I recently transitioned from using an inventory management system that I’ve been with since 2019 to a new system as of January 6, 2025. To keep it brief, after a year of onboarding with extensive customizations, we were finally ready to go live—but everything went wrong. Nothing was functioning as expected, and we were receiving orders for products that had sold out. The tech department worked on resolving the issues every day for three months, but each day brought new problems. After exhausting all efforts, I decided to explore other options. I’m still using the current system due to lack of alternatives, but I’d switch to a more reliable system as soon as I find one.
We sell brand-name shoes for men and women (nyck.com), with sales channels including Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Shopify, and our brick-and-mortar store. A major challenge is managing sizes, as we carry brands that use different sizing systems: Size, Euro Size, UK Size, and many brands sell unisex styles.
For example:
Dr. Martens uses UK sizes (UK 5 = Men’s 6 US / Women’s 7 US)
Birkenstock uses Euro sizes (Euro 41 = Men’s 8 US / Women’s 10 US)
Converse is unisex (Size 9 = Men’s 9 US / Women’s 11 US)
Vans is unisex (Size 9 = Men’s 9 US / Women’s 10.5 US)
As you can see, each brand has its own sizing system, and some items are unisex, while others are more gender-specific.
Here are the questions I have:
We import all new products into the system via an Excel spreadsheet. For sizes, we only input the base size as that’s how we receive them from the vendor. When importing new products to Shopify, can Shopify handle this using Metafields and automate the process with Flows or something similar?
Can I rely on Shopify for inventory management, or do I need something more robust like Skulabs, Sellercloud, or other similar platforms?
If I need external inventory management, which system would you recommend that is particularly strong in handling Apparel and Footwear?
What’s the best program for creating new listings (new ASINs) on Amazon, especially for Parent-Child listings? Amazon need all sizes to be sent in US sizes
Is Shopify POS good, or would you recommend an external app? I know their credit card processing rates aren’t the best.
It is frustrating when an inventory system doesn’t function as expected, especially after a long onboarding process.
Since you’re managing different sizes across multiple channels, here are some insight that can assist you.
Metafields and Flows for Sizing.
Shopify’s Metafields can store custom sizing information and Shopify Flow can help automate product imports depending on set conditions. However, you might want to try Matrixify for an advanced automation, to help manage bulk imports efficiently.
Shopify for Inventory Management?
For basic tracking, Shopify’s in-built inventory management works fine. But for high-volume or multi-channel selling, I’ll recommend Skubana, Sellercloud, or Linnworks as powerful alternatives tailored for footwear and apparel businesses.
External Inventory Management for Apparel and Footwear.
For your complicated sizing needs, inventory softwares with strong multi-channel syncing capacities like Cin7, TradeGecko (now QuickBooks Commerce), SkuVault are specialized in managing inventory for footwear and apparel brands.
Amazon Parent-Child Listings.
Amazon listings that require US sizes, ChannelAdvisor, Feedonomics, or Listing Mirror are great tools that can help smoothen your products Parent-Child relationships.
Shopify POS or External POS?
Shopify POS is a decent small-scale retail. But for advanced features with greater credit card rates, Lightspeed POS, or Square is a much more preferable alternative.
If you need further assistance applying any of the above, feel free to reach out again.
I think Shopify can handle this, but you’ll need a combination of Metafields, Shopify Flow, and a good inventory management system
Create metafields for each product to store multiple size conversions (e.g., UK → US, Euro → US). Apps like Metafields Guru can help manage this easily.
You can set up Shopify Flow (if on Shopify Plus) to trigger automatic size conversions when importing products via CSV.
Use a dedicated inventory apps. Some systems like Linnworks, SKULabs, or TradeGecko (QuickBooks Commerce) specialize in multi-channel inventory syncing, size variations, and preventing overselling.
Maybe you can’t totally rely on Shopify for inventory management, Shopify’s built-in inventory management works fine for small to mid-sized businesses, but for multi-channel selling (Amazon, eBay, Walmart, brick-and-mortar), you’ll need something more robust and specialized.
If you’re just managing Shopify and a few other channels, SKULabs or Linnworks should work well.
That sounds frustrating—spending a year onboarding only for it to fall apart is rough.
Shopify & Metafields – Shopify can handle size conversions with Metafields and Flow, but tools like Matrixify or Metafields Guru make bulk imports easier.
Inventory Management – Shopify works for basic tracking, but for multi-channel (especially with footwear sizing), a more robust system is better. Sellercloud, SKULabs, and Linnworks are solid, but Qoblex also handles multi-channel inventory and custom attributes like size conversions—plus, it’s more affordable than most.
Amazon Listings – ChannelAdvisor and Listing Mirror help with Parent-Child listings, but Qoblex can streamline this too.
things getting worse with my current system “AGILIRON” whoever is thinking to use them STAY AWAY
i am thinking for an immediate action to use shopify as my main inventory management , and i am in talks with LINNWORKS , if we sign up it will take about 5-7 weeks till we go live (if anyone can comment about LINNWORKS , let me know what you think)
so for me to use shopify as my main inventory i need the following things if someone can recommend some sort of solution
Marketplace integration - Amazon, eBay , Walmart , we installed Shopify Marketplace connect if any one can comments if they are good or there is a better app that do better job, we sell brand name shoes, 99% of our products are Parent / Child Listing, 80% we match against existing listing and 20% we create new ASIN let me know
with my current and past system’s we process amazon returns by refunding the return within the inventory management, and not directly from amazon, can anyone recommend a program or an app that can do that, and also allow deducting restocking fee or doing partial refund, i know its possible trough amazon, but its more complicated
Size Description - as i described above, when i create a product i use the native size , for example Dr Martens i will use the naked size 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 etc.. which they are UK size , however on my website i need to show the size description for example i would enter size 5 in shopify for the size, but on the went it push UK 5 (Men’s 6 US / Women’s 7 US)
Reports - i am looking for an app or program that can provide me a matrix Report (see attached)
i need to know if any program or app can give me a status report that showing me what is the status of each product on each channel , i created something bellow that explain more or less that i am looking for
