Guidance on shopping carts/accounting/drop shippers that work well together?
Guys - love the podcast - thank you very much for all the great advice!
I am starting a small biz and I want to automate as much as possible, and would love some guidance...
I've submitted LLC paperwork and I'm just at the stage of trying to select some systems componets and looking for advice to be sure I make good decisions since I'll live with them for some time. I need an online shopping cart, an accounting package, and a drop shipper that will all work well together.
My business will start by selling a single (or just a few) custom products online - similar model to porch potty I think! I want to be able to scale to more products later, but it will be under 10 for a while.
I want a hosted but flexible estore/shopping cart solution that lets me start inexpensively and scale. So far my research points to BigCommerce, 3DCart, CoreCommerce, or Shopify. The products are custom enough that selling on a markeplace like Amazon or ebay doesn't seem to be worth the premium. I plan to get a custom design made for at least my homepage. How would you rate those for what I'm trying to do? Any others I should consider?
Those carts all claim integration with Quickbooks desktop and a few integrate with new online accounting packages like Xero/Freshbooks/Kashflow. I love the idea of a cloud based system, but Quickbooks seems like my best bet as everyone seems to integrate with them, and the price is still better. I'm just not sure what that integration means though - My big question is how easily things like this integrate in reality. Is importing sales data from a shopping cart (as in my dream world) as easy as connecting a bank account to download transactions into Quickbooks or is it more likely to require coding? Side note - what's up with Quickbooks not supporting downloads from paypal?
For drop shippers, I like Shipwire and webgixtics so far. Anybody else you like?
Thanks!
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Answers
Hi, I recommend you look at Volusion. It should do everything you want and those guys may be able to offer advice on integration with Myob or Quickbooks.
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I have built stores on BigCommerce, Stores Online, and sold a lot of product on eBay (having worked there for five years), but I recently started building a site using Pinnacle Cart. I think I've found my home w/ Pinnacle, as it has great eCommerce templates, crazy flexible designer features, and it is PCI compliant. Regarding drop shippers, I would recommend reaching out directly to the manufacturers to see if they'll work with you. Nowadays, many will. I currently work with Barska, Gunvault, Mossy Oak, and have consulted many small shops on the finer points of securing drop shipper relationships directly with the manufacturers securing the best possible profit margins. Let me know if that was too much or if you need any further help.
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Thanks PinCart - I would love to hear your tips for securing drop shipper relationships. Thanks!