Jump to content

Labels, what online store system/service do you use and what could be better about it?


Tylls
 Share

Recommended Posts

I use Storenvy

Pros:
- It's free
- It's easily customization for someone who has little to no web design skills 
- They offer inventory control (I know some of the competing free ones don't allow that, so you can either list or take items down, can't control how many you have listed)

HUGE FUCKING CON:
- A few months ago they started charging a "storenvy fee" to the customer. It's almost a dollar per order on a 7". There's really no way around it. I asked if I could upgrade to a version were I just pay a flat fee each month instead of billing every single one of my customers and they said no. 
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Velocity of Sound said:

We use Big Cartel and absolutely LOVE their service. 

What do you like about their service specifically? Reponse time? Friendly? Problems get fixed?

I've heard from other labels that they don't really offer a robust shipping solution. Like, you can't finegrain the shipping to specific countries for example. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, TGSNick said:

Shopify is great. Definitely recommended, and integrates super well with a ton of apps. 

Do you feel it works well for international sales too? I noticed they charge an extra % when you allow users to pay using third-party services. 

I don't feel like paying 3.4% PayPal fee + 2% Shopify fee. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yeah, works super well with International orders. In fact, we just launched our International Shop on-site back in September and momentum and traffic has been great. Fees have not hindered us at all, although if you're a smaller player in the game I can see how that may enter into it.

 

But, between seamlessly integrated digital delivery apps for MP3/WAVs, built-in Fraud Filters, and about a million other things, I would say it's by far my favorite platform. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, stl_ben said:

@Tylls do you have a label?  Are you a shipping company?  What exactly are you gathering this info for?  That would probably help people tailor their answers to your needs.

No, I do not have a label. I'm gathering this info because I'm developing an online store service specifically for record labels and stores. I was looking for ideas on how to improve it, without shamelessly plugging my service.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Tylls said:

What do you like about their service specifically? Reponse time? Friendly? Problems get fixed?

I've heard from other labels that they don't really offer a robust shipping solution. Like, you can't finegrain the shipping to specific countries for example. 

You can set up different shipping rates for any country you wish. VERY user friendly. They also have a help line if you need to call and speak to someone. 

 

2 hours ago, Tylls said:

What do you like about their service specifically? Reponse time? Friendly? Problems get fixed?

I've heard from other labels that they don't really offer a robust shipping solution. Like, you can't finegrain the shipping to specific countries for example. 

You can set up different shipping rates for any country you wish. VERY user friendly. They also have a help line if you need to call and speak to someone. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Velocity of Sound said:

You can set up different shipping rates for any country you wish. VERY user friendly. They also have a help line if you need to call and speak to someone. 

Oh, didn't know. Friend said it didn't do shipping the way he wanted too. Specifically because it wasn't calculating the price, it was just one fixed price per product. His problem was that sometimes people would order 1 vinyl and 2 CD's, in which case the CD's could be shipped in the same packaging sleeve as the vinyl. Thus costs could be saved on shipping and it could be offered more cheaply. Bigcartel wouldn't allow him to finegrain that sort of shipping detail.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Tylls said:

Oh, didn't know. Friend said it didn't do shipping the way he wanted too. Specifically because it wasn't calculating the price, it was just one fixed price per product. His problem was that sometimes people would order 1 vinyl and 2 CD's, in which case the CD's could be shipped in the same packaging sleeve as the vinyl. Thus costs could be saved on shipping and it could be offered more cheaply. Bigcartel wouldn't allow him to finegrain that sort of shipping detail.

You can set a shipping price for an item for a country and then you can set another price 'for additional' items. For instance, if a German customer buys three 7"s, BigCartel will charge whatever you set the price for and then another price for "additional items".  

Also, Big Cartel isn't interested in taking a percentage of your sales. We pay $9.99 a month and keep every cent of every sale. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Velocity of Sound said:

You can set a shipping price for an item for a country and then you can set another price 'for additional' items. For instance, if a German customer buys three 7"s, BigCartel will charge whatever you set the price for and then another price for "additional items".  

Also, Big Cartel isn't interested in taking a percentage of your sales. We pay $9.99 a month and keep every cent of every sale. 

I can imagine that working if you have no competition on your products. If you do, shipping becomes the sole reason why people will buy somewhere else (alongside the initial cost of the product). So offering a more complex way of setting up shipping costs, that are closer to the real costs you have, is something certain labels are looking for. 

 

Speaking of sales, is credit card really sufficient? Here in Europa, nearly every country has a different payment gateway that consumers use. Like, Germany uses Sofort, Netherlands use iDeal, Belgium uses Bancontact, and so on. Seems America only uses credit card, Stripe (again credit card) and PayPal (again credit card if you're not pre-loading it).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, TGSNick said:

Oh yeah, works super well with International orders. In fact, we just launched our International Shop on-site back in September and momentum and traffic has been great. Fees have not hindered us at all, although if you're a smaller player in the game I can see how that may enter into it.

 

But, between seamlessly integrated digital delivery apps for MP3/WAVs, built-in Fraud Filters, and about a million other things, I would say it's by far my favorite platform. 

How much are you doing in sales to not have to account for the losses of the fees? 

What would you say is the benefit of using the integrated digital delivery apps for MP3/... as apposed to for example iTunes or Bandcamp?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, stl_ben said:

Maybe post a link then?

I considered doing that in the initial post, but seeing as Vinyl Collective is a seller too, I thought that might violate some terms or something. 

But sure, here you go. 

http://backstash.org is my main site. 

https://neuroparecords.com/ is one of my customers (label that released Carpenter Brut's Trilogy repress recently)

Customers that are enrolling at the moment are: Consouling Sounds, Hypertension Records, Onderstroom Records, Wool-E Tapes.

 

If you would like to test it, just send me a message and I'll upgrade your account to a paid plan for free.

 

EDIT: the design is one of those things that needs improvement based on feedback. The new design I'm experimenting can be viewed here: https://backstash.io/newshop/products.php?shop=neuropa-records (complete not functional, only just began working on it)

Edited by Tylls
updated shop information
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, stl_ben said:

Tried checking the site out....but....

Any time I click a link I get "404 Not Found", so hard to see your pricing, features, FAQ and so on.

 

 

edit - found the links at the very top of the site actually work, links past that do not

Oh, my apologies. I recently swapped it from HTML to PHP, forgot to update the footer links. Should be good now. Thanks for telling me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, Tylls said:

Yeah, should've done that. I'm not too good with htaccess rules, so I tend to steer clear.

These are things you should probably NOT admit if you're trying to eventually sell people on a service...

 

I've used Bigcartel for 6 years now and love them...

Edited by mertzrock
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×

AdBlock Detected

spacer.png

We noticed that you're using an adBlocker

Yes, I'll whitelist