Embracing Change: The Advantages of Using Continually Evolving Software

As the digital age propels forward, it is clear that the adage “Change is the only constant” has never been more applicable. Especially in today’s eCommerce ecosystem. Software solutions that refuse to adapt quickly become obsolete, leaving their users scrambling for a better solution and forcing them to spend their valuable time and hard earned money implementing a new system. This type of change is always the dark cloud that looms over every business owner’s head, and rightfully so. This process can significantly set back your operations, and of course it never comes at a good time. 

Over the last few years, we have helped many of our customers migrate from stale or sunsetting platforms such as Stitchlabs, TradeGecko, and Quickbooks Commerce. Many of these companies could not keep up the rapid pace of supporting multiple marketplaces and sales channels at the same time. Granted this can be quite challenging, these various platforms can make changes to their software at any given time to areas such as code, privacy policies, functionality changes, or API formats. Sometimes these changes can be announced, and other times silently made in the background, leaving developers scrambling to make last minute changes and fixes.  

Keeping pace with these inevitable changes across multiple marketplaces and shopping carts is no easy task. Your software solution company must be informed, adaptable, and have the internal resources to stay ahead of the game. Forward-thinking software platforms like SKULabs, which continually evolve to meet changing needs, offer a myriad of benefits and can ensure your operations stay in tact for the long term.

By choosing software that is in a constant state of growth, you align yourself with a solution that is committed to offering the best features, optimal performance, and effective support. You also get the peace of mind that the carpet will not be pulled from under your feet when you need them the most. 

SKULabs exemplifies the potential of a constantly evolving software platform, continuously improving its functionalities to provide clients with the most cutting-edge features. Here you can find our most current Software Change-Log and some of the major/minor changes we have implemented each month over the past few years. This log is in no way all-encompassing, but will give you some of the most relevant highlights of our journey and the direction we want to go.  

Customer-Driven Development

A Software that grows with its user base, realizes this must be inherently customer-centric. SKULabs exemplifies this principle by actively listening to user feedback and incorporating customer suggestions into its development process. By keeping a close eye on customer needs and pain points, SKULabs ensures that the software aligns with the ever-changing requirements of its users. As most of our fans already know, filing feature requests with our team is an integral part of our support process that represents not only our relationships with our customers, but our commitment to develop the software they need.

The change log is a testament to this customer-driven approach. Regular updates most often originate from customer feedback, ensuring that the software remains relevant and valuable to its users. This customer-centric development fosters a strong partnership between SKULabs and its customers, enhancing both trust and loyalty to this relationship for the long run.

Continuous Innovation

Regular updates to software capabilities ensure that users are always equipped with the latest tools needed to thrive in an ever-evolving marketplace. This should be a given with any company you choose to go with, but as we all know it is not really the case. Along side of keeping the software running efficiently, SKULabs is always on top of new technology and ideas, finding ways to incorporate into our software to offer you the latest and greatest technology available today. Stay tuned as we have some amazing new things in the works!

New features like the A.I. Smart Import (July,2023), which helps customers with the mapping of unrecognized column headers to fit our CSV format. This makes uploading critical information to your SKULabs account a breeze, even for the spreadsheet challenged! This will empower you to map any given header you have from your spreadsheet to the desired column in SKULabs. Great for operations using multiple platforms with various headers for the same fields!

We have also incorporated, at many customers requests, a Hover-Over Zoom (July,2023) feature to the images in your items list to enlarge your items and take advantage of your more detailed and higher resolution 4k monitors. These, just to name a few, are a testament to how SKULabs caters to our user’s ever evolving needs and feature requests. Here you can see hovering over the bottom image has significantly increased image size for you to get a better look at image detail.

Enhanced Performance and Operational Efficiency

Alongside new features, a significant aspect of software development is the continuous enhancement of performance. This translates to faster page load times, more efficient processes, and overall improved user experience. Here at SKULabs, you can feel confident as we spare no expense in our daily operations. We host our platform across various AWS servers throughout the country to ensure optimal performance and reliable stability. While there are many other options out there that are definitely more cost effective, we like to be at the forefront by offering the best of what is available today. Additionally, we have made some major changes to some of our Nodes in July 2023, which has brought improved performance across the board, and previously modified an internal caching tool that was refactored for a major performance increase on our inventory and order list servers. 

Robust Security

In a world where cybersecurity threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated and sales platforms increasingly adopting new policies and requirements, using a software platform that takes security seriously is non-negotiable. Continually evolving software like SKULabs provides regular security updates, ensuring your data and systems are always protected. Recent updates a few months ago like stronger password security protocols and two-factor authentication further validate our commitment to your privacy and security.

Optimized User Experience

A continually evolving software solution indicates that the provider is receptive to feedback and is focused on delivering a superior user experience based on these observations. In the case of SKULabs, a slew of interface upgrades such as in June 2023, the Re-order Rules overhaul for Insights. This enables forecast-based PO creation, and customization of reordering parameters real-time while creating purchase orders. This is the culmination of a plethora of feedback from our current customers, and we are looking forward to integrating a more streamlined UI for the purchasing process to make better use of these new powerful calculations!

In May/June 2023, we introduced some major upgrades to our batch system based on customer feedback. We have now added:

  • Single-SKU batch generation support – only get orders in your batch that have a single SKU 
  • Same-kind batch generation support (which will help to reduce errors!) – Only get orders in your batch that all are the same combination of product(s) and quantities.
  • Shipping Utility Barcodes – to improve experience and help generate more hands free workflows such as the READ_SCALE and READ_SCALE_AND_SHIP barcodes to automate these processes!
  • Added multiple new carriers and shipping methods as well as support for the new USPS Ground Advantage which is already saving our customers tons of money! Ground Advantage launched this summer 2023!

Effective Problem Solving

With a solution that’s constantly growing, there’s an inherent agility to respond and adapt to unforeseen problems. SKULabs demonstrates this through our regular bug fixes and system improvements, providing quick and effective solutions to issues that could potentially impact users’ operations. We monitor all of our processes in real time to ensure everything is working smoothly and users can sign up to see live updates when there is an outage. We will keep you up to date with each phase of the situation and steps to take for mitigation.

Unwavering Support

A significant advantage of choosing a software that is constantly growing is the promise of ongoing and effective support. By selecting a solution like SKULabs, you’re choosing a partner that is committed to making your experience better, evident through our regular updates and a dedicated five star support team. Again we are committed to you by ensuring our support, like our development is never outsourced to a third party.  

In conclusion, the benefits of choosing a software solution that embraces change and growth are significant. By aligning with a platform like SKULabs, you ensure that you’re not only keeping pace with the industry’s evolution, but you’re also primed to leverage new opportunities as they arise, and be a part of the evolution of the features released in upcoming versions.

 Stay updated, stay secure, and stay ahead with SKULabs.

Connect with SKULabs Today

Now is the perfect time to discuss how we can help you streamline your eCommerce business!

Chat with one of our experts today.Schedule a meeting or give us a call at 1800-243-2986 to learn more.