All in one web store and pos

[dfreiberg]

Hello my name is Dan Freiberg and I am looking into starting a retail store. but I am looking for a online store that has a pos. I want the web store to keep tract of inventory so I dont sell something that has already been bought. It would be great for any help. Thank you for your time.

[henryz]

Hello Dan, I'm sure there are few out there with integrated pos software, Big Commerce offers integrade pos for online inventory, without having to have a plug in like Quickbooks and having to update it manually. I believe they also have a free trial for you to test. Hope this helps.

[SomewhatNovice]

Hi Dan,

Most eCommerce solutions out there offer inventory tracking, with various levels of user friendliness. In addition to Big Commerce, Magento is pretty popular, and give you a couple options - you can host with them for $15/month (one month free trial) or you're able to host it yourself you can host it for free. eCommerce hosting will run you about $30 - $60/month, and having your own version of the software will you to have a developer customize it, if that's something that you would need.

Here's my two cents on automation for your site starting out:

There will always be some manual component to running your online store. Consider which integrations / automations you actually need and which ones you can do yourself, especially in the beginning. Starting out, it's probably better for you to spend the money you would spend on customization/integration on advertising instead. It is unlikely that you're store will start out with hundreds of orders per day which would necessitate a lot of automation for you to run it. It will probably be an order or two per week to start (being generous).

If you could answer the questions below, I could probably tell you more things to look out for:

- How many different SKUs (products, basically) will you be have in your store?
- Will this be a dropshipping site, or are you going to be carrying inventory?
- If it is dropshipping, how often does the dropshipper send out updated inventories? What is the dropshipper(s)?
- If you are carrying inventory, how often do you plan on receiving shipments?

[dfreiberg]

I am not really sure on how many skus there is going to be. But we will receive shipments as the stock requires. not doing any dropshipping.

[billbenson]

Dan, you didn't mention it, but one of my biggest headache's has been the lack of ecommerce programs keeping track of quickbooks like stuff such as product costs, profit, shipping costs, who's paid etc.

When I first started my site I used adwords to generate traffic and orders. My product is a consultative sell in most cases so I would spend 10 hours a day on the phone leaving little time to work on automation. It went from a couple of orders a week to more work than I could handle quite rapidly. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with SomewhatNovice as to your money and time may be better spent in advertising. It's just a depends sort of thing. I did spend a lot of time on automation early and it helped me immensely. It didn't get rid of the 12 hour 7 day a week work days, but it did keep me from failure in the beginning stages. I've been at this for about 8 years now.

Also, whatever you do, make sure you have access to your site and database. Backup is a major reason for this. However, should you decide you want to use a different ecommerce solution down the road, you want a mechanism to be able to move your site without reentering everything manually.

[Harold Mansfield]

You need POS software that works with Ecommerce software. You want to sell online as well as in the store and have it tracked in the same system. Most eCommerce software doesn't do this.
I only know of 2 companies that have software products with this kind of integration at the small business level, Dell, and Micros.

[billbenson]

You need POS software that works with Ecommerce software. You want to sell online as well as in the store and have it tracked in the same system. Most eCommerce software doesn't do this.
I only know of 2 companies that have software products with this kind of integration at the small business level, Dell, and Micros.

I wonder if there aren't some decent scripts out there these days that do that?

Dan, you might try poking around HotScripts. If you find something close you can usually have a programmer modify it for you for not a lot of money.

[Harold Mansfield]

I wonder if there aren't some decent scripts out there these days that do that? Dan, you might try poking around HotScripts. If you find something close you can usually have a programmer modify it for you for not a lot of money. Not that this isn't a good idea. but I would be leery of suggesting this to the average person.

While you or I may be confident enough to run this, when it came to my business I would still opt for an enterprise solution that comes from a well established company in this field that has the support and tools that I need, when I need them.
And that I know will be compatible with hardware that I need to run my business into the future. For instance, if a programmer could create this for me for $2k, but Dell has a system for $3k, I'd go with the Dell. Should I need help, and updates I know that Dell or MiCROS (or whoever) will be there. What about that programmer?

When it comes to this, the software that is directly responsible for tracking the money that goes into my business...this is not an area where I want to cut corners, mess around and experiment.

[dfreiberg]

I would perfer to have a pos systen like openbravo pos or phppos use oscommerce database. but i want the app to be install on my pos hardware but i am not really knowledgeable about how to do it.