Amazon scanning apps are a hot item these days. Sellers want to source smart and faster than their competitors and luckily for all of us, there's plenty of options to choose from.
But which Amazon seller scanner app is the best?
This is quite a subjective question really, but there are a few standout options and Scoutify 2 is always near the top of Amazon seller's lists.
Let's take a look at what Scoutify 2 is and how you can use it in your Amazon arbitrage business.
What is Scoutify 2?
Scoutify 2 is an Amazon seller scanner app that forms part of the InventoryLab subscription. If you're looking for an all-round Amazon seller app to help manage your product research, inventory, accounting, and reporting, then InventoryLab is a super powerful tool that includes the benefit of Scoutify.
We're not going to get into a deep review of InventoryLab here, but we will show you how Scoutify 2 works so you can see if it's worth having in your arsenal.
Scoutify 2 Noteworthy Features
We've reviewed some of the best Amazon seller scanner apps before and Scoutify 2 most definitely made an appearance on that list.
Let's explore the best features of Scoutify 2. We would cover ALL of the features of the app however, we would be here for a long time.
So, we'll keep it brief and just point out our favorites features of the Scoutify 2 app.
Scanning Speed
One thing that really stands out with Scoutify 2 is the quick scanning speed. It's much easier to use than the Amazon Seller app, but of course that app is free so its a great option for newbies.
The Amazon Seller app can be a little buggy and slow when scanning barcodes but not Scoutify 2, its barcode scanning is next level. Fast and easy scanning, just how we like it.
Bluetooth Connectivity
Not only does Scoutify 2 scan exceptionally well on your cell phone, you can actually connect a wireless barcode bluetooth scanner to the app.
This is a great feature that is welcomed by the hardcore retail arbitrage sellers that love to scan barcodes at every chance they get!
Ideal Buy Criteria
Probably one of Scoutify's best features, the ideal buy feature allows you to pre-define certain criteria that you want in a product and then it shows a nice "thumbs up" if a product matches your ideal buy settings.
Detailed ROI & Profit Data
When you're scanning products, you can quickly and easily see a LOT of data inside the Scoutify 2 app.
Buy Box & Sold by Amazon Info
I love the fact that Scoutify shows not only the number of current offers for the product I'm researching, but it also shows who currently holds the Buy Box and whether or not the product is being sold by Amazon.
Buy Lists
If you're also using InventoryLab, which you most definitely should be, you can create "buy lists" right from your Scoutify 2 app.
When you add products in the app to your buy list which populates and emails a CSV file with all the product data for your buy list items. Then you can go and upload this into InventoryLab as a new batch, which saves you double entering data.
Product & Category Restriction Alerts
The product details screen has an orange button in the bottom right hand corner that will give you a full breakdown of the restrictions for the product you are currently evaluating.
This is a handy tool to have on the go, which might save you from buying a bunch of products that you are restricted from selling on Amazon.
Now all you need to look out for is Amazon IP claims, which is why you need to check out my IP Alerts app too!
How the Scoutify 2 App Works - Tutorial & Walkthrough
Now we've discussed some of the standout features, let's go through a quick app tutorial so you can see the actual features in action. By the way, because they have a 30-day free trial I highly recommend you try it out yourself. Zero risk!
Product Search and Scanning
In this example I searched for "Nike Shoes". You can also scan barcodes easily by hitting the little scanner button in the bottom menu of the app.
*Hint: Scanning barcodes with Scoutify is great but the retail arbitrage pros make sure to search by title or name of the product. The reason behind this is that UPC's are not always correct on Amazon so the item may not show up. You can also miss multipacks and bundles if you solely rely on scanning barcodes.
When product details are returned after searching or scanning, you can see the following information is shown:
- Ideal Buy - does the product meet your ideal buy criteria? If yes, a green thumbs up appears.
- Amazon Restrictions - the blue Amazon restriction image appears if the product has restrictions.
- Sales Rank - see the sales rank and category for each product.
- Offers - the number of current offers on Amazon is shown.
Product Details
When you tap on the product you have searched for, you get taken to a the product details screen.
The profitability summary gives you a nice glimpse of the net profit for this product, but first you will need to tap the "cost/unit" part of this section to set your buy price.
Below this box, you will see 4 tabs:
- Offers - the number of offers and their pricing information, as shown in the screenshot above. The offer that has the buy box is shown with a box icon.
- Profitability - a breakdown of all the numbers. See next section for more detail on the profitability tab.
- History - this will display your sales history for this product.
- Storage - this section shows the monthly accumulating storage costs and its impact on your profit. This section is also explained further down.
At the bottom of the product details screen you'll find the green buy list button, the blue research button, and the orange product alerts button which is explained further along in this article.
Profitability & ROI Data
When you hit the profitability tab, you get taken to a screen that gives you a quick summary at the top and more details further down the page.
You can see a breakdown of expenses, some of which are taken from the data that you need to have already entered into your settings, such as your shipping and tax rates.
The bottom of the screen shows a summary of your expenses, list price and net profit for this particular product.
Product Restrictions
When you hit the orange product alerts button, you get a nice summary of the current alerts and restrictions for the product.
The top of the screen shows the ideal buy criteria for this product, confirming it matches your pre-determined criteria.
The rest of this screen provides details about the Amazon restrictions for the product.
Storage
Navigating from to the storage tab will show you a long list of the progressive storage costs for this product, in addition to the impact it has on your profit margin.
Product Research
When you hit the blue research button, you'll be shown a menu with a heap of other options to continue researching the particular product you're viewing.
You get the many different research options including viewing the product on Amazon, viewing data like sales rank history on CamelCamelCamel and Keepa, looking at it in a Google search and checking out the variations and other data in Tactical Arbitrage.
Scoutify 2 Pricing
As I mentioned earlier, the Scoutify 2 scanner app is offered "free" as part of an InventoryLab subscription. Because of this, we're going to discuss the pricing options for InventoryLab.
InventoryLab Subscription Cost & Features
At the time of writing, an InventoryLab subscription costs $69 per month. If you go for the annual subscription you will pay $690 and save $138 per year when compared to the monthly plan.
There is also an additional subscription for added features called "Insights", which will cost you an additional $25 per month.
Standard InventoryLab Features:
- Research products with the Scoutify 2 scanning app
- Prepare products in your inventory for listing including label printing, cost tracking and net profit projections.
- Manage your accounting and stay on top of your income and expenses.
- Manage inventory levels, sales values and other accounting matters.
- Generate detailed reports to help track and improve your business performance
The Insights subscription (+$25p/m) includes more customizable search filters, advanced sales projections, and added sales history information.
InventoryLab offers a 30-day free trial so it's worth giving a try, I have no doubt that you'll see great value in it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here's some of the most commonly asked Scoutify 2 questions:
How does Scoutify 2 work?
Scoutify 2 is a scanning app that helps retail arbitrage sellers on Amazon find product information simply by scanning a product barcode.
Does Scoutify 2 come with Keepa?
No, Keepa is a separate subscription, but it is one of the most valuable tools you can use for your Amazon FBA business.
How much does Scoutify 2 cost?
Scoutify 2 is free with an InventoryLab subscription, which costs $69 per month.
Is Scoutify 2 better than the Amazon Seller App?
Yes, Scoutify 2 is much better. If you're a new Amazon seller then the Amazon seller app is appealing, but it doesn't give you anywhere near the same amount of data that Scoutify 2 does.
Conclusion
A good quality seller scanner app is important and if you're using InventoryLab in your business, Scoutify 2 is a no brainer.
Sure, $69 per month for just a scanner app might seem steep, even though I think it's worth it, you should seriously consider using InventoryLab in your business too.
The original Scoutify app was really great and since they updated it to Scoutify 2, it's even better.
As I previously mentioned, there's a no-risk 30 day free-trial for InventoryLab and Scoutify 2 so it's worth giving it a test run!
