Saturday, August 31, 2019

🔥🔥 Growth Hack Your Amazon Business With This Massive List of Tools for Amazon Sellers: Updated for 2020

With pipemonk shutting its doors a while back, we figured we would continue the incredibly helpful "Massive List of Tools for Amazon Sellers" started on their blog. Please us know if there is anything that you suggest adding to our list of top tools and software for amazon sellers in 2020. Here is an overview:

  1. Listing
  2. Business Analytics
  3. Competitive Intelligence
  4. Pricing
  5. Customer Reviews
  6. Inventory Management & Multichannel Fulfillment
  7. Accounting & Taxes
  8. Sales
  9. Toolkits
  10. Additional Marketplaces
  11. PPC and Advertising
  12. Outsourcing
  13. Newsletters
  14. Consultants
  15. Sourcing Suppliers
  16. Free Tools and Software for Amazon Sellers

1. LISTING TOOLS

Amazon Listing Tools

Amazon Batch Listing by Seller Engine

The Listing Tool allows you to batch list hundreds of items all at once with a few mouse clicks. It also supports FBA shipment management and label printing.

AccelerList

The new standard for Amazon product listing. Leverage the fastest Amazon product listing software in the industry. Starts at $34 / month.

ScanLister

A bulk listing software for Amazon sellers. Starts at $24 / month.

Sellbrite by GoDaddy

List and sell your products on eBay, Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, and other channels. Multi-channel fulfillment. Starts at $49 / month.

GeekSeller

GeekSeller is a multi-channel e-commerce platform created by e-commerce experts who are dedicated to your success. Starts at $200 / month.

2. BUSINESS ANALYTICS

Helloprofit

Analytics Software for amazon sellers with a One-Stop Dashboard. Leverage 2+ Years of your Amazon sales data to compare & evaluate by custom date ranges, products, variations. Starts at $97 / month.

Sellonaut

Sellonaut is a purchase order automation platform for Amazon sellers. Upload a list of UPCs or ASINs and let Sellonaut update your data 24/7, allowing you to filter and export up-to-date data whenever you'd like. Starts at $49 / month.

Fulfillment by Amazon Revenue Calculator

Amazon’s free tool to compare merchant shipping costs compared with those fulfilled by FBA.

Manage By Stats

An Amazon statistics tool built by Amazon Sellers for Amazon Sellers. Get all data on products, sales, performance, inventory, etc from one dashboard with this software for amazon sellers. Starts at $19.97 / month.

3. COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

Ecom Spy

eComSpy gives you fast and accurate intelligence on items before you add them to your inventory. Seller tested and proven, eComSpy can help you save time, reduce risk and boost profits.

FBA Toolkit

Sales rank analysis, price list and product tracking for Amazon FBA. FBAToolkit was developed by Pathfinding.

Feedvisor

Award-winning intelligence solution that offers algorithmic repricing and revenue intelligence software for Amazon Sellers.

Junglescout

Use Jungle Scout to find profitable product ideas, get sales data & estimates. This can prevent wasting time browsing a website made for consumers.

Keyword Inspector

KeywordInspector is a suite of multiple tools at once to help you find/sell/optimize more products, faster on Amazon. Their Keyword Trends Tool provides a searchable database of what is now 50 Million plus Amazon Buyer Keywords.

Keyword tool by Scientific Seller

Intelligent search analysis of Amazon buyer keywords. Scientific Seller is a marketing suite for Amazon Sellers that provides scientifically-based tools to improve the performance of your products on Amazon.

Profit Bandit

Scan any barcode and find out how much profit you can make by selling the item on Amazon.

Sales Rank Tool by Synccentric

Retrieve the Amazon Sales Rank using your products’ keywords or unique identifiers (ASIN, MPN/Part Number, SKU, ISBN, EAN, or UPC).

Sellics

Optimize rankings, manage PPC campaigns, product reviews, observe prices and monitor competitors to increase sales on Amazon.

AMZBase

AMZBase is a free and useful software for amazon sellers for assisting you in your search to find products to sell on Amazon. It helps sellers to quickly obtain the ASIN No. and the title description of listings on Amazon. It provides immediate access to CamelCamelCamel, Alibaba, AliExpress, eBay and Google search engines, while also calculating FBA fees to estimate your potential profits.

4. PRICING TOOLS

Amazon Pricing Tools

FBA Revenue Calculator by Amazon

Provide your fulfilment costs and see real-time cost comparisons between your fulfilment and our offering for customer orders fulfilled on Amazon.com.

Neatoscan

Neatopricer utilizes a barcode scanner, a PDA (Portable Data Assistant) or iPhone/Android device, and a headset to allow you to quickly and easily determine the value of books and other merchandise while disconnected from the internet.

Price Checker 2.0

Price Checker 2.0 is Amazon profit calculation software for wholesale supplier lists. It returns all relevant data from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

RepricerExpress

Increase your sales and profit margins with this top-rated Amazon repricing software for third-party sellers.

Scope by Seller Labs

Product research and sourcing tool for online merchants. Make educated merchandising decisions and have a strategy when it comes to growing your business.

Seller Republic

Intelligent, Fast & Easy to Use Amazon Repricing

Sellery

Intelligent repricing strategies help you win the Buy Box

SmartPrice

Automatic repricing software to help you maximize your profits

Wiser

Price Optimization for High-Growth Amazon Retailers

5. CUSTOMER REVIEWS

Customer Review Tools Amazon

AMZFinder

This powerful Amazon seller tool helps sellers monitor product reviews, automatically matches reviews with orders and enables sellers to contact buyers directly to remove negative reviews from all marketplaces.

AMZDiscover

AMZDiscover is an online search engine which can help you find the Amazon reviewers and potential customers. More importantly, you will get their contact info including email address, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other SNS accounts.

FeedbackFive

Automatically solicit feedback from customers, review negative and neutral feedbacks received, monitor trends, request removal of negative feedback, and even manage Amazon Product Reviews.

Feedbackwhiz

All-in-one software for amazon sellers to manage your Amazon orders, repair seller feedback, monitor and fix product reviews, and send out automated emails to buyers.

Feedback Genius

Improve your Amazon seller feedback score and product reviews with relevant messages to buyers and notifications about negative feedback.

FeedbackExpress

Get more positive feedback and product reviews from Amazon buyers. Stop negative feedback in its tracks and remove it super-quick!

6. INVENTORY MANAGEMENT & MULTICHANNEL FULFILLMENT

Wizard-Industries

Wizard-Industries helps keep track of items as you pack your inbound FBA shipments. When your box is full, print the barcode. The barcode on your box allows you to skip manually entering information in Seller Central.

Ordoro

Top choice of Amazon sellers for shipping, inventory and dropshipping. Ordoro is fully integrated with FBA, SFP, MCF and FBM. Ordoro does not charge extra fees for Amazon Prime orders.

GeekSeller

Manage Jet, Walmart (Marketplace, DSV, Canada), and eBay products from within GeekSeller. GeekSeller also offers tools for transferring products between most of our available platforms, including from Shopify to Jet and Walmart and from eBay to Jet and Walmart.

Linnworks

Linnworks integrates the entire multi-channel sales process – handling everything from order management, stock control, shipping, listing, repricing.

Refund Retriever

Refund Retriever will automatically detect issues with your shipments, apply for refunds, and verify those refunds appear. And your only cost for these services is a portion of the refunds we find for you!

Restock PRO

RestockPro provides a powerful FBA dashboard that gives you all the critical information you need and then helps you execute the right inventory decisions for your business.

Seller Active

SellerActive’s e-commerce tools help you manage inventory, orders, and pricing.

Tradegecko

TradeGecko’s inventory and order management software for amazon sellers works with Amazon to streamline operations and help you reach more customers worldwide

Veeqo

Track and manage what’s happening in your inventory as it happens in Veeqo

ShipStation

Top rated tool among Amazon Sellers to Import, manage and ship your orders

ShipWorks

Create shipping labels, manage customers and emails, and update the online status of each order.

7. ACCOUNTING

taxomate

taxomate is an automated cloud sync service used by Amazon merchants to import their Amazon sales and fee transactions and to post summarized transactions to Xero or QuickBooks accounting systems.

QuickBooks Online

Words most popular cloud accounting software used by several thousand Amazon sellers. It also has good inventory management features as well.

Xero

A top alternative to QuickBooks for Amazon sellers. Xero connects you to all things business. Its online accounting software connects you to accountants and bookkeepers, your bank, and a massive range of business.

Webgility

Webgility is an accounting automation solution that saves time and resources by automatically posting all Amazon sales, fees, and other transactions directly into your bookkeeping software. It eliminates the redundancy and human errors of manual data entry, and it works with dozens of marketplaces, payment processors and shipping providers.

Entriwise

Amazon Seller Central integration with QuickBooks: automated transaction export from Amazon and import to QuickBooks for orders, refunds and Amazon fees.

a2x

A2X makes it easy for businesses to account accurately for their Amazon marketplace sales. Integrates and syncs with Xero and QuickBooks Online.

Wave Accounting

Accounting by Wave is a double entry accounting tool. Services include direct bank data imports, invoicing and expense tracking, customizable chart of accounts, and journal transactions. Accounting by Wave integrates with expense tracking software Shoeboxed, and e-commerce website Etsy.

8. SALES

AmazoPage

Video-enhanced squeeze page for Amazon™ Sellers with list building and promo code distribution tools. AmazoPage Combines the best in squeeze page psychology, traffic conversion, and promo code distribution.

Snag shout

Promote Your Brand to More Than 100,000 Shoppers by offering discounted products, and they leave an honest review.

Vendio

Allows sellers to Build a brand on eBay, Amazon, OpenSky, Facebook, mobile and their online store from one place.

9.TOOLKITS

Amazon Tracker

Get backstage access to the world’s largest shopping search engine. See the top 100 products in your niche, the keywords and monitor your progress.

AMZ.One

A collection of tools to improve your Amazon listing and sales. The toolkit includes Keyword Rank Tracking, Seller rankings, Review Club, Sales Tracking, Negative reviews notification and more…

Azon Seller Tools

A collection of essential tools to help Private Label FBA sellers build and grow their Amazon business. Tools include Keyword Relevance Checker, Amazon’s Best-Seller analyzer, Hijacker Smacker and more.

Inventory Lab

InventoryLab offers FBA Listing, Scouting, Inventory Management, Accounting, and Analytic Insights to fuel your Amazon Business.

Seller Magic

Designed specifically for Amazon marketplace sellers to ease their efforts in listing, managing and re-pricing online inventory.

Solid Commerce

All-in-One Inventory Management, Repricing, and Shipping solution for Online Marketplaces – Amazon, eBay.

Uberseller

A German Amazon marketplace optimization tool for merchants. They provide profit, keyword and product research, the world’s most developed keyword and sales tracking, review management, etc.

10.OTHER MARKETPLACES & E-COMMERCE TOOLS FOR AMAZON SELLERS

Etsy

Etsy is a peer-to-peer e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and supplies, as well as unique factory-manufactured items.

Ebay

Buy and sell electronics, cars, fashion apparel, collectables, sporting goods, digital cameras, baby items, coupons, and everything else on eBay.

Shopify

Ecommerce platform that has everything you need to sell online, on social media, or in person.

Woocommerce

Free e-commerce plugin for the WordPress platform.

11. PPC AND Advertising

Profit Whales

Profit Whales is Amazon PPC Automation Software that fully automates Amazon PPC management for Third-party Sellers and Brands on Amazon Marketplace in One Click with the help of custom-built algorithms and Data Science. Profit Whales automate bidding, keywords harvesting, campaign creation, negating and pausing duplicate keywords, day-parting, and many more. Try with a 14-day trial.

zon.tools

Making it easier than ever before to manage and automate Amazon Sponsored Products campaigns, always-affordable Zon Tools delivers improved Pay Per Click conversion rates, increased Advertising revenue and lower ACoS for any Amazon Sellers.

12. OUTSOURCING

FreeeUp

An outsourcing platform for Amazon Sellers to find affordable virtual assistants, freelance specialists, and boutique agencies to help grow your business within 1 business day.

UpWork

Freelancing platform where businesses and independent professionals connect and collaborate remotely.

Freelancer

Hire freelancers to do work in areas such as software development, writing, data entry and design right through to engineering, the sciences, sales and marketing, accounting and legal service.

Fiverr

Fiverr provide a two-sided platform for people to buy and sell a variety of digital services (gigs) typically offered by freelance contractors.

13. NEWSLETTERS

FBAMonthly

In the world of fast-growing Amazon ecosystem, FBA Monthly attracts progressive Amazon sellers that monitor all latest developments in the space and keen to try new tools to take their business further. Twice a month (on 1st and 15th) FBA Monthly spreading free curated news summary for Amazon sellers and geeks via Email, Twitter, Facebook Groups, Reddit and website with RSS feed.

14. CONSULTANTS

Online Seller Consulting

Our top-rated Amazon seller consultants provide affordable, expert consulting services for all your Amazon seller needs. If you are new to Amazon, we can help you set up your Amazon seller account, prepare your initial product listings, and get you started selling on Amazon quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively. If you are an experienced seller, we can help optimize your product listings, assist with product suspensions/account rescue, or even manage your Amazon seller account for you.

15. Sourcing Suppliers

ZonGuru

ZonGuru is an all-in-one toolset to free up your time and scale your Amazon private label business. They have a world-first collaboration with Alibaba.com designed to pair you with the perfect supplier.

Click here to get 50% off your first month and a 7-day free trial of ZonGuru.

16. FREE TOOLS & SOFTWARE FOR AMAZON SELLERS

Wave Accounting

Accounting by Wave, is a double entry accounting tool. Services include direct bank data imports, invoicing and expense tracking, customizable chart of accounts, and journal transactions.

Google Keyword Planner

Keyword research tool that allows you to find the right keywords to target. Good for finding search volume, since amazon does not release their keyword search volumes.

Fulfillment by Amazon Revenue Calculator

Free revenue calculator for amazon sellers by amazon.

Scientific Seller

Branded as the "The World's Slowest Keyword Tool," the free amazon keyword tool allows you to get the keywords that users are searching for. Essentially it compiles a list of long tail keywords that you could use for PPC and optimizing listings.

If you have any tools you would like to be added, please let us know!

Thursday, August 29, 2019

🎙️ Top Amazon Seller Podcasts in 2019 for the Obsessed

One of the hottest terms in the digital world is the podcast. The new "radio" is where the listeners can catch up on downloadable shows from the latest in politics, culture, drama, and business. If you are an Amazon seller, you are probably looking for the top amazon seller podcasts to step your selling game up! Let's take a look:

Top Amazon Seller Podcasts in 2019

  1. The Amazon Seller
  2. Women on Amazon
  3. FBA All-Stars
  4. AM PM Podcast
  5. FBA Podcast
  6. Ask Jordan Podcast
  7. Private Label Movement
  8. Smart Online Seller
  9. My Wife Quit Her Job
  10. The Amazing Seller

* Bonus: Runner-Ups *

1. The Amazon Seller

Top Amazon Seller Podcasts

Andy Slamans and Liran Hirschkorn are top dogs on Amazon Private Label Sellers. These two are multimillion-dollar private label sellers sharing their advance selling strategies that are related to Amazon, which they can use every day.

Learn how to find products to sell, how to handle logistics and how to launch products on Amazon, and much more on their podcast.

2. Women on Amazon

Women on Amazon Podcast

By women, about women, not just for women- this podcast aims to amplify women's voices in the Amazon FBA & eCommerce space in order to educate and inspire others to change their lives and create the futures they desire.

Listen in as Regina discusses techniques, strategies and lessons learnt as well as present inspiring stories of the women seriously kicking butt in eCommerce

Also, check out the Women on Amazon Website.

3. FBA All-Stars

In the One Step to 7 Figures podcast, Matt Ward documents his complete journey to making a million a year. Matt discusses his pitfalls and success on his journey.

The weekly updates also include guests who discuss important topics on how to be a successful entrepreneur on Amazon. Highly recommended for anyone looking to boost their FBA game!

4. AM PM Podcast

Top Amazon Seller Podcasts

This podcast is hosted by Manny Coats, the entrepreneur who started selling products on Amazon in 2015 and made more than $1.6 million in his first year alone!

He quickly became an expert private label seller. Since becoming successful, he is regularly sharing his experiences and techniques with his listeners.

5. FBA Podcast

Ryan Regerit's podcast is for those looking to either start a business on Amazon or existing FBA sellers who want to improve their selling tactics.

Ryan engages with his listeners, discussing a variety of topics and real-life scenarios, making it one of the top Amazon seller podcasts.

6. Ask Jordan Podcast

FBA Seller Podcast 2019

Jordan Malik is a super start in the amazon seller space and has been featured in leading business magazines and newspapers. In his top amazon seller podcasts, Jordan helps online merchants increase revenues through various tactics. Additionally, he covers a wide variety of topics and has more than a hundred episodes to choose from - covering product sourcing, accounting, tax implications, and legal obligations.

7. Private Label Movement

Top Podcasts for FBA Sellers

An exclusive by Kevin Rizer for Amazon private label sellers only. What started as a hobby, Kevin is now one of the most well-known private label sellers, and shares his battles and successes in private label selling. There are more than 200 episodes to choose from and often includes popular guests.

8. Smart Online Seller

In Smart Online Seller, Luke Jilas and Justin Balk discuss topics ranging from FBA private labelling to different marketing strategies. They also offer tips on product sourcing.

9. My Wife Quit Her Job

The title sounds itself is catchy enough to attract many listeners, but this show means business. Steve Chou discusses how he and his wife started selling on Amazon during their spare time. When it became successful, his wife decided to quit her job. They also have a website that offers tutorials and podcasts. In some episodes, Jay Chou invites famous sellers to discuss their experiences.

10. The Amazing Seller

Scott Voelker offers advice on different facets of selling on Amazon including product sourcing, how to track keyword and optimizing products lists.

Scott started selling his own information products online in 2008 in the Photography niche and soon realized it could become a full-time income.

He started his very popular podcast in 2014 because he could not find any podcasts that focused specifically on Amazon FBA for Private Labelers.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

⚖️ Legal Entities for US Amazon Sellers

When opening a US Amazon seller account, you are required to determine whether you plan on working as a sole proprietor or if you are going to form an Amazon legal entity.

Many people suggest creating an entity like an S Corp or LLC to operate your US-based business, and that’s something that we commonly come across with new Amazon sellers.

Amazon Legal Entity
Amazon Seller Central

Please note: This article is not legal advice and only pertains to Amazon Sellers in the United States. We highly recommend consulting a lawyer before setting up a legal entity.

Let’s look at the different Amazon legal entity types for sellers, and their pros and cons:

Sole Proprietor

A sole proprietor is when you have mixed business and personal life. You will only have to file a single tax return, which has a separate page for business activity.

Legal Entity for Amazon Sellers
Sole Proprietor handling CEO and Sales

Pros:

  • The simplest and cheapest choice
  • The default business type

Cons:

  • Doesn’t come with the possible business deductions of a corporation
  • Personal assets may be at risk in the event of a lawsuit

LLC (Limited Liability Company)

LLCs are probably the most common entity structure for Amazon sellers besides sole proprietor.
An LLC operates as its own legal entity kept separate from your personal assets, keeping them safe in the event of a lawsuit.
There are a number of taxation options for LLCs. Different states will treat LLCs different for tax purposes, and they can have their own tax rates. Additionally, in some instances, you may act as if your LLC is a sole proprietor for tax purposes.
If you’ve got investors in your business, an LLC could be more flexible than an S-Corporation for working with these investors.

LLC for Amazon Sellers
What is an LLC?

Pros:

  • Protects assets and might allow for extra deductions not offered to sole proprietors, depending on the arrangement of your LLC.
  • Sole proprietor taxation

Cons:

  • More expensive to set up and maintain than sole proprietorship.

S Corporation

An S Corporation, or a Subchapter Corporation, is a corporation with a pass-through taxation option.
This is a popular business structure for our small business owner clients. It provides asset protection and allows for more deductions than a sole proprietor.
Pass-through taxation allows taxes to pass on to individual owners in the form of a K-1. An S Corp allows you to avoid the double taxation problems that you’ll hear some people talk about as there’s no chance of double taxation with S Corps.
S Corps also more legal precedence in the United States.

S Corporation for Amazon Sellers
S Corporation

Pros:

  • Offers more protection and potential tax savings compared to other forms, after your business reaches a certain size.
  • No double taxation.

Cons:

  • Less flexible for investors than LLC.
  • Costs more to establish and maintain than a sole proprietorship.

Please note: there are additional Amazon legal entity forms to choose from, including C Corps, non-profit organizations, and new hybrid social benefit entities, but these legal entities are usually not used for Amazon Seller businesses.

So which Amazon legal entity should I choose?

Best Amazon Legal Entity for Business Partners

If you have gone into business with a business partner, then you should register an LLC or S Corp so that your partnership doesn’t threaten your personal assets.

Always make sure that there is a partnership agreement in place that covers how much one partner can buy out the other for, and who retains partnership of things such as accounts and trademarks in the event of a split. Without these provisions in place, a great business could be ruined for all involved if the partnership breaks up.

Having some pre-planning in place is one of the best things you can do. If you and your partner can’t even agree on this then maybe you shouldn’t be doing business anyway.

Best Amazon Legal Entity for Easy Bookkeeping

When it comes to bookkeeping, an S Corp or LLC requires that you keep books properly. You should also have a separate bank account that is registered under the entity.

AMZ Seller Bookkeeping

A sole proprietor is not legally required to have a separate bank account, but we recommend that you have one anyway. You aren’t allowed to combine business and personal funds as an LLC or S Corp, so one reason you should keep good books is so that you’re able to prove you haven’t done that. You are aware of what money belongs to you personally and what belongs to your business.

For most people, I’d suggest that you work on getting your business up and running. Get yourself some products ordered and list them, and get some sales.

Once you’re more aware of how you plan on pursuing and growing the business, you can then form an entity or stay as a sole proprietorship, depending on which would be best for you.

Whether you choose to be an LLC or an S Corp depends upon your own specific needs and situation and your location.

Where should you create your Amazon legal entity?

I want to stress that you should usually create an Amazon legal entity with where you live!

For example, if you are located in California but create an LLC in Wyoming, you still have to register the business in California and pay taxes there.

Make sure that you register your business in the state where your company is owned and operated.

Friday, August 16, 2019

What is New York Sales Tax for Amazon Sellers?

It is more important than ever for e-commerce sellers to understand whether they may be affected by certain states sales taxes. In particular, New York State is known to have strict rules on conducting proper registration and filings for sales tax. Let's take a look at New York Sales Tax for Amazon Sellers.

Amazon NYS Sales Tax

In to determine whether NYS Sales Tax is applicable to you, as an amazon seller, you must first determine whether you have a "nexus" in New York. Nexus, is the determining factor of whether an out-of-state business selling products into a state is liable for collecting sales or use tax on sales into the state.

New York Sales Tax for Amazon Sellers

Do you have a sales tax nexus in New York?

Amazon State Sales Tax

Another way of saying "Sales Tax Nexus" is having “significant presence” in a particular state.

An Amazon Seller is considered to have a Sales Tax Nexus in NYS if they have any of the following in New York:

  • An office or place of business;
  • An employee present in the state for more than 2 days per year;
  • Goods in a warehouse;
  • Ownership of real or personal property;
  • Delivery of merchandise in New York in vehicles owned by the taxpayer; or
  • Independent contractors or other representatives in New York.

The New York Department of Taxation and Finance (New York’s taxing authority) defines what constitutes Sales Tax Nexus here.

Registration for a sales tax permit in New York

Before making taxable sales, a vendor is required to register and get a Certificate of Authority from the tax department of New York. Vendors/Sellers can apply online through the NYS License Center. They must register/apply at least 20 days before they operate their business in the state

Collecting sales tax in the State of New York

The point of delivery determines the rate of the sales tax to be applied per transaction.

The rate of the tax to be charged is the total of the tax rate in effect in the state where the delivery occurs, plus the local tax rate, and district/transportation rate if applicable.

On certain exempt purchases (ex. Purchaser provided an exemption certificate within 90 days of the purchase), collecting sales tax is not required.

Filing sales tax returns in New York

When you register as a vendor in the State of New York, you will be classified as a quarterly filer unless you meet the specific conditions for monthly or annual filing. Your sales tax payments and returns will be due on or before the 20th of the month following the reporting period.

Importantly, vendors in the State of New York must keep their detailed records of all their sales for at least three years from the due date of the return or the date when the return is filed-- whichever is later. Significant penalties may be imposed by the State for insufficient records.

All vendors in the State of New York are required to complete all sales tax filing online at the State’s Department of Taxation and Finance website.

Important Note on New York Sales Tax for Amazon Sellers:

New York is serious about sales tax evasion issues within its borders. Penalties and interests that are as high as 14.5% may be charged for late payment of sales tax. The vendor’s Certificate of Authority could be revoked or might even face criminal prosecution.

If you are a vendor and receive a notice from the State of New York Tax Department advising you of your outstanding tax liabilities, they may pursue collection or even enforce income execution to collect what you owe.

The State offers a Voluntary Disclosure and Compliance Program for vendors. Eligible vendors with a noncompliance history who voluntarily disclose and pay their outstanding liabilities will not be imposed with penalties or criminal charges. Qualified taxpayers are even eligible for a limited look-back period.

In Conclusion . . .

To sum it all up, vendors of taxable properties and services in the State of New York must apply for a Certificate of Authority, collect sales tax and remit the taxes, and regularly file returns to avoid penalties or criminal charges.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Top 5 Repricers To Beat The Competition in 2020

Price is one of the most important factors when it comes to making a purchase. More than 50% of those who shop online, do so because they can get better deals and compare prices more easily. If you are an online seller, your prices have to be attractive and competitive to drive up the sales and the best way to do this is by using one of the Top 5 Repricers.

Repricers are software solutions that you can use to offer competitive prices. However, not all repricing tools come with the same functionality. Some update the price continuously and others at a set interval. Some have built-in profit calculators whereas others do not. Some are standalone tools while others are part of a complete e-commerce solution. Moreover, some come with a higher price tag.

Among all these repricing programs, here are the top 5 repricers worth mentioning:

  1. repricerexpress
  2. Seller Republic
  3. Prisync
  4. Darwin Pricing
  5. Smart Price

1. RepricerExpress

RepricerExpress offers instant repricing and all features across all its plans at no extra cost and helps you "win more Buy Box without constant attention". This Amazon repricer is trusted by thousands of sellers.

With RepricerExpress you can choose to include/exclude sellers based on seller rating, dispatch time and more. Using pricing rules, you can decide how you want to reprice against your competition.

With RepricerExpress, Amazon merchants have reported a significant increase in sales while saving more hours that they can use elsewhere.

RepricerExpress is an Amazon Technology Partner and listing on the Marketplace Appstore within Seller Central.

Prices start at $55 per month. Free 15-day trial available, no credit card required.

2. Seller Republic

Top 5 Repricers

Seller Republic supports price optimization on the two most popular and important e-commerce platforms - Amazon and eBay which makes up approximately 70% of all online sales globally.

This repricing tool offers continuous repricing. It will immediately start to process the price update if any of your competitors change their price. It can reprice up or down to ensure maximum profitability and competitiveness.

One of its defining features includes a lightning-fast setup. You can be up and running in only 3 minutes! It also comes with a built-in Buy Box winning strategy and max price reset that will help you boost your sales by several folds on Amazon.

It also has the ability to reprice based on condition. It can reprice new against old products, or vice-versa. This repricer also checks for new products every 2 hours - useful if you have quick moving and large selling products!

Seller Republic features an instant profit calculator. It can show you how much your profit will be when you update the cost of a product. Moreover, this repricer supports bulk maximum and minimum price setup.

It starts at $8.95 per month for Amazon and $45 per month for eBay. All their plans also come with a free 14-day trial. This top 5 repricers offers the best solution and features for the lowest possible price.

3. Prisync

Prisync Review

Prisync provides competitive pricing intelligence for online businesses. It extracts pricing information from any website from any country or industry.

It is a great repricing tool for Shopify users. It is also an official MagentoTechnology Partner and offers repricing solution for Magento merchants.

Prisync is a self-service application that requires little setup or integration. This repricer can track product prices from an unlimited number of websites 4 times a day. You can view this information in its web dashboard, email alerts, API and as various other reports.

Prisync also supports user repricing rules. It compares against competitor prices and applies the appropriate repricing tactics.

It starts at $49 per month with 4 daily updates. It also offers a 14 days free trial for all its plans.

4. Darwin Pricing

Darwin Pricing

Darwin Pricing is another automated price management tool. It provides real-time competitor tracking and price optimization for small to medium-sized businesses.

Darwin Pricing is a dynamic repricer that provides unique geo-targeted price optimization. It uses real-time competition tracking, dynamic split testing, and artificial intelligence to succeed even in the most competitive markets.

This retrieves the customer's location and adjusts your price against the prices local retailers offer. This can help you compete with local retailers by decreasing your prices in locations where you are not competitive enough.

You can also offer geo-targeted discounts in cities where retailers beat you on price.

Darwin Pricing offers 6 pricing plans based on sales commission. These start at $50 per month for businesses with up to $5k in sales per month.

5. Smart Price

Smart Price also known as Pricing Lab is a repricing tool that supports both Magento and Prestashop platforms. It can integrate all costs associated with your products. It also takes the marketplace commissions, Adwords, fixed and variable costs into account.

This repricer supports infinite numbers of strategies and customizations. You can adapt the program to your pricing strategies per product, brand, category, sales channel or competitor.

It can track and reprice your products once or several times a day. In its multi-repricing plan, it can reprice up to 288 times a day. There is also an option for live repricing on the Amazon platform.

Smart Price starts at €49 (about $55) for single repricing per day.

Sunday, April 21, 2019

The Ultimate Guide: Setting up QuickBooks for Amazon sellers

Bookkeeping is one of the most critical aspects of doing business on Amazon. As such, it is essential to use an accounting system (QuickBooks) and properly set up your account. Below is a guide to Setting up QuickBooks for Amazon Sellers the correct way.

Getting Started with QuickBooks

The first step of setting up QuickBooks for Amazon is signing up for a QuickBooks account.

QuickBooks has several different plans on offer, but Essentials is your best bet. Enter all the necessary information and proceed to your account dashboard.

Navigating QuickBooks

Now that you’ve took the first steps to setting up QuickBooks, we are going to get started with the interface.

The service has three main menus you should understand, although there are several different paths to the same destination, as is the case with anything like this.

Create Menu

Setting Up QuickBooks for Amazon Sellers

The create menu looks like a “plus” sign and is in the top right.

The create menu contains a lot of the day to day operations of a business. Here is where you write journal entries, enter expenses, write checks, and make deposits.

Preference Menu

Setting Up QuickBooks Amazon FBA

The preference menu, also in the top right, looks like a "gear".

Here you can find your preferences and manage the reconcile feature of QuickBooks.

The gear section is also where you can find the menu to add some other users and other things that you won’t be using too much, but it’s always good to know where these things are if you need them.

Navigation Menu

Amazon FBA QuickBooks Guide

You should also get acquainted with the left-hand column menu. This menu is the navigation menu.

From the navigation menu you can find all the other pages you can access. Each link goes to a different page except for Transactions, which opens up to reveal additional options.

From the navigation menu, take a look at the banking page.

It’s from the banking dashboard that you can find all of your incoming banking and credit card transactions. The reports page is where you can find all of the reports about the fruits of your labor and see what your hard work has earned you.

You can take a look through the other menu options too.

You will likely build up quite the list of vendors in your time as an Amazon seller. The customer's list is mostly going to be Amazon. They won’t be purchasing from you directly, but they do provide you with the income from your sales, and profit comes from customers. You may also get money from Shopify, eBay, or your proprietary storefront.

You don’t need to add details about the individuals who order from you into QuickBooks. This can quickly become thousands of names, most of which will only ever be seen once.

There’s no reason to track them all. If you were interested in individual customer information, then you can get it from Amazon (or the storefront you use), so there’s no reason to make another note of it when setting up QuickBooks.

Setting up QuickBooks Preferences

There are several options you can play around with in the preferences menu, but most of them aren’t related to your business.

The preferences can be found by clicking on the gear icon and opening up the menu. From there, click on Account and Settings to be taken to this page;

The Company section is where you can fill out the critical information about your company including contact information and a logo – should you have one. Don’t worry if you don’t have one though or don't want to hassle with uploading.

From the company section, you can also choose the type of business you are managing (Sole Prop, S Corp, LLC, etc.). See our Guide to Choose a Legal Entity for Amazon Sellers.

Finally, take a look at the marketing preferences section. Here is where you can choose whether or not you want to receive emails, postcards, and the like from Intuit – the company behind QuickBooks.

There’s nothing in Sales, Expenses, or Payments that you need to worry about too much. So let’s skip ahead and look at the Advanced menu to the left of this section.

When you open up the Advanced menu, make sure of the following

  • The fiscal year and tax year begins in January (unless it doesn’t work for you, but this is rare).
  • Accrual rather than Cash is selected for the accounting method.
  • Everything else in the preferences menu can be left where it is for now.

Click on the Done button at the bottom of the screen to save these changes.

Setting up QuickBooks Chart of Accounts

The chart of accounts (aka COA) section can be considered the foundation of your accounting.

The goal of the COA is that you need to make it as detailed as possible to get high-quality information from it. You want to make sure that the data is valuable or all it’ll do is make it take longer to do your books.

As you might have guessed, there’s no such thing as a “one size fits all” solution for a chart of accounts, no matter how much people like to claim otherwise.

I’ll provide you with a basic COA that you can use for an Amazon business, but don’t to add to it as you grow.

We always recommend keeping the following simple concepts in mind when adding accounts:

  • Try to keep your COA structured and organized. The messier the chart of accounts get, the more likely there will be errors and other problems to account for.
  • Keep it accurate from the start!

Below is a list of accounts that you may want to put in your COA. QuickBooks adds some accounts by default, but some you may need to add manually.

You may want to deactivate other accounts QuickBooks automatically adds to keep it looking clean. So, here’s the list of accounts:

Manually Adding to your QuickBooks Chart of Accounts

To manually add accounts, go to the transactions menu. This shows all of your existing accounts. If there are any missing accounts, click the New button to the right. A window will pop up, and from here you can choose an account type. Choose the type and then the specific account you need.

Adding a new account in QuickBooks

Please note: leave the balance, date, and sub-account fields are for now. You don’t need to mess with those.

Pro Tip: With numbered accounts (e.g., banks or credit cards) it may help to add the last four digits of your account # to the name in QuickBooks. This makes it easier to find if you have more than one bank account or credit card for your business.

Cost of Goods Sold Example

Same as before, select the New button in the transactions menu. Choose “Cost of Goods Sold” as the Cost of Sales detail type. Enter the name "Amazon Service Fees – CoS" to make it easily identifiable. That's it!

See Also: Demystifying Cost of Goods Sold for Amazon Sellers

Pro Tip: when you would like to enter multiple accounts, you should choose “Save and New” instead of “Save and Close.” The latter makes you go through the whole process from the beginning, while the former opens up this window again and lets you put a new account type in immediately.

Tips and Best Practices for Working with Chart of Accounts

1. Old Accounts

If you don’t plan on using an account any longer, make the account inactive or make it invisible.Delete any accounts that you never use.

There may be some accounts that QuickBooks consider essential and won’t let you delete.

2. Overly Specific Accounts

Most businesses have “Meals and Entertainment” as standard. Some people would prefer to split them into specific accounts for “Meals” and “Entertainment.” That make senses and would be okay.

What you don’t need to do is take it another step and have different accounts for different restaurants. You don’t need to be so specific in naming your accounts.

An account like “Office Supplies” is standard for most businesses. Some people will then make an account for “Office Equipment,” thinking that they’ll use it when they buy something for their offices like a calculator or printer. This is going to trip you up in the future. Where would you put toner? Toner belongs with office equipment, but it isn’t equipment in and of itself.

If you aren’t able to tell instantly where something goes between two accounts, then you’ve likely got too many accounts that are too similar. It’s time that you started merging and renaming accounts and thought about reigning in the tendency to add new accounts rather than pick from the ones you have.

3. Specific Dates

Much like specific accounts, particular dates have no place in the COA.

For example, you could have an account called "State Taxes." What you don’t need is an account called State Taxes 2018. When will you ever use that when the year is over again?

Any account that is either only going to be used a few times or is otherwise too specific, should be avoided.

4. Accounts Correctly

If you’re keeping track of loans in your equity account, tracking credit cards in bank accounts, and tracking expenses with negative income, or are doing anything weird like that, then you’ll make a lot of trouble for yourself.

While you might be able to force an account type to do something else, what you end up with is a strange looking financial statement and – most likely – errors with your books.
Ask an expert or check the QuickBooks forums if you are confused.

5. Relying Too Much on Miscellaneous Accounts

If over 10% of your entries wind up in miscellaneous or uncategorized then you are likely doing something wrong.

There should only be a few transactions that you can’t classify properly when setting up QuickBooks.

Less than 1% of your total expenses should come under miscellaneous accounts by the end of the year. Ideally, it would be best to have no uncategorized expenses at all.

Connecting Banks and Credit Cards

After setting up QuickBooks chart of accounts, let's connect your bank and credit accounts for automatic sync with QuickBooks.

Open up the left main-navigation select Banking. The first time that you open up the banking section, you will be presented with a page about connecting accounts.

Search for the name of your bank - follow the steps to connect your bank account and finish setting up QuickBooks bank connection. Make sure that you also connect any credit cards you have for your business after connecting the business bank account.

Pro Tip: If you use a PayPal account for your business, then you can connect it now too. We don’t recommend doing that though.

Pro Tip #2: We recommend not connecting your Square or Stripe accounts. Most people who do end up connecting their Stripe/Square accounts create a complicated mess of duplicate transactions as these payments are also going to your bank account.

Fixing Opening Balances

If you have recently opened a bank account ( i.e. within the past 90 days) QuickBooks should correctly display the opening balance for you.

If the bank account is older than 90 days, then you have to adjust so your books to only show relevant data - not old activity and balances.

If you started your business last year (let’s say October as an example) then I recommend setting up QuickBooks to get back to January of this year at the very least.

If you go back to when the business opened up and the account was new, then there’s no need to worry about fixing balances. If your account has other activity or you don’t go all the way back to when it was opened, then you will have to change the opening balance.

TIP: Look at the bank balance on the day before your first business transaction. That is how much you want to enter as the starting balance for your business. That way the account should reconcile, meaning that the balance from QuickBooks matches that of your bank statements. You can do this by adding how much money you need through a journal entry to get the correct balance. You can attribute this to the owner or a shareholder so that it doesn’t affect business operations.

Entering Previous Expenses

Now we’ll be using the list of expenses that you made before opening your business bank account or using a business credit card.

We’ll go through one journal entry per month to allocate the expenses to the proper account and offset the total you spent as money invested into the business. This helps to reduce your tax burden as it allows you to write off the investment against the income it earns.

Start by sorting expenses by date and then grouping them together by month. If you had your first expense in January for example, then you are going to combine all of January into a single entry and then February into a separate entry and so on and so forth until everything is done.

If you have more expenses that you paid off with personal funds even after opening a bank business account, then these can be included in this way. You should try to move towards purchasing everything through business accounts as soon as possible though for tax and liability purposes.

That's all we have for now for setting up QuickBooks as an Amazon FBA Seller. For additional tutorials check out the rest of our taxomate Amazon accounting and booking blog!

Friday, April 12, 2019

🧾What is the top Amazon FBA Bookkeeping software for sellers in 2019?

Whether you’re just starting as an Amazon seller or have some experience, you’ll need to have an Amazon accounting software. A top Amazon FBA Bookkeeping software helps you scale by minimizing expenses and managing cash flow.

Amazon FBA Bookkeeping software

If you are looking to automate your Xero or QuickBooks integration with Amazon, check out taxomate.

We are building taxomate to be a quick and easy solution to get started with your Amazon accounting.

With that said, it can be tough to choose the best amazon accounting software for you, especially if you don’t have much experience.

Here are the top booking and Amazon FBA Bookkeeping software for Amazon FBA sellers in 2019.

1. QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks is hands-down the leader in bookkeeping. They have been on top for some time now, and that’s with good reason.

QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online Accounting Software

Use QuickBooks to track expenses and income, along with mileage effortlessly. It also offers advanced financial reports and lots of other useful features for Amazon sellers.

What makes it great . . .

Given that QuickBooks is an industry leader, many accountants and CPAs are already familiar with how it works. So even if you hire a CPA, they should be familiar and comfortable with QuickBooks.

Another great thing about QuickBooks is that it can be easy to pick up and learn. It may seem daunting if you are entirely new to accounting and bookkeeping, but you’ll quickly get the hang of it.

What makes it not so great . . .

One downside of QuickBooks is that it doesn’t have much - if any – inventory management capabilities. The inventory management is basic at best. If you needed something that was able to track inventory as well as work for accounting and bookkeeping, this might not be your best option.

Pros:

  • Basic inventory management
  • Track receipts
  • Cost of goods sold
  • Financial reports
  • Sales tax
  • Simple to learn
  • Online storage
  • Integration with over 500 third-party add-ons

Cons:

  • Monthly fee
  • Simple inventory management

If you like the sound of QuickBooks, but don’t want to pay a monthly fee and would prefer to store everything locally, then you may want to check out QuickBooks desktop.

2. Xero

Xero is QuickBooks’ main rival, and offers comparable services. Much like QuickBooks Online, this is a popular software solution for accounting and bookkeeping. It can be used with just about any business, including an Amazon FBA business.

Xero Bookkeeping
Xero

Xero is a little younger than QuickBooks, but it has grown fast and competes well with QuickBooks.

What makes it great . . .

One thing that makes Xero stand out is the simple and effective user interface. Xero focuses on usability and simplicity, making it easier to learn than QuickBooks.

Xero also offers a more comprehensive inventory management solution than QuickBooks.

Much like QuickBooks, it also has a litany of third-party add-ons to enjoy, including taxomate for Amazon seller accounting.

Pros:

  • Comprehensive inventory management
  • Tracking receipts
  • Costs of goods sold
  • Financial reports
  • Sales tax
  • Cloud storage so everything is easily accessed
  • Simple to learn and master
  • Over 600 add-ons and third-party integrations

Cons:

  • Monthly subscription

3. Excel

Excel is a great tool for accounting - it is highly customizable and versatile. Excel lets you manipulate data in a variety of different ways. Excel can be used for simple bookkeeping or more advanced tasks such as projections.

Using Excel for Accounting

The main drawback to using Excel as an Amazon FBA seller is that you will have to input all of your data into Excel manually or come up with a template where you can just punch it all in.

Excel also comes with a steeper learning curve if you’re looking for more advanced reporting, unlike QuickBooks or Xero.

Pros:

  • Incredible versatility
  • Widely-used
  • Customizable
  • Many free accounting templates

Cons:

  • Can be difficult to set up
  • High learning curve for more advanced data management

4. Google Sheets

Excel is great for advanced data manipulation, but Google Sheets may be the better option depending on what you need to do. It’s come a long way in recent years as a great Excel alternative.

Google Sheets
Google Sheets

Google Sheets can even be more flexible than Excel if you know what you are doing. What really separates Excel and Google Sheets though is that Google Sheets can integrate with other apps and APIs.

This is one solution worth considering if you want something simple and effective. If you are tech-savvy enough, you might be able to put together an automated, customized solution.

If you choose Google Sheets consider buying an accounting template. These templates may be designed for Amazon sellers and can work wonders.

Pros:

  • Incredibly versatile thanks to scripts, extensions, and API integrations
  • Widely used
  • Customizable
  • Easy to create a simple bookkeeping solution

Cons:

  • Scripts and APIs can be completed
  • Steeper learning curve for advanced data management

5. GoDaddy Bookkeeping

GoDaddy Bookkeeping (formerly Outright) is a simple and effective Amazon FBA bookkeeping software with direct Amazon integration.

GoDaddy Bookkeeping
GoDaddy Bookkeeping

GoDaddy Bookkeeping is as easy as Excel when it comes to tracking income and expenses, but it also has great automation features.

While GoDaddy Bookkeeping is great for new sellers, you should consider switching to something more robust like Xero or QuickBooks when your business grows.

GoDaddy Amazon Automation

  • Automatically import financial data from Amazon account, banks, and credit cards
  • Amazon fees are recognized and categorized automatically
  • Import transaction history
  • Track the Cost of Goods Sold

GoDaddy Cost of Goods Sold

GoDaddy Bookkeeping allows for tracking of Costs of Goods Sold. However, keep in mind that it only tracks the total cost and not the individual cost of items.

Also please note that GoDaddy Bookkeeping shows you the total amount on their Schedule C worksheet (and in “Your Spending” reports) based on all of the expenditures categorized as Cost of Goods Sold for the year.

However, you might want to reduce the amount for your tax forms, such as for unsold inventory. Take a look at the Schedule C Part III to make these adjustments.

Pros:

  • Simple to use, even with no knowledge of accounting
  • Accounting automation connects to your bank account
  • Amazon accounting automation, which automatically imports data from Amazon
  • Relatively inexpensive compared to Xero and QuickBooks

Cons:

  • Some sellers may find it too simplistic
  • Doesn’t show individual Cost of Goods Sold for items

Keep in mind if you want to integrate Amazon with GoDaddy, an Amazon Pro Account is required.

Amazon FBA Bookkeeping Software for Beginner Sellers

Some sellers don’t have the time to learn a robust accounting system, and some don’t even need something that advanced. Here are some simple accounting software programs that are cheaper and easier to use – including some free ones!

Free Amazon FBA Bookkeeping Software

Simple Amazon FBA Bookkeeping Software

So, What is the Best Amazon FBA Bookkeeping Software?

When deciding which accounting software to use for your business, we always recommend consulting a tax lawyer or accountant.

How to Find an Amazon Accountant or Bookkeeper

Lawyers/accountants can help you navigate the complex nature of running an Amazon business and using accounting software. Try to find one that has a history of working with Amazon and a good knowledge of the platform.

At the end of the day though, the best Amazon accounting software for Amazon FBA sellers is determined by business needs and preferences.

What is the Best Amazon FBA Bookkeeping Software
What is the Best Amazon FBA Bookkeeping Software?

What Amazon FBA bookkeeping software should new sellers use?

New sellers should use something simple like GoDaddy bookkeeping, Google Sheets, or Excel.

GoDaddy, in particular, is a great solution that allows for automatic data entry by connecting directly to an Amazon account. You can always make the move to QuickBooks or Xero accounting software when the time comes and your business grows enough.

What Amazon FBA bookkeeping software should more experienced sellers use?

Established sellers should look for something more robust.

If you need more functionality from your accounting software then you should use QuickBooks or Xero and consider some 3rd-party add-ons for extra functionality. You could honestly go either way when deciding which one to use.

QuickBooks is more popular with accountants though, and they already know how to use it, so that could come in handy. It also does some things better than Xero.

Just don’t forget to take advantage of QuickBooks add-ons to get all the great features that an Amazon FBA seller requires and make the platform more suited to your needs.