What FBA Software Do You Actually Need?
What software you must have and what you can hold off on.
Good morning! We kick this week off with everyone’s favorite topic: software.
Shiny, shiny software.
If you’re even a few months into your Amazon journey, you’ve probably been shilled a dozen different affiliate links to tools that are alleged “game changers”. But what they conveniently leave out, is you don’t actually need most of that software.
We’ll keep this post brief and cut right to the chase with the list, but first a quick ask: Follow @BowTiedSlinger on Twitter.
As we continue to grow, we’ll use Twitter to expand upon our free posts and give our informal takes on FBA hot topics.
Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Let’s dive into what you need and what you don’t need as soon as you think.
Side note: this post does not contain affiliate links.
Gotta have it
Keepa
Keepa is a tool that shows you the price, competition, and demand history of any Amazon listing. This is the most important software you can have. Reading a Keepa graph should be the very first thing you learn. If you can’t, you’re buying blind. You cannot confidently source without it.
Buy Box Analyzer
This is typically a Chrome extension or app that lets you quickly assess the profitability of a listing. A good one will allow you to set certain buy criteria (target ROI, sales rank, competition, etc.) to quickly identify if a product is a buy/no buy. Perhaps not as critical for retail arbitrage, but it’s a must as you start to analyze thousands of listings a week for online arbitrage.
On a budget? The Amazon Seller app or Amazon’s Revenue Calculator can estimate profitability/fees. But a paid tool will come with a lot more bells and whistles.
Examples: AZInsight, RevSeller, SellerAmp
When you’re ready
Repricer
If you’ve read our writeup on the basics of repricing, you know the power of a repricer. A repricer automatically adjusts your prices based on rules you set to get you more sales. However, if you only have a few SKUs in inventory, a repricer is overkill. No need to consider one until you’re consistently making $1,000/mo in profit.
Examples: Aura, BQool, SellerSnap
Inventory analytics and accounting
As your business grows, you’re going to need to keep a much closer look at your numbers. You have to know your inventory costs and fees. Consider getting one of these once you’re north of $50k revenue per year.
Examples: InventoryLab, Sellerboard
Probably a reach
Product research tools
Unless you’re doing large numbers or serious about private label, you really don’t need one of the fancy $150/mo product research tools. They come with a lot of features, which is great. But for newer sellers, those features are often a distraction. Unless you have a very specific purpose for using one, Keepa is all you need.
Examples: SmartScout, Helium 10, JungleScout
Advanced inventory management & logistics
These are tools that track lead times from suppliers and alert you when it’s time to restock. Such a feature is really only useful if you’re a big seller moving high volume. If you’re cranking in pallets on a weekly basis, then you will be more sensitive to fluctuations in demand and being out-of-stock for a week is incredibly costly. However, for most arbitrage sellers and new wholesale sellers, you can do most of this manually.
Otherwise, some of the inventory analytics tools in the section above have some basic features built in that should do just fine.
Examples: Restock Pro, Seller Labs
Other honorable mentions
Online arbitrage sourcing - Some of you may be surprised not to see Tactical Arbitrage mentioned on this list. While TA is a great product, it can build some bad habits sourcing a bunch of junk that thousands of other sellers are sourcing. I only recommend TA if there’s a big storewide sale or you have a special coupon that you can bake into the crawl results.
UPC list scanner - Useful for wholesale sellers only. If you’re contacting dozens of distributors and need to scan their product lists quickly, you’ll want a devoted UPC list scanner. But be warned, every other seller is running the same list through their own scanner. The real gems are often found but manually reviewing the list.
Amazon PPC - Obviously, if you’re in wholesale or private label and running PPC, this one’s for you. Only recommend one of these if you’re spending more than $3,000/mo on ads. Otherwise, it’s overkill.
Wrapping up
And there you have it. Only two software tools you must have when starting out. Everything else can be a distraction and overwhelm you from building strong sourcing skills. Plus, the recurring monthly costs will quickly start to eat into your bottom line.
Pro tip: if you’re looking for my recommended software in each of these categories, you can find these in The Vault.