Katana Cloud Inventory

Just completed the free 14 day trial of Katana and have now begun a paid subscription. It took a few days and a bit of frustration to manually add all our products, ingredients, recipes, and current pending wholesale orders from outside of shopify, but having the shopify integration helped a lot. We use three different wholesale platforms (Faire, tundra & Abound), none of which offer automated third party integrations, so we knew we’d have to manually input orders and Katana serves that purpose as our centralized dashboard to see what needs to go out, when, from which platform, if we have it in stock, when we can make it, etc. In two weeks, we’ve already seen an increase in production efficiency and decrease in wholesale turnaround times now that EVERYTHING is being tracked in one place. Highly recommend Katana if you’re a maker, it’s never too early to implement automated systems in your biz!

We are using Katana for some time now. A few years ago I have built a complete production platform from scratch, so I know it can get complicated Katana has done a fantastic job! It works flawlessly, integration with Shopify is perfect and in sync.

We have been using Katana for almost a year now. It does not yet have all the features we need, but it has grown rapidly. The Katana team is amazing with technical support and follow up. They are really dedicated to customizing the software so all styles of manufacturing and processing are considered. After using a variety of different inventory systems, we were happy to find Katana!

Update 24/01/2024.
A Disheartening Experience with Katana's Pricing Policies

As a small business, Solid Stash, with an annual turnover of approximately 300kEUR and handling around 3000 orders monthly, we initially chose Katana for its affordability and features. However, our journey with Katana has been increasingly disheartening, marked by unexpected and steep price hikes that have put our business in a challenging position.

Initially, we were content with a reasonable monthly fee of about 100 USD. This was manageable for a business of our scale. However, due to a change in Katana's billing rules related to sales order rows, we experienced our first major setback: an abrupt increase in our monthly fee to over 300 USD. This was a significant blow to our finances, but we reluctantly accepted it, hoping for cost stability in the future. We also anticipated the benefit of batch tracking, a feature crucial for our operations.

Our disappointment was further compounded when Katana introduced a new pricing structure. Not only did we face another hike in our monthly fee, but batch tracking, previously included, was now a separate add-on costing an additional 199 USD per month. This escalation meant our expenses on Katana's services skyrocketed from around 100 USD to over 500 USD monthly – a fivefold increase in just two years.

This pricing strategy feels like a trap. We initially invested in Katana, dedicating time and resources to set up and train our employees, only to find ourselves facing exorbitant fees that are unsustainable for a small business like ours. The lack of predictability in Katana's pricing is alarming. There's a constant fear that next year might bring another doubling of costs or a new, arbitrary billing metric.

We feel cornered and exploited. The assumption that the high switching costs will force us to accept these unreasonable increases is unfair and disrespectful to loyal customers. We are not just numbers on a spreadsheet; we are a small business striving to survive and grow.

We are making a sincere request to Katana: please reconsider your pricing strategy. We need stability and fairness in pricing. We made our initial investment based on the original pricing structure, and these drastic changes are not just a financial strain but also a breach of the trust we placed in Katana.

In conclusion, while Katana's software may offer certain operational benefits, their pricing policies are a source of major concern and disappointment. We urge potential customers to consider this aspect carefully before committing to Katana. The financial unpredictability and lack of consideration for small businesses in their pricing strategy are significant drawbacks that cannot be overlooked.

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We are a startup and produce and deliver vegan freezer meals. We found that Shopify didn't have sufficient functionalities to manage our production and stock. Katana is the right fit for us, as it's very user friendly & intuitive. It helps us run our production as we've uploaded our recipes in the tool. Customer support is excellent.

My product is relatively complicated, requiring dozens of assembled parts. Katana helps keep me sane, keeping track of inventory and helping me plan upcoming batches. Absolutely worth the price!

L'ERP est simple à prendre en main et cependant complet, assez accessible pour une petite entreprise contrairement à d'autres solutions. Le SAV est réactif, ça fait assez peu de temps que nous avons intégré Katana mais nous en sommes pour l'instant ravies !

Katana has revolutionised our business. We are now able to accurately cost our manufacturing, have everyone know exactly when materials will be in and how long before products are ready. As a small business this has saved us countless hours and headaches.

It is a bit of a learning curve though, and a slightly smoother integration with shopify and shipping (dpd, royal mail etc) interface would be really helpful, hence the taking off one star.

We're pretty new to Katana but so far it is everything that we have been crying out for! Stock levels are now obvious and keeping track of inventory is so much easier. As we integrate this into our working week I am sure it will transform the efficiency with which we do everything.

The advantage to using your app is we see how it can help our business grow and know where are money is being spent. The disadvantage is the time difference and having to wait for response or get up at an odd time for training, also we have had problems uploading.

Simple to use, comprehensive functionalities and above all highly flexible to fit our DTC and made to order workflow. It has been transformational for our business and looking forward to keep growing powered by Katana!