ChannelMAX: Product Review
ChannelMAX is a developer that offers pricing management and multi-channel inventory management solutions for companies that deal with ecommerce marketplaces. They also offer software for Amazon repricing meant to maximize profit and increase sales for sellers on that platform.
The company was founded in 2005 by husband-wife duo, Paul and Pranita Das, introducing rule based Amazon pricing management to ecommerce marketing that earned them distinction in 2007. They did not introduce the algorithm repricing tool they are known for until 2016.
ChannelMAX is a US-based company headquartered in the Metro Detroit area of Michigan, USA. They are run by a very small team of employees and led by founder Paul Das. ChannelMAX has no investors and instead is self-funded, but is partnered with the companies eBusinessGuru and eCatalog Services.
Features of ChannelMAX
Repricer
ChannelMAX has an intelligent default pricing strategy that decides the best possible price for your listing to appear in the BuyBox.
The repricer takes into account the type of listings that your FBA SKUs are competing with and decides how it should react.
ChannelMAX relies on big data to figure out how to price your products. It doesn’t let it stay in one place.
Multi-inventory management
ChannelMAX offers a multi-inventory system like no other.
It doesn’t just catalog your products on Amazon, it also keeps track of products from other selling venues.
It also helps you see the stock history of every single item from a central inventory system.
If an item gets a bid or sells out, ChannelMAX will automatically delist it from all its selling venues.
FBA maximizer
ChannelMAX knows how hard you’ve worked on finding the perfect FBA products. Therefore, it just makes sense to try to sell as much inventory as you can through different platforms!
The system allows you to list items in other places like eBay, where you won’t have to pay for a storage fee.
It automatically converts eBay sales to FBA via the Multi-Channel Fulfillment feature.
Amazon API
ChannelMAX gives you all the information you need to see how your competitors ASINs are priced on Amazon.
It delivers data on different pricing attributes like lowest FBA price, lowest nonFBA price, BuyBox price, number of sellers, and sales rank. You can search up to 36k ASINs per hour.
Advantages
- The Amazon Search Tool is free for clients that are already subscribed to any other of their additional services that cost $24.99 a month (Inventory Sync, Repricing Tool, etc)
- Software is customizable to fit each company’s needs
- Offers many features available with each service
- Bases decisions on sales velocity and algorithms
- Provides a detailed explanation step-by-step for how their repricing process works, unlike most Amazon repricing tools
Disadvantages
- Interface appears older and icons are not intuitive
- Customer service is slow with no live help, so issues can take a long time to get fixed
- Cannot print labels for non-FBA orders from Amazon
- Most plans have a set frequency for how often SKUs are repriced, and it costs extra for the Real Time repricing feature
- To use the software for selling through more than one channel, it costs an extra premium
- Inventory sync is charged as a separate service and can only update up to 2500 SKUs
- When UI is updated, the manuals are not updated with it, making learning the software and getting it to work properly difficult and confusing
Pricing
ChannelMAX offers a no-contract free 30 day trial with unlimited access to all their features.
Their plans are priced based on the number of SKUs, repricing frequency, and whether items are listed under only one channel or multiple. These plans all include algorithmic repricing, the ability to configure rules by SKU, BuyBox historical data, pricing historical data, and ASIN sales rank historical data.
Prices can range from $34.99 per month (500 SKUs on one channel) to $499.99 per month (500,000 SKUs on multiple channels).
Services like the conversion of listings between Amazon FBA and other non-Amazon marketplaces, multi-channel inventory sync (2500 SKUs), and the Amazon Search Tool cost an additional $24.99 per month to use.
Verdict: Is ChannelMAX worth it?
If you only have a few FBA products in your catalog, pricing your products manually might be manageable.
But if you’re trying to keep tabs on hundreds of products at a time, then you definitely need to invest in an automated program that will take care of the nitty gritty for you.
ChannelMAX doesn’t just prove its worth in features, but it also helps you improve your workflow so you can get more done with less time.
This is what makes ChannelMAX a powerful repricing software for FBA newbies and veterans alike.
