Inkfrog - great eBay upload tool but not without issues
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use Inkfrog to push some of our website items from our Bigcommerce site through to the eBay platform, so that stock and listings can be controlled and managed from the admin area of our website.
Pros
- Flexibility - there are a huge number of options for how to design your eBay store and display, price, list and sell your items on eBay. If you like having options for every eventuality, then Inkfrog is good with that! However, for us this is a double-edged sword - more about this on the next question.
- Inkfrog sits within the admin area of my website, I like not having to leave my website to attend to eBay. And although it doesn't at all feel like it's part of my website, and ultimately I would have preferred a direct integration, this is a good next-best option.
- Fabulous bulk upload options - you really can upload ALL of your inventory to eBay with just a few clicks. Such a time saver.
- Good price point.
Cons
- inkFrog is confusing. From its interface to the huge number of options, it is all too much. Then again, eBay is confusing, so not exactly inkFrog's fault here, but there are too many options, too many settings, and in the end you just want to switch off.
- It can be prone to technical blips. For example: there have been a number times when orders and stock levels have not synced and eBay orders have not been pushed to our website dashboard; we added a number of new products but the amount of stock that appeared on Inkfrog was different to what was available on our website; some listings on eBay were ended recently for "stock quantity changing on the website" (it didn't).
- You need to continue to watch your eBay shop like a hawk to ensure you don't miss any orders and stock levels remain correct.
- Not all of the events above have come with much explanation so communications perhaps could be improved.
Likelihood to Recommend
Inkfrog is a useful upload tool for adding stock from your website to eBay and now also to Amazon, although we don't sell via the latter and we only list to eBay UK. I think it works better as an upload tool than an all-in-one eBay shop management tool and some tasks are easier to do directly on eBay itself. eBay also offers insights - such as offering trending prices - that Inkfrog doesn't. However it is useful in terms of being able to bulk adjust item pricing to include the cost of eBay selling fees. Inkfrog is probably ideal if you have a recognisable product to sell - with our offering it struggles with mapping shop categories (we use lots of sub and sub-sub-categories). Certain listing capabilities cannot be reproduced, such as quantity discounts, and I've never got to grips with mapping products with options and variations, so a lot is left out of our full inventory. Ultimately you will still need to find some time in your day to manage your eBay store - Inkfrog is not 100% reliable sometimes. Inkfrog will also take some of your time and a lot of patience, but ultimately is a huge timesaver for uploading products so it is worthwhile.
