Accelerlist or Scanlister? Debating the best Amazon listing tool

Comparing Accelerlist and Scanlister: Side-by-side review of the two leading listing tools for Amazon sellers. Reviewing price, features, and lots more.

Video: What’s the best Amazon FBA listing tool?

What is Amazon listing software?

These are software tools that streamline the process of listing your inventory live for sale on Amazon.

Let’s say you have a stack of books and you’re ready to ship them to Amazon and start getting sales. Your options are:

1. List them one-by-one via Amazon Seller Central.
2. Use listing software to streamline the process.

Listing with a software tool is much better.

Why I’m focusing on Scanlister Vs Accelerlist

What follows is the most detailed review of these two listing tools ever attempted.

There are other listing tools (I’ll list them in a minute), but I’m reviewing Scanlister and Accelerlist for this article because they are the two most popular listing software tools among readers of this site. I didn’t conclude this scientifically. These are just the two I hear about the most from readers.

Since the process of listing your inventory for sale is relatively simple (unlike other tools, like repricers), you don’t need to shop around much. The stakes are pretty low. But small details do matter, as I’m about to explain.

Listing without software is considered a war crime in 95 countries

Seriously, I strongly recommend that sellers avoid listing directly via Amazon Seller Central. The process is so painfully slow and confusing, every time I attempt it, I quit in frustration.

Every once in a while I’ll think to myself “There’s no way listing on Amazon could be as complicated and inefficient as it used to be,” and attempt to list again via Seller Central directly. And every time I regret it.

For that reason, listing software is the second fixed expense I would recommend to anyone getting started selling on Amazon. (#1 would be a scouting app like Scoutly, #3 would be an automated repricing tool like NeuroPrice).

Historically, the selling proposition for listing software has been “A tool that only makes you have to touch your inventory once.” In other words, when you’re listing through Seller Central, you have to pick up the product to list it, then pick up the product again at the end to add a label (if you’re a Fulfillment by Amazon seller). This dramatically slows down the listing process.

If I was president, I would declare listing products through Seller Central to be a violation of international human rights treaties and hold publicly televised military tribunals. But that’s just me.

How Amazon listing software works

Generally, the process goes like this:

1. You login to the listing tool.
2. You enter the ISBN/UPC of a product you want to sell into the tool. Either by scanning a product to list for sale (using a barcode scanner) or entering the ISBN/UPC/ASIN manually.
3. The listing tool instantly loads all the Amazon data you need to set a price. This includes competing offers in both FBA and Merchant Fulfilled, and both new and used conditions. This also includes Amazon sales rank data, and (ideally) historical data like Keepa charts.
4. You add a condition description. Listing software generally will auto-add pre-saved condition notes based on the product condition.
5. You set a price.
6. The listing tool automatically prints a label (if you’re listing FBA).
7. You repeat until all your inventory is entered.
8. You complete the shipment. The listing tool sends all your inventory data to Amazon.
9. You head over to Amazon Seller Central to complete the shipment (print box labels, etc).

No matter what listing software you’re using, that’s the basic process.

Listing is a simple two-step process

To simplify this more: When you’re listing something for sale on Amazon, you’re really only doing two things:

1. Setting a price.
2. Setting a condition.

Theoretically there’s more (like customizing your SKU if you want to, or specifying the item quantity). But listing is really about those two things.

Keep this in mind as we go through this review.

What is the goal of a good listing tool?

How should you measure the quality of Amazon listing software? What is the specific outcome you’re looking for when using a listing tool, so you know how to make the right decision?

The only thing that matters with listing software is how quickly it lists your inventory. In other words, if you’re comparing two options, the first question you ask is: “Which listing tool will list my inventory the quickest?”

Speed being equal, the second question you ask is: “Which listing tool is cheapest?”

I don’t think this simplistically about other types of Amazon selling software (like repricers), but with listing tools, it really is this simple.

The point of all this is: You’re not looking for “features.” Listing is simple enough that features don’t move the needle.

You’re looking for speed.

How most Amazon listing software is essentially the same

The way I feel about listing software is essentially the opposite of how I feel about other Amazon software, such as scouting apps or repricing tools. With those tools, I feel they will always pay for themselves, and you should never shop based on price – your decision should always be based on the best option with the most features, best data, etc.

Amazon listing software (in my opinion) is the opposite. Inventory listing is not a sensitive, high-stakes part of your business. That’s another way of saying: The difference between the worst listing software and the best listing software isn’t that big.

There is a low cost to using a listing tool with fewer bells and whistles. There is a high cost to using a listing tool that is slower.

As long as listing software accomplishes basic functions (they all do), you’re probably better off choosing based on 1. speed, and 2. price. Extra features simply don’t have a return on your investment the way they do with (for example) scanning apps.

What other listing tools are out there?

Most of the tools below come bundled with other products, and are major overkill for smaller sellers. But here’s a few listing tool alternatives (and this is by no means an all-inclusive list):

Scanpower

TurboLister

Go2Lister

Inventory Lab

Sellbrite

Seller Dynamics

Three facts about Amazon listing software

1. All listing software works basically the same.
2. The listing software that works best is that which reduces friction most (i.e. reduces the number of steps).
3. Listing is (largely) a two-step process: setting a price, and setting a condition.

Keep these three things in mind as we progress through this review.

What is the history of Scanlister?

Scanlister was founded by Nathan Holmquist, one of the “OG” Amazon bookselling bloggers at Book To The Future. According to Archive.org, the site goes back to 2008.

 

Back then, Nathan gave away a free ebook titled “Selling on Amazon’s FBA Program.” This was back when information on Amazon selling was extremely scarce, and very few sellers sold with Fulfillment By Amazon. This ebook probably got thousands of sellers into Amazon selling. I still have a copy I printed out in a binder somewhere.

Nathan launched Scanlister to his large email list of Amazon sellers in 2014. It got instant traction in the bookselling world, and has been a consistent and popular listing solution since.

What is the history of Accelerlist?

Founded in 2016, Accelerlist was among the earliest standalone Amazon listing tools.

Like Scanlister, one of Accelerlist’s founders was an Amazon bookseller who saw a need in the market for better listing software. It built up a following through the founder building relationships with other sellers inside various Facebook groups.

Starting out solely as an Amazon listing tool, Accelerlist has since expanded to include business analytics, a repricing tool, eBay listing, and other features.

Scanlister vs Accelerlist: A price comparison

I mentioned earlier that I advise choosing a listing tool based on speed and price. So let’s compare Scanlister and Accelerlist on the important question of cost.

How much does Scanlister cost?

Scanlister has a very simple pricing scheme:

$29/month

$499/lifetime access

The way the math works: if you plan to be selling on Amazon 18 months from now, the lifetime plan will save you money.

 

How much does Accelerlist cost?

Accelerlist has a more varied pricing scheme:

Basic Plan (includes listing tool with eBay listing, mobile app, accounting tools, more)

$40/month

$399/year

Upgraded Plan (includes all of the above + repricing tool)

$64/month

(I’d be missing an obvious plug if I didn’t point out that Scanlister + NeuroPrice is still less than the upgraded Accelerlist plan.)

That works out to a savings of $132 a year if you go with Scanlsiter over Accelerlist. But do the extra features of Accelerlist justify the extra cost? Let’s find out…

Listing your products: How does the process for each tool compare?

So you’ve started your free trial and connected your Amazon account, and you’re ready to list products for sale. How does the process go with each tool? And which does the job better?

Minus some bells and whistles, the process and functionality of listing software will always be similar. With that understanding, let’s take a look at the actual process of listing inventory with both Scanlister and Accelerlist.

Listing an item for sale with Scanlister: step-by-step

1. Scan an item.
2. Set a price.
3. Add to shipment.

Listing an item for sale with Accelerlist: step-by-step

1. Scan an item.
2. Optional: Click to review prices on Amazon (navigate to separate tab)
3. Optional: Click to review pricing history (navigate to CamelCamelCamel.com in a separate tab)
4. Set a price.
5. Add to shipment.

There’s more potential steps for each of course, but this is the basic workflow.

Declaring a winner: Which listing tool lists your inventory better or faster?

With those things in mind, Scanlister is the clear winner.

Two major advantages of Scanlister when it comes specifically to the listing process:

Scanlister advantage #1: All Amazon pricing data on the same page

Scanlister has a massive advantage over Accelerlist in that the live Amazon pricing page loads on the same page as the API-sourced pricing data (I’ll explain what this means in a second).

Check out what you see when listing a product with Scanlister:

 

Now compare this to Accelerlist:

 

What do you notice missing from Accelerlist? Accelerlist shows a table of prices (from Amazon’s API), whereas Scanlister also has those same prices AND shows the live Amazon prices. Both are necessary to have access to, and Accelerlist only shows one (you have to toggle over to Amazon to see the live data).

What’s the difference between these two types of data? What do I mean above by “Amazon API data” vs Amazon product page data? Let me explain (this is an important detail)…

When you go to list an item for sale, the most important thing you’re doing is setting a price. And there’s two ways to get pricing data from Amazon:

1. Via the Amazon “API” (computer language for the way that Amazon shares pricing data with 3rd party software tools).
2. Directly from the Amazon page (seeing what prices are live on Amazon at that moment.

You always want access to both. The reason is that the pricing data from Amazon’s API is incomplete. I’ve written entire articles about Amazon’s pricing blindspots, but suffice to say that you do not want to rely on it implicitly. You simply aren’t seeing all your competition.

So in many instances, you want to review the actual prices of actual competitors who are live on Amazon at that moment. AKA you want to review the actual Amazon page.

The massive advantage that Scanlister offers (perhaps the biggest of everything I’m covering in this review) is their unique interface allows you to see both Amazon API pricing data and the actual product page together, side by side, in one place.

How does Accelerlist handle this? You can choose to automatically load the Amazon page in a separate browser tab. The big problem with this is that you have to toggle between two tabs for every item.

If you’re like me, and you’re reviewing live Amazon prices for a lot of your listings, this is a huge time-drag, to the point of being not a viable option.

With Scanlister, you get everything in one place. When you’re listing in volume, it’s hard to overstate how cool and time-saving this feature is.

Scanlister advantage #2: Keepa charts load on same page as pricing data

Similar to above, Scanlister fits even more that you need into one page – not requiring you to click around to get it. And that includes Keepa charts that load automatically as soon as you scan a product.

In fact, Accelerlist doesn’t even offer a link to Keepa charts (they only link to CamelCamelCamel, a Keepa competitor). It’s been awhile since I’ve used CCC, and they may offer some advantages to Keepa that I’m not aware of. But personally I consider Keepa the gold-standard and need access to their data in my listing tool.

These two advantages of Scanlister are significant: The ability to scan a product, then get literally everything you need (Amazon API pricing data, live Amazon data, and Keepa charts) in one place makes Scanlister a big winner when it comes to the actual listing process.

But there’s more…

Comparing The Listing Pages Of Accelerlist and Scanlister

When I say “Lisitng Page,” I’m referring to what pops up when you scan an item to list. If the last section covered the process, this section covers the raw data and page layout (yes there’s some overlap, and I’m trying my best to keep a logical flow here).

What exactly is on the Listing Page? What data does Scanlister show? What data does Accelerlist show? That’s what we’re about to cover.

Since this is where you’re going to spend 90% of your time in each tool, I’m going painfully in-depth and detailed. Only read if you’re doing some serious due diligence on the best tool. Otherwise, skip ahead to the winner.

Complete Tour Of The Main Listing / Pricing Page In Accelerlist

Let’s start with simply adding a new item for sale. Here what item-specific attributes Accelerlist displays when you scan an item to list it for sale:

• Image
• Title
• ASIN
• Buy Cost
• Expiration Date
• Supplier
• Sales Rank
• Price
• Qty
• Condition

 

Below that, you get the pricing info (this is displayed just below general item info described above):

• Links to CamelCamelCamel.com (no Keepa?), Amazon (product page for this item), Amazon (create a product page for this item – this is a cool feature), eBay, custom link (you can create your own custom links to sites you want to reference while listing),
• Your price
• Buy cost
• FBA profit
• MF profit
• New price column (showing lowest 5 competitors in New condition)
• Used price column (showing lowest 5 competitors in Used condition)
• FBA column (showing lowest 5 FBA competitors in any condition)

Next to that, you get the “Fees & Other Data” box. This is where Accelerlist displays some more data to help make a pricing decision (or decide whether you want to list it for sale at all). Here you’ll see:

• Estimated sales: Not clear how this is calculated. I haven’t audited its accuracy, but I’ve lost faith in tools attempting to estimate Amazon sales. Compare sales estimates from tools like Jungle Scout, Keepa, and ScoutIQ for the same item and be prepared to be utterly confused about how different they are. Subject for another article.)
• Sales rank: Current Amazon Sales Rank.
• Ebay price: Lowest price on eBay at that moment. Cool feature, though it appears to look up by UPC or ISBN, and this price won’t reflect any lower-priced offers from sellers who didn’t enter a UPC or ISBN.

Below that, your “Projected Profit.”

In this box, Accelerlist breaks down the profit, factoring in the price you’ve entered, all Amazon fees, and your buy cost. There’s a separate tab for Merchant Fulfilled and FBA. For each, you’ll see the following price/cost/profit breakdown:

Profit Details

• List Price
• Buy Cost:
• Est. Amazon Fees
• Net Profit
• Profit Margin

Along with a detailed fee breakdown:

• Referral Fee
• Variable Closing Fee
• Per Item Fee
• Pick & Pack Fee
• Amazon Fuel Surcharge Fee
• Inbound Shipping Estimate Fee

Then, your Condition Notes

Below all the pricing and fee data, you’ll see your condition notes. This is where you make any changes you want to your default condition descriptions.

And at the bottom: SKU Customization

At the bottom of this page is a box where you can make changes to your SKUs.

That covers all the item-specific info. But there is LOTS more on this page…

Yes there’s more: Here’s everything else on the Listing page

On Accelerlist’s listing page alone, you’ll find a total of eight tabs. It’s an overwhelming amount to process, but here it goes:

List Tab: The page where you list items for sale. This is where you’ll spend most of your time in Accelerlist.

Ship Tab: List of all your shipments that you haven’t completed yet. Described by Accelerlist in this way: “Once you click button ‘Preview Shipment Plans’ for this batch, we will display to you Amazon’s destinations to send your products to. You can choose to accept the shipments or move them to the holding area.”

Feed Tab: Where you’ll see  (completed shipment sent to Seller Central?)

Export Tab: Inventory load (to upload an inventory feed to Amazon directly. I’ve never done this myself), something about a “tracking spreadsheet,” and another export called “batch items.”

Batch Tab: This is where you set various shipment-specific settings. Here’s the full list of options:

• Use/Edit Custom SKU template: Yes/No
• SKU Prefix
• SKU Number
• Buy Cost
• Supplier
• Scout
• Quantity
• Date Purchased
• Exp Date
• Tax Code
• Min Price $
• Max Price $

Condition notes tab: This is where you tell Accelerlist what pre-written condition notes to apply to this shipment. Options are:

• Condition: What default condition to use when adding items to this shipment.
• Note Category: Which default Product category to apply to this shipment.
• Note SubCategory: What condition subcategory to apply (I warned you Accelerlist had a lot of options).

Workflow tab: These are shipment-specific pricing and labeling settings. Options are:

• List Price Rule: Choose a pricing rule that Accelerlist uses to set a price for your item.
• Pricing Options: on/off
• Grading Options: on/off
• Research: Auto populate research in new tab (open Amazon product page automatically)
• Print labels on each scan: on/off

Everything we just covered only applies to a single page in Accelerlist. As I keep repeating, Accelerlist has an overwhelming number of pages, tabs, settings, and features.

Now let’s do a tour of the same page in Scanlister…

Complete Tour Of The Main Listing Page In Scanlister

This is kind of an apples/oranges comparison, since Scanlister has a lot of the same settings as Accelerlist, but doesn’t put them on the Listing Page. Scanlister works in a tidier and more minimalist fashion, keeping most of its settings in the appropriately named “Settings” page.

So again: You scan an item. What do you see in Scanlister on the page that pops up?

Item-specific attributes:

• Sales Rank
• ASIN
• Product Image
• Product Category
• Buy Box price
• Pricing data:
• Lowest 5 used prices
• Lowest 5 new prices
• Lowest 5 FBA prices

FBA profit calculator:

• Price
• Buy Cost
• Amazon fees
• Profit
• Min/max price settings

Then several more options:

• Grade: Select from a list of pre-formatted condition notes.
• Reject: Delete this from your shipment.

Shipment totals:

A calculation of your entire shipment up to that point. Total net profit, average Amazon sales rank, total buy cost, number of items, and number of SKUs.

Keepa chart

As referenced in the last section, this is a huge advantage of Scanlister over Accelerlist. Scanlister automatically loads a Keepa price history chart for every item you scan. You can adjust it to display 3, 6 or 12 months.

It would be extra cool if the Keepa charts displayed sales rank history as well, but I imagine Scanlister will add that at some point.

Various other links

You get links to Keepa (to go deeper), BookScouter.com (for instant cash buyback), or the Amazon product page.

Amazon live prices

Also referenced in the last section: You can see a sidebar slider on the right side that shows all your current competition, directly on the Amazon page.

Which tool has the better listing page?

Scanlister is the winner here. For the same reasons given in the last section, and a new one.

Why Scanlister wins for best listing page:

1. Live Amazon prices. #1 advantage of Scanlister.
2. Keepa price history charts.
3. Less cluttered. Accelerlist suffers from major feature bloat (you may hear me use this term 100x before this review is over). More is not better, and in my opinion there’s just too many options. The friction caused by having to keep track of so many tabs and boxes does not assist in streamlining the listing process.

Complete feature comparison of Scanlister vs Accelerlist

Now let’s go blow-by-blow through every single feature in both Accelerlist and Scanlister.

I’m defining “features” as everything outside the Listing Page. If your only mission is to list products for sale, then on a day to day basis you won’t be spending time on these other pages (other than setting them up one time when you sign up).

Warning: This section is ridiculously long and thorough. You probably don’t care about every single feature unless you’re serious about doing extreme due diligence. Feel free to skip ahead to the winner.

Complete list of Scanlister’s features

Default Settings

• SKU Prefix: This allows you to customize your SKUs with any text prefix you choose.
• SKU Sequence: You can further customize your SKUs by adding any text string here, and Scanlister will update the number by one for every item you list.
• Date purchased: Self-explanatory
• Supplier: Enter the source of your item. For example, if you bought a book at Goodwill, you can enter “Goodwill.” This is useful to track profit by source, among other reasons.
• Default price: This is the price Scanlster will list all inventory for unless you edit the price field.
• Default quantity: This is the default number of units Scanlister will tell Amazon you’re sending. If you’re a used bookseller, you’re probably going to keep this at “1.”
• Cost per unit: How much you paid for the inventory item.
• Expiration date: The date an item expires, if you’re listing perishables.
• Condition: You can choose New, Like New, Very Good, Good, Acceptable, or Collectible.
• Condition note: Here you can save default condition notes for each condition. This speeds up the process and saves you from having to custom-write condition notes (or copy-and-paste) for everything you list.
• Listing method: Options are “Bulk Listing” or Detailed Listing.” Detailed is for listing inventory where you’re want to individually price each item as you list. Bulk is when you want to apply the same price to everything you’re listing.

Now let’s take a look at the various options available on the Settings page…

Settings Page: Fulfilled Options

This is where you set a few different options based on Fulfillment method. The FBA settings are:

• Use “Scan and Label” mode
• Auto print FNSKU label after each scan
• Show ‘list fulfillment by Amazon’ option
• The Merchant Fulfilled settings are:
• List various shipping time options and handling time

Settings page: Listing Mode options

The “Bulk Mode” settings are:

• Pricing settings: This allows you to automate the pricing based on various price anchors, such as lowest used or new FBA price, lowest used or new Merchant Fulfilled price, or Buy Box price.
• Auto-reject items based on Amazon Sales Rank: Enter a Sales Rank manually, and Scanlister will automatically reject (e.g. not list) any item with a Sales Rank that is worse than that value.
• ASIN blacklist: Auto-reject any items that are on a “blacklist” of ASINs that you create.

The “Detailed More” settings are:

• Match price: This is where you establish what default price Scanlister sets when listing an item. You can always edit that price (I usually do), but it speeds up product listing to have a default price that Scanlister sets automatically.
• Show Keepa graph: See sales and pricing history with embedded Keepa charts.
• Automatically reject items based on Sales Rank: Same setting as described in “Bulk Mode.”
• …and a few other random settings that aren’t terribly noteworthy.

Settings Page: Lists Options

There are three “lists” you can populate yourself on this page.

• Suppliers: This is where you can add various sources of inventory.
• Condition: Check boxes next to each Amazon condition you want as an option when listing inventory.
• Condition Notes: Add pre-formatted condition notes that Scanlister adds for each condition.

Settings Page: SKU Pattern

This is where you can structure your merchant SKU, adding a huge list of possible data. Here’s what your options look like:

This is a cool way to embed attributes in your SKU that you can use for repricing, among other things.

Settings Page: General settings

This is where you can set a host of random options. Most notably, your default min/max pricing boundaries, and checking restrictions before proceeding with listing an item.

Settings Page: Box Contents

This is where you set a couple basic settings around Amazon’ inventory manifests they request be added to each box in any multi-box shipment.

Settings Page: Printer Settings

Configure your FBA labels or Merchant Fulfilled shelving tickets on this page.

Settings Page: Amazon Account

Only two things to do on this page: Manage the connection to your Amazon seller account, and establish your “ship from” address that will appear on your box labels.

Settings Page: Utilities

Very unclear what these settings are for, but appear to be related to backing up your shipment data.

Settings Page: Inventory Tickets

For Merchant Fulfilled sellers only, this is where you create your inventory tickets that are printed and placed inside books, enabling you to better locate them in your warehouse / storage space.

Recent Uploads

View recent shipments. You can also generate text files showing the entire contents of each shipment.

Help Page

Scanlisters support portal is pretty extensive, and includes answers for just about any possible question.

Export Option

This appears to be an option that allows sellers to export all items entered into Scanlister in a given session, where you can then manually upload to Amazon. I’m not clear what purpose this serves, but I assume it’s here for a reason.

Import Option

Impost spreadsheets of inventory to Scanlister to list in bulk.

Box Content

Generate an inventory manifest for your shipment. which you then place inside every box in a shipment containing multiple boxes.

List

This converts every item you’ve listed into a shipment, finalizes everything, and passes it over to Amazon. From there, you head over to Seller Central to complete the final steps of the shipment.

Shipment Contents

When you highlight an item in any shipment, these are the buttons you have available to print labels, double-check prices, and more:

• Print FNSKU: Print an FBA label for that item.
• Show Prime: This is supposed to show FBA offers only, but since Amazon changed their page format a few years ago, it’s no longer possible to view FBA offers only with one click. So this shows all competing offers, and you have to check a box on the page that opens to truly view only FBA offers.
• Show All Offers: Does the same thing as the “Show Prime” button, taking you to the product page with the price popout visible, allowing you to review all your competition (again) before completing a shipment.
• Build Note: Allows you to select from a series of pre-written condition notes and add them to your existing condition notes.

Complete list of Accelerlist’s features

Yes another warning: What follows is even longer than the last section. Covering every feature of Accelerlist is no small feat, because it’s a tool that (in my opinion) is overwhelming in its complexity.

I’m listing everything in the interest of fulfilling on my promise of a “deep dive” review. But you’ll probably want to skip ahead to the winner.

Page #1: Dashboard Page

This is an overview of your Amazon account, including sales, inventory levels, and more. Most of this is already accessible to you inside Amazon Seller Central. But some of it (like average sales rank and eBay sales) is unique to this page. Here’s what is displayed:

• Today’s sales
• Yesterday’s sales
• This month’s sales
• Last month’s sales
• Active inventory quantity
• Average Sales Rank of your inventory (this is cool)
• Ebay sales (represented as a percentage of your total sales)

Page #2: Batch History Page

Historical look at every shipment you’ve created.

Page #2.5: Batch overview page

When you click on a shipment in the “Batch History” page (or when you create a new shipment), you are taken to what I’ll just call “the Batch Overview page” (strangely this is missing from the tabs, so this page has no official name).

This is where you can see every item in your shipment, where you scan and add new items to your shipment, and review all the relevant details about your shipment (like the Average Amazon Sales Rank, expected net profit, more). Here is what you see on this page:

• Name/date of shipment (at top)
• Totals bar: Net profit, Buy Cost, Average Sales Rank, Total Products, Total SKUs, Estimated Weight
• Search bar (Search by title, ASIN, SKU, price)
• Sort by: Title, price, ASIN, SKU
• Button: Preview shipment plans
• Button: Submit Feed only

Page #3: “Profit Reprice” Page

This is the built in repricing tool that does not come with the basic plan. It’s an extra charge. (Why not just use NeuroPrice?)

Page #4: Research Page

I admit to being completely confused by this and have yet to figure out what this does. It purports to analyze products in bulk. How? For what purpose? I wasn’t clear on any of it, but it does this in two parts:

1. “Product research”
2. “SKU analysis”

Page #5: Box Contents Page

Create defaults for the inventory manifest that Amazon requires if you submit a shipment with more than one box.

Page #6: Inventory Page

This syncs up with your Amazon account, and displays your current inventory.

Page #7: Orders Page

This also syncs up with your Amazon account, and displays recent orders.

Page #8: Accounting Page

Various accounting features, including:

• Profit and loss statement
• Add / track expenses
• Profitability

Page #9: Condition Notes Page

This is where you create your default condition notes that are applied to items you list for sale (so you don’t need to write them from scratch). This is a basic feature of any Amazon listing tool. Options are:

• Product Category (books, etc)
• Assign comment nickname: name your comment for easy reference
• Add condition note: Write and save your custom condition note.
• Link Note To Condition Grade: Assign your condition note to a condition (Like New, Very Good, etc).

Page #10: Feedback Manager Page

Accelerlist comes with a built-in feedback management tool. This is a little outside the scope of this review, so I can’t see I took the time to test out this feature.

Page #11: Team Reporting Page

Manage the employee tracking features.

Page #12: Settings Page

If you thought Accelerlist was going to let up on the dizzying number of settings, we haven’t even gotten started. This “Settings” page literally has 10 (!) tabs, each with multiple settings. (Remember when I gave you the option above to skip to the end of this section? You’re probably regretting not doing that right now).

Deep breath and here it goes…

Settings Page Tab #1: Account Settings

Manage all the basic details of your account, such as:

• Username
• Business name
• Email
• Phone number
• Seller ID
• Marketplace ID
• “Re-Authorize” your Amazon connection
• Update Password

Settings Page Tab #2: Address & Phone Settings

Enter your ship-from address and phone number (not sure the point of the phone number).

Settings Page Tab #3: Printer settings

Various settings related to your label printer.

Choose between three label printer options:

• Dymo
• Zebra
• Rollo

Settings Page Tab #4: Listing Settings

Enter all your default listing settings here. This tells Accelerlist what to do automatically when you list an item, and what default values to use for things like calculating profit, etc.

• List price
• Buy cost
• Quantity default
• Min price
• Max price
• Tax code
• Shipping cost estimation
• “Add Media Mail cost to MF fee calculation?”
• Default condition
• List price rule (default pricing action) – Options: Match Buy Box price, Fixed Value I’ll Set My Own Price, Match Lowest FBA, Match Lowest MF, Set $% below Amazon, or Price dynamically (e.g. price $/% higher than BB, lower than BB, ROI, profit margin, higher than lowest FBA, lower than lowest FBA)
• Price when data is unavailable (enter a dollar amount)
• Batch Options: Pricing options, grading options, always list with new MSKU (all with on/off toggle)
• MF Shipping Templates: “Add your MF (Merchant Fulfilled) shipping template names here:”

I’m exhausted after typing all that.

Settings Page Tab #5: MSKU settings

Create a custom SKU template using following attributes:

• ASIN
• Supplier
• Scout
• Tax code
• Expiration date
• Sales rank
• Purchase date
• Condition
• List Price
• Buy Cost

There’s a bunch of other SKU customization options you can set on this page. Please don’t make me type them all out.

Settings Page Tab #6: Supplier / Scout Settings

“Supplier” is what Accelerlist calls an inventory source. And “Scout” is (I think) what they call an employee.

Settings Page Tab #7: Update billing

• Add/remove card
• Cancel subscription
• Past invoices

Settings Page Tab #8: Repricer settings

Manage the upgraded automated repricer feature (this is an additional charge and does not come with the basic listing plan).

Settings Page Tab #9: Employee accounts

Manage employee tracking settings.

Settings Page Tab #10: Ebay settings 

Accelerlist also lists your inventory on eBay at the same time it lists on Amazon. Manage eBay listing settings.

Scanlister vs Accelerlist: Which listing tool has better features?

The winner may surprise you, but it is probably the most important point in this review.

Scanlister wins for a better and more usable listing tool.

Notice I didn’t say “better features.” Technically, Accelerlist has “better” features simply because there’s so many of them. So many in fact, that it impedes the usability of the tool. It’s simply massive overkill for a listing tool.

More is not more when it comes to a tool that only needs to perform one basic function. More becomes less when not only does it complicate the listing process, but you’re also getting charged more for the privilege.

Accelerlist has a ton of features that Scanlister does not, but that doesn’t make it a better listing tool. With Accelerlist, you can list on eBay, see sales analytics, manage feedback, manage employees, and tons more.I did not find these extra features improved the actual listing process. And in fact, that they actually distracted from this function (while increasing the cost).

Earlier in this review, I stressed that the mission of a listing tool is to reduce the friction of getting an item live for sale on Amazon. Fulfilling this mission is where Scanlister wins and Accelerlist fails. Accelerlist simply has too many options that distract from the core mission of listing products.

Features-wise, Accelerlist is like hitting an ant with a sledgehammer. Scanlister gets it just right.

Comparing the design of Scanlister vs Accelerlist

Does design matter with an Amazon listing tool?

The whole point of listing software is to reduce the friction of listing products for sale. Inherent in this mission is that listing software – if it’s doing its job – minimizes your contact with it. So if you’re interacting with your listing tool to a minimal degree, does design matter?

I’ll give my answer in a minute, but let’s compare the design of Scanlister to Accelerlist…

Scanlister: A look at it’s layout and design

I wouldn’t say Scanlister is pretty. And apparently it doesn’t try to be, or want to be.

What you get with Scanlister is a minimalist design, and a singular focus on functionality. Take a look:

Here’s my editorial about design with most software tools: You generally want to choose the uglier option. Sounds counterintuitive, but here’s why: I think it was the scholar Nassim Taleb who said that if you have to choose a surgeon among many options, choose the one who looks like a plumber. In other words, choose the surgeon who looks least like a surgeon. The logic being: If someone doesn’t “look the part,” it probably means they achieved and maintained their position through sheer skill. They didn’t ascend because they fooled people by “looking the part.” They could only have gotten there by aptitude.

How this relates to Amazon listing tools is that Scanlister has been around for a long time. It’s used by a lot of Amazon sellers. And its been so consistent for so long despite lacking a modern design. This is a clue to its efficacy as a listing tool.

A beauty overhaul wouldn’t hurt, but it’s not a liability either.

Accelerlist: A look at it’s layout and design

Accelerlist clearly put a lot of work into its user interface. It’s a slick, professional, and modern looking tool.

No aesthetic complaints whatsoever.

Take a look:

 

Declaring a winner: Which app looks better?

Accelerlist wins this round. Far and away the better looking tool.

The only grievance I have is one that I also have with Scanlister: It can be very difficult and unintuitive to remember where certain settings are. I’ve spent a lot of time jumping around both tools trying to find certain things. Each tool has tabs within tabs and it can get confusing.

While I don’t recommend choosing a listing tool based on design – Accelerlist wins for best looking listing tool.

Other differences between Scanlister and Accelerlist

Before we wrap this up, I came this far without mentioning one notable difference between the two tools:

• Accelerlist is web-based (you access by logging in via your browser).
• Scanlister is a file download (you download and install it on your computer).

Generally I would say a web-based tool is preferable to a downloadable tool. But in this instance it may be Scanlister’s biggest asset. I’m not a developer and I can’t speak to this with authority, but I suspect that Scanlister is only able to show live Amazon pricing data on its main listing page because this wouldn’t be possible with a web-based approach.

As covered previously, this is a major advantage of Scanlister, as it dramatically streamlines the listing process.

Winner: Scanlister is the best Amazon listing tool

Scanlister is the listing software I recommend to Amazon sellers, hands down.

It’s the perfect balance of functionality and value. With everything you need in a listing tool, and very little you don’t.

You won’t get distracted with page after page of settings and features you don’t need (but will pay extra for with Accelerlist).

Four reasons I use Scanlister for my Amazon listing

Here are the top reasons I choose Scanlister:

#1 Scanlister is cheaper

Scanlister is 37% less expensive than Accelerlist ($29/month vs $40/month specifically). And the features you’re paying extra for with Accelerlist most have nothing to do with product listing.

Analytics, accounting, etc: All of these come with Accelerlist and serve to increase its perceived value. But as far as its actual value (at least in regards to listing functionality), you get less for more money.

#2: Scanlister shows historical Keepa charts on the pricing page

Keepa price history charts are extremely useful when setting a price.

Accelerlist doesn’t show Keepa charts, or even have a link to Keepa (just CamelCamelCamel.com). Big loss for Accelerlist, and big win for Scanlister.

#3: Scanlister shows live Amazon pricing data directly on the listing page

Another huge win for Scanlister. The ability to scan a product and both a table of prices, plus a popout in the sidebar showing the live Amazon listings (without having to toggle between pages) goes a long way to streamlining the listing process. Major victory for Scanlister.

#4: Scanlister is simpler

Scanlister is singularly focused on listing your products for sale on Amazon as quickly as possible.

Accelerlist? I’m not so sure. It has become bloated with so many features, it inhibits the usability while also charging extra. From a page showing your inventory, to various analytics, to feedback management and so much more – I have to wonder who is using these features to actually benefit their business vs simply being lured in by shiny objects. It’s not that these features are bad or poorly executed. But I personally find them to be a distraction from the goal of listing my products for sale, and it’s not clear how any of them translate into more revenue for my business.

Try out each and compare yourself

I intended for this review to be the most comprehensive ever published on the subject of Amazon listing software.

No need to take my word for it. Feel free to try each out for yourself:

Sign up for Scanlister (14 day free trial, $29/month after)

Sign up for Accelerlist (14 day free trial. $40/month after)

Thanks for reading.

-Peter Valley

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