Elite Seller officially ceases operations on March 3, 2022. Amazon sellers who use the tool received the following email on March 2:
Elite Seller has had its API access suspended late last year, and it has repeatedly failed to convince Amazon to reinstate its MWS credentials.
All-in-One Amazon Seller Tool
Elite Seller is a software suite that aims to provide Amazon sellers with a platform where they can manage their entire Amazon business. While many of its features are available in other tools, it promises the convenience of having the most important ones all in one place.
The software was co-founded by Ian Sells, who has been a guest in the EcomCrew podcast before.
Unsuccessful Reinstatement
In October last year, RebateKey had its API privileges suspended after Amazon updated some provisions in the Seller Code of Conduct. This hinted at Amazon’s soon-to-be major crackdown on rebates and product giveaways. By November, it was already clear that Amazon will not allow off-Amazon rebates, discounts, and giveaways, effectively killing tools that are specially designed for this.
Elite Seller has a feature that’s similar to RebateKey, which is what got them into the same trouble last year. However, they told us in an email that they’ve “depreciated” this feature. Despite this, Amazon continues to ban Elite Seller’s API access, which means they can’t get important data that are crucial to the software.
They seem to have resolved this issue last year, so we’re not sure what triggered Amazon's continued refusal. Elite Seller did mention in the email that they “seem to be unfairly targeted” because other similar tools are still allowed access.
However, some sellers think that this could just be the beginning of a major clean-up of tools that have features that go against Amazon’s TOS. Whether this is true or not, we have yet to see.
Elite Seller Features That We’ll Miss
We have personally been using Elite Seller for some of our Amazon brands. Needless to say, our Customer Support Specialists, who are the ones who use the tool the most, are affected by the news.
Some of the features we’ll miss include
- Email alerts for listing changes
- Exportable SKU data that contain more information compared to that given by Seller Central
- Alerts to changes in Amazon Listings and Negative Customer Reviews
- Customizable dashboard with easy-to-read stats
- Easy tracking of product performance like Best Seller Ranking
Final Thoughts
Amazon has become big enough that any change to its policies can affect a good number of people, whether they are third-party sellers or other companies whose existence is tied closely to Amazon.
In Episode 324 of our podcast, we talked about why sellers should be part of RebateKey. However, by Episode 418, we were discussing the RebateKey shutdown. This just goes to show how quickly things can change when Amazon decides to shake things up.
Based on their email, Elite Seller may still make a comeback, perhaps without the features that Amazon now considers even slightly in violation of their Terms of Service.
