Anyone use Stone Edge?

[dogmom327]

Just looking for some feedback

[Galatea]

Me! I can go on and on about it. Let's see:

Shipping. This is the awesome-est thing. If you look at the chart they have on their site (shopping cart integration), all the carts that have status updates built in work like this: you look at the order in Stone Edge - you ship out of it (we use Endicia) - Stone Edge automatically updates the order on the website with the tracking number and the website can be configured to automatically send an email to the customer. This saves so much time and is so awesome!!!!! Such a relief and so simple!

We got the POS version but have not yet got the POS configured. I didn't realize how much work it was going to be to code all my website's products to integrate with Stone Edge. It is actually not hard (I just have to rewrite the sub-SKUs) but it took a long time to figure it out. We also got a scanner so we can scan things just like a REAL retail store.

There are a ton of features so that you can scale up as you grow, too - it has all the features that a full-on retail store needs (POs, quotes, crazy inventory features.) Most of which we don't need but if we get bigger, it will be nice to have.

It pretty much eliminates the need for QuickBooks - its reporting features are excellent.

You can process the credit cards through it (if you want.)

Their tech support is very helpful and will get things working for you.

The biggest problem with it is that it is NOT easy to use at first. There is a big learning curve, mostly b/c the underlying structure is a database with everything set as yes/no parameters. Don't let this intimidate you, though - once you figure out how to get at the guts of the system parameters, it gets easy. I would DEFINITELY spring for the onetime setup they offer ($300 or whatever.) It will save a ton of time and heartache.

So I would definitely recommend it. Lots of learning, but a huge time-saver.

[dogmom327]

Sending you a big hug Galetea! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I've been really debating the expense but I estimate this would save me about 2 hours a day--two hours I could spend on SEO or something useful! I just needed to hear that it wasn't too good to be true.

[Galatea]

Originally Posted by dogmom327

Sending you a big hug Galetea! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I've been really debating the expense but I estimate this would save me about 2 hours a day--two hours I could spend on SEO or something useful! I just needed to hear that it wasn't too good to be true.

Yeah, it isn't cheap, but how much is 2 hours a day worth? This is how we do our online orders:

Come in, open store (do you have a brick and mortar?), import overnight orders into Stone Edge (1 minute.) Stone Edge prints a master picking list for you. Approve/print orders (2 seconds each.) (Stone Edge makes really professional invoices, sales receipts, or packing slips.) Pick orders from store (this is about 30 seconds per order but it depends on how you have your inventory stored). Repeat as necessary throughout the day.

Then we lay the orders on top of their receipts on a long table. At the end of the day, we pack them, weigh them (you can do this directly in Stone Edge if you attach a scale to the computer) or if you have the product weights in the product info on the site or in Stone Edge, Stone Edge can calculate the weight for you, or you could write whatever rule you want to determine shipping method and cost. (I got tech support to help me with this.) This is pretty quick b/c we only do two types of shipping (first class and priority). Then Stone Edge "calls" Endicia and prints the label and sends the tracking info to the cart (we use 3dcart.) Slap the labels on and done. So at the end of the day, the packing, weighing and labeling usually only takes about 20 minutes. Drop them at the PO and done!!! Customers are automatically notified of their item's status and tracking number.

All told, I think we went from 2-3 hours per day to 30 minutes, and most of that is packing the bags/boxes, and it could be even shorter if we had our product weights already in the computer, or attached a scale to the computer. There are other ways to do it, and Stone Edge can tell you more about it, but it is totally worth it!!!