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My Experience Moving from FillZ to Monsoon
Category Adam's Pick
When I first started selling books on the Internet I had no idea where it would go. I sold a few here and there from my shelf at home and that first big group of books that I bought from a local FOL sale was kind of like a shot in the dark. My wife nearly killed me because, at the time, I had no idea where I was going to even put them all let alone know how to sell all of them. This is how I’ve been and always will be. I guess it’s just a personality trait of mine. I don’t typically plan a whole lot. If I want to try something new I’ll jump and then ask questions later even if it means throwing some cash at it.
This is what I’ve done with Monsoon. If you’re new to this blog you can find my first post on this huge change in business that I’ve done at the post Making the Leap into the Unknown. To summarize that post if you’re too lazy to go look at it I basically explain that sometimes you just have to take the leap and do it. No amount of planning in the world is going to be enough and eventually you’ll just have to just do it. This can be applied to the situation I’m in now or even if you’re never sold a book in your life! Doing days upon days of research and more research, deciding on exactly what type of book scouting setup you need, knowing exactly which books to buy before you even start is ridiculous. This might work if you’re going to invest in a franchise that would cost you $50K to get started but it’s used books! Used books are a dime a dozen and if they’re not that cheap the most you’d be out for a few dozen books to try out is $20 or less. There is no excuse for not trying because if you don’t try you’ll never succeed. Want to know a good starting point? My eBook!
I’m interrupting my regularly scheduled book scouting series post this week. I wanted to take this time to update everyone on why I haven’t been too active posting as well as not living up to my promise of getting the Amazon Sales Spreadsheet out much, much sooner. Sometimes, it’s very hard to balance a full-time traditional 9-5 job, successful online bookselling business as well as writing about it but I’m doing my best!
OK, that’s about enough of my pity party. This post is all about my experience getting started with Monsoon. This post will most likely not apply to new sellers as Monsoon can be very pricey and is geared towards sellers in the likes of Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc. I don’t pretend to even be close to their sales volume but this is the first step of achieving that goal!
Here is how things have been going for me for the past few weeks.
Workflow from point of contact to initial setup
- I first talked with a friendly (aren’t they all?) salesperson to discuss how I was selling currently, what my volume of orders was, features that Monsoon had that may help me, some things that Monsoon couldn’t do, etc. This process did not go the greatest because I was using FBA and he allowed me to purchase Monsoon Edge (the introductory package) rather than Monsoon Pro (FBA, international markets, more repricing options). It eventually worked out though for the better and I’m finally setup with Monsoon Pro.
- After all the initial talks on how Monsoon would be solving all my problems, cure cancer and make me a quadrillionaire I then had to pay the initial fee for setup. $500 for the introductory package Monsoon Edge or $2000 for the next step up which was Monsoon Pro. Afterward, I’ll be paying 3.5% of my gross sales every month. If you’d be using Edge you’d be paying 3.9% of gross sales.
- You will then talk to an implementation team that helps you get it downloaded, installed and configured. This team gets you up and running on all the marketplaces you were on previously, configure the software for best practices, import all your inventory into the software as well as give you some good advice along the way. I really appreciated Victoria and her team’s efforts here.
- After a few different calls with the implementation team and your inventory is live you’re cut loose and slapped on the back which was a little scary to me since this software is so different than FillZ was. I was then to the point of tweaking repricing strategies, inventory receiving thresholds, marketplace specific settings, etc.
- A few support emails later, I had finally finished my first inventory receiving session as well as processing my orders. This was WAY different than FillZ so I’m still not 100% on these tasks yet but I’m learning as I go.
By going through these five steps, I have managed to close all of the marketplaces that FillZ supported which Monsoon doesn’t which was Valorebooks, eCampus, Biblio, Textbookx, Gemm and A1books. I’ve also purged my entire inventory from all the venues that I had listed in which Monsoon does support which was Amazon, Abebooks, Alibris and Half.com. In order to get eBay up and going I was told there is no way around purging that too. However, as you know, eBay has listing fees and, which, with my 4700 books would have cost me hundreds to relist so I’m currently waiting until all listings die off to relist again.
After initial inventory purges, Monsoon then took my existing inventory and enabled all the markets and got everything up and going again only this time through Monsoon instead of FillZ. It’s now smooth sailing for me as orders are coming in, Monsoon’s repricing all my inventory and keeping all marketplace inventory in sync.
What I’ve gained from this transition
- Consolidation of an inventory/order processing service (FillZ), repricing service (RepriceIT), online book scouting service (Scoutpal) and a bulk inventory price lookup tool (Neatoscan Inventory Evaluator) into one piece of software.
- Much quicker and more intelligent repricing. Monsoon can reprice once an hour and can sense repricing wars to prevent runs to the inevitable penny book.
- Significant increase in receiving speed. I can now scan a book and list in less than10 seconds due to the many efficiencies and process improvements that Monsoon has over FillZ.
- More organized inventory management. I’m now able to search inventory much quicker because it’s on my computer as well as being designed better.
- Per marketplace settings. For example, I can now adjust my prices to be different on each marketplace to account for different fees and also various shipping rules.
- Monsoon’s own book scouting service.
- Slick FBA integration. I can now scan and print off the label all at once. The FBA integration is really nice and speeds up shipments considerably.
- Listing my inventory on buy.com and most, if not all, of the international Amazon marketplaces.
- The best asset? The expertise of a service that all the big boys use.
What I’ve learned from this experience
- This change was not only huge in regards to service but also how I use the service. FillZ was a hosted service which means everything was hosted on their servers. Their servers did all the work in the background while Monsoon is software that gets installed on your computer. This means that all of the information is stored on your computer thus YOUR responsibility. I haven’t got a backup routine down yet but I’m planning on it.
- This software needs to have a very fast Internet connection for it to maintain your listings. I had a pretty bad 1mbps/256kbps connection at my warehouse that wouldn’t do it. Monsoon had it pegged 24/7 so I had to bring the Monsoon PC home to my cable modem Internet connection to where I now access it remotely from my warehouse.
- A huge asset to have is patience and face the fact that you’re going to lose some sales during the transition. Because all inventory has to be purged and then re-uploaded again it takes some sites longer to do that and you’ll most likely miss out on a day’s worth of sales at the most.
- Finally, I’ve learned to make money you have to spend money. I’ve already noticed orders going up considerably from what I was doing due to the advice that I was given, speed at which I can receive inventory and efficiencies of the software itself.
I realize that this was a very long post but this has not been near what I’ve gone through over the past few weeks to make this transition happen. It has been a lot of work and coordination to make this all happen but I’m very happy I did it. I hope that you’ve pulled a few ideas or learned from a few mistakes that I’ve made during this transition and wish you all the luck with whatever service you’re using!
P.S. If you’re thinking about making the switch to Monsoon please let me know as I’d love to get a referral credit!
- Adam
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