Stitch Labs: Our 2020 Review

Stitch Labs’s main claim to fame is its ability to help you make business decisions quickly. The software puts everything you need in one place so it’s easy to look at your business holistically.

Ironically, though, the service is a bit disjointed in the way it goes about offering that holistic solution. In fact, the service is aptly named since you basically have to “stitch” together multiple services and integrations to get the most out of your service. That said, if you can get all of the integrations you need, Stitch Labs is a great choice for running a just-in-time system.

Here’s everything we know about Stitch Labs.

Stitch Labs is best for just-in-time (JIT) retail

We think just-in-time retailers will love Stitch Labs’s centralized approach to inventory management.

With Stitch Labs software, multichannel e-commerce sellers can track their inventory across all their channels. This gives you a better idea of how your company is doing as a whole and helps you quickly make decisions about your inventory.

Stitch also lets you draft purchase orders and send them the second you receive a low stock alert. This feature helps you maximize profitability by reducing the time you spend reordering products and fulfilling sales orders—you get your new inventory faster, so you can keep up with demand without overspending on product storage.

However, we wouldn’t recommend Stitch Labs to small businesses just dipping their toes into inventory management. The software is way too expensive for most Main Street businesses, and it may be overly complicated for first time inventory managers.

Stitch Labs pros and cons

Stitch Labs pros

One of the big perks of Stitch Labs is its centralized inventory management dashboard. It lets you see all your stock for all of your channels in one place—not to mention all your invoicing, shipping, and purchase orders.

Stitch Labs doesn’t skimp on the sales features either. In addition to consolidating all your sales channels in one place, Stitch Labs can also support multiple stores within a single sales platform. So if you’re running multiple Shopify stores, you can track it all from your Stitch dashboard. That’s a perk multichannel retailers won’t find with many other inventory software options.

The Stitch interface is also clearly labeled and easy to use—though there may be a slight learning curve. Fortunately, Stitch has one of the best reputations in the biz for customer support. So if you run into any issues, there’s a good chance you can get help from a Stitch Labs representative.

Stitch Labs cons

From our perspective, Stitch Labs has two major flaws: its price and its integration-heavy approach.

As of this writing, Stitch Labs does not display any of its prices on its website. Instead you have to request a quote—an almost sure sign that the price is higher than most business owners are willing to pay. And before the prices were removed, we clocked an entry-level Essentials plan at $799 per month. That puts it out of the price range for many small-business owners.

Stitch is also extremely proud of the fact that it’s not an all-in-one solution. To get the most out of that centralized inventory management dashboard, you’ve got to add integrations for Amazon, Shopify, ShipStation, Xero, and any other services or marketplaces you use. Since some of those integrations cost extra to use, it’s only adding to the exorbitant price of the Stitch Labs platform.

Another thing we noticed was that while Stitch Labs is generally fast, it does slow down significantly from time to time. That’s usually not a big deal, except when it is (like when you’re trying to reorder your product as quickly as possible to maximize the efficiency of your just-in-time system). We also thought the platform’s reporting was less detailed than we’ve seen from other providers.

Stitch Labs plans and pricing

Previously mentioned, Stitch Labs is not currently listing its prices for its inventory software. So we can’t say for sure how much you’ll pay if you go with Stitch Labs. However, we do know a bit about the features available on each plan.

If Stitch Labs hasn’t changed anything since they removed their pricing from their website, the Essentials plan should start at $799 per month. That’s significantly higher than more full-bodied inventory software options like Cin7 or TradeGecko.

So if you’re running a small business on a budget, Stitch Labs is definitely not for you. And even if you have a higher budget, you may want to consider getting an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that can do more at a lower price.

Key features of Stitch Labs

Inventory management

Stitch Labs offers many of the basic features you’d expect from a cloud-based inventory software:

• Multi-location tracking: Monitor and transfer your inventory across multiple warehouses.
• Bundling: Sell groups of products together as a single item.
• Currency conversion: Sell in multiple currencies while managing in your home currency.
• Reporting: Get insights into your company’s performance

In addition, though, Stitch offers advanced stocktaking options, including reconciliation reports (for those times when your physical inventory counts don’t match the counts your software says you should have).

Stitch also helps you track unit costs for all your products, and it doesn’t exclude landed costs like freight fees and tariffs. This increases the accuracy of your cost of goods sold (COGS) calculation and enhances your insight into your company’s performance.

Centralized management and alerts

Stitch Labs provides a platform where you can see and track your inventory, purchase orders, invoices, and sales orders from all your channels in one place. This helps you see your business as one cohesive unit and make the best possible decisions for your company in as little time as possible.

What’s more, tracking all your sales channels and reordering in one place is extremely convenient. Instead of receiving low stock alerts from five different sales channels, you can get a single alert anytime your business’s inventory is running low. You can also create supplier profiles, check on invoice payments, and monitor shipping windows with minimal effort.

It also gives you the option to customize branding and logos on your packing slips and invoices so you can present a unified brand image to all your vendors and customers. And of course, your financial information can be easily imported to your QuickBooks or Xero account via integrations.

Sales

With Stitch Labs, you get a lot of flexibility to sell to your customers in whatever way makes sense for your business.

For starters, you can sell your products in multiple stores within the same marketplace. This allows you to customize multiple Amazon, Magento, or Shopify storefronts to appeal to different customer types, which boosts your sales. You can even allocate specific amounts of inventory for each channel, ensuring that you have enough to meet customer demand for those stores.

And speaking of stock allocation, Stitch also lets you create VIP customers within your system and set aside stock specifically for them. That way, you can continue to provide the best possible service to the customers who are the most loyal to your business.

Your sales reps also don’t have to worry about overselling your product since Stitch Labs software gives you real-time insights into your inventory catalogue. It stays up to date, perpetually syncing with the cloud so you know exactly how much you have to sell at any given time. And if you do happen to oversell, it’s no big deal—Stitch also lets you sell against incoming stock, accept preorders, and manage backorders.

Order fulfillment

The flexibility doesn’t stop with sales features, though. You also get a fair amount of order management features to help you fulfill customer orders quickly and efficiently.

In addition to being able to split orders (when items from an order are stored at different locations) and route orders from the nearest warehouse (for faster delivery), you can also set shipping criteria that lets you control when orders are shipped based on how long the order has been in your system.

Retailers can also use Stitch Labs software to establish hold periods, which gives time for customers to change or edit their orders before fulfillment. Your customers will appreciate the flexibility, and you’ll have a little extra time to get your inventory shipped out—everybody wins.

Stitch Labs integrations

Like we said before, Stitch Labs relies heavily on integrations to provide its centralized and holistic view of your business. However, it’s not compatible with every business service on the market. Here are the most commonly used integrations you can use with Stitch:

• Accounting: QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, inDinero
• B2B and wholesale: Shopify Wholesale, SPS Commerce, Inventory Planner
• E-commerce: Etsy, ShopifyPlus, Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce
• Marketplaces: Amazon, eBay, Etsy
• Point of sale: Shopify POS, Square
• Shipping and fulfillment: ShipStation
• Third-party logistics (3PL): Fulfillment by Amazon, FedEx Supply Chain, ShipBob
• Warehouse management: Deposco, Scout
• Other: PayPal

While Stitch Labs is compatible with the most popular sales tools and e-commerce platforms, it’s important to note that it offers no compatibility with any customer resource management services. We think it has to do with Stitch’s focus on being a top-class inventory service rather than an all-encompassing behemoth of a business platform.

Customer support

Stitch Labs offers some of the best customer service in the inventory industry. We spoke with several other Stitch users and found that many (if not all) had predominantly positive experiences working with Stitch Labs representatives.

But don’t take our word for it. Check out these excerpts from Stitch Labs reviews left by other business owners who’ve used the software:

Stitch Labs FAQs

What is Stitch Labs?

Stitch Labs is a cloud-based platform for inventory management. It offers a centralized dashboard where you can manage your products across multiple sales channels and warehouse locations. The software is relatively easy to use, and users rave about the customer service.

Should I use Stitch Labs?

If your company is running a just-in-time inventory system (where time is of the essence), sells across multiple sales channels, and has a considerable budget to devote to your inventory management each month, Stitch Labs may be a good fit for you. However, due to the platform’s exceptionally high pricing and dependence on integrations, we wouldn’t recommend signing up if you’re a small-business owner or you’re new to inventory management.

Is inventory management software worth it?

We certainly think so. Inventory management software is more accurate than manual tracking, and in many cases it offers real-time data syncing so you know exactly what’s going on with your business at all times. That process translates to greater savings and smarter business decisions.

The takeaway

Stitch Labs has a lot to offer in the way of inventory and order management. It provides a cohesive dashboard that combines data from every sales channel across your business, giving you an accurate idea of your inventory and your company’s performance

The problem? While Stitch doesn’t publicly list prices, it’s likely that the service is far too expensive for most small businesses to afford. It also relies heavily on integrations from other services, which make setting up your service more complicated.

But if you’re running a just-in-time inventory system, these drawbacks might not be serious enough to keep you away from Stitch’s streamlined inventory management approach.

Not sold on Stitch Labs? Want to see how Stitch compares to other top providers? Our guide to the best inventory management platforms can help you find the right service for your needs.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.