
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  • Profile picture of the author Acornia
    It's all pretty simple, how much do you want to spend and how much do you want to make. Let's start from the beginning, what is multi-channel. In principle the ability to sync orders, products, customers between platforms and marketplaces (we'll leave out marketing for the moment). Instead of starting from the bottom we will show you how it works from the top, thanks to an incubator, implementation consultants, architects, and venture fund.

    Enteprise companies use ERPs (SAP, Oracle) to manage their inventory, financials, crm, sales, manufacturing. They use eCommerce as the frontends (Magento, Hybris, WebSphere). Connecting them are ETL (Extract Transform Load) tools such as Tibco & Informatica that convert the datasets from one platform to another. Now a relatively new method is ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), it converts the datasets from the target platforms to a common format, and then distributes the data to the recipient platforms, only minimal connectors are required not platform to platform like ETL.

    Why does this matter for a one person business, because small business multi-channel solutions are very very cut-down versions of the above, the business problem is what did they not add. A multi-channel is effectively an ERP with ETL to the platforms or an ESB with graphical frontend. Why have you not found a solution, primarily because they haven't added the advanced features for your price point, and this is where many businesses come unstuck.

    So some will find the correct solution for their business, some will adapt their business to the solution, and the rest will be using compromised functionality or spend too much. You are going to have to go through every single provider and map their platform to your business requirements, no shortcuts. Linnworks pops up quite a lot and the solution we work with (well the cut down version anyway) is closer to Channel Advisor although it's part of a complete architecture.

    As others have mentioned you can use Magento as the master and sync that way, that's adapting your business to the technology which may or may not work for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author QuikTekInfo
    Originally Posted by PerilousActs View Post

    What are people using for their multi-channel listings and order management?

    I am looking to list approximately 800 items across both amazon and ebay. I have tried looking at just about every solution I can find googling around, but it always seems that there is some huge lack of feature that prevents me from using the product I find.

    I am looking for a product that will allow me to manage my products in a single site and push them out to amazon/ebay at the minimum. It would be even nicer if the software allowed me to automatically email my vendors so the products could be drop shipped.

    Below are some of the products I have looked into. If someone is familiar with any of these please comment and let us know how it is working for you. The post may help someone else in a similar situation to me....
    Hi

    Instead going for a software, why don't you opt for a reliable service provider who can take care of all your needs ?

    You might like to have look at QuikTek Info's End to End eCommerce services right from managing your inventory across your web store, online market places and comparison shopping engines and complete order processing.

    Please get in touch with us to know more about our services. (mail@quiktekinfo.com)
    Signature
    Data Entry Services | Catalog Processing Services | Product Upload Services
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  • Profile picture of the author AadhyaMehra
    Banned
    Well, I think, you need to take a look over Magento and Opencart eCommerce platform. Because, these platforms provide a huge number of services and features for their clients. I assure you, you will get all kinds of solution regarding your queries.
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  • Profile picture of the author CreativeWest
    Originally Posted by PerilousActs View Post

    The post may help someone else in a similar situation to me.
    No it won't, that's the problem, it comes down to your psychology and that of the customers you are trying to sell to. Do you use eBay which has more irrational buyers/sellers, Amazon which is slightly more balanced, are you chasing the next irrational customer on price or are you looking to build up a long term relationship with trust, do you understand the value of BOTH time and cost or is it just one, do you need to average out your costs to sell low value items, do you want to sell based on customer service with social interaction (time intensive) or do you want to sell at arms length (time friendly).

    Multi-channel tools can give you more time, and they can take it away, the worst part is that all the key multi-channel players have been left out so something's up.
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  • Profile picture of the author TBildstein
    Hi PerilousActs,

    The best of the best right now is SellerActive.com.

    They have the fastest re-pricing tools on Amazon and are one of the only e-commerce companies with the ability to re-price on eBay. They bring all your marketplaces to one dashboard, simplifying the order management process. Within the dashboard their smart system tracks your inventory, producing low stock reports, business reports, and more. No contracts, free 30-day trial, and an engaging support team always on hand.

    Best!

    T
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  • Profile picture of the author Lipipaliwal
    Banned
    I am sharing my personal experience. I have two Magento stores that market 20k in order to 40k per month over amazon as well as ebay. Without having m2epro my living will be miserable. This really is among the best Magento extensions available at this time, and it is the only real extension I would suggest after using a number of for Ebay or even Magento syncing.
    Technical support is awesome, fast, and totally free. They may be always trying to offer numerous choices more enhanced performance.
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  • Profile picture of the author stefanmorris09
    Depending on what platform you're using, you could try Veeqo? It works well with my WooCommerce eBay integration, but it also works with Magento (which I also use), Shopify and Amazon.
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  • Profile picture of the author droshipster
    A separate platform to organize channels is not usually needed since you can just get plugins for Woocommerce that handle the channel, so that you have everything in your Woocommerce admin panel and not separate admin panels which cost money every month.
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    WooCommerce dropship software
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  • Profile picture of the author harryvent
    My cousin own a wholesale shop, many items are stored in the warehouse. For inventory management, order processing, and track all product using Apptivo. They said looking for affordable it cost effective, easy to use. I don't know everything about this software so try to visit websites for further information.
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  • Profile picture of the author Palisetti Naga Lakshmi
    Use Columbus - warehouse and inventory management software it has all the features Warehouse and Inventory Management System Software
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  • Profile picture of the author IdosellShop
    It seems you need one solid solution for order processing, inventory synchronisation, one central management panel (I would not go for several applications instead of one- simply it is a headache), automated payments and invoicing with WMS- you can get is easily in Saas model- which means there is no much budget involved in the project. Google my nick than you might find an answer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Meena V
    I suggest <a href="https://www.contalog.com">Contalog </a>. Your Amazon and eBay accounts can be integrated with Contalog and once it is done your Amazon and eBay will be in sync with Contalog.

    You handle your inventory numbers from Amazon and eBay as with every sale happening in either of these sales channels, inventory will be updated in real-time leaving you with accurate stock information at any given time.

    Apart from inventory, order information and customer information can also be imported and managed using Contalog’s backend.
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  • Profile picture of the author IdosellShop
    I would add Idosell Shop to that list. Omnichannel solution with advance warehouse management. Ready to go offered in SaaS.
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  • Profile picture of the author steveburns
    There are many multi-channel e-commerce solutions - with rich features - to fill in the needs you have mentioned here. So I am pretty confused why you couldn't find a decent one. Since I personally use ChannelSale, I would suggest you go for it too. The solution supports both Amazon and eBay, along with many other marketplaces, webstores and comparison search engines. Love their integration, very quick and easy.

    To save you from the mistake of actually trying so many solutions, I would suggest that whichever name you pick and commit, make sure to check its demo. Will save your time and take you a long way.
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  • Profile picture of the author jons butler
    It looks you posted your topic 4 years ago, hope now your number would be increased

    You can easily manage your inventory and order processing across all marketplaces from one platform. Nowadays the industry has been growing up and now you have so many options who can fulfill your requirements along with few more added features like listing management, catalog management, warehouse management, drop-shipping and more.

    Multi-Channel inventory and order processing are one of the major requirement of all company and they look functionalities like bulk import and export, synchronizing data, real time inventory update, automate process and more.

    The company listed above are limited to the features and you can not get services that i mentioned above, so I can recommend here Mobilityecommerce for all these requirements, they offer all above required features along with other services too.

    You can also integrate your webstore to NetSuite, SAP Business One and Quickbooks and other ERP integration. Using all these services you automate your all daily manual works, accounting & financial data, synchronized and most important you can be increased your productivities by 60%. just try let's see what changes you look in your business, hope this will help you out here
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrew Ambrose Jr
    We sell on eBay, Etsy, shop.com, Amazon, Walmart, Rakuten, Newegg and some more, can this company support all these marketplaces as because you haven't mentioned this information in your post.
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