Pros and Cons of Using an Amazon Seller Tool: What You Need to Know
Most average people will recognize Amazon as a place to head over to when they want to buy something unavailable in their location, for cheaper than conventional brick and mortar stores could ever hope to offer, to be delivered directly to their front door within a day, or all of the above. However, behind those millions of various products lie actual product sellers who have spent time to build a business that just so happens to piggyback off the online behemoths, quite frankly, unbelievably enormous logistics and distribution networks (not to mention the hundreds of millions of customers that patronize the platform each and every day).
In other words, Amazon has been a revelation for those who have chosen a life less ordinary and opted to open their very own businesses rather than stick to the usual 9-5. However, as you might imagine, along with the convenience and possibility of making large sums of money comes a significant amount of competition. Fortunately, as a result of this situation, entire industries have pooped up that offer tools and assistance to those looking to get a leg up over others. In this post, we will take a look at a few of the primary pros and cons of using any of the myriad seller tools on the market so you can get a better overview of whether they are right for you.
You Can Find Keywords That May Be Hidden Using A Manual Approach
The first thing to make clear about selling anything on the Amazon marketplace is that to ensure your products sit near the top of the search results, you need to find and implement the right keywords that customers are actually using to search for items. Just as you would optimize content to gain search engine rankings, so too must you do so with Amazon, which is where the platforms offering tools for Amazon keyword optimization come into use.
Although you can certainly find plenty of brilliant keywords using manual methods, opting to defer to a tool can save you an inordinate amount of time and is more likely to garner the kind of terms that will move the needle. Many of the better tools will also provide you with a way to create and test different titles and descriptions, allowing you to track how each test is performing. This data enables you to hone down on what is and isn’t working so you can increase revenue in the long term.
Streamlined Product Research Saves Time
Finding a product to source, white-label, and sell is arguably one of the more challenging aspects of this business. The thing is that once a product starts taking off, it is usually too late to hop onto the train and gain any significant advantage over those who have already started selling it. Some Amazon seller tools help you find up-and-coming products that haven’t quite started trending and give you a bit of breathing space to plan your next moves.
Analytic Tools Help You To See What’s Working
When you know what’s working, you can build on it to eke out even more profit. Conversely, if something isn’t doing quite so well, you will have the data available to choose what to do next. This might be mixing up the keywords and descriptions, taking better photos, or dropping the line entirely to focus your efforts on what’s making money.
Potential Costs Can Be Too High When Starting
Getting an edge over your competitors can potentially net you life-chinging money, and many of the tool providers know who they’re marketing to. Consequently, almost all tools will be priced relatively high and often far too high for beginners. While it’s true that many will have tiered pricing plans to appeal to a broader range of sellers, it’s generally true that many of the more advanced and, therefore, valuable features will be locked behind higher plans. This isn’t an issue if you’re already making money, but it can be prohibitive for those who aren’t.
The Learning Curve Can Be Steep For New Users
These tools aren’t for the faint of heart, and as you can imagine, with anything that is able to suck in and spit out so much data in one go, the learning curve can be pretty steep for those at the start of their journey. Once you get the hang of things, it can quickly become second nature, but the point is that unless you’re willing to put in the work, you can rapidly become overwhelmed with the options and possibilities these kinds of tools provide.
Amazon seller tools have rapidly become an essential component of most large-scale Amazon sellers, but they are not entirely without downside. Nevertheless, as long as you are prepared to pay for the service and use them to their fullest, the benefits can very quickly outweigh the cons.
