This is going to complicate my life even more but I might be forced to open a Shopify account.
I have one site that I get decent sales from but it does not integrate with my Ordoro account for inventory management. It does integrate with Shopify and that seems to be the least expensive option available since I don’t feel like paying a couple grand to have Ordoro do the software!
Who can give me the good, bad, and, ugly about Shopify?
I want to put about 4000 items that are currently on Amazon on there so the inventory can all link.
Any advice and warnings?
Back in the day when I got my MBA we all had to wire a board for a simple program for our computer course! Yes, I AM a fossil but I am no longer great with spreadsheets and downloads.
I have had no problems with Shopify itself and found it easy to use, great for CRM/order management/sales funnels, and handy as a POS for in-person events and b&m.
It is frustrating in its reliance on 3rd party apps, IMO, but I like being able to offer Amazon Pay and Log In with Amazon and to control my shipping options.
When I did try once to integrate Shopify with Amazon (translating Shopify listings to Amazon listings), it was a losing battle and category-dependent, but that was circa 2019, so it has perhaps improved since then. I have never tried to go from Amazon to Shopify.
Thanks. My big gripe so far is they push the free sign up and then you have to spend too much time trying to find out what it costs after that three days is up!
It’s worse than the fine print in a contract (or the Amazon TOS). Just put a link someplace to go to the costs!
Yep! Because most of the add-ons and apps are paid subscriptions or only available at the next higher tier. And 3 days is not long enough to know what you might want or need or miss at the end of the month.
I recommend starting with bare bones but planning to reevaluate after 1 week and 1 month.
Since all I’m looking for is the inventory tracking I think the $39.99/29.99 level will be more than what I will really need.
I actually don’t care if I never get any sales from there. I just don’t want to screw up inventory levels on a site that generates a couple grand a month in sales but doesn’t integrate directly with Ordoro. Shopify to Ordoro then to the other site should fix the issue but I’m not an optimist by nature. I’d rather be surprised than disappointed!!
I love it. Super simple, easy to customize. I don’t sync, however, so can’t speak to that.
My only downside is I spend way too much time on my other sites and don’t give my Shopify site the love and attention it deserves - and Google likes to see activity there.
I bit the bullet and signed up. Now I face the issue of linking inventory and using all the inventory files that I have gone out of my way to avoid using for the past 14+ years on Amazon!
Who is the expert here on csv files? When I download from Amazon for some reason I’m getting a text file which is useless for conversion.
One of those days when I wish I was about 50 years younger (maybe more like 60)…
csv file and/or text file can be handled with the excel function called “text to column” function found on the data tab.
Once you get the hang of it, it is very easy to use. We use this function in getting our data out of our site’s mysql data base into an excel spreadsheet which functions as our Quick Books way of doing accounting.
We bet if you played with it for a couple of hours that you would be able to do it and become comfortable with it.
Excel
Data tab
From Text
Select your Amazon CSV file
This should now open the Data Import Wizard in Excel
Choose “Delimited” → Next
Choose TAB or Comma whichever you see. ->Next
Then you can set column types (ex-Text)
I usually make the UPC column text so we don’t lose the leading zero.
You can actually go to one of those freelance websites to hire someone to help you with this. Unlike Amazon VAs, there isn’t a huge amount of incompetence/scammers in shopify helpers, and if they do screw it up they’re not getting you suspended since it’s your own site.
Handle - We used our SKU#
Published = True
Option1 Name = Title
Option1 Value = Default Title
Variant SKU = I used the SKU# again
Variant Grams = weight in grams!!!
Variant Price = item price
Variant Weight Unit = lb (converts back to Lbs)
Our weight is in Lbs = so to convert Lb to Gm we use
Net Weight * 453.592 [1lb = 453.592] if you have that data.
