Each January Amazon issues a press release about the performance of its third-party merchant program. This year, it specifically called attention to its mobile app for sellers, launched in March 2014.
Peter Faricy, VP for Amazon Marketplace, said, “The growth of mobile and the introduction of the Amazon Seller App have also been a big win for sellers this year. Sellers are constantly telling us they value the flexibility of managing their businesses on-the-go from their tablets and mobile devices.”
Amazon Seller App launched for Apple devices (iOS) in March as a tool to help sellers “quickly identify new selling opportunities on Amazon.com and respond to customer questions.” Since then, Amazon released versions for the Android operating system and now allows sellers to manage their inventory.
In yesterday’s press release about third-party sellers, Amazon wrote the following:
Amazon introduced the Amazon Seller App to help on-the-go sellers manage their businesses on Amazon direct from their mobile devices. The Amazon Seller App, available for Android, iOS and Fire phone, makes it easier than ever for sellers on Amazon to quickly manage inventory, source and list new items on Amazon, and quickly respond to customer inquiries.
The iTunes store describes the app features as follows:
- Manage Orders. View your pending orders and confirm shipments. Receive a notification when your product sells.
- Manage Inventory. Search, sort and filter your inventory items. Update prices and quantities on the go.
- Search for new items to sell on Amazon. Check current prices, sales rank, and customer reviews of items on Amazon by using text search or scanning barcodes.
- Estimate the profitability of your items before you sell. Add product cost information to see the estimated profitability of your items after primary Selling on Amazon and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) fees.
- List your items for sale. Create listings on Amazon.com quickly and easily.
- Respond to customer messages. Provide great customer service by responding to customer questions quickly with the app.
- Support from Amazon. Have a question about selling on Amazon? Use the app to contact Seller Support.
- Secure access to your Amazon Seller account. All activity is routed through Amazon’s servers.
In a recent discussion on the Amazon board devoted to the Seller App, an Amazon moderator confirmed sellers can use the app to create listings for existing products by scanning the item’s barcode. A seller wrote, “I tried it last night and it worked great! You just scan the barcode and at the bottom of the screen it says, “List” and it walks you through the steps and sends it in as if you were on your computer. This app will be a great time saver.”
Another seller responded, “Many in the retail arbitrage “community” use 2 scanners, one on a mobile device with amazon seller app, and one that’s attached directly to a main computer. You can create listings directly with the app (quite easily) but working with a computer interface is a lot easier if you are adding info to product pages and adding condition notes.”
