This week we recorded an “Ask Me Anything” where we solicited questions in advance and answered even more live. We’ve collected the questions in this post (and added a few that we didn’t answer on the Thoughtstream). The full Thougtstream is also embedded at the end of this post.
Question: Can we delay online sales?
Neysha – Comic Warriors
Answer: Yes! Absolutely. This is on our road map to make it part of the Check In process, but in the meantime, you can do this in the Shopify admin area.
- Under All Products
- Search by Release Date Tags
- Add the “Available to Online Store” column.
- Either uncheck, or change available date.
Questions: Are discounts applied to the full transaction, or to the items?
Neysha – Comic Warriors
Answer: Discounts are per-item.
Question: Can a customer add an in-stock item to their order?
Answer: Once an order has been created, it can’t be modified (have things removed, or added to it).
Question: What distributors do you support?
Answer: We currently support Diamond Comics Distributors, Lunar Distribution and Penguin Random House, we are finalizing details with Universal Distribution in Canada, and we will be adding more distributors as we build relationships with them.
Question: How easy will it be to take something out of thin air and put it into the system?
Patrick – Challengers Comics & Conversations
Answer: Super easy, barely an inconvenience! You can search for any item using the Distributor Code, the UPC or ISBN code, or the title. Once you find it, add the QTY and your cost, Manage Comics will fetch all of the stuff!
Follow up question: How easy will it be to take something out of thin air and put it into the system?
Patrick – Challengers Comics & Conversations
Answer: Oh Patrick, that’s where the magic comes into play! If we don’t have details, we’ll import in what we DO know about the product, and you’ll get to fill the rest of the details in for us. This then creates a product that the entire network can use (we vet all products, merge in duplicates, and make sure everything looks kosher).
Question: Can a customer see their history of subscriptions?
Dal – Challengers Comics & Conversations
Answer: One of the beautiful things about Shopify is that it keeps a record of all transactions! As a customer, when I log in, I see all of my POS sales and my online sales.
Question: When are things available for customers to order?
Chris – Excalibur Comics
Answer: Immediately after the content is available to us. Right now it’s taking a little bit more time than normal due to some issues with Diamond.
Question: Will we be able to transfer inventory from RMS/RMH into Shopify/Manage Comics?
Chris – Excalibur Comics
Answer:
Question: Have you reached out to Alliance Game Distributors for product information? They are a Diamond/Geppi affiliate and have a very comprehensive catalog of games and supplies.
Chris – Excalibur Comics
Answer: We’ve not yet reached out to Alliance, we’ve focused on comics vendors to date, but we will be working on new vendors in the new year.
Question: We have created a ton of barcodes for products around the store ( bag and board combos, generic back issues, individual dice, etc.). Will that conflict with what others may have created for their stores and will be able to still utilize these codes?
Chris – Excalibur Comics
Answer: I’m not sure, I guess it would depend on how those barcodes are generated? If I had some examples we can check it out.
Question: Is it possible to run Shopify POS off of a Mac or some other device that could use wired peripherals? I don’t have the best luck with devices that run on batteries.
Chris – Excalibur Comics
Answer: The Shopify POS is not available on any Desktop systems right now. You can use Shopify POS with an existing iOS or Android smartphone or tablet that you already own. If you opt for Shopify POS Pro, however, you’ll need to use an iOS device. You can purchase additional POS hardware, such as card readers, cash drawers and receipt printers on the Shopify website.
Question: Where can I find more about Manage Comics?
Michell Davies – All Star Comics
Answer: Congratulations! You found it. managecomics.com is the best place to find out information about Manage Comics, another great place is the Manage Comics Youtube Channel.
Question: When will 2.0 launch?
Jonathan Tomala Endgame Comics and Collectibles
Answer: Manage Comics will launch SOON (I am hoping next week).
Question: How can we import subscriptions from Manage Comics 1.0 into Manage Comics 2.0?
Jonathan Tomala Endgame Comics and Collectibles
Answer: We have a Shopify formatted customer export from Manage Comics Classic, a subscription export from Manage Comics Classic, and a subscription importer into Manage Comics 2.0!
We will work on some tools for Manage Comics 2.0 and Diamond.
Question: When can we import Penguin Random House FOC invoices?
Jonathan Tomala Endgame Comics and Collectibles
Answer: We support PRH fully right now, we create initial orders, FOCs based off PRH FOC info (although we do not have a PRH FOC Upload because PRH does not support FOC Uploads currently). We also fully support importing PRH invoices into Manage Comics.
Question: How can we import our shipments from Lunar Penguin Random House and other distributors into Manage Comics to give customers a more accurate count of our inventory?
Jonathan Tomala Endgame Comics and Collectibles
Answer: We have a full description of that here how the intake process works here – Manage Comics 2.0 Intake.
Question: Are all the title covers loaded already?
Neysha – Comic Warriors
Answer: It’s inconsistent – this is something we’re working to resolve, but Marvel in particular is pretty bad right now.
Question: Some covers and creator credits are not accurate, is this something that is being worked on?
Neysha – Comic Warriors
Answer: Unfortunately the data is what we get, we’ve got plans to update that information more frequently because solicitation info is so terrible lately.
Question: Will the Manage Comics draft orders app work with the Shopify POS Check out?
Neysha – Comic Warriors
Answer: Yes, we have a tile on the Shopify POS, you’ll use that tile to move an order from Manage Comics to Shopify when the customer comes in.
Question: How will integration with BinderPOS work? On both the POS side and with the Binder Shopify Themes?
Jeff Watson – Digital Heroes
Answer: We currently work with the Binder POS regular theme, working on improvements for Premium theme.
POS in testing.
Chris – Excalibur Comics
Question: Can we import from RMS/RMH into Shopify?
Answer: You can export your products into GeekFetch and import those products into Shopify, however there is also an application called Octopus that can also be used to move products from RMS to Shopify.
