Sadly, if this is the case I will have to stop using the Syncio service. I cannot ask my retailers to pay a subscription fee to use a service to sync their inventory and orders to my store. This doesn't put us at a competitive advantage with other marketplaces who don't charge for this service, but have custom systems that we as a smaller marketplace can't afford yet. Syncio for us was a bridge to that. We'll now need to find and implement another service just as we were planning to expand our use of Syncio and brands onboarded. Understand what you're sharing Jimmy and why you need to make the decision from a business perspective.

Hi Xavier,

Thanks for your feedback, it is greatly appreciated. This decision wasn't easy - it took seven years to change. I originally built Syncio for my previous business - a similar marketplace yours - amazing business by the way! So I feel like I understand your reaction. I've thought very, very strongly about this for more than a year. But keeping this pricing is unsustainable for Syncio, as when you and the source stores grow, we actually get left behind.

The new pricing is a freemium model that is tiered. So it's free for Source Stores until the 11th sale, which assumes they would already have to have made hundreds of dollars in sales before Syncio pricing starts.

Looking at your store, the vast majority of Source Stores connected will be on the free plan. New Source Stores that connect will also start on the free plan.

Using one of your Source Stores as an example that would be on the starter plan, they made more than 50 orders the previous month, assuming an AOV of $50 = $2,500. I assume you take a commission off of that. Syncio would be $19, which is 0.76% of the gross sales. So for $1 of sales, Syncio would make 0.76 cents off that. We use that 0.76 cents to keep maintaining and upgrading Syncio. The Source Store still makes 99.24% gross margin before your commission/fee. This should still be an economical sales channel as they didn't have to spend on any marketing or any operational time due to Syncio’s automation.

I thought very hard about whether to simply raise prices to the Destination Store to keep Source Store prices free. But, I just couldn't see how this makes it easier for Destination Stores, who have to work with the thinnest margin. We have a competitor that is similar in that they have free Source Store pricing, but instead make that value back from charging the Destination Store. Based on your marketplace model with more than 3 Source Stores connected, you would have to pay $149/mo + 7% sales. Based on my modeling, you would have to pay $1,500+/mo.

I'm happy to chat to you and your Source Stores further if they need more information. Our new plan is still free and can be free indefinitely until each Source Store receives sales. So it's still minimal risk. But longer-term, as your marketplace and Source Store keeps growing, we can also grow and continue to keep improving Syncio. Otherwise, we will struggle trying to keep a very outdated pricing model that slowly kills us.

Kind regards,

Jimmy