Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Selling Wholesale - Information Management

As my Etsy sales continued to grow and as I began to participate in craft shows, I knew I needed a better method to track my inventory. Particularly before and after craft shows, it seems I was always writing my inventory on a note pad then transferring the information to an Excel spreadsheet, let alone it seemed I had no way to track my product in consignment. As before my wholesale accounts began to place orders, I realized my inventory conundrum was going to be even bigger as my sales grew.

I began looking for an inventory management system, not quite knowing what I was looking for. In my "day" job, I manage a database for a non-profit organization, so I had some idea of the interaction and capability I needed. At that time, there was only one inventory management system that was fully integrated with Etsy, and it just so happened to be offering free access to its basic usage.

The system I chose is Stitchlabs. Please know, this post is not a paid endorsement, and since I began using Stitchlabs, other inventory management systems are now available to sync with Etsy. The thoughts I share with you here are based upon my experience, and items you need to consider before committing yourself to any system.


  • Contacts - Before adding my contacts to a database, I was managing my contacts through rogue spreadsheets: one for wholesale account, one for local customers, one for Etsy customers which I downloaded.
  • Inventory Management - Stitchlabs has the capability to track how many units are complete, how many are in production, and how many have been sold. As orders began to increase in quantity, I had no way to manage how many units of 12 oz candles were needed or how many different products of one fragrance were needed.
  • Order tracking - Etsy is good for simple counting of number of sales. But I had nothing to integrate my local customers let alone my wholesale sales into one information system.
  • Expenses - Sigh. My business is still operating on a cash accounting basis (sometimes simple cash flow basis) and aside from basic checkbook accounting, I had no method to track profit and loss or cost of goods sold (an important factor which is extremely important as your business grows).
  • Reporting - I had none. No way to track my best customer, no way to track my best sales. I knew from my general observation that tea lights are my best selling product, but it caught me by complete surprise that Lavender was my best selling fragrance.
  • Integration - Direct import of Etsy sales is a huge benefit! Additionally, I want a system to which my sales reps can log in to place an order, eliminating the need for them to scan an order, especially one that may include credit card payment information (a huge compliance issue in my book!).
My intent is to explore each topic on my weekly Wednesday blog posts. If you have a question or problem that you are trying to solve in your backend office that you feel can be answered in this series, please write it in your comments. Your questions really make it so much easier to look at each topic through another person's lens.

Until next week,

Happy sales!

Dorene




19 comments:

  1. Great article! I don't offer wholesale myself, but would love to get much better with my record keeping and order tracking! *Ü*

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  2. I'm horrible with keeping track of what I have in stock. I really need to find a system to work with my photography...even just an organized excel document.

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  3. Great advice, I was using stitch labs but it got to overwhelming for me, I just don't understand how to get started with it. Maybe some simple do this step first, then do this, etc. would be great

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  4. I'm looking into Stitchlabs now! Thanks for posting!

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  5. I also have a hard time with inventory management... I need something simple too.

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  6. Inventory management is even harder as a clayer ... I have supplies, not always finished products and cataloging them is difficult to say the least. Ugh! But ... I'm not sure that something like StitchLabs would be able to help someone who has "made to order" products and not "ready made" products. My StoryBook Scenes are the only things that aren't "made to order.".... hmmm.....I will have to flesh this out.

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    1. Katie, I will admit that one downfall of Stitchlabs is that you can't take an order, pull from your "supply" inventory and convert it to your "product" inventory. However, I don't keep a product inventory myself, as I have too many types and fragrances to have even one of each on hand. Where Inventory Management has been a lifesaver is when I have multiple orders of the same product....which I'll address in an upcoming post! Thank you for your comments!

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  7. Thank you for this. Can you share why you chose Stitchlabs? What were some of the benefits you found over other (you don't have to name them) programs? What ultimately led to your choice? Thanks!

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    1. Three reasons: 1.) Their integration of customers, orders, and inventory managements; 2.) At the time, it was the only site which integrated with Etsy; 3.) It was free. Since I joined, Stitchlabs has since switched to a subscription service, but at the end of this series I do hope to compare other similar management options. Thanks for the question!

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  8. Dorene, I can't wait to read more. Thanks!

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  9. Looking forward to reading your upcoming posts on each topic. I am awful with maintaining all this information. Something like this might help.

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  10. I have so much trouble with inventory management, which is why most of my items are made to order. Hopefully, I'll be able to get organized soon!

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  11. I have an account but have yet to use it. Are you on the free version or are you a paying member? I really need to sit down with it.

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  12. Unique Cozy Treasures - great info!

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  13. will have to save this to reference later. sticthlab sounds like a great site, thank u for sharing.

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  14. Great info, looking into wholesale now so this was a great read

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  15. This was spot on! Thanks so much!!!

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