Shop-Ware

The Challenge

Even with the future of car ownership in flux, cars need repairs, and the current software supporting shop owners is woefully out of touch with the times. Carolyn Coquillette, the founder of Shop-Ware and owner of Luscious Garage, recognized the need for improvement and contacted Carbon Five to help create and evolve its shop management SaaS platform.

Shop-Ware and Carbon Five have continued to work together over the years, including another project to implement new payment options by upgrading Shop-Ware’s integration with Stripe.

“This project is so essential — I’m so grateful we did what we did, when we did.”

The Process

Carbon Five worked with Coquillette and her small but talented team to create the first version of the Shop-Ware platform and, over the course of more than 3 years, enhance it to support a growing customer base across the U.S. The team built an inventory management system, improved the existing framework for creating purchase orders, and made it easier to order auto parts by integrating the system with PartsTech. 

 A big challenge for the team was figuring out a way to educate potential Shop-Ware customers — many of whom have been managing their shops in a very particular way for years — on why they should switch from using an organization system that does not always require the Internet to using cloud software.

The Results

The platform now includes inventory management, work orders, invoicing, scheduling, and subscription features. Carbon Five’s work in helping to upgrade Shop-Ware’s Stripe integration has enabled them to add additional pricing plans as they continue to expand the business’ reach.

Shop-Ware is still growing and recently released a native parts catalog that allows users to review parts’ fitment, pricing, and availability within the platform. Earlier this year, Shop-Ware announced a system integration with AutoVitals and it is also now available as an integrator with Zapier.