If we have a brick & mortar store that has 100 widgets, and we then sell 7 of them, our inventory shows 93 remaining. If our new MC site sells another 5, then is there a way to get MC to "talk" to our existing store system (I don't know what it is yet) to deduct that 5, making the new level of inventory 88?

To do that you will need a point of sale system (virtual cash register software) that integrates with Commerce and any other Web sales channels you use (eBay, Amazon, etc.). The Stone Edge Order Manager (www.StoneEdge.com/OrderManager.htm) is a complete system for managing orders, customers, shipping, etc. as well as your inventory, and it includes a point of sale system that does what you described. The Order Manager is a very powerful system that is designed and priced for small merchants. The base price of the program is only $1,250, which includes the Commerce interface, the point of sale system, a 5-workstation license, and a year of support and program updates. That is a one-time fee, and there are no per-transaction charges. For more information, see our Website or give us a call at 215-641-1837.

We used to enter our site orders into our POS system. We had an awesome POS systems that was designed specifically for our industry. The drawback to that was that we did so much business on the site that my employees were spending too much time each day keystroking orders.

We ended up going with StoneEdge because it integrates with the site. In just a couple clicks our orders were imported into the StoneEdge POS system.

The drawback for me is that StoneEdge does not have the reporting functionality that our old POS system had, but no other POS system does, either. Since that other system we had was made specifically for stores just like mine, it answered every possible need I could have. It took me a long time to get used to StoneEdge, and I'm doing much better now. I only mention this because I'm assuming that since you have a brick and mortar store already, you've probably got a system that you're already using. It might take a while for you to get used to a new one. You might have to decide whether or not it's easier for you to keystroke orders into your POS system, adjust inventory, or get a whole new system.