Hello - we are thinking of going from LightSpeed to Shopify. We currently do not have an online store but will be starting one and want to know the cost other than picking the plan. Also, are there reports we will be able to run using categories or departments? Are we able to create our own custom reports? Thanks!
Hi @MThreatt ,
Thank you for getting in touch and it’s great to hear that you’re thinking of signing up with Shopify. I’d be happy to answer any questions that you have here.
In terms of costs, I’d recommend checking out our Help Center article on charges which breaks down the fees you can expect to see on your invoices. Please take a look through the outlined examples and let me know if you’ve any questions about them.
You can use Shopify analytics to monitor and track a variety of data points and metrics concerning your finances, products, and orders. Shopify doesn’t use categories or departments, per se, but we do have collections and vendors/ product types which may be analogous. Custom reports are available but only for merchants on our Advanced or Plus plans.
Are you looking to start an online store only on Shopify, or will you be looking to use the Shopify POS for retail sales as well?
Good morning,
Thank you for replying.
Is there another link that I can look at the breakdown of fees? It wants me to log in with a Spotify account and I don’t’ want to create one unless I have to.
We will be looking to use Shopify for retail sales as well as online sales. Is there someone we can talk to over the phone that can answer our questions and alleviate our concerns?
Thank you!
Hi @MThreatt ,
You can view a breakdown of our subscription plan fees and other associated charges on our pricing page. This page can be accessed without logging in, although so should the Help Center article I shared in my last post.
Please feel free to reach out to our support team via the Shopify Help Center; you can select the “I don’t have an account” option and proceed that way. Please select “Store management” and then “Retail and Shopify POS”, and you’ll see an option to email, chat, or call us:
We are currently using LightSpeed (formerly ShopKeep) We have 2 brick and mortar stores and are planning to begin Online Sales soon. So far, I haven’t seen anything in the Analytics that gives us the detailed reporting that we need. LightSpeed is great for this. Am I just missing it? How does Shopify compare to LightSpeed in regard to it’s back office reporting capabilities?
Hi @MThreatt ,
Can you please elaborate on what detailed reporting you are looking for? I am not familiar with Lightspeed’s analytics so cannot make a comparison, but would be happy to provide more information on what reports we do offer.
If you view the Help Center page on Shopify analytics, you’ll be able to access links to the different types of reports we offer (e.g. financial reports, inventory reports, marketing reports, etc). Each link will then include a list of which reports are available in each category. I’d recommend taking a look through these to get a better idea of what is offered, and you could also start a free trial for testing purposes so that you can access the Shopify admin and see for yourself.
Hi Victor,
Thank you for your response. We currently can pull reports by item and/or Department/type. We can use filters to fill in whatever dates we need the data for. We also can pull a report that give us Sales amounts showing Tax collected, cash sales, credit, and AmEx Sales, again filtering whatever date range we need.
I saw a list of “Categories” for inventory items (Apparel and accessories, Candles, food items) Can we add our own categories, or do we have to choose from the list provided?
We also sell T-Shirts and other items that are branded with our Official Logo and some items are not. I can pull a report that shows just the branded items that sold in a particular time period. We also have many consignment items that I need to be able to separate out at month end to pay our vendors.
ShopKeep (LightSpeed) has both “Departments” and “Categories”. Items would be in a particular Department (apparel, food, books, miscellaneous). Most would be in the category of “General” except for our branded items. We had a separate category of “Brand Items”. That made it easier to pull separate our those items for our monthly reports.
Also, we have 2 brick and mortar shops that carry the same items, but have their own separate inventory. I saw where to “Transfer” inventory from one store to another but could only do it if we were shipping the items. In our case, the stores are close by, and we would just hand deliver the transferred items. Is there a way to do this in Shopify? I couldn’t complete a transfer because I didn’t have the required shipping information.
We already are using the Free Trial. We also have the free trial of the POS add on.
Marilee Threatt
Hi @MThreatt ,
Yes, you can add your own values for collections, product types, vendors, etc. The categories you’ve cited are just examples.
You can filter sales reports by product type and by vendor, so you should be able to access the reporting you want using these. For example, you could create two product types—one “T-Shirts” and one “T-Shirts (Branded)”—and then add the product type filter to your sales reporting to view them this way. Similarly, you can add your consignment vendors to each product and filter the sales report by vendor. This would allow you to view the sales of products provided by each vendor over a timeframe of your choice.
I believe you should also be able to transfer inventory between stores regardless of whether they are being shipped or sold in person.
Now that you have started your free trial, I’d also recommend contacting our support team directly. They can authenticate you on your account, access your store, and walk you through all of this with you. This would give you a better idea if Shopify can provide you with the reporting and inventory manegement capabilities that you’re looking for.