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Let’s see what we can do to make sure this never happens, okay?
This article also appears in the Shopify Technology Blog.
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There’s a lot of work involved with running a shop. Inventory comes and goes as products come in from suppliers and go out to customers, orders come and go as customers make them and they get fulfilled, and there’s also the matter of picking, packing, labelling and shipping.
Bizelo eRetail Centralized Inventory Management (or CIM for short) is an app that helps you get on top of all this work. With it, it’s a lot simpler to stay informed about your inventory, know when you’re low on stock and what your packing costs are and pack, label and ship orders. It’s available in the Shopify App Store right now.
We chatted with the people at Bizelo about their eRetail CIM app and asked them some questions. Read on to find out more about their app, in their own words.
What does Bizelo eRetail Centralized Inventory Management (CIM) app do?
One of the constant struggles for online retailers is managing their inventory, keeping track of orders, and handling the various steps between the time an order is received and it goes out the door. This is made especially more complicated when you are dealing with inventory that appears in many places and is constantly going in and out of stock.
The Bizelo Centralized Inventory Management (CIM) app is specially built for online retailers (we call them "etailers") sellers to manage their inventory. It pulls all Shopify items and inventory into a central inventory dashboard as well as all recent orders. New orders are automatically pushed to the Bizelo eRetail CIM app, and we sync quantities of items in both directions with Shopify and other Shopify or non-Shopify stores. The system keeps track of both what’s available in your online store(s) as well as what you have in your warehouse. The system also allows you to create kits and bundles of items as well as import and replenish your stock in one go.
In addition, we also simplify the pick and pack process. Bizelo CIM provides a quick and easy way to create optimized packing lists to make sure you include the right items from the right shelves in your packages. The app also provides deep insight into the movement history of your inventory, telling you which items are selling the quickest, and providing insight into your profitability. The app also integrates with a number of other online services including Magento, Etsy, and Cartkeeper, with other platforms being announced soon!
What are Bizelo eRetail Centralized Inventory Management’s key features?
Pictured above: Bizelo eRetail CIM’s dashboard.
Bizelo eRetail CIM is packed with features that make it easy to…
- Centrally manage your inventory, keeping track of warehouse as well as store quantities
- Keep your inventory in sync across multiple Shopify as well as non-Shopify stores
- Manage bill of materials and kit items
- Create pick and pack lists very easily
- Know when you’re low on stock with low quantity notifications
- Centrally track orders and order notes
- Get insight into inventory movement and history
Why should shopowners use Bizelo eRetail Centralized Inventory Management?
If you sell lots of things online, get a lot of orders, and/or have multiple shops, keeping accurate track of inventory is a difficult task! Our customers frequently tell us that our app saves them hours, if not days, across their month’s worth of orders and inventory. If you’re spending time adjusting inventory quantities in your stores or tearing your hair out when items sell out when you least expect it, our Bizelo eRetail CIM app is for you!
Tell us a little about yourself.
Pictured above: Ron and James from Bizelo.
Bizelo, the creators of the eRetail CIM app is a growing startup company focused on filling the gaps that small businesses need with online apps that are cost-effective (most just $25 a month), work simply, and simply work. Our company was started in 2010 by experienced Internet entrepreneurs that have started and sold a number of successful online business. In the midst of all that, one of the founders tried (unsuccessfully) to start a new apparel brand. That’s when he realized that a) he’s better at software than retail and b) the retail industry still has a ton of gaps that make being a small business in the industry tough. For this reason, he partnered up with his colleagues and started Bizelo. We’ve been growing quickly ever since! We’re so far a handful of employees with hundreds of customers, soon growing to thousands of subscribers!
You can find us at http://www.bizelo.com, where you’ll see a growing array of web-based apps built for small businesses. We’re very active on Twitter (@bizelo), and you can also find us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/bizelo.
Where did you get the idea for Bizelo eRetail Centralized Inventory Management?
The company grew out of Ron’s frustration with existing small business apps, especially stemming from his experience trying to grow an apparel company. After identifying no credible solutions for dealing with multiple-storefront inventory management and syncing, Ron developed the first app in conjunction with James that launched the Bizelo company. Since then, the company has been growing leaps and bounds and is about to release a whole slew of new apps for Shopify customers including a new Accounting Sync app, Pack and Ship, Returns Management, and Supply Management apps.
Where can I find out more about Bizelo eRetail CIM?
As with all Shopify apps, you can find Bizelo eRetail CIM on its page at the Shopify App Store. It’s price is $19.95 – $29.95 per month, and it comes with a 30-day free trial.
This article also appears in the Shopify Blog.
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Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson delivered his “State of the City” address yesterday, during which he honoured some of the capital city’s remarkable citizens. Among them were Shopify’s CEO Tobias “Tobi” Lütke and CPO (Chief Platform Officer) Harley Finkelstein for their work in building Shopify. Ottawa Business Journal calls Shopify Ottawa’s fastest-growing company, and it’s one of Canada’s most successful high-tech startups. We often like to say that Shopify is a Silicon Valley company that just happens to be located in Ottawa, and they make my job easy: it’s a damned easy company to evangelize.
Congrats, Tobi and Harley – and thanks for the job!
This article also appears in The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.
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After a wave of “Shit $SOME_SUBCULTURE Says” videos comes one whose lines you might find hauntingly familiar if you work in tech: Shit Silicon Valley Says.
Created by husband-and-wife team Tom Conrad and Kate Imbach, it’s bang-on – I’m guilty of having uttered most of the statements made in the video, including:
- “I reblogged it and retweeted it.”
- “I met so-and-so at
$SOME_CONFERENCE…or was it Burning Man?” - “I miss seasons”, which I said during my stint in San Francisco, back in the days of “The Bubble”, and finally,
- “How is this different from Facebook?” which I asked the CEO of the worst-run startup I ever worked at.
Watch, enjoy, and cringe slightly if you need to.
This article also appears in the Shopify Technology Blog and The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.
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Well, it’s finally happened: Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis have stepped down as co-CEOs and former co-COO (does RIM have to have two of everything?) Thorsten Heins has been installed as the new boss.
As a proud Canadian, as someone who doesn’t live too far from Waterloo (Toronto’s a bit over an hour east of their home base), and as someone who had an original email-only BlackBerry back in 2000 as one of the perks of working at a startup during the dot-com bubble, I can’t help but root for RIM and Thorsten Heins. It might also be that working with a brilliant guy like Tobi has conditioned me to automatically trust CEOs with German accents.
The fact that Heins has said that he wants to stay the course set by Balsillie and Lazaridis is not encouraging, and a number of the tech sites and blogs have said so. While a statement like that should be a reason for concern, you need to keep in mind that Balsillie and Lazaridis installed the guy and it’s been said that they’ll still play active roles in the company (we’ll see). I hope it’s a case of his being unable to step in and say “I’m coming in to undo the damage wrought by my predecessors, and here’s my plan”, as much as we’d all like to hear those very words.
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