Bricks Mortar EPOS website Amazon and eBay

[BigTimeTrader]

Typically an EPOS system would cost anything from £10 monthly (very basic entry level) to £100,000 set up + custom bespoke system.

Our current set up:

7000 items in shop and garden centre
1300 items on esellerpro (not linked/integrated at all with shop and garden centre)

500 items sold per week on eBay and Amazon – £400k turnover annual
shop is double this

10 staff full time and part time
5 tills in shop

We want:

full integration with shop stock and own direct website (EPOS)
a good integration with marketplaces so we do not comprise our current revenue and account standings etc

Not bothered if we lose ESP – so long as it is better of course.

Is there an off the shelf solution do you know?

Provided we operate it correctly, it will pay for itself so we have no problem investing a good few £000’s upfront or paying a reasonable monthly cost.

I am currently looking at Intelligent Retail and Brightpearl.

I will also go to the IRX this year.

I know that one option is to do a lot of the coding and development integration in-house but we do not have the technical skills to do this.

Thanks in advance for any advice etc

 

[BigTimeTrader]

UPDATE: Brightpearl gave super customer service to me the past 24hrs and have advised that I look at Intelligent Retail and Visualsoft.

I really recommend Brightpearl upfront, honest approach and recommendation service.

 

[antropy]

a good integration with marketplaces so we do not comprise our current revenue and account standings etc

Have a look at OpenCart, it comes with an extension called OpenBay Pro which integrates with Amazon/eBay.

full integration with shop stock and own direct website (EPOS)

You could use one of these extensions for the in-shop checkout:
http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension&filter_search=pos

 

[BigTimeTrader]

Thanks for advice re: opencart.

So far my research has got me thinking that there is no one provider who is expert in: shop EPOS, Amazon, eBay, website, back office, accounts etc

So, I need to go with EPOS provider for shop who integrates with a great ecommerce package as this will cover both needs using experts from both fields.

It is hard to be an expert in so many fields so best to use multiples. Providing integration between them is solid.

My shortlist thus far:

Intelligent Retail
Cybertill
Touch Retail

Visualsoft Ecommerce
Media Lounge (or similar for Magento website)

 

[stall]

If it was me I would start with your EPOS system - find a system you like that has an API that the ecommerce side of things can hook into.

From your requirements it looks like there will be a bit of bespoke work required so make sure whoever you choose for ecommerce has developers available and a good technical track record. You don't want to be buying off the shelf then having to tie everything in together yourself.

Also remember to factor in the dispatch process, how the ecommerce software generates pick/pack slips etc and how your warehouse operators can use it.

 

[lesliedocherty]

Thanks for advice re: opencart.

So far my research has got me thinking that there is no one provider who is expert in: shop EPOS, Amazon, eBay, website, back office, accounts etc

So, I need to go with EPOS provider for shop who integrates with a great ecommerce package as this will cover both needs using experts from both fields.

It is hard to be an expert in so many fields so best to use multiples. Providing integration between them is solid.

My shortlist thus far:

Intelligent Retail
Cybertill
Touch Retail

Visualsoft Ecommerce
Media Lounge (or similar for Magento website)

We used cybertill, they were not great, got a quote from intelligent retail who looked good, but went with Top 2 Toe in the end.

Website wise we have used Visualsoft for the last few years, Ebay/Amazon/Top2Toe/Viusalsoft all talk to each other and work well

 

[stall]

We used cybertill, they were not great, got a quote from intelligent retail who looked good, but went with Top 2 Toe in the end.

Website wise we have used Visualsoft for the last few years, Ebay/Amazon/Top2Toe/Viusalsoft all talk to each other and work well

Where do you hold your stock data - in the EPOS system or as part of the website?

 

[lesliedocherty]

in the epos system, it acts as the hub for everything

 

[stall]

in the epos system, it acts as the hub for everything

Thanks, is that data held in the cloud or locally to a machine?

 

[Paul Norman]

I am not going to try to sell you a system, but what you are asking for is entirely standard.

 

[lesliedocherty]

Local to the machine, backs up to the cloud.

 

[stall]

Local to the machine, backs up to the cloud.

Thanks, a useful insight

 

[Soopadoubled]

If it was me I would start with your EPOS system - find a system you like that has an API that the ecommerce side of things can hook into.

From your requirements it looks like there will be a bit of bespoke work required so make sure whoever you choose for ecommerce has developers available and a good technical track record. You don't want to be buying off the shelf then having to tie everything in together yourself.

This is spot on.

One thing to watch out for with many of the Epos systems is that they each have their own way of doing things and want to act as the master system. We have Intelligent Retail EPOS and the advice I would give to you is to steer clear! Intelligent Retail is probably okay for those with high shop sales and very limited web sales, but it's not really suitable for anything else. We tried to integrate it with our Magento site (official integration) and the end result was unusable.

I'm currently looking at solving a similar problem to you, and intend to replace Intelligent Retail EPOS with a combination of a central inventory & order management system (like Brightpearl) and a modern lightweight EPOS solution that we can easily hook up to that system via API (something like Vend but a bit more feature rich).

 

[BigTimeTrader]

I am not going to try to sell you a system, but what you are asking for is entirely standard.

OK, my research still shows that a multitude of companies would be better than one standard package? Can you provide a company that does everything then please?

 

[BigTimeTrader]

We used cybertill, they were not great, got a quote from intelligent retail who looked good, but went with Top 2 Toe in the end.

Website wise we have used Visualsoft for the last few years, Ebay/Amazon/Top2Toe/Viusalsoft all talk to each other and work well

Thanks lesliedocherty - I will check out Top2Toe (I had not heard of them).

 

[BigTimeTrader]

I guess to summarise where I am at now:

shop stocks and sales is currently king in terms of stock holdings (SKU's), revenue and brand. I would say it is the bread and butter.

Therefore I am looking at going with a good (very good) EPOS system but then not using their in-house ecommerce. To go with an outside ecommerce like we talked about above, i.e. visualsoft.

But I now have another decision: go with a firm like visualsoft or go with a magento platform.

Anyone heard of "media lounge"? They claim to be magento EPOS specialists. I think Magento would offer more affordable scalibilty without being tied in with someone like visualsoft?

 

[BigTimeTrader]

We used cybertill, they were not great, got a quote from intelligent retail who looked good, but went with Top 2 Toe in the end.

Website wise we have used Visualsoft for the last few years, Ebay/Amazon/Top2Toe/Viusalsoft all talk to each other and work well

Also please lesliedocherty can you let me know what website is yours? Or if you want to remain anonymous could you perhaps give an indication of:

approx total revenue per channel (stores, www, ebay, amazon)
number of items you have total
number of staff
number of tills

Finally, can you tell me how long you have used them for? Both T2T and VS?

I wonder if T2T have worked previously with a garden centre/pet shop/general store as their clients page on their site shows fashion.

 

[Paul Norman]

OK, my research still shows that a multitude of companies would be better than one standard package? Can you provide a company that does everything then please?

The product we use is Orange\box, from Orangezone. To be transparent, I have shares in that business!

 

[stall]

I guess to summarise where I am at now:

shop stocks and sales is currently king in terms of stock holdings (SKU's), revenue and brand. I would say it is the bread and butter.

Therefore I am looking at going with a good (very good) EPOS system but then not using their in-house ecommerce. To go with an outside ecommerce like we talked about above, i.e. visualsoft.

But I now have another decision: go with a firm like visualsoft or go with a magento platform.

Anyone heard of "media lounge"? They claim to be magento EPOS specialists. I think Magento would offer more affordable scalibilty without being tied in with someone like visualsoft?

Magento is fine the only things I would say about it are that its a one size fits all approach so there can often end up been loads of stuff in there that you never use. As a consequence Magento sites are not always as quick as they could be. Also, you will most likely still need a developer on hand when you want to start doing custom things. The advantage of the platform though is that you can go out looking for a developer with Magento skills of which there are plenty. You can get EPOS systems that are ready made to plug into Magento as well (ebizmarts do one I think).

Also Magento would not come as standard with marketplace integration of Amazon, eBay etc - they would need extensions installing. Same goes for shipping labels, payment providers and front end design so its not always quite the out of the box solution it seems.

 

[BigTimeTrader]

Thanks for everyone for contributions.

It is a long journey for us, I will be sure to update as I continue to go along.

What I like about Visualsoft is that they appear to be a very strong ecommerce solution, including ebay and amazon and they do partner up with intelligient retail.

So whilst I am aware the IR might not want the ecommerce side to be outsourced in an ideal world, as we are doing it from the very start then it should be all clear.

But this is what I liked with Touch Retail, they say "we do not do ecommerce, we are masters at in-store EPOS, we cannot be masters at everything so we stick to what we do best, however we will link to pretty much any other master ecommerce solution via our extremely open and flexible API"

So whilst this might be a good sales pitch, I like the vibe it gives off.

I will report back on Media Lounge (Magento and EPOS) once I have spoke with them in detail.

 

[S&G]

Hi

Have you found a solution?

I have been searching for something similar but with no such luck. Currently looking at e-trackit, lightspeed and RMS. It is a complete minefield.