Sortly · Inventory management for small businesses

Small businesses outgrow a glance at the shelf long before they’re ready for an ERP.

  • Senior Director, Design
  • 2021–2023
  • Team of 6
Sortly on the web: a quantity report for one item, with its history charted over the monthThe same item in the Sortly phone app, with quantity, minimum level, and price

Sortly helps small businesses keep track of what they have, where it is, and what needs attention. I led design across product and marketing, with a team of designers and researchers and our agency partners. Together we redefined the core product experience, and that work shaped the roadmap, pricing, and packaging.

The opportunity

The usual next step, from a spreadsheet to an ERP, is a huge jump in cost and complexity. The market needed something in between that was scalable, secure, and stable enough to build a business on. Sortly’s answer was visual and field-first: items you recognize by their picture, managed from a phone where the work happens. It keeps the glance working long after the shelf gets too big to see.

Following the stuff, not the shelf

The core redesign changed what the product tracked. Instead of a list of what sits where, Sortly followed how items move between teams and places: supplier to warehouse, warehouse to truck, truck to job. Purchase orders and reports were built on that model, so a business could see what it has, where it went, and what to order next.

The problems worth solving

  • Every business is different. Assets aren’t consumables, and plumbing parts aren’t medical supplies. One product had to fit both without forcing anyone into a warehouse system.
  • Work happens in the field. Counting, scanning, and moving items had to be fast on a phone, from a truck, a supply closet, a job site, or a walk-in.
  • One picture across devices and sites. What changes on a truck has to show up at the office and the warehouse, right away.
  • Knowing what to order. Reports on what’s on hand and what’s running low are where inventory turns into business decisions.
What's on hand, what's moving, and what to order, with the detail behind it when you need it.
What’s on hand, what’s moving, and what to order, with the detail behind it when you need it.
Flexible enough for assets and consumables, plumbing parts and medical supplies. Flexible enough for assets and consumables, plumbing parts and medical supplies.
Flexible enough for assets and consumables, plumbing parts and medical supplies.
Scan, count, and move items in the field, synced everywhere else. Scan, count, and move items in the field, synced everywhere else. Scan, count, and move items in the field, synced everywhere else.
Scan, count, and move items in the field, synced everywhere else.

One story, everywhere

We built a brand and a story that could speak as one across ads, landing pages, email, the product, and trade shows. Qualified organic leads rose sharply.

One system across product, mobile, and marketing. One system across product, mobile, and marketing. One system across product, mobile, and marketing. One system across product, mobile, and marketing.
One system across product, mobile, and marketing.
The same system, tuned for paid channels where you get a second to make the point. The same system, tuned for paid channels where you get a second to make the point. The same system, tuned for paid channels where you get a second to make the point.
The same system, tuned for paid channels where you get a second to make the point.
A product tour that shows the workflow instead of listing features.
A product tour that shows the workflow instead of listing features.
Onboarding and education emails in the same voice as the product.
Onboarding and education emails in the same voice as the product.

Clarity is the most valuable thing a business can stock.

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