Channel Grabber vs Cloud Commerce (ebay and amazon)

[CustomLED]

Hi.

I am currently considering getting a CRM system to centralise my orders from eBay, amazon and phone orders. Currently i am processing around 400-500 orders a week from mainly eBay. I have only recently started with Amazon and although it is picking up it is around 85-15% split. I have 2 eBay accounts, 1 with 1200 listings and the other with 200. I have been trying to list more on the smaller account but its finding the time. I also take some phone orders however these are minimal, perhaps 5 a week maximum. I also have a trade counter for local customers.

The reason for the system is primarily to save time and track stock. Currently I track stock simply by realising when I am getting low and reordering manually. The issue with this is I import all my goods and sometimes I sell out of items due to the long lead time from china.

I have had someone from Cloud Commerce (CC) come out and see me (from a cold call) and Channel Grabber (CB) have posted a flyer through the door. I was actually unaware of these kinds of systems previously.


What I would like to know is there anyone with any experience of one or the other system or if you have used both that would be great. I have been quoted £2000 setup + £200PM from CC and £140-160PM from CB (no set up fee). I think with CC it is a slightly more bespoke system and they can integrate pretty much anything you require and give you more one to one training, whereas CB is more of an off the shelf system. Also with CC they said they would integrate EPOS software for free which I don’t have any of at the minute so that’s good.

I have wanted an EPOS system for a while but begrudge paying the £30PM for something just to print receipts when QuickBooks does that, but it prints on normal paper. So between waiting for QuickBooks to load and waiting for the printer to print sometimes customers are stood in front of me longer than they need to. With EPOS the printing is cheaper (thermal) and much quicker. Plus with the CC integration it will update my stock levels too.

Basically the way I look at it is £200PM is quite a lot, however I think it may make me more than that in saved time plus being able to copy listings from one eBay account to the other and add them to amazon too all from a few clicks. I would imagine I would be able to have full inventory on every channel in a matter of days. If it was just a case of the £200 vs £160 it would be a no brainer, I would just go with CC for £200PM for the more bespoke package and support, but the sticking point is the £2k upfront. At least if it was a monthly price only you could try it for 6-12 months and if it didn’t make any difference to sales or time pack it in. But the £2k is a year’s worth of fees on CG upfront so not sure what to do for the best.

Sorry for the long winded post, and if you read this far thanks for your time.

Tom

 

[GraemeL]

Hello Tom,

Can I go back to your note "The reason for the system is primarily to save time and track stock. Currently I track stock simply by realising when I am getting low and reordering manually. The issue with this is I import all my goods and sometimes I sell out of items due to the long lead time from china."?

The systems you mention will track stock (as will Linnworks) and save a huge amount of time on admin compared to the use of a spreadsheet for everything. However, none of them will help you much with inventory planning. Yes, you can set a minimum stock level (ie Re-order level) and these system will notify you when stock reaches that level and create a PO for you. However, the hardest bit is to work out what the re-order level should be, particularly when importing and having to build orders of a specific size to meet MOQ or fill a container.

I use a combination of Linnworks and a spreadsheet to manage stocks, because formula can be built into the spreadsheet that cannot be built into any of these systems.

So dont expect too much!

Graeme

 

[Chris Ashdown]

I would imagine there are still companies who make a one off charge for the software rather than the very expensive £200 per month. Therefore I would suggest you search for a software package that is yours once paid for rather than cloud based software

 

[Pish_Pash]

I use a combination of Linnworks and a spreadsheet to manage stocks, because formula can be built into the spreadsheet that cannot be built into any of these systems.

You've hit the nail on the head & which is why I went my own way. One of the best 'worst' things to ever happen in my business timeline was Linnworks cranking up their subscription from zero to £1200pa...that made me whirr into gear & code my own - I'm pleased I did, because now I'm an Amazon Supplier, I can tweak my system to suit (& Linnworks would not have been suitable wrt being an Amazon supplier)...& therein lies the problem with such software products - it's their code, so the best you can do is choose one that gets close to what you need - then hope their developers are responsive to customer requests (Linnworks were hopeless at this - their 'User Voice' was an exercise in pointlessness).

So +1 for the 'don't expect too much' line of thought...they'll save you time (but you'll pay handsomely for it) nevertheless, you'll still have to deploy all manner of local workarounds to plug the gaps in their tool arsenal.

Re EPOS/Quickbooks - why not use a thermal printer with it ...no waiting around then - instant print.

 

[CustomLED]

In my meeting with CC he said that they can tailor certain aspects to suit my needs. Also looking at reviews i noticed a trend with people liking the fact you can talk to the developers and one said that his idea was rolled out across their full platform so all their customers had access to it. So it sounds like they do listen to customers to better their product for everyone.

Regarding stock level and reorder point. I bring in little and often as I find it works best for me. He said that at the beginning it would be hard to gauge the reorder point but as time went on and the system had more data in terms of sales volumes of particular products then it would get more accurate at reordering. In terms of MOQ I'm way above my suppliers MOQ for any of their products so its not an issue. Plus with me ordering little and often I pretty much always have several orders in with my main supplier, so they wait until the weight of the finished goods is above the cheapest threshold in terms of price per KG then ship what they have finished (by air so 3 day lead time).

I looked into trying to use Quickbooks with a thermal printer but could not find out how to do it if I'm honest.

 

[Pish_Pash]

I looked into trying to use Quickbooks with a thermal printer but could not find out how to do it if I'm honest.

If you're using Quickbooks desktop, in my version I go to....

'File' then 'Printer Setup' ....a pop up window then appears, select the type of document you wish to action on at the top (Sales Receipt, Invoice etc), then in the printer drop down select your installed thermal printer - voila, that's it done ....no more waiting around making polite conversation with your customer "Erhm...lovely weather for ducks isn't it?" as your laser takes 30 seconds to warm up!

 

[antropy]

I am currently considering getting a CRM system to centralise my orders from eBay, amazon and phone orders.

CRM means Customer Relationship Management, so that's probably not what you need to manage your orders:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management

What you're actually after is an OMS, Order Management System:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_management_system

You could look at using OpenCart with OpenBayPro which would then act as a central place and get orders from Amazon and Ebay:
https://www.openbaypro.com