Highly focussed on Warehouse Management, very complete and reliable system

Looking for a system to help us reduce the not-fullfillable order rate that we had in our Magento shop, I found Peoplevox; this solution is solely focused on getting the warehouse data accurate and it does a great job. We did not have to change any of our processes but were able to simply improve and cut the not-fulfillable orders by 10 (currently at 0.4%). PVX does a really great job at it. We're running our warehouse of PVX since 1,5 years and are leveraging more and more the features that are built into PVX that weren't fully required by us before, but as they exist, we now can take advantage of it. On the positive side : stability, highly flexible system, expertise in warehouse management, reporting engine, scalability, connector to Magento, Sandbox environment. On the negative side: user documentation, on-boarding when you start from nothing, responsiveness on less important topics, On that last item, I must say that PVX is very efficient when it comes to solve critical issues. But through the strict and rigid Zendesk ticket system, less important topics can take some time to solve. The issues we had during on-boarding came through the fact that we started with absolutely no knowledge about warehouse systems. There are still plenty of features that we are not utilising and that we look forward to. I would recommend it as reliable solution. It's not cheap, but it's worth the cost. Background on us: We are the brand shop of a shoe and accessories brand selling throughout Europe. Main markets are Germany, France and the Netherlands. The warehouse is operated by a team of 5 people, of which one supervisor. PVX is also used by the operations team and product catalogue team. The shop is run on Magento CE1.9

Pros

stability, flexibility, feature set

Cons

user documentation, on-boarding process

Reliable solution with good feature set, but with some issues

Overall a good and very end-user friendly system. Less usable for admins, and even less so for developers. But it can roll with the punches, has good features, and was quite an easy implementation., as long as you don't need advanced functionality and have some patience when integrating.

Pros

Great android app, very easy to use to and for users to learn. Seems stable and reliable. Works well once set up and performance is generally good. Has pretty much all the features you would want in a mid tier WMS in a direct to consumer e-commerce operation. However has some missing features you would see in a tier 1 product. Reporting is simple and easy to learn. Nice dashboard feature. Support are generally responsive .

Cons

APIs are not very developer friendly. Docs are poorly laid out, and response/error messages often impenetrable. Needs an update to a REST API badly. API is SOAP-XML and uses a crazy embedded proprietary csv format which is quite awkward to develop with. The system does not have batch control and container management is quite limited . Also has a significant issue with the way it processes split dispatches with the shipping integration we were recommended. If you do a lot of split dispatches tread carefully.

I cannot recommend PVX

In one sentence - This has been the worst experience we have had in our business dealings with any vendor period. We cancelled our contract with Peoplevox after spending $20,000AUD in implementation, 9 months of staff training, and prior to even going live. Peoplevox at this point, was incredibly distasteful to deal with, as, at the time of write, we are still receiving monthly invoice, with no reply from every one of their staff ( 7 months on). My strong advice to eCommerce retailers is to look elsewhere for a WMS solution if you want tight functionality to integrate with Magento or Shopify.

Pros

On paper, the PVX system offers the same functionality as every other WMS system in the marketplace, so nothing really stands out in this regard.

Cons

- During the dispatch process, it is not possible to split a single shipment into multiple articles. Your need to create a completely new shipment, which unnecessarily increases shipping cost. For us, that meant an additional $250,000AUD per annum in freight expense. - PVX has basically nil RMA and warranty handling functionality – It requires you to circumvent the WMS system and transfer stock into a black hole to process simple returns. - Incredibly poor for omnichannel retailers that require POS functionality. To sell an item from a bricks and mortar location required significant number of steps, and processing. If you have multiple locations, this is where it gets very frustrating. - The UI and UX are very dated, 9 months into training and our staff were still frustrated with the UI. The initial Zoom meeting sound promises, we made our tech stack known, and we basically were met with “No problem” to all the issues above. The devil however ended up being in the detail. Onboard and sales staff were friendly, very attentive in the early days. When however, we raised the problems, although they tried to remedy some issues, most of the solution presented was “workarounds” or required our team to circumvent the system, which undermines the existence of a WMS.

Meshki x Peoplevox WMS

Meshki onboarded PVX at a very critical time as we were going through huge growth period and had no viability on any warehouse operations. Working on around 3000 SKUs Meshki didnt have any product locations or barcodes on products, fulfilment process was to marry up a paper invoice with a shipping label then finding the product which may or may not have been in its allocated location. Moving to PVX gave us complete visibility of the warehouse and optimise warehouse procedures. The reduction of unneeded touch points and improved processes allowed us to scale the business 150% with PVX while not needing to add any additional labour. Even after the initial implementation period, PVX continues to identify key improvements in the different areas that will lead to a more effective and efficient warehouse operations.

Pros

1. Android application for picking and receiving 2. Minimise chance for stock handling errors, improved warehouse flows 3. Dashboards and reporting

Cons

1. Support (Primary support coverage is outside of AUS business hours) can seem limited. 2. Android Bugs seem to occur due to network drop outs 3. Unable to make suggestions for improvements and customisation

PepoleVox Review December 1218

Since we have installed Peolpevox the Team size went from 17.5 to 10 F.T.E due to being able to prioritise the work load, setting targets, stock control and forward planning.

Pros

I have over 30 years experience of using warehouse systems from ones off the shelf to Bespoke systems. I have found Peolevox system one of the essayist to install and use. My current team had never used a warehouse system before but within 3 hours they had learnt the basics of Peplovox being able to Receive Goods, Pick and Dispatch. By day 3 they was using the more advance features like stock control and report writing. I personally like being able to log on anywhere in or out of the country and see exactly the position of the operation within seconds or if at a senior meeting able to provide up to date facts and figures at a touch of a button.

Cons

I'm struggling here to say what I least like about the software, so rather the put something down for the sake of it, I'm going to say nothing.