As a fairly established Amazon seller, I was curious to see what Shopkeeper had to offer. Until recently, I’d been relying on Seller Central to tell me what I needed to know about my business, but I was getting frustrated with the way the information was spread over multiple pages; I was still having to put a lot of data together myself. That’s a big reason why I decided to give Shopkeeper a try – ease of use is one of their big selling points. I wanted to be able to get key information from one place, so I could have a better handle on my own profits, costs, and margins. So what’s the verdict? Keep reading to find out!
The four main areas of business management
Any given day of managing an Amazon shop involves a lot of moving parts, but Shopkeeper has distilled the most important ones into four areas.
Learning resources
I wasn’t necessarily expecting to get much out of this, since I’ve already been in the game for a few years. Even so, it was interesting to explore some of the podcasts, and I have plans to try out a couple of their software recommendations for troubleshooting and improving customer relations. These types of resources are geared more towards beginner Amazon sellers, and honestly, it would have been great to have them when I was just starting out.
The business dashboard
I was really curious to see if this would uncover any weak points in my selling strategy, and it didn’t disappoint. The dashboard compared the sales and margins of all my products side-by-side, so I could see which ones contributed value, and which ones didn’t. Understanding product performance was so much easier, since I didn’t have to sort through pages of reports and graphs to understand competitor trends or product performance. As I went through the respective profit margins of each product, I actually realized that I was holding onto a couple items that hadn’t been making me any money since Amazon’s seller fees went up. That’s the kind of thing I would have needed to calculate myself if I were using Seller Central, so it was great to see it laid out so clearly on Shopkeeper.
Profit tracking
I was most interested in seeing what my profit margins looked like item-by-item, but the profit tracking feature uncovered some interesting trends as well. I’m always trying to optimize sales, so seeing sales trends over time gave me valuable insight into how to focus my efforts.
Inventory forecast
This was one feature I wasn’t expecting to love so much, but it ended up taking so much guesswork out of inventory management. I usually have a general grasp of my inventory needs; my sales patterns are fairly consistent year by year, so there isn’t a whole lot of adjusting I need to do. That being said, Amazon’s new inventory limits were changing the rules on me, and this tool came at the perfect time. I was able to really dial in the way I managed inventory, and even though I had less of many of my items in the FBA, I never ran out of products.
Shopkeeper functions and features
Once I got acquainted with the tools above, I started delving into the specific features that made them work. Here’s what I found:
Notifications
I’m too busy to constantly check Shopkeeper for new developments, but the notifications kept me updated anyway. Every time anything significant happened with my products or shop, I got the overview from Shopkeeper right away.
Helpful customer service
Since I was going to be writing a review, I wanted to check out the quality of Shopkeeper’s customer service – and besides, I had a couple questions anyway. Their free email support was fairly efficient, and answered my questions pretty thoroughly. Their live chat feature was great too, and I appreciated having multiple options to reach someone if I ever ran into issues.
Accessible dashboard
Having a centralized dashboard was such a relief after all the leg-work that Seller Central required. It was easy to navigate, and if I ever wanted to get more details on specific aspects of my Amazon shop, I could quickly find additional figures and tools regarding my business’s working information.
Smartphone friendly
I use my smartphone a lot when managing my business, so I appreciate any business tool that’s usable on a small screen. Shopkeeper’s mobile version is clean and uncluttered, and I never had any issues with use or navigation while using my phone.
Ease of use
I was glad to find that there wasn’t much of a learning curve when I started using Shopkeeper. Everything was very accessible, so I was able to jump right into the thick of things after a bit of exploring.
Real-time profit margins
This was one of the features that made Shopkeeper sound appealing in the first place – the ability to see sales trends, profit fluctuations, and more as it happened. The figures updated every 10 minutes, and this actually helped me catch a couple of issues with my products; I was able to correct them before they turned into anything serious.
Sales plotting
Being able to see sales trends over time gave me a lot of insight into what I wanted to do in the future. Like many Amazon sellers, I have to make decisions all the time about changes in pricing, product offerings, seasonal sales, new launches, etc. With this feature, those decisions were backed by more accurate data, and I didn’t have to waste time looking at multiple reports before arriving at a conclusion.
Shopkeeper pricing plans
Given the value that Shopkeeper provides, I was expecting them to charge a good bit more than they actually do. You can use the free 14-day trial to see what it’s all about, and after that there are four pricing options. They’re all based on order volume; in other words, if you have a small Amazon shop and don’t need one of the more expensive options, you aren’t going to be missing out on key features or “premium” tools.
The Novice - $20 per month
- Business dashboard
- Inventory with sellers and sales
- Notifications for inventory, sellers, and sales
- Overview reports
- Between one and 250 monthly orders
The Intermediate - $45 per month
- Same as The Novice, but for Amazon sellers that get between 250 and 1,000 monthly orders
The Master - $90 per month
- For sellers who get between 1,000 and 5,000 monthly orders
Ballin’ Outta Control - $250 per month
- Unlimited monthly orders
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Shopkeeper pros and cons
All in all, using Shopkeeper was an eye-opening experience. It helped me identify weak points in my strategies, develop product offerings, and fine-tune the way I managed inventory. This was also the first time I’d ever been able to view key business information so neatly displayed in one place, which was a big change from what I’d been doing previously. There was one thing I think they could do better: people who are struggling with profit optimization, or who are new to selling on Amazon, would probably benefit from a wider range of features. Even so, it was a good fit for my Amazon business, and it helped me fine-tune my strategies for greater success.
