Anthony Rozmus – Investor Relations Officer Paul Voigt – Interim Chief Executive Officer Michael Sena – CFO, Treasurer & Corporate Secretary
Advertisement
Presentation
Operator
Good afternoon, and welcome to INNOVATE Corp.’s Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this event is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the call over to Anthony Rozmus with Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Advertisement
Anthony Rozmus Investor Relations Officer
Good afternoon. Thank you for being with us to review INNOVATE’s Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Results. We are joined today by Paul Voigt, INNOVATEs Interim CEO; and Mike Sena, INNOVATE’s CFO.
We have posted our earnings release and our slide presentation on our website at innovatecorp.com. We will begin our call with prepared remarks to be followed by a Q&A session. This call is also being simulcast and will be archived on our website.
Advertisement
During this call, management may make certain statements and assumptions, which are not historical facts, will be forward-looking and are being made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking statements involve risks, assumptions and uncertainties and are subject to certain assumptions and risk factors that could cause INNOVATE’s actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. The risk factors that could cause these differences are more fully disclosed in the cautionary statement that is included in our earnings release and the slide presentation and further detailed in our 10-K and other filings with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this conference call are only made as of the date of this call and as stated in our SEC reports. INNOVATE disclaims any intent or obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, except as expressly required by
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Clipper Realty Q2 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions].
It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Lawrence Sava, Corporate Controller. Lawrence, the floor is yours.
Advertisement
Lawrence Sava
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for the Second Quarter 2026 Clipper Realty Inc. Earnings Conference Call. Participating with me on today’s call are David Bistricer, Co-Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer; and Larry Kreider, Chief Financial Officer.
Please be aware that statements made during the call that are not historical may be deemed forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties including those disclosed in the company’s 2025 annual report on Form 10-K and 2026 second quarterly report on Form 10-Q just filed today, which are accessible at www.sec.gov and on our website.
As a reminder, the forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call, August 6, 2026, and the company undertakes no duty to update them. During this call, management may refer to certain nonfinancial — certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted funds from operations or AFFO, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization or adjusted EBITDA and net operating income or NOI. Please see our press release, supplemental financial information and Form 10-Q posted today for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.
Advertisement
With that, I will now turn the call over to our Co-Chairman and CEO, David Bistricer.
Lydia Hu reports live from a Walmart Supercenter in New Jersey as back-to-school shopping ramps up. She details how families are spending on supplies, electronics, and clothing, with retailers offering early deals.
Police in South Korea are cracking down on an American pantry favorite: Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel seasoning.
Authorities have begun blocking sales of the popular seasoning on an online secondhand marketplace after testing detected “narcotic substances” in the product, according to The Korea Herald.
Advertisement
The Mapo Police Station in Seoul said this week that it identified listings for the seasoning blend on Karrot, a major secondhand marketplace, and worked with the company to block transactions involving the product. Police said travelers are prohibited from bringing the seasoning into South Korea.
Trader Joe’s savory seasoning blend contains sesame seeds, garlic, onion and sea salt flakes, but one ingredient has landed the pantry staple in trouble with South Korean authorities: poppy seeds.
Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel seasoning is legally sold in the United States but is prohibited from being brought into South Korea, according to authorities. (Plexi Images/GHI/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
According to the report, an analysis by South Korea’s National Forensic Service detected morphine and codeine in the product. Both are controlled narcotic substances under South Korean law.
Advertisement
Police said some sellers brought the seasoning back from overseas trips before listing it for resale. Because the product falls under South Korea’s Narcotics Control Act, both buyers and sellers could face criminal charges for possessing or trading it.
Investigators believe some users attempted to sell or trade the seasoning without realizing it contained prohibited substances.
Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel seasoning contains poppy seeds, an ingredient that has drawn scrutiny from authorities in South Korea. (Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“Even if a product is legally sold overseas, it may be classified as a narcotic substance or a prohibited import in Korea, so particular caution is required,” a police official said, according to The Korea Herald.
Advertisement
“Consumers should check the relevant regulations before selling or purchasing food products brought in from abroad,” police added. “We will respond strictly if products containing narcotic substances are found to be circulating.”
Karrot agreed to restrict transactions involving the seasoning and has removed related listings since July 27.
South Korea began restricting the popular seasoning in 2022 because of concerns surrounding its poppy seeds. While poppy seeds themselves do not contain opium, they can become contaminated with opium alkaloids such as morphine and codeine during harvesting.
While poppy seeds themselves do not contain any opium, the harvesting process could cause the item to be contaminated by the plant’s fluid, which does contain opiates.
South Korean authorities said Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel seasoning falls under the country’s narcotics regulations because of concerns involving its poppy seeds. (Scott Olson/Getty Images / Getty Images)
In 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense advised service members to avoid eating foods containing poppy seeds because consuming them could result in a positive urinalysis for codeine.
FOX Business has reached out to Trader Joe’s for comment.
Yes. Corporate subscriptions are available for teams and organisations, with discounted rates as user numbers increase. Pricing starts from $1,625 + GST per user. Get in touch
to discuss the right option for your organisation.
Business News subscriptions are used by executives, investors, consultants and professionals who need to stay informed and make better decisions about the WA market. When you subscribe you’ll get
Unlimited access to WA’s most trusted business journalism
Data & Insights — detailed profiles of WA companies, people, projects and deals
MyBN — a personalised feed based on the companies, people and sectors you follow
Special publications and industry reports
Daily and weekly email newsletters
Data & Insights is a research tool built specifically for the WA market. It draws on more than 30 years of Business News reporting, updated regularly to reflect what’s happening now. Use it to:
Look up detailed profiles of WA companies, including financials, directors and ownership
Find decision-makers and track their career movements
Research live and completed projects across WA industries
Monitor deals, appointments and market activity
Access industry rankings and league tables
Data & Insights is updated daily by our dedicated research team, which uses the latest announcements, ASX filings and editorial coverage to keep our person, company, list and project records up to date.
Business News welcome all opportunities to make our dataset accurate, complete and current, so if you have an update request, please email the team at general@businessnews.com.au, and we’d be happy to assist.
Advertisement
MyBN
is part of every subscription. It’s your personalised view of Business News. You can follow the companies, people, sectors and projects that matter to you, and get a news feed and alerts tailored to your interests. You can save articles to read later and retain only what you need.
Only subscribers have full access to all content on the Business News website.
Advertisement
If staying informed about the WA economy is part of your job, and/or you’re looking for networking opportunities in WA, Business News is built for you.
Business News subscribers are:
Executives and directors tracking competitors, clients and market movements
Investors and advisers researching companies, deals and industry trends
Consultants and professionals staying across sectors relevant to their clients
Business owners looking for leads, context and market intelligence
Most Business News publications cover national or global markets. Business News is focused entirely on Western Australia, which means the journalism, the data and the intelligence are all built around WA companies, people and projects — not adapted from a national feed. Data & Insights, included with every subscription, combines more than 30 years of WA-specific editorial research with live business data. There’s no comparable product for the WA market.
Advertisement
The Morning Digest Email provides a comprehensive wrap of the major headlines, relevant to WA business, and includes with a snapshot of the overnight news covering oil, gold and ASX-listed companies.
The Afternoon Wrap Email focuses on the news covered by our team of journalists during the course of the working day, including exclusive stories and analysis, all of which relates to WA business and the local economy.
The BN Weekender Email contains a wrap of the Business News from the week that was, highlighting the top stories in each area of WA business. Sign up for free.
Advertisement
We’re happy to help. Get in touch
and our team will come back to you.
Shares of Bloomin’ Brands (BLMN) soared more than 40% Wednesday on a bullish earnings report that showed diners are willing to pay more. The parent of Outback Steakhouse and other restaurants raised its full-year guidance. Second-quarter earnings climbed 18% to 39 cents a share on an adjusted basis. Sales rose 1% to $1.015 billion. EPS handily beat the consensus FactSet…
When the BBC spoke to shoppers in central London this week, the retailer seemed to divide opinion.
Some, like Enrico, 28, said they loved the convenience of same-day collection, and felt nostalgic towards a brand which unlocked fond childhood memories.
“It was a great way of doing your Christmas shopping,” he told the BBC. “We’d go into our local Argos and we’d get the massive print catalogue.”
For others, though, Argos has not moved with the times and is at odds with the seemingly endless online choice.
Advertisement
“I feel Amazon is a lot easier because it gets delivered straight to your door with Prime,” said Emily, 22, adding that she only used Argos to buy appliances, not “day to day” items.
TUCSON, Ariz. — A neighbor of Nancy Guthrie’s in the Catalina Foothills says she saw the FBI return to search the desert brush behind the missing 84-year-old’s home in recent days, as the unsolved disappearance of the mother of “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie approaches the six-month mark.
The neighbor, who lives just a few doors from Guthrie’s home, told Fox News Digital she recognized faces from earlier law enforcement activity connected to the case and reported seeing investigators combing through the surrounding brush. A spokesperson for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department told Fox News Digital that no task force investigators had returned to the area recently. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the neighbor’s account.
A Case That Began in February
Guthrie is believed to have been taken by force from her Tucson-area home in the early hours of Feb. 1, according to authorities. A doorbell camera at the front of her house captured footage of a man wearing a ski mask, backpack, gloves and a holstered gun tampering with the camera that morning, images the FBI later released publicly in hopes of identifying the intruder. She was last seen by family members on Jan. 31, after spending the evening at the Tucson home of her older daughter, Annie Guthrie, and son-in-law.
Advertisement
The case has drawn sustained national attention given Nancy Guthrie’s connection to her daughter Savannah, who has continued co-anchoring NBC’s “Today” show throughout much of the investigation while periodically stepping away to support her family’s search efforts.
Possible Explanations for the Renewed Search
Bob Krygier, a retired Pima County Sheriff’s Department lieutenant and former SWAT commander, offered several possible explanations for why investigators might return to the same area months into the investigation. Krygier said one likely reason would be that authorities had received viable new tips or leads pointing them toward a specific area, adding that he was certain investigators had already searched those locations previously as part of the broader effort.
Krygier also suggested that, with the case approaching its six-month anniversary, authorities may simply be applying a fresh set of eyes to areas already searched, a common practice in long-running investigations. Beyond new leads or renewed scrutiny, Krygier pointed to a third possibility tied directly to Tucson’s seasonal weather: recent monsoon rains may have significantly altered the landscape behind Guthrie’s home, potentially exposing or shifting evidence that investigators had not previously been able to locate.
Advertisement
How Monsoon Rains Could Reshape the Search Area
Describing the scale of change monsoon season can bring to the desert terrain, Krygier said that roughly a month earlier, Tucson’s monsoon season began, bringing large volumes of water in short bursts capable of pushing rocks and reshaping the surrounding environment. He said the force of that water movement has the potential to expose items or shift terrain features that had remained undisturbed since the original search efforts following Guthrie’s disappearance.
Krygier further explained that depending on the specific area, floodwaters during Tucson’s monsoon season can rise anywhere from just a few inches to as much as 12 feet, generating enough force to sweep away vehicles, trees, rocks and even people. He referenced a separate report of a man found floating in a nearby wash that feeds into the Santa Cruz River, describing that waterway as reaching depths of 20 to 30 feet and widths of 50 to 60 feet at its peak, with floodwaters capable of dragging vehicles, trees, branches and rocks downstream in what he described as essentially functioning like a large blender during peak flow.
Investigators Say the Case Remains Active
Advertisement
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told Fox News Digital last week that investigators continue following up on active leads and are still reviewing tens of thousands of videos gathered as part of the investigation, emphasizing that the department does not consider the case cold despite the passage of six months without a resolution.
Late last month, Nanos’ office took the unusual step of publicly releasing two purported ransom notes connected to the case, in hopes that members of the public might recognize the distinctive linguistic style used by whoever authored them and help investigators trace the writer’s identity. According to earlier reporting on the notes, the letters outlined a demand for $4 million in Bitcoin to be delivered to a redacted cryptocurrency wallet in exchange for Guthrie’s safe return, with the demanded amount reportedly set to increase to $6 million if the family missed a specified deadline. The notes, which were sent to both TMZ and a local Tucson news station, also included a warning tied to a stated deadline for what the senders described as an execution date should the family fail to comply.
A Search That Has Drawn National Resources
The investigation into Guthrie’s disappearance has involved sustained coordination between local and federal authorities since the earliest days of the case, including FBI agents canvassing neighborhoods near the homes of Guthrie’s relatives and searches conducted by helicopter across the surrounding Tucson desert. Multiple reward offers have accumulated in the case over the past six months, including funds from the FBI, a private donor working through the Crime Stoppers affiliate 88-Crime, and other contributors, with the combined total of rewards now exceeding $1.2 million and remaining unclaimed as of this week.
Advertisement
How to Help
Authorities have continued to ask anyone with information related to Guthrie’s disappearance to come forward, directing tips to the FBI’s hotline at 1-800-CALL-FBI. Tipsters wishing to remain anonymous can also call the local Crime Stoppers affiliate at 520-88-CRIME.
With the case set to mark six months since Guthrie’s disappearance, her family and investigators continue expressing hope that new evidence, whether from fresh tips, renewed searches of previously examined areas, or terrain altered by this summer’s monsoon rains, might finally produce the breakthrough that has eluded the investigation since early February. For now, authorities have not named a suspect publicly, and the reported return of investigators to the brush behind Guthrie’s home underscores that the search for answers in one of the year’s most closely watched missing persons cases remains very much active.
European indexes are streaking to new records Wednesday. Cautious optimism around a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz has added fresh impetus to a rally built on strong earnings and a rotation away from artificial-intelligence stocks.
AI-related jitters that derailed chip-led gains in Asia and the U.S. were a boon for European stocks, where banks and industrials are driving the technology-light continent.
“Europe is the anti-AI trade,” said Julian Lafargue, chief market strategist at Barclays Private Bank.
A spreadsheet can track inventory for exactly as long as a business stays small enough that nobody minds double-counting a pallet or missing a reorder point. Past that, the gap between what the spreadsheet says is on the shelf and what’s actually there starts costing real money in rush shipping, in stockouts, in the customer who orders a product that quietly sold out three days ago.
That’s the problem inventory management software is built to solve, and there’s no shortage of it built specifically for small businesses. But “best” depends heavily on what kind of small business is asking. A boutique running one storefront on Square has almost nothing in common, inventory-wise, with a three-person team assembling furniture from raw materials, or a Shopify seller juggling stock across Amazon, TikTok Shop, and their own site. The tool that’s a perfect fit for one is often the wrong choice or wildly overpriced – for another.
Below are nine inventory management platforms worth considering, organized by the type of small business each one fits best, along with current pricing, so there are no surprises after the free trial ends.
Before getting into the list, it’s worth being clear about what separates a genuinely useful inventory system from a glorified spreadsheet with a login screen. A few things matter more than the length of the feature list:
Advertisement
Real-time syncing across sales channels. If stock counts update on a delay, overselling is only a matter of time.
Order volume limits. Several platforms below cap how many orders or invoices a plan can process monthly – a business can outgrow a plan’s limits well before it outgrows the software itself.
What it integrates with. An inventory tool that doesn’t talk to the accounting software, ecommerce platform, or POS system already in use just creates a second system to reconcile by hand.
Pricing model. Some tools charge per user, some per order volume, some per location, and that structure can make a “cheaper” plan more expensive in practice, depending on how the business operates.
With that framework in mind, here’s the list.
1. Zoho Inventory : Best overall value
Best for: Small businesses starting out or replacing spreadsheets | Starting at: Free; paid plans from $29/month | Standout feature: A genuinely usable free plan plus native integration with the rest of the Zoho ecosystem
Zoho Inventory is the rare inventory platform that’s genuinely useful on its free plan, which makes it a sensible starting point for a small business that isn’t ready to commit to a monthly bill yet. The free tier covers 50 orders and 50 invoices per month for one user across two locations – thin, but enough to test whether the workflow fits before paying anything.
Paid plans scale cleanly: Standard runs $29/month (billed annually; $39 month-to-month) for 500 orders and three users, Premium is $79/month for 3,000 orders and five users, Plus is $129/month for 7,500 orders and ten users, and Enterprise tops out at $249/month for 15,000 orders. Every tier includes multichannel selling, warehouse management, and order fulfillment tools, and the platform integrates natively with the rest of the Zoho ecosystem – a real advantage for a business already using Zoho Books or Zoho CRM.
The trade-off is that Zoho Inventory’s advanced features, serial and batch tracking, for instance – are locked behind the Professional tier and above, so a business with compliance-heavy inventory (food, cosmetics, electronics with warranties) may need to budget for a higher plan sooner than the sticker price suggests.
Advertisement
2. QuickBooks Online : Best for businesses that want accounting and inventory in one place
Best for: Businesses that want inventory and accounting under one login | Starting at: Plus plan, roughly $115–$140/month (verify current rate) | Standout feature: Inventory synced directly with invoicing, COGS, and payroll
For a small business already doing its books in QuickBooks, adding a separate inventory platform means reconciling two systems that were never designed to talk to each other perfectly. QuickBooks Online sidesteps that by building basic inventory tracking directly into its Plus plan: quantity on hand, cost of goods sold [COGS, the direct cost of the products a business has sold], and purchase orders, all inside the same login used for invoicing and payroll.
Pricing here needs a caveat: Intuit has raised QuickBooks Online prices more than once through 2026, and third-party trackers currently disagree on the exact current rate for Plus, with figures ranging from roughly $115 to $140 per month depending on when they were last updated. The Plus plan supports up to five users and includes project profitability tracking alongside inventory.
The real limitation isn’t price, it’s depth. QuickBooks Online’s inventory tools cover the basics well but lack the multichannel, warehouse, and manufacturing features that dedicated inventory platforms offer. A business selling on three marketplaces or assembling products from components will likely outgrow it quickly.
Advertisement
3. Square for Retail : Best for brick-and-mortar retailers already on Square
Best for: Retailers already processing payments through Square | Starting at: Free; Plus plan $49/month per location | Standout feature: Inventory tools built into the same POS already running sales
Square for Retail makes the most sense for a business that’s already processing payments through Square and wants inventory tracking layered onto the same system, rather than bolted on separately. Under Square’s current unified pricing, the Free plan includes basic point-of-sale and inventory tools with no monthly fee, while Square Plus adds advanced inventory tracking, low-stock alerts, and purchase order management for $49 per month per location, with a reduced 2.5% + 15¢ in-person processing rate. Square Premium, aimed at higher-volume sellers, runs $149 per month per location with further-reduced processing fees.
Square for Retail’s inventory features are genuinely strong for a single-location or small multi-location retailer: cross-location stock transfers, vendor management, and barcode label printing are all included at the Plus tier. Where it falls short is scale, retailers running many locations or complex wholesale operations tend to find Square’s inventory tools thinner than purpose-built platforms like Lightspeed or Cin7.
4. inFlow Inventory : Best for wholesale, distribution, and B2B
Best for: Wholesalers and distributors managing vendor relationships alongside sales | Starting at: $129/month, billed annually | Standout feature: Built-in B2B showroom for wholesale ordering
Advertisement
inFlow is built around a workflow that a lot of inventory software treats as secondary: selling to other businesses rather than directly to consumers. Its built-in B2B showroom, purchase-order-heavy design, and strong barcode and label tools make it a natural fit for wholesalers and distributors who spend as much time managing vendor relationships as they do sales.
Pricing starts at $129/month (billed annually) for the Entrepreneur plan, which includes two team members and 1,200 sales orders per year, but caps users at a single inventory location. The Small Business plan, inFlow’s most popular tier, runs $349/month for five team members, 12,000 annual orders, and unlimited locations. Mid-Size jumps to $699/month with unlimited orders, and Enterprise pricing is custom. inFlow also sells a separate, cheaper Manufacturing product for businesses that assemble finished goods, and a bare-bones Stockroom app (from $99/month) for simple scan-in, scan-out tracking.
The entry-level plan’s single-location limit is worth flagging: a small business planning to add a second warehouse or storefront will need to budget for the $349/month tier from the start, not the $129 headline price.
5. Cin7 Core : Best for multichannel ecommerce brands
Best for: Brands selling the same products across several channels at once | Starting at: $349/month | Standout feature: Real-time stock sync across every connected sales channel
Advertisement
Cin7 Core : formerly known as DEAR Systems before its 2022 rebrand – is built for businesses selling the same products across several channels at once: a Shopify store, an Amazon listing, a wholesale account, maybe a physical pop-up. Its strength is keeping stock levels synchronized across all of them in real time, so a sale on one channel doesn’t lead to overselling on another.
The Standard plan costs $349/month for five users, two ecommerce integrations, and roughly 6,000 orders per year (about 500 a month). Pro runs $599/month with more users and integrations plus manufacturing resource planning [MRP, tools for scheduling production and tracking materials] features, and Advanced reaches $999/month for high-volume operations needing warehouse management. Cin7 also offers a separate enterprise product, Cin7 Omni, with custom pricing.
Cin7 Core is priced well above the entry-level tools on this list, which makes it a harder sell for a business just starting to outgrow spreadsheets. It earns that price for a business already selling on multiple channels – the alternative, reconciling stock across platforms by hand, tends to be more expensive in the long run through overselling and refunds.
6. Katana Cloud Inventory : Best for small manufacturers and makers
Best for: Businesses that turn raw materials into finished products | Starting at: $179/month | Standout feature: Bill-of-materials and real-time raw-material allocation built for production
Advertisement
Most inventory software assumes a business buys finished goods and resells them. Katana assumes the opposite: that raw materials go in, and a different, finished product comes out – the exact workflow a small manufacturer, food producer, or maker business needs and generic inventory tools don’t handle well.
Katana offers a free plan limited to 30 SKUs and one location, useful mainly for testing the platform. The paid Core plan starts at $299/month and includes bill-of-materials tracking, production scheduling, and real-time raw material allocation. Katana’s pricing model has shifted more than once in recent years, and several add-ons – warehouse management, batch traceability, and advanced manufacturing routing, are priced separately from the Core plan, which can push the effective monthly cost considerably higher for a business that needs them.
That pricing structure is the main thing to watch. Katana is genuinely well-suited to small manufacturers, but a business with modest order volumes and lower-priced items should model the full cost, add-ons included, before committing – several reviewers report the order-based pricing scaling faster than expected as sales grow.
7. Ordoro : Best for ecommerce sellers who need shipping and dropshipping bundled in
Best for: Ecommerce sellers who want shipping, inventory, or dropshipping without paying for all three | Starting at: Free shipping tier; Inventory app from $349/month | Standout feature: Modular apps you can mix and match instead of one bundled platform
Advertisement
Ordoro splits itself into three separate apps – Shipping, Inventory, and Dropshipping – that a business can mix and match rather than paying for a single bundled platform. That’s useful for an ecommerce seller who mainly needs discounted shipping labels today but expects to need inventory or dropship automation later.
The Shipping app has a genuinely free tier (100 labels per month, one user) with an Advanced plan at $59/month for higher volume. The Inventory app starts at $349/month for the Advanced tier and $499/month for Premium, which adds purchase orders and bill-of-materials tracking. The Dropshipping app, aimed at businesses that route orders to suppliers rather than holding stock themselves, starts at $299/month. Bundling all three requires contacting Ordoro’s sales team for custom pricing.
The modular pricing is a double-edged sword: it lets a small business pay only for what it needs right now, but the Inventory app alone starts well above what Zoho or Square charge for comparable core functionality – Ordoro’s real value shows up for businesses that actually need the shipping and dropshipping pieces alongside it, not for inventory tracking in isolation.
8. Sortly : Best for simple, photo-based tracking
Best for: Tracking equipment, tools, or supplies rather than retail inventory | Starting at: Free; paid plans from $49/month | Standout feature: Visual, photo-first interface with no sales or order-management layer to learn
Advertisement
Not every small business is tracking retail inventory. Sortly is built for the ones tracking equipment, tools, supplies, or materials – a contractor’s van inventory, a salon’s product backstock, a nonprofit’s donated goods – where a visual, photo-first interface matters more than purchase orders or multichannel sync.
Sortly’s free plan covers basic tracking for a single user. Paid plans start at Advanced ($49/month), then Ultra ($149/month) for growing teams, and Premium ($299/month) for businesses needing custom reports and deeper QuickBooks integration; an Enterprise tier is available on request. Every paid plan includes barcode and QR scanning, low-stock alerts, and custom folders and tags for organizing items by job, project, or location.
Sortly’s limitation is built into what makes it simple: it’s not a sales or order management platform. A retailer or ecommerce seller processing transactions will need something else entirely; Sortly earns its place on this list specifically for the small businesses tracking physical items that never go through a checkout.
9. Lightspeed Retail : Best for growing, multi-location specialty retail
Best for: Specialty retailers outgrowing single-location simplicity | Starting at: $89/month, billed annually | Standout feature: Deep product-variant and vendor management built for specialty categories
Advertisement
Lightspeed Retail positions itself a step above Square for a retailer that’s outgrowing single-location simplicity – specialty stores in categories like apparel, jewelry, sporting goods, and furniture, where product variants, vendor relationships, and multi-location stock transfers get complicated fast.
The Basic plan runs $89/month billed annually ($109 month-to-month) for one register with integrated payments and core inventory tools. Core, Lightspeed’s most popular tier, is $149/month annually ($179 monthly) and adds loyalty programs and deeper reporting. Plus reaches $289/month annually ($339 monthly) with custom reporting and API access, and Enterprise pricing requires a custom quote. Each tier includes one register; additional registers and multi-location setups typically require a conversation with Lightspeed’s sales team rather than a published per-location rate.
The trade-off for that retail-specific depth is cost and complexity relative to Square: a single-location boutique that doesn’t need Lightspeed’s variant and vendor management may find it more software than necessary, and pricier than a comparable Square Plus setup.
Choosing between them
There isn’t a single best answer here, and that’s really the point, the right platform depends on whether the business is reselling finished goods, building products from raw materials, selling on one channel or six, and how much it’s already invested in an existing POS or accounting system. A business already running QuickBooks or Square has a real head start using the inventory tools built into what it already pays for; one that’s outgrown those basics will get more value from a dedicated platform like Zoho, Cin7, or inFlow, even at a higher monthly cost.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login