Cin7 Core

UPDATE 18/7/23: After being with DEAR from their very first year and supporting them from the beginning, we are now facing a huge increase in our monthly fee with short notice, so will be cancellling our subscription. Dissappointing service now they are Cin7.

Looked at quite few inventory systems before going with DEAR. Lot to like about it. The product upload from Shopify and subsequent integration, the logical way the fulfilment process is presented and flows, and barcoding. There have been a few smaller issues and suggestions along the way, but the response has always been swift and for the most part resolved quickly. Think there is also more upside with further refinement of some processes in development. In summary I would recommend it.

Very useful in integrating sales from Shopify to other accounting software. Also makes inventory monitoring easier. We encountered some issues though but the support is very accommodating and helpful with their knowledge of the app.

DEAR connects seamlessly with Shopify, very easy to manage transactions, inventory movements and fulfillment processes. The interface is really user friendly and the learning curve isn't steep at all. Really simple to get things going. I have two feedbacks though:

1 - Email support answer times: given we're in Toronto, it's a bit of a problem when support is mainly active outside of working hours. I'm not saying that they only respond then, it's just that I usually loose a day with the majority of my issues - send an email during the day, get an answer by 8pm, start fixing it next morning. It's not bad, but it could improve. I understand there are other ways of connecting with their support, but email is still the go-to communication method for us.

2 - reporting capabilities and more specifically related to inventory transactions, There isn't a built in report that shows me which FG transaction was used to fulfill which SO, for example, which is crazy, considering I have auto-assembly enabled and there are notes on each FG showing which SO that FG was created for (when the FG was not actually used for that SO). Auditing can be a real pain.

It allows you to monitor inventory more easily. It also integrates very well with Xero. The support team was very accommodating and helpful with their knowledge of the app, even though we encountered some issues. The downsides for me are:

1. Having to use the Messenger app for support.
2. if you allocate a credit note to a supplier invoice on Xero it won't sync to DEAR.
3. It doesn't push changes to a Shopify order across to DEAR.

It was almost great, then after signing up I found out there is a maximum sku capacity of 20,000 sku's and no way to delete/purge products. This means that there is basically a lifetime limit of 20k sku's. With the number of variants our products have we go through around 10,000 sku's per year and we are just a small children's boutique. With the number of sku's initially imported we would get about a year out of the product then be having to move. The price point and features were good for us, but the sku limit is very low for a clothing retail business. I was very disappointed, especially since there was no mention of it on their website at the time and I has invested a lot of hours testing it. I also needed their Stripe/Paypal integration to be able to handle partial payments but the number 1 issue was the sku limit, we had to reluctantly cross Dear off the list because of that.

Solved our cogs and accounting problems , used vend before but with retail, online and distribution- vend was too basic. The only reason we gave dear 4 stars is because we still haven't fully tested xero- shopify and dear link for months. Currently all seems amazing. The initial switch was a head ache but worth the seamless finace integration in the end.

This is an easy Inventory Management System to use. We utilized the Onboarding provided by DEAR and the ongoing support we receive to make sure our system is being used as much to its potential for us is amazing. Kevin especially is always on hand to assist with any questions and tweaks. Other features would be also be helpful if integrated into DEAR - like to totals at the bottom of the Purchase Order Pages (and the other drop down pages)

Better than Tradegecko that we were using before. I like the ease of use. However, I think the extra $50 per additional user is too steep, and DEAR also charges ala carte per integration with 3rd party application too. This is both good and bad. You just need to evaluate your cost structure before you sign up. Overall, I would recommend it.

New to DEAR so early days yet. The onboarding service was great, really happy with the service provided. A couple of glitches but generally a positive experience. Been up & running for week now & couple of things could be better/simpler particularly around importing data for sales orders. But for an off the shelve program its ok. But based on service to date I'm going 4 stars!

So far, DEAR's email ticket response time has been under 24 hours and the replies have resolved issues to my satisfaction, even when it takes a couple of emails...