This is a recommendation from a real ink soft user
Ali BanholzerMOSD LLC, dba Wear Your Spirit Warehouse, OwnerWearYourSpiritWarehouse.com32 Cox Road, Huntingtown, MD 20639
(W) 410-741-3299
(C) 410-474-2889
We have been using Ink Soft for about 4 years.... It isn't perfect, but it is good.
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> We average 10-15 stores open at any one time and have created 200+ in the past two years.
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> What I like: they are very responsive to feed back. Many of my recommendations have been implemented. I sat with Matt and the developers for a day back in November and am very excited about 2018 releases.
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> Recent updates that are HUGE - rapid product loader for pre-decorated products.
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> What I don't like: order capture, tracking, and analytics are very poor. We use ShopVox for bulk order tracking, it does not integrate with Ink Soft. I don't want to make the investment into ShopWorks because InkSoft is suppose to be releasing a product very similar that is integrated to capture the online orders. The release is 'suppose' to be in April although InkSoft is notorious for pushing back their release dates and it is suppose to be included in the price of our current subscription. If this is true, and they get the design studio mobile compatible, I don't think there is a product out there that will come close. If they fail to fulfill these needs, I still believe it is a good product, but I will have to look at ShopWorks more closely. I don't mind making the 2000.00+ initial investment, but not if I am only going to use it for 3 months.
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> I am working on SOP's for our shop, included in that will be best practices for Ink Soft Stores. I am happy to share it when I get it out of my head and onto paper.
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> To be completely honest, I strive hard not to be a leach and just take from others (your handbook and marketing materials) I want to contribute as well. But I am the sole owner of my business, my husband died a year ago and I have two teen age daughters. It takes me a bit longer to get things done than your average person. I hope you will bear with me and I am happy to share any knowledge I have.
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> As for fundraising and schools. I used a fundraising store one time and it bit us hard. Unfortunately, the actual meter that inksoft puts on the top of the draws from TOTAL sales, not the actual amount the schools/group receives. So it will say 10,000 dollars and then you hand the school a check for 1,000 and they think you are ripping them off. They don't get that it was total sales, and all of your costs. They think 1 you misrepresented the fundraiser, and two you are getting rich off of them while they do all the work to promote the site.
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> That being said, we do fundraisers with school/clubs we just use a regular store. At the end of the campaign we calculate their proceeds and give them the check. We either do a standards markup of a % or a we do a flat dollar amount ($3.00) per item. DO NOT let them talk you into marking up short sleeve shirts by 3.00 and long sleeve shirts by 4.00 and hoodies by 10.00 etc. You will spend half your life running reports and calculating proceeds.
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> Off the top of my head - lessons learned on stores:
> 1 - CLEAR expectations of delivery dates. Will you be printing for bulk production on on-demand. Set prices accordingly and explain the difference. Use a banner to clearly state expected delivery date.
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> 2 - we use the custom field option to have the customer sign off on a statement that says this is custom printed apparel and to choose sizes carefully. We will only exchange items due to manufacturer defect and only same item/size.
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> 3 - use the custom field option to capture student name. Often the student name may be different from parent's or order placers name. The schools get frustrated when orders are delivered and they don't know that Johnny's grandma is Roberta Smith, but the order is for Johnny Jones. We also capture the customers phone. If they check out as a guest, you will only get an email address and no good way to contact them if there are issues with their order.
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> 4 - use the count down clock component - it does two things. 1 - lights a fire and gets people to order more, sooner. 2 - you can keep the store open after the clock expires, and then people ordering are more appreciative and respect the fact they were late ordering and their item may not come in with the rest of the order. They are super happy when they know they have ordered late and you still deliver with the rest of the team.
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> 5 - We do not put limits on the number of products they can offer and we do not charge to put more items up. We make STRONG suggestions to keep their product offers to 10-20 items. More than that becomes overwhelming.
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> 6 - We do not charge for store set up or art. We up the price of the product by a couple of dollars to recoup that expense. Most youth organizations and schools will not put out up front costs for a store, but incorporating them into the product pricing makes everyone in the organization pay a couple bucks and disperses the expense. We have gotten pretty good at estimating sales based on the size of the organization. This gives us a good idea of how to price the items.
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> 7 - be flexible and creative to make it as easy as possible for your customers. For example - PTA pays for t-shirts for their 5th graders but they do not want to gather all the sizing info or disperse the shirts. We set up a store for everyone to place their order, we then issued a discount code for the total cost of the shirt. School distributes the site. We have 125 orders. 125 new customers with email addresses to market to, more traffic driven to our website (better SEO), and a customer that is happy because the only thing they have to send out a link. At the end of the campaign we look at the number of uses for the discount code and we invoice the PTA. Think of outside of the box uses.
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> SELLING POINTS for organizations:
> 1 - they do not have to handle money, sizes, personalization or field any complaints on orders
> 2 - parents can pay with credit card (which most schools and youth organizations do not accept)
> 3 - EASY to do personalization
> 4 - we bag all orders with packing slips with the individuals name so 'they' do not have to spend their time sorting and organizing orders for delivery.
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> Once we set up a store for an organization - we have a 90% return rate for future stores - we do everything we can to make it easy for them. 'THEY' LOVE IT!
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> Just remember for fundraisers for organizations you will have to issue a 1099 at the end of the year. Make sure you gather the appropriate information (tax id or SSN) and you track this somewhere. Inksoft does not track it.
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> I have attached our work flow sheet that I fill out and give to my staff members that create the stores. Each sections flows exactly with the new store setup flow - I hope it is useful and is a small return on what you have sent me.
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> Let me know if you have other questions - I am happy to answer.
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> THANKS!
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> Ali Banholzer
> MOSD LLC, dba Wear Your Spirit Warehouse, Owner
