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New year and time for an inventory management system. I’ve looked into Sixbit and Wonder Lister and at this time, based on the interface, I think I will prefer Sixbit. That said, I am open to be convinced otherwise if it better suits my situation.
Background:
I am a full time seller currently with ~1600 listings. I only sell on eBay, plan only to sell on eBay in the next year, no employees, plan to be in the ~2500 listing range by the end of next year. I have SQL experience from prior jobs and would like to implement that into this plan. Most of my XP is on the reporting side and will have to battle the learning curve for setting up and maintaining a database (I understand that both Sixbit and Wonder Lister have an open database and I am speaking on creating and running views and/or side-by-side tables using their db as feeds).
My main question, as of now, is what tier would be best suited for my situation? The pricing difference between small business vs enterprise is quite large.
The below screenshot seem to be the most glaring differences.
Troy/Mike; can you shed some light on if the missing features in the small business suite are worth double the cost?
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BourbonTrailBazaar,
I am currently on Wonder Lister and I am the one writing all the custom SQL queries.
Wonder Lister is working fine for me. However, I want to cross list to Etsy and Wonder Lister can’t do that right now, so I am planning on also using Sixbit to do that.
Wonder Lister is much cheaper than Sixbit, so if you are not planning on using the Etsy cross listing tool with Sixbit, you may want to consider Wonder Lister. If you are planning on doing cross listing to Etsy at some point, then Sixbit would be the tool to get.
Wonder Lister reporting is not all that great, but with access to the SQL database I can create whatever I want. Wonder Lister is suppose to be adding cross listing to Etsy, but they have been so slow to market that Mike and I have lost all hope for that to happen any time soon.
Mark
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Well Mark hit that right on target. The cost is one reason years ago I went with WonderLister. It was when I had jsu had enough of TurboLister. It “sucked” even before Ebay abandoned it, but I could manage with it, but when Ebay announced to no longer support it, that’s when I started searching for months to find an alternative. WonderLister did the trick as a replacement for TurbolIster and offered more to boot. BUT as they progressed, it was mor a matter of discovering that while it could do what TL did and promised more, it did so slowly and had it’s own issues, though no where near TL. TL was free, so at that time $15 a month was no problem. Then I had to go to SILVER level at $25 a month. Still no problem and got a few more bells and whistles. But then the Shopify and Etsy thing just dragged out over two years.
During this time was when I did the trial period using SixBit but balked 2 times at the cost.
In hind sight, both require a learning curve to some degree and the more a user understands relational databases, how fields work and how they are searched makes it easier on both platforms. An inventory management system is built into both by way of understanding inventory control parameters and build a few custom fields and creating your SKU numbering system to contain a few hidden codes to cover several functions. Our SKU number just by itself tells us, the item number, how much we paid for the item, the date we bought it, what building or room it is stored in what shelf it is on and what bin it is in. Troy has even added codes at the end to tell him what platform[s} he has it listed on. This mehtodology is nothing more than knowing how to organize and not the software. You can do that by using the Ebay Custom field just by itself, alone.
But WL and SB also has all the features built into them that Ebay has, photo zoom, attachment, ability to add HTML code to customize, custom your view, create templates, financial reporting, etc., etc.
But here’s the thing, if you are not ever going to post on two platforms, the same items or not, you do not need the Duo edition or level that Troy uses for $99.00 per month UNLESS you want the additional reporting that comes with that level. I use Quicken for business and that provides most of the P&L data I need for myself and our CPA as well as sale and expense tracking.
But if you DO THINK you may list on two platforms then SB is ready with Etsy and a conversation I had some time back with JC at SB I had him getting fairly interested in adding the Shopify interface module.
Here’s my opinion based on if knew then what I know now, I would go with the $34.99 plan on SixBit. I wish I had spent all that learning time, emailing back and forth [learning curve] on just one program and that should have been SixBit. troy can tell you that I have personally verbalized that error in hind sight. Spend the first month or so, just customizing your home page view, creating your custom fields, especially setting up your SKU inventory system. That will give you several months of work to do. Then as you learn where everything is located, and can navigate fairly quickly through listing and have a work flow like Troy and I do that follows your customization listing view, THEN you can upgrade to the next level. That will give you the Allocation Planning section. Troy will have to explain this because I haven’t used it yet, and I wrote this morning on another area here on the forum [look that up], a problem both [WL & SB] programs have had by WL & SB ending listings at the 30 day mark when they were on Sale and then getting those items re-listed back at the correct original price. It is an Ebay glitch that takes the re-list command from WL & SB but inserts the last known price of your item and that would be a lowered price due to the Sale that was in effect when the item was ended. It is connected with the issues of the Old Marketing Manager which has since been replaced. But my point is learn the first part of what i said by using and paying for the cheaper level. Then when you are more experienced, move up to the $70 and get the auto end and relist ability, the advanced analysis tools which Troy loves, and the advanced database automation which you indicate you have the knowledge and skills for.
But as my mantra here on SL goes, “that and $.50 will get you a partial cup of coffee”.
But start lower level, go slow, take your time, learn, [you will probably move quickly through the learning curve] and just upgrade as you go.
Mark and I are on WL, and both of us have been sort of let down by the speed at which WL is progressing. SB ceratinly has more and better training videos, operators manual and Q&A response teams.
It is funny but if you would look through the WL training manuals, most of the screen shots are from my store. That did ask my permission, but the screen shots show all of the issues I ran into using WL and then showed what the afetr the fix was applied screen shots [before and after] and they are “my” shots.
That made me ask them, does anyone at WL even have a store or list on Ebay and they said no!!! I will ask SB that question in the future. How can an engineer troubl shoot listing issues if they don’t even have a store and gone through what we go through using their software. Man oh Man. I think that is why Ebay, I believe, wants their employees to have a small store and sell things on Ebay so they have first hand experience.
OK another wall of text as Jay calls my replies-posts. Wonder if Jay will ever apply a word limit to my posts.. LOL 🙂
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta.
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Thanks for the tips, guys. I already have a SKU system in place and will only need to adjust a few of my 1st year listings (what is left of them) to get them all in a uniformed state. I tried to keep all of that in mind when I first started as I’ve always wanted to get my business into a database.
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