Inventory management
Discussion
A friend of mine has set up a business selling products online. He received a recommendation to use some IMS software to help manage his inventory but he says it's too expensive for what he needs. It was going to cost £150 per month but he doesn't need most of its features.
Bing a software developer I've offered to help by writing him a simple solution that will suit his needs. Originally, I was going to write the software as a PC desktop application solely for his use. Now I'm thinking that if I write it as a publicly available web site, there could be an opportunity for me to make a small business out of it myself.
I'm trying to determine what features I'd need to provide in order to make the software appealing to a wider group of online sellers. The basic requirements to suit my friend are simply:
• Allow entry of his products into the system.
• List the products, and crucially, quantity on eBay and Amazon.
• When a sale is made on either eBay or Amazon, the quantity is reduced accordingly on both sites.
• Give a simple report of sales so he can see where he is selling more, how much stock he has etc.
It seems relatively straight forward to me, but obviously the software he was recommended to use does a lot more than this and I don't know which features are important and which aren't.
I'd love to hear from anyone operating in this space/using some kind of IMS software who can tell me what my new software would need to do as a minimum to make it a viable alternative.
I was thinking of a £30 per month price. What would it need to do to make that price appealing to you?
Bing a software developer I've offered to help by writing him a simple solution that will suit his needs. Originally, I was going to write the software as a PC desktop application solely for his use. Now I'm thinking that if I write it as a publicly available web site, there could be an opportunity for me to make a small business out of it myself.
I'm trying to determine what features I'd need to provide in order to make the software appealing to a wider group of online sellers. The basic requirements to suit my friend are simply:
• Allow entry of his products into the system.
• List the products, and crucially, quantity on eBay and Amazon.
• When a sale is made on either eBay or Amazon, the quantity is reduced accordingly on both sites.
• Give a simple report of sales so he can see where he is selling more, how much stock he has etc.
It seems relatively straight forward to me, but obviously the software he was recommended to use does a lot more than this and I don't know which features are important and which aren't.
I'd love to hear from anyone operating in this space/using some kind of IMS software who can tell me what my new software would need to do as a minimum to make it a viable alternative.
I was thinking of a £30 per month price. What would it need to do to make that price appealing to you?
I'm not exactly sure on number of "products".
His strategy has been to trying to bundle different products together, or offer multiple items of the same product to see what sells better. Seems a logical way to find out how to maximise his profits.
The problem this caused is that each 'bundle' is treat as a different product in the software and he's now hit a limit where he needs to start paying the £150 per month.
His strategy has been to trying to bundle different products together, or offer multiple items of the same product to see what sells better. Seems a logical way to find out how to maximise his profits.
The problem this caused is that each 'bundle' is treat as a different product in the software and he's now hit a limit where he needs to start paying the £150 per month.
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