Monsoon Commerce

Although the Monsoon re-pricing engine works, it is very "touchy" continually constantly trying to" re-list" your items, in the way it re-prices. Our sku's were being de-listed or not updating prices, due to the re-list function, and our business fell, and fell, and we emailed and emailed, usually being told why it was everybody's fault but Monsoon's. (There were number of issues with Monsoon, we tried to adjust, to do work abounds, and bend our business model to fit Monsoon). In the end, we just had so many problems, with Monsoon software, the condescending attitude in the emails,, and especially, the fall off in orders! So we started, looking (again), for another company. We have recently "hired" ChannelMAX. We have been using CMax all day, every day for a few months, on our more than 30,000 product sku's. All our sku's are "NON-BMVD", i.e. strictly consumer goods, where shipping price is a big factor, and which we re-price continuously, including shipping. Our items are selling on Amazon, Buy.com, and eBay. We had been using Monsoon for about 9 months, and used it on all these products, continuously, 24/7. Monsoon can "list" new items, CMAX cannot, it can only re-price already listed items. ChannelMAX seemed the best alternative. So, during the last few months, we ran both software programs simultaneously, ChannelMAX vs. Monsoon, in real time testing. We became believers in Channel Max, based on the results (in spite of their email response problems). I suspect they are growing, and need more staff, but they acknowledge the response problems, and seem to be making some improvement. They have spent much time with us in the past months helping get out items loaded, pricing strategy set-up, and showing us how to use features. So we went ahead and "fired" Monsoon. They could have cared less, and we couldn't be happier. ChannelMAX software has a lot of flexibility, and lots of options, and that makes it quite complex, (i.e. takes a while to learn). Now that we have finally learned it, and have it fully tweaked, ChannelMAX has never sold a sku at a loss, the Re-Priced items have been spot on, (it really works), and our business is growing again, (it is nearly back to pre-Monsoon levels), backorders are way down, and feedback is back up. Monsoon cost us a bundle, both in their own charges, and more importantly in lost sales. Not to mention loads more backorders, angry customers, and negative feedback s shot up, and for the first time ever, we fell way outside Amazons Performance guidelines. We feel like we can once again breathe easier , and are glad the Monsoon has passed.

Very expensive compared to competition charging ~$2500 setup fee, $100 base monthly fee plus 2-4% percentage of sales based on category. User interface is not buggy, but integration and pricing are very buggy and do not function as advertised raising many major issues for customer to frequently deal with. So overrated while so limited in capabilities and they develop most of the features half the way just so they can say they have them even if using them means issues and frustration to the user... basically Monsoon is major overhead to average organization and makes normal tasks slow and inefficient overall.... Do not let hype demos get you, they are designed to show smooth and ease! One user said in the Monsoon user groups, when using monsoon, you have to learn how to apologize for customers as your inventory quantities will always have issues and out of sync no matter what you do and even when you purge your whole inventory per Monsoon support recommendation once a week! The pricer has tons of bugs... first it is very immature and geared for pricing lowest on new conditions... simply it is very poor at pricing used inventory and the so many pricing bugs makes it not even suitable for pricing new items neither. Imagine this, try selling very good and no competition, and your price will go MSRP :( that is one example of a billion on that end, specially knowing non of their pricing options work correctly or consistently as selected. Simple because of monsoon, my customer order cancellation refund rate due to wrong inventory went up from 1.1% to 23% high!!! Also my sales went down from $18K to to $7K. When I complained to sales, they said if you contact us reporting bugs and asking for help on monsoon anymore, we will have to charge you for all support! Then they said, since you report to us many issues, we will only deal with customers who barely report anything and put you on low priority. Monsoonworks is mainly geared and optimized around new booksellers and warehouses, though will not deliver as advertised to most other users. Their contract is scary... you have to keep detailed sales records of all your amazon and ebay sales for ~5 years and they have the right to audit, they can cancel the service for any reason, they can decide to charge you for support if they decide you are not using the service as designed (ex. Use Amazon and Monsoon interfaces at same time), ask support for how to use the software (they only know the basics and struggle with advance questions), or if you contact them and point the endless different bugs (like my case) Simply, Zero accountability, buggy software, too much expensive, and telling me no support and no bug reporting... what is up with that... I left them to Fillz after that!

If you are a serious marketplace seller and aim to grow your business dramatically Monsoon is the software for you. The software has a lot of bells and whistles and takes some time to learn but once you go through the learning curve it is worth the price.

price

i believe i deserve a 5 star rating because i have been trading for one year and offer good old-fashioned service that include honesty,prompt payment,prompt dispatch good communication, and 7 day money back for any reason the buyer is not happy