Webapp for my shop - take and track of orders, store files form clients, etc

Question

I'm the manager on two small shops that create personalized gifts and I think that we need a better way to work.

NOW For the past years we adopt a system that have it's own limitations, but it worked till now. The things are like that: The client come into the shop, place an order and we write by hand a docket (like a paper note), were we put:

• name of the product;
• how many pieces;
• message wanted by the client
• details like color of the text, background;
• name of the file sent by the client (photo sent by the client, via mail or Bluetooth)
• when it will be ready the personalized product;
• what is the total cost of the order;
• how much the client paid and how much is due;
• contact details of the client, name, phone number, email address.

PROBLEMS My problem with this system is that:

TO MUCH TIME

• we have to spend time twice writing the same docket, because one of the copy should be on the client (in order to remember his/her order when he/she will return in the shop)

MISSPELLINGS/MESSY HANDWRITING

• because of the hand writing (each person have a different and not so easy to read handwriting) and of the situations when the client change his mind, we end up sometimes printing with some misspelling, which means wasted moneys, time and an unhappy client.

LOST DOCKETS

• because the dockets are some small pieces of paper, is very easy to loose them and that makes very hart to keep the track of all the orders. In the end we can loose clients, time and money.

NO ORDER HISTORY

• is very hard, almost impossible to have and order history, per day, week, month, or per client.

NO CLIENT ACCOUNT

• the clients should write every time their contact details (time lost) and we can not remember all their all order and is important often to return to a previous order and do another similar print.

NO STATISTICS

• there are no sale reports, per products, day, or week using the old technique.

SAME PRODUCTS OFFERED BY BOTH SHOPS

• we create templates for or products, which we will personalize for each client, but we need to have an online environment where we can store all the files (template) in order to have the same products in both locations.

I need to find and CRM or another type of software to help me with all those problems.

We use PCs and Mac computers as well. The solution that I'm looking for is an web based app, an open source one, free.

I have some knowledge of how to create an website (CMS based), or how to install in app in AWS (Amazon Web Services). I'm having a look on the stacks from BItnami (bitnami.com/stacks), the thing is that there are too many and it will take enormous time and effort to try it one by one.

I'm trying to find out if someone of you are already using such web app.

What suggestions do you have for me? Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Posting answer as will be longer than comments:

First you use either drupal commerce (more flexible and newer) or drupal ubercart (simpler but older). You can't use both together. The reason to use either of them is if you want to take advantage of the existing cart, order, customer, and payment systems etc. You can have different "product types" for your categories and add different fields as required e.g. adding a field for multiple files can be added to product or order.

There are also various addon modules for either solution for various things e.g. commerce_custom_product for custom products, commerce_reports for reports, etc.

Admin or suitable role can create an order, as opposed to user "buying" the products with normal cart.

If you do not need cart/payment system, you can achieve the same using "content types" in drupal, and use views module for creating the kind of reports required. But again it requires some work and is not "off-the-shelf".

I would recommend drupal 7, unless you find that there are specific modules required now available in drupal 8.