Branded products, no overhead or inventory!
Updated January 24, 2020

Branded products, no overhead or inventory!

Kim Hoogenboom | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Basic

Overall Satisfaction with Shopify

Shopify, combined with Custom Cat and Printful provide our private school system with an advertising avenue not previously afforded. We are now able to offer multiple designs in a multitude of colors, sizes, and styles without the overhead of having inventory. Everyone that orders become a walking, talking, and actionable billboard for the schools with almost no overhead or volunteering.

Pros

  • Easy templates to provide straight forward, simple to use UI for customers.
  • Works with integrated APPs to allow for 3rd party fulfillment.

Cons

  • Inputting new products can be time consuming because all categories have to be built by hand.
  • Price changes can be time consuming because you can only change by product, not by style.
  • We have the ability for students, parents and friends of the schools to purchase branded wearables, the ROI on walking advertising is not easy to calculate but extremely valuable.
  • There is no storefront to man, no overhead, no inventory, no volunteering, year-round, yet customers get branded clothing direct to the customer's home, again, ROI can be calculated in the $1000's and no man-hours or scheduling.
Shopify is simple, it's very inexpensive and it worked with the 3rd party vendors I was familiar with. Each of the other options missed one of those buckets at the time of research.
Shopify is great for bigger e-commerce or a company with a small SKU count. I wouldn't recommend it to a company with thousands of SKUs, they should look at a more robust system. Shopify does not provide a robust reporting system and even the less expensive apps don't provide valuable information. However, it fits our small non-profit needs with its price and ease of use.

Shopify Feature Ratings

6.4
Product catalog & listings
3
Product management
3
Bulk product upload
1
Branding
8
Mobile storefront
9
Product variations
9
Website integration
9
Visual customization
9
CMS
Not Rated
9.0
Abandoned cart recovery
Not Rated
Checkout user experience
9
9.0
eCommerce security
9
Not Rated
Promotions & discounts
Not Rated
SEO
Not Rated
8.3
Order processing
9
Inventory management
7
Shipping
Not Rated
Custom functionality
9

Using Shopify

2 - Finance and administration
1 - one man show doing everything, designing the product, posting to listings, figuring out pricing, shipping, connections
  • advertising of products
  • school spirit
  • products became available we didn't think would be possible
  • no volunteering needed, no timelines, product always up and accurately connected
  • we may have all coaches use this solution
  • would like to have alumni become more involved
this is fulfilling a great purpose

Evaluating Shopify and Competitors

  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Vendor Reputation
  • Existing Relationship with the Vendor
  • Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
this allowed us to connect with 3rd party vendors for a great product selection

Comments

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