Seriously concerned about the future of SellerDeck

[printerbase]

Hi,

I've been using SellerDeck (previously Actinic) for maybe around 12 years now but I am getting seriously worried for the future of the product because today I received a letter from Actinic offering free use of the cloud version until my cover contract runs out on SellerDeck.

So I would like to know what exactly is the relationship between the Actinic and SellerDeck companies now ?

Do Actinic have the right to send me this type of marketing ?

IS the long term goal to slowly wind down SellerDeck and get everybody moved over to Actinic Online ?

Why would SellerDeck let Actinic Online try and move all SellerDecks customers over to Actinic Online, the only reason I can think of is to begin the process of winding down SellerDeck ?

Peter

[Mike Hughes]

CB is the only person who can say for sure but I don't think this is the case.

I suspect it's just that Actinic are allowed to market to the existing SellerDeck database and they're doing everything they can to remove barriers to people moving.

I doubt if it's much more complicated than that.

Mike

[cbarling]

I don't think Mike is far off the mark there and we continue to recommend Actinic Online if you want to move to a SaaS solution.

However, I can assure you that SellerDeck has a future. SD 2013 (the next release) is in beta so will be coming out shortly. It has some major enhancements and seems to have been very well received so far.

In the meantime the SellerDeck development team have plenty more planned and we expect to produce a major new release every year.

Chris

[GreenBerry]

But surely in now boils down to a rival company which Actinic now is, eMailing users of a rival system?

All the mail shot has done is confuse people, I've had two clients contact me today saying they had got this eMail and they wanted to take the offer up but when I pointed out it would mean having to rebuild their sites and move away from Sellerdeck they couldn't understand why.

The vast majority of people don't even realise Actinic is now SellerDeck so when they get an eMailer from Actinic they don't realise its from a rival company.

[JimboS]

Chris

Are you also the Chairman or involved with owning Actinic as well?

James

[cbarling]

My wife and myself, along with two of the other founding directors of Actinic Software Ltd own SellerDeck Ltd which is the changed company name.

My wife and myself by a slightly circuitous route effectively own some shares in Oxatis SA which now owns the Actinic brand and operates Actinic Online. I'm not part of the management team of Oxatis SA.

Effectively we are sister companies, but pursuing different strategies.

Chris

[Mike Hughes]

Personally, I'd rather see:

- Less promotional / poaching offers from Actinic Online.
- More marketing activity such as news, updates, tips, tricks, etc from SellerDeck.

Mike

[plantsforshade]

I think we would all have more confidence if we didn't constantly get emails/letters/telephone calls from Actinic telling/asking us to change.

I had to say to a friend recently who was considering sellerdeck that until they upgrade the access database and deal with old software like crystal reports I am not sure their is much future anyway.

Nigel

[printerbase]

I just can't see how the two products can cosily exist together, they are fighting over the same customers.

Who are the target customers for Actinic and who are the target customers for SellerDeck?

Personally I would like to see SellerDeck improved in terms of advanced features and make it more of an advanced package and leave Actinic to the people who just want a quick and easy web shop.

Peter

[cbarling]

Commenting on the last two posts:-

SellerDeck can run on SQL*Server, that's what SellerDeck Enterprise does.

Agree with you on the reporting language .... It's on the list of things to do.

Yes, I think there are more arguments in favour of SellerDeck for larger companies. We believe that we have the largest market share of any ecommerce vendor in the 5 - 50 employee space, and we intend to do a lot more in the future, while maintaining an upgrade path for smaller customers.

Chris

[Artisan]

The majority of my clients want additional functionality in their website - with Actinic Online the answer would inevitably be "sorry, it can't be done". That, and the many other advantages, makes SellerDeck the clear winner.

[richard.cranium]

If Sellerdeck want to keep going they need to be sending mailshots to their existing client base too. They should at least clarify the business relationships and explain why customers may be getting emails from Oxatis, that Oxatis now "owns" the Actinic brand, that the product we all know and love is now called Sellerdeck.

Their failure to do so would appear to vindicate the view stated above that the unspoken plan is to migrate everyone to Oxatis.

From my perspective as someone who helps clients build and maintain Sellerdeck sites - Oxatis provides me little or no work. In the circumstances I have to be looking at alternative ecommerce products - or my business is dead in the water.

[cbarling]

Richard, we've done our best to explain this both in postings here and on material on the SellerDeck web site.

We also arranged a personal phone call to every one of our customers that has Cover or uses one of our services at the point that the brand name changed.

I myself was involved in a video shoot on this very topic and which can be found on the web site.

We know we can do more, so we will continue trying. But the information is actually out there already.

Chris

[mje]

One has to assume there is greater revenue potential from the cloud based product. Anyone in business is going to have a preference for their more profitable products be they with in a single company or split between two. - perfectly understandable.

I know when we looked at it (Actinic Online) using our current traffic data - our monthly cost would of risen significantly, but what we really didn't like was renting as opposed to owning, maybe not a valid reason to some, but important to ourselves as a long term investor in the desk top software.

[richard.cranium]

Whilst it's true that Sellerdeck have communicated the issue in various ways, the fact remains that I continue to get calls from my existing "old Actinic" users who are confused by approaches from "new Actinic".

One example was "...Actinic called and offered a free audit..." He took up this offer and then asked us about some of the reported "issues". Nearly all turned out to be wrong (example "No Google sitemap" - yes there is, "no H1 tags" - yes there are).
"No best sellers" was correct - but he's still on an old software version that doesn't have that feature.

The conclusion was that he needed to spend £3.5k to "upgrade" plus monthly maintenance of up to £155/month, throw away much of the work he'd put into building his current catalogue and learn a new interface.

The implication was that this was effectively an upgrade, no mention was made of the fact that some features of Sellerdeck that he requires are not available in Oxatis.

On a positive note the proposal was so poor only an idiot would go ahead.

We had a client who did make the conversion, luckily with just a small product set but was seriously annoyed to find that Oxatis regard a product available in 5 colours and 5 sizes as being 25 products and so taking her into a higher than anticipated monthly maintenance fee band.