Massive price increase on Sellerdeck Entry products

[philrothwell]

Withdrawl of SellerDeck Catalog

Hi All,

I thought it would be a good idea to respond to this thread directly.

As you know, we have discontinued our Catalog product in SellerDeck 2014. Our “entry level” product is now SellerDeck Business, which has indeed increased in price from £929 plus VAT to £999 plus VAT.

The reasons for this change are commercial. We have a broad range of solutions, all of which have to be tested and maintained. To improve efficiency we wanted to remove one product and it made sense to withdraw Catalog as the Business range is more popular.

We have advised our existing Catalog users by letter and email, but it always takes time for these types of communications to disseminate. All the same, we apologise if it took you by surprise.

Existing Catalog customers are being supplied with a free upgrade to Business, which would normally sell for £736 plus VAT, to offer some degree of compensation. A plan is also in place to transition Catalog Cover subscribers to Business Cover via a reduced transitional rate.

This does mean that for these customers, prices are increasing. However, it is important to note that if you use Catalog, you still own a perpetual license and the software will continue to function.

I hope this all makes sense, if you have any further questions please contact SellerDeck Sales directly on 0845 129 4888.

[chris ashdown]

That's fine as it goes, but how many start-ups will pay the best part of £1000 for software however good it is, when they can get open source software for free and once they have software from one maker they are unlikely to change

So that means very few will buy the business software and users will decline over the years forcing you to reduce either support staff or design staff to meet the reduced market share

Also the cost of support is getting so expensive you must be loosing customers who see little need to update to the latest fads, and i object to having to pay extra for each licence as it involves no extra work on your behalf and we paid through the nose for each licence in the first place

[Buzby]

I too will keep an eye on your site Gucci to see who you change to, if you do.

I feel that 2014 we have hit a wall and can't see us going much further unless something amazing happens.

My main gripe is the responsive element. Years after everyone else has, it we finally get it with Sellerdeck , but have not got the time to implement across all our sites before Google starts to penalise us for not being responsive.

We were on the verge of moving 4 sites to Sellerdeck hosting, and moving 3 to Sellerdeck Payments (1 already on) and then put the brakes on when we were disappointed with 2014.

I have been a user since version 6 and this is the first time I have felt really let down with a release.

[zgap111]

This subject is something I was going to post following a recent email of "price increases"

We made the switch from XP to Win7/8 and v10 (multi-user) did not work well. so we upgraded to v12 (via new cover contract) and still we had problems and now onto v14 and still problems (albeit it's much better - with no real explanation of why it's improved) - ongoing problems I'm guessing it's more to do with multi-user (3 users), seems to go wrong when everyone's on = my suspicion is the sync svr program doesn't work well...

Upgrading has been a pain, each upgrade I needed to

# re-apply some advanced guide scripts
I've actually put in the wish list : apply as much as possible of the advanced guide stuff into the settings menu (or a new advanced settings menu) in Sellerdeck (eg. a tick box to "use sendrichmail")

# re-format the default .rpt files, took about 3-4 hours on each file.
- tried to copy the v10 to v12 = doesn't work, had to modify the default v12 ones
- tried to copy the v12 to v14 = doesn't work, had to modify the default v14 ones
- seems that each new upgrade they introduce or change some variables which breaks the previous .rpt files.

I managed to upgrade our 5 user software to apply the annual HMRC PAYE updates/software updates, involves 5 workstations and a server
= 30 mins after work on Friday evening
vs
3 user Sellerdeck, 3 workstations, upgrading 3 sites
= the rest of the weekend (Fri eve to Mon am, with some sleep in between)

After upgrading, certain design anomalies has occurred due to the new versions no longer support the old themes... (our sites were mainly based on the default themes, why remove them?)

And now Sellerdeck decides to up the prices whilst we are cutting prices due to fighting competition with ebay sellers (we have started to sell in ebay and business is picking up there)

I can't see us renewing the cover at this price level and probably stick with v14 as long as possible.

I hate to rant... hope Sellerdeck gives something for us to praise about soon...

I can't see increasing the prices will keep existing customers or attract new ones...
..unless the competition are all doing the same.

@guccij : I would like to know the alternatives you are considering...

[Fairyglass]

We've been actively exploring options for a while, as we can't easily achieve what we want from Sellerdeck any more. Our requirements aren't complex- we need software that's responsive, links easily with Sage, and allows online customer account creation. There's question marks over Sellerdeck's responsive themes, SD Link has caused us so many problems we've stopped using it, and trade customers can't apply for an account without placing an order.

We've been a cover customer for many years, and I've always looked forward to the new versions. I'm used to the software and reluctant to start all over again, but the costs just keep going up and I'm struggling to see the value when the software just doesn't do the job we need it to do.

I doubt we'll change any time soon, but if a solution arose then I'd become another ex Sellerdeck customer. I don't feel valued, I don't feel happy, and I don't feel secure for the future of the business.

[watsy]

" I don't feel secure for the future of the business"

It is a terrible business strategy. They should have kept Catalog and re-introduced Order Manager to make it simple for web designers to introduce SD to new clients without the cost.

Should also give a version of the product away for free with the support contract kicking in after a year to hugely increase the user base.

This current strategy will mean higher revenue for a year or two but a rapidly dwindling base of recurring revenue with no new up and coming customers to take the place of natural churn of mid range customers and to charge the extra services to.

[Buzby]

Watsy your post is interesting as it is what I have just experienced.

A friend wanted to set up a small website to sell a few dozen items and asked my advice.

I did push them to Sellerdeck saying that I could help them etc, however they were put off by the price.

I am sure that had Sellerdeck had an offer with free software, but paying for contract cover then Sellerdeck would have had a sale.

Instead they have now opted for Shopify.

[chris ashdown]

Indeed a few years ago now they issued a limited edition catalog for free in one of the computer magazines limited i think to 25 products, i imagine that lead to a lot of sales in the long run starting small for free and moving up when they grew

[Tony Moore]

Indeed that's how I got started with actinic

Indeed a few years ago now they issued a limited edition catalog for free in one of the computer magazines limited i think to 25 products, i imagine that lead to a lot of sales in the long run starting small for free and moving up when they grew

[Buzby]

I got started with Actinic V6 which I purchased from Ebay for £120 not knowing at the time about it not being transferable.

By time V7 was out I was fully licensed. I then went on to Developer and Business Multi-site, all with a cover contract, and Sellerdeck Payments.

Had it not been for the cheap entry into Actinic I wouldn't be here today and Actinic / Sellerdeck wouldn't have had the £000's from me that they have.

Back in the Limited Edition days (Catalog LE) I advised a lot of people to try it, but difficult now to recommend Sellerdeck at the current prices.

[Mike Hughes]

On the one hand I agree. Most of us looking to grow the business spend a lot of time and effort finding ways to get new customers into the sales cycle. It does seem odd that Sellerdeck should be getting rid of a version of software aimed at bringing new customers into the fold and an easy step up to the more advanced versions.

On the other hand though, you have to wonder if the ecommerce market is maturing and becoming more professional. The easy step into selling online is now probably to sell on ebay or amazon rather than to put the effort into your own online store and I wouldn't be surprised if what people want now from an 'entry' level stand alone ecommerce platform is probably far more sophisticated than it used to be.

Who knows. Maybe Sellerdeck have a plan to bring out a product that better matches the needs of sellers on amazon and ebay and merges the needs for selling across multiple platforms. That would bring a whole new range of customers into the fold and be far more interesting to me.

[Fairyglass]

Who knows. Maybe Sellerdeck have a plan to bring out a product that better matches the needs of sellers on amazon and ebay and merges the needs for selling across multiple platforms.

Sign me up for that! Amazon has become such a large part of our retail business that it dwarfs the sales made on our own retail websites, and I now spend more time managing that than I do optimising etc on our Sellerdeck sites. An integrated set-up between SD, Amazon, eBay and Sage for back-end is my ideal. I know there are third party systems out there, but to have it all in one package would be wonderful, and I'd be perfectly willing to pay for it.

[Mike Hughes]

I have no visibility of Sellerdeck's plans but it would be nice to think that while they're closing down one avenue it's because they have another one opening up.

I've always thought the people behind sellerdeck were pretty smart and you would hope they could see a good opportunity when it's sitting there.

Mike

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

Indeed a few years ago now they issued a limited edition catalog for free in one of the computer magazines limited i think to 25 products, i imagine that lead to a lot of sales in the long run starting small for free and moving up when they grew

I too started on Actinic LE 25 from a magazine cover CD and would never have even looked at Actinic if it wasn't a free. The free light version was an ideal starting point for a small fledgling business.

[John Ennals]

For those of us with a large number of items but a low stock holding (1 of each item in my case), SellerDeck represents very good value for money compared with other providers that use a pricing model based on the number of products.

John