Alternatives to Linnworks
- Thread starter GraemeL
- Start date
We use www.mintsoft.co.uk - it's what our fulfilment company uses so we don't have a choice in the matter, but it looks like you can use it independent of a fulfilment company as a multi-channel order management system. It works pretty well, support is great and they are very open to new feature requests.
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I have been looking at zenstores. It is considerably cheaper. The big downside is lack of inventory control. However Amazon itself now does this across all the EU Amazons and the problem is then just to keep my web sites and Ebay in line. I am considering either doing this manually OR using Woocommerce and a couple of extensions that suck inventory in from Amazon and exports inventory to Ebay and then keeps the stock levels in line.
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- Original Poster
- #5
From http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/threads/linnworks-channelgrabber-any-others.319506/
- Brightpearl
- ChannelAdvisor
- ChannelGrabber
- eSellerPro
- Linnworks
- SellerDynamics
- SellerExpress
- StoreFeeder
- Veeqo
- XSellCo
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I think Linnworks is pretty good.
But there is a list of others here:
http://alternativeto.net/tag/multichannel-e-commerce/
But there is a list of others here:
http://alternativeto.net/tag/multichannel-e-commerce/
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P
Page
Surprisingly they all charge money to support their staffing and business structure
I know I know - it is outrageous
Do yourself a favour - do the sums on moving - even if there was something cheaper - and get on with running your business instead
If you have simple requirements then there might be an alternative
If you can self synch stock levels or have buckets - then process using channels own set up is an option
Otherwise my advise is decide what you business and time is about before you then look at alternatives
Because only then can you make a good decision as to what is right for you
It might suprise you but there is not yet that i know of - a firm out there offering the same for next to nothing
It does happen though - hey i am old enough to remember email addresses being provided for free - and now that is the norm
I know I know - it is outrageous
Do yourself a favour - do the sums on moving - even if there was something cheaper - and get on with running your business instead
If you have simple requirements then there might be an alternative
If you can self synch stock levels or have buckets - then process using channels own set up is an option
Otherwise my advise is decide what you business and time is about before you then look at alternatives
Because only then can you make a good decision as to what is right for you
It might suprise you but there is not yet that i know of - a firm out there offering the same for next to nothing
It does happen though - hey i am old enough to remember email addresses being provided for free - and now that is the norm
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Not entirely sure what you're looking for but 18 months ago I sold on Amazon mainly, eBay a bit, and wanted my own website which would sync inventory.
Lynnworks came up in my search so assume this may be relevant - I wanted low cost and high degree of control and chose the following:
WordPress as the foundation (free)
Woocommerce as the e-commerce plugin (free) and to sync the inventory
WP Labs (£200 appx pa)
After one year of this setup I'm sticking with it. The developers at WP Labs are response and honest.
Lynnworks came up in my search so assume this may be relevant - I wanted low cost and high degree of control and chose the following:
WordPress as the foundation (free)
Woocommerce as the e-commerce plugin (free) and to sync the inventory
WP Labs (£200 appx pa)
After one year of this setup I'm sticking with it. The developers at WP Labs are response and honest.
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Another one to the list... http://expandly.com/ £20pcm (http://expandly.com/expandly-pricing/) ...not as fully functional as Linnworks (no bulk edit - though they said it was in the pipeline)....but when you look at what they offer/allow for £20pcm...it's quite compelling.
I'm likely going to bail on Linnworks (I'll know for sure come January!)...it's a good product, but I've had to deploy too many workarounds for 'quirks' on each channel (especially Amazon FBA)...and the way they've handled this "exciting price restructuring announcement" tells me they haven't got a clue on the PR aspect.
I'm likely going to bail on Linnworks (I'll know for sure come January!)...it's a good product, but I've had to deploy too many workarounds for 'quirks' on each channel (especially Amazon FBA)...and the way they've handled this "exciting price restructuring announcement" tells me they haven't got a clue on the PR aspect.
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I'm leaving this January as well due to the insane price rise on linnworks. Quite disappointed as I only had them for a year, it was so much work to set up, and now I have to do it all over again with another provider!
But even though I could theoretically afford it, the handling of this fiasco was just too horrid for me to stay. The have simply expressed too much disdain for loyal customers, not only by their actions but also in their responses on their blogs. People were upset at the triple price rise and posting about it, and the linnworks folks were very rude and condescending to them. I'm not a masochist so I say no thanks - I don't pay companies who might treat me that way. And this is the same customer service that's supposed to justify tripling the cost? I think this is the start of a death spiral for them. As more people leave, they'll keep charging the remaining ones more (while being rude to them) until there's nothing left.
So for people in the same boat, what are you currently trialing and how has it gone in comparison to linnworks so far?
I've just completed an expandly trial and the jury is still out. They were designed for sellers with only one channel to 'expand' to other channels, but if you already have other channels they can not currently accomodate products that are not 100% identical in price and variations. So if you import your ebay listings, and then import your shopify listings, but your shopify is cheaper or you only listed some colours on one, it creates a duplicate product. Sadly there is no way to merge, link, or map these products manually, they are simply 2 separate items and can not be linked in any way. The system is supposed to auto detect matches, but it doesn't care about skus, only price and variations being identical, and when the automation fails there is no way to manually link them. So in my case, they could not sync my channels because the listings are not identical in every way to eachother.
HOWEVER they said in a few weeks they will be updating the automation to just match sku for sku, so it may or may not work in a few weeks. They also said manual linking and mapping will be available next year.
Their CS is amazing and was very helpful, they even agreed to give me a 2nd trial once the automation is fixed to at least match products by sku. So I'll update in a few weeks on whether it's working or not. Other than that I found the interface simple, comfortable, and very modern and up with the times. It's cloud based so the whole interface is just on the website, very similar to .net on linnworks, except simpler and not in beta.
For £20 per month flat, they link to loads of channels, not just ebay, amazon, etsy, and shopify, but to like every channel under the sun. They offer free phone and webchat included, with no limits on users, channels, or sales. So price wise they are amazing and I really hope they can get with the game for customers who already have multiple channels by January.
In the mean time, I'll be setting up a trial with one stop order processing, which is a dinosaur looking desktop app and an ancient looking PR website, but it DOES appear to offer mapping and linking for users who already have multiple channels. They do stock sync and pick/pack with a few other bells and whistles. I'll update on one stop order processing after my trial as well. They are also roughly £20 per month, but they do count users and charge for phone support. Still loads cheaper than even the old linnworks prices though!
Please share what you are trialing and how its going, and what it's costing. There's loads of us in the sinking linnworks boat right now looking to jump ship ;-)
But even though I could theoretically afford it, the handling of this fiasco was just too horrid for me to stay. The have simply expressed too much disdain for loyal customers, not only by their actions but also in their responses on their blogs. People were upset at the triple price rise and posting about it, and the linnworks folks were very rude and condescending to them. I'm not a masochist so I say no thanks - I don't pay companies who might treat me that way. And this is the same customer service that's supposed to justify tripling the cost? I think this is the start of a death spiral for them. As more people leave, they'll keep charging the remaining ones more (while being rude to them) until there's nothing left.
So for people in the same boat, what are you currently trialing and how has it gone in comparison to linnworks so far?
I've just completed an expandly trial and the jury is still out. They were designed for sellers with only one channel to 'expand' to other channels, but if you already have other channels they can not currently accomodate products that are not 100% identical in price and variations. So if you import your ebay listings, and then import your shopify listings, but your shopify is cheaper or you only listed some colours on one, it creates a duplicate product. Sadly there is no way to merge, link, or map these products manually, they are simply 2 separate items and can not be linked in any way. The system is supposed to auto detect matches, but it doesn't care about skus, only price and variations being identical, and when the automation fails there is no way to manually link them. So in my case, they could not sync my channels because the listings are not identical in every way to eachother.
HOWEVER they said in a few weeks they will be updating the automation to just match sku for sku, so it may or may not work in a few weeks. They also said manual linking and mapping will be available next year.
Their CS is amazing and was very helpful, they even agreed to give me a 2nd trial once the automation is fixed to at least match products by sku. So I'll update in a few weeks on whether it's working or not. Other than that I found the interface simple, comfortable, and very modern and up with the times. It's cloud based so the whole interface is just on the website, very similar to .net on linnworks, except simpler and not in beta.
For £20 per month flat, they link to loads of channels, not just ebay, amazon, etsy, and shopify, but to like every channel under the sun. They offer free phone and webchat included, with no limits on users, channels, or sales. So price wise they are amazing and I really hope they can get with the game for customers who already have multiple channels by January.
In the mean time, I'll be setting up a trial with one stop order processing, which is a dinosaur looking desktop app and an ancient looking PR website, but it DOES appear to offer mapping and linking for users who already have multiple channels. They do stock sync and pick/pack with a few other bells and whistles. I'll update on one stop order processing after my trial as well. They are also roughly £20 per month, but they do count users and charge for phone support. Still loads cheaper than even the old linnworks prices though!
Please share what you are trialing and how its going, and what it's costing. There's loads of us in the sinking linnworks boat right now looking to jump ship ;-)
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I totally agree about the Linnworks 'exciting price restructuring' blog fiasco.....to paraphrase Jack Nicholson "Go sell crazy somewhere else ....we're all stocked up here!". - when I saw how woeful that whole episode was & their (inevitable) "We're listening & 'reaching out' ....but NOT budging" stance I decided to bail on the product. I've always been a strong advocate, but that was just too much to stomach.
After trialing Expandly (great support but 'not quite there' IMHO - the price is right though), I (reluctantly) I didn't have the heart/stamina to trial other offerings so I decided to roll my own replacement for Linnworks - I mean how hard can it be?!!!
Hmm, 'quite tricky' it transpires (IMHO, the Amazon Ebay APIs are FUBAR & cause a lot of brain-ache for anyone new - like me - to the party)
So, I've been busy beavering away coding my own Linnworks replacement for my business for the past 3 weeks (even staying up coding until 2.00am after the kids have gone to bed, as this yields some quiet hours) ...I'm about two thirds done, so on track (it's a beast of an amount of work) ...but it's quite therapeutic as I progress (i.e. ironing out all those niggles I've had to tolerate with Linnworks!)...at last I can control my own destiny & not be reliant on a third party provider....nor have any monthly spend (or channel restrictions, sync frequency restriction - I click a button & all my Amazon/Ebay orders appear in MS Access ...virtually instantly - yay
). Since I'm jumping through all the hoops, I'm thinking ahead & coding in features like querying Amazon about the fulfilment centres they've uses to fulfill my orders (...this will make German, French VAT returns etc. much easier when I finally pull the trigger & fulfil out of Amazon EU based fulfilment centres in 2017.Before anyone asks .... for speed of deployment, I've coded this purely for my own business needs...it's not transportable/deployable to other businesses (nor would I want the plethora of related support - I guess that's why Linnworks have 80 staff...& even then they struggle!!)
If I wasn't able to code my own, I'd likely go with Expandly...they're clearly going places & that £20pcm helps soothe the pain while you wait!
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@kittykatmeow @Cathey here from Expandly.
Thanks for your feedback on your Expandly trial. We are working hard to make Expandly the first choice for Small Businesses wanting to sell multichannel and it’s so helpful to hear stories like yours. Great to hear you found the team helpful.
Also very glad to say that the product matching feature is now live in Expandly and we can import and match product by SKU and title, by SKU only, by title only and by barcode.
If you’d like to contact the support team to sort out that trial - they’ll be more than happy to help.
Thanks for your feedback on your Expandly trial. We are working hard to make Expandly the first choice for Small Businesses wanting to sell multichannel and it’s so helpful to hear stories like yours. Great to hear you found the team helpful.
Also very glad to say that the product matching feature is now live in Expandly and we can import and match product by SKU and title, by SKU only, by title only and by barcode.
If you’d like to contact the support team to sort out that trial - they’ll be more than happy to help.
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Agreed on the price rise shock, we also saw a 3x in our monthly fees. We trailed a few other systems and unfortunately nothing really did the job. We are focused on automation and Linnworks does this really well, as well as reliable integration with all of our providers. A bit of customer loyalty would have been nice though.
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