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ChanelMax vs. NeuroPrice: Full In-Depth Comparison
Written by Peter Valley on March 7th 2024

How does ChannelMax repricer compare to NeuroPrice? Comparing features, pricing, and more.

ChannelMax vs neuroprice

In this (detailed) side-by-side comparison review:

Spoiler: Choosing the best repricer between ChannelMax & NeuroPrice

For this comparison, I did about five hours of reviewing each tool, comparing features and more, and writing. I'm going unusually in-depth in this article (more than is normal in software reviews). I want this to be the definitive record of how ChannelMax compares to NeuroPrice.

Spoiler alert: After reviewing every feature, I declare NeuroPrice the better repricer (I give my very specific reason in this article). But I gave both tools a fair shot (and ChannelMax is better in certain ways).

If you want to talk my word for it, you can sign up below. If you want me to lay out all the evidence for this decision, read on...
neuroprice free trial

What is ChannelMax's claim to fame?

ChannelMax logo
Let's start with a question I always ask when I'm researching a tool that has many competitors: What sets it apart from the pack? Here's what I learned about ChannelMax...

One, it is one of the first Amazon repricing tools, founded in 2005. The only Amazon repricing tool that seems to have been around slightly longer is RepriceIt.

Two, it may offer more features than any other repricing tool. It might be tied with Bqool for the the having the widest variety of steps and repricing options generally. As we'll cover, I don't always equate "more" to "better," and ChanelMax is often reviewed as being too complex for the average seller.

Three, in addition to repricing, ChannelMax offers a tool that facilitates sellers obtaining refunds and reimbursements from Amazon.
Early image from ChannelMax website
Photo: Screenshot from early version of ChannelMax website, 2006.

What is NeuroPrice's claim to fame?

neuroprice logo
NeuroPrice's bragging rights are very different...

NeuroPrice has a couple taglines in its advertising, that capture what sets it apart from other repricers:

"The first Amazon repricer with no data blindspots."

and,

"The precision of manual repricing with the automation of repricing software."

I won't spoil the ending, but these capture how NeuroPrice built its reputation: Being the first repricer that doesn't rely on Amazon's API, which allows it more options on the data it gets and greater range in how it can reprice your inventory.

Specifically, this means:

1. No pricing blindspots (more on that in a moment).
2. Ability to compare your price to the 2nd & 3rd lowest offer (MF or FBA). This allows NeuroPrice to raise prices more than any other tool.
3. Works inside Amazon Seller Central. All the repricing updates happen inside your Seller Central account (vs a separate web app pages like other repricers).

As far as advancements in repricing go, it's pretty incredible, and sets NeuroPrice apart from the rest.

A brief history of ChannelMax

Here's what I was able to gather about the history of ChannelMax...

ChannelMax was one of the early repricing tools, debuting in 2005.

It was built by a husband and wife team, one a former eBay "power seller." ChannelMax was built initially to help their eBay business, but later was released to the public.

ChannelMAx began as a multi-platform repricing tool for eBay, Amazon, and Overstock.com, later shifting its focus specifically to Amazon.

Today, they say they have over 2,000 customers.
Channelmax website
An image of ChannelMax's website.

A brief history of NeuroPrice

Unlike most software (which is a pretty boring subject, generally), NeuroPrice actually has a real, somewhat interesting (?) "story."

So the story goes, in 2015, founder Peter Valley found a repricer who claimed they had no data blindspots (if you're not familiar, more about these blindspots in a minute...).

This was 3 years after Amazon imposed these blindspots on all repricers, scouting apps, and listing software. Valley had been repricing his book inventory by hand, waiting for a repricing tool that specifically didn't have any FBA-price blindspots.

After speaking with their developer and getting confirmation they in fact were the only repricer with no missing pricing data, Valley signed up. His sales doubled almost immediately.

Pretty soon it was "textbook season" and as sales came in, he decided to do an audit of the repricer - comparing what it should be doing with the actual price changes it was making. What he found was that a large percentage of his inventory was being underpriced specifically due to the FBA blindspot. He estimated his losses as "in the thousands."

NeuroPrice, as Peter Valley described, was part of his "revenge" against dishonest repricing companies.
repricing tool scammed founder

Defining "Amazon repricer"

Before diving in, let's back up and explain some basics about Amazon repricing tools...

In the Amazon world, a "repricer" is the term used to describe software tools that automated the process of editing and updating your prices.

The idea is this: Prices fluctuate frequently on Amazon. In one day, the price of an item can change literally hundreds of times. In order to get sales, sellers have to edit their prices frequently or risk their listings getting buried by competitors.

But repricers don't just lower prices. They should be raising them too. As competitors sell out, prices can rise. The role of a repricer is also to raise prices to maximize your profits.

Fun fact: I combed the internet and found there are over 30 Amazon repricing tools available. That's an incredible number.

Aren't all repricing tools the same?

It can be difficult to determine what the difference is between repricers. They all claim to have some unique features that no other repricer has, but it can be very challenging to determine what these "features" actually do.

When I was testing the majority of the 30+ tools on the market, it quickly became clear that there is very little substantial difference between most repricers. Every tool tries very hard to separate themselves from the crowd by claiming one small unique feature or another, but when you clear away all the noise, they all have the same basic settings in common.

The basic formula for all repricing tools is this:

1. You tell it what price to compares yours to (e.g. "lowest FBA offer")
2. You set a repricing rule based on certain characteristics (e.g. "Best seller rank," SKU, condition, etc).
3. You tell it what inventory of yours to apply that pricing rule to.
4. The repricer automates the process.

There are variables between repricers like frequency of repricing, speed of repricing, special pricing "algorithms," or "artificial intelligence"-based repricing.

However, despite my best efforts (and many emails to many repricing tool companies), I never received a satisfying answer as to how most of these "proprietary features" converted to more revenue for my Amazon business.

How is it possible there is so much uniformity among tools? Why hasn't there been any significant innovation in this area for a decade or more?

The simplest explanation is that Amazon limits what repricing tools can do, by heavily regulating what is called their "API" (application programming interface). This is tech-speak for how Amazon (and other tools) grants access to their pricing database.

The API tells repricers (and scanning apps, etc) what they can and can't do. If a repricer decides to be API dependent (which is the easiest option, from a programming perspective), then they must play by the rules.

It's these constraints that explain why most repricers can't do everything you want them to. So as I cover the various pros and cons of NeuroPrice and ChannelMax, keep in mind that when there's a limitation in any repricing tool, usually the API is to blame.
channelmax settings

What are the consequences of choosing the wrong repricer?

Repricing is the one aspect of an Amazon selling business that, if done wrong, can be very expensive.

It's where a lot of the money is made - and lost. You can look at repricing as "where the rubber meets the road" with any Amazon business.

Look at the benefits of a good repricer (or the losses of a bad one) in terms of compounded losses. 

Here's what I mean:

Let's say you have an inventory of 1,000 items. And let's say you're using repricing software that has one missing feature, or data blindspot, that has a small impact to your profits of just $5 per day. It could be a repricer's inability to raise prices precisely, or being unable to match the lowest price in some instances (aka a "blindspot").

That small defect impacting your repricing "just a little bit" compounds to cost you $150 a month. Which is $1,800 a year. And it keeps compounding, day after day and month after month.

There is no such thing as a "small" error or "a little" imprecision when it comes to repricing.

What is the process of using a repricer?

Okay, now that we know what repricers are, and why repricing is important - how do they actually work? What's the process to go from signing up, to repricing your inventory?

First, every repricing tool I've looked at offers a free trial for anywhere between 7 and 30 days. So you can try out any tool without paying for anything.

Back to how they work...

Once you start your trial, the next step is to connect your Amazon account (I'm only aware of one repricing tool that doesn't require this). It's a little weird to grant access to your personal Amazon account to some anonymous software tool, but it's required (again, for most).

Next, you're usually prompted to create settings that govern how the tool reprices your inventory. I described this above, but basically involves creating a series of "if this, then that" rules for the repricer to follow.

Along with this, there is usually an option to view all your inventory within the repricer, in some kind of organized table or "user interface." All of this happens outside of Amazon, in a 'web app" (i.e. the repricer's website).

Once you set your repricing rules, generally you create a pricing schedule. This is where you tell the tool how often to reprice your inventory.

Then you activate the repricer, and it does its work silently in the background.

I'll get into how NeuroPrice and ChannelMax each differ from this format, but more or less this is the template most repricers use. 
channelmax repricer settings

Is repricing software mandatory for sellers?

There's a common debate about if Amazon sellers need a paid repricer - and if so, then when?

First of all, if you can't afford it, then you can't afford it. It's absolutely possible to manually reprice your inventory (and actually, there are benefits to repricing yourself).

But repricing software is one of those "second tier" expenses, i.e. not 100% necessary, and you can run a reselling business without it; but any repricer should theoretically pay for itself very quickly, and you should upgrade as soon as you can afford to do so.

How do you know when it's time to upgrade from manual to software?

There's no definitive, objective answer for when it's time to switch to automated repricing. But here's a couple factors to consider:

Your inventory size: Repricing becomes very challenging once your SKUs exceed 100 or so. It's possible to reprice inventories much greater by hand (I've done it), but the time required is pretty massive. It requires clicking over to Amazon for every single item to review competing prices, Keepa charts, and more. It's incredibly time consuming.

Your available funds: Since any repricing tool should theoretically make you more than it costs, if you have the money - you should be investing in a repricer.

Overview of ChannelMax's features

I'll include screenshots below, but here's a partial list of ChannelMax's features:
  • Algorithmic repricing
    “Buy Box Maximization”
    Real-time repricing
    Private Labels
    Sales Velocity repricing
    Business Pricing
    FBA vs Non-FBA repricing
    “Intelligent Default Strategy” (ChannelMax’s proprietary repricing formula)
    Raising Buy Box prices to test the threshold.
    “Amazon Yo Yo.”
    Raises prices based on low supply and high demand.
    Time-sensitive repricing.
    “Mininmum advertised price”-based repricing.
    Net profit-based repricing.

    ...and lots more. We'll cover everything in just a minute.
Channelmax settings #2

Overview of NeuroPrice's features

Like ChannelMax, NeuroPrice has all the basic features you need from a repricer. But it also has a couple of additional, and pretty significant features ChannelMax does not have.

Here's a partial list:

1. higher, lower, or match the “source price” (the price you’re comparing your offer to)
2. Price against the lowest merchant fulfilled price, 2nd lowest MF, 3rd lowest MF, lowest FBA, 2nd lowest FBA, 3rd lowest FBA, used Buy Box, or new Buy Box
3. Price certain SKUs (or partial SKUs) only, or exclude certain SKUs
4. Price based on fulfillment channel (Merchant Fulfilled or FBA)
5. Price by Sales Rank (preset ranges, or a custom range)
6. Exclude Acceptable condition
7. Price against same condition or better only
8. Compare new to new or used to used condition only
9. Never raise price more than a set dollar amount or percentage
10. Never drop price more than a set dollar amount or percentage
11. Never drop price below a fixed price
12. If no competing offers, price at $___
13. Price below Amazon’s offer by a dollar amount or percentage
14. Stay within the min/max price columns inside Amazon
15. Exclude competitor by feedback score.
16. Exclude competitor by "just launched" status.
17. Exclude competitor by store name.
18. Do not reprice if less than ___ competing offers.
19. Ignore lowball outlier offers (lowest price more than ___%/$ below second lowest).
20: Fallback price settings: If reference price not available, set a second alternate price.

...and a few more.

Compared to ChannelMax, there's about 1/4th the number of options, settings, and pages. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but I think the features that ChannelMax has that NeuroPrice does not are primarily only of value to larger sellers, or only relevant to a very small number of sellers. More on that later...

Here are some photos (not a lot to show because all NeuroPrice's settings are on one page):

Note: NeuroPrice is a Chrome extension, so what you see are settings that overlay on top of the Amazon "Manage Inventory" page.
neuroprice settings #1
NeuroPrice advanced settings #2
neuroprice settings #2
NeuroPrice advanced settings #1
neuroprice settings #3
neuroprice settings #4
NeuroPrice advanced settings #3

Sidebar: What are "pricing blindspots"?

If you don't know what I'm about to cover, and you're using most repricing tools, this might not be easy to hear. But it's important to understand this as we analyze both ChannelMax and Neuroprice, because ultimately it's what gives one the biggest advantage over the other.

All repricing tools (except for one, as I'm about to share) have pricing data that they cannot access. Aka "blindspots."

These blindspots result in inventory being priced incorrectly, or be skipped and not repriced at all. This is important, because this has a direct impact on your profits - costing you money through inventory priced too low, or inventory simply not being priced.

Here is one example of these blindspots:
Understanding The "Bundle Blindspot."

This is caused by a weird aspect to how Amazon passes its pricing data to repricing tools. When a tool says "hey Amazon, tell us the lowest 10 offers so we can reprice this item." Amazon doesn't simply share the lowest 10 prices. It uses a secret formula to "bundle" similar offers together, and shares 10 "groups" of offers. Each "group" can represent between 1 and several actual offers.

Confused yet? It's okay, because all this means is that this "bundle blindspot" prevents repricers from being able to compare your price to anything other than the lowest price. The lowest price is the only price software tools can see with certainty.

This is why no repricer (except for one) will allow you to set a rule that says (for example) "price 10% above the 2nd lowest price" (or anything that doesn't involve the cheapest competing offer). They don't offer it not because every seller isn't clamoring for it. They don't offer it because they can't - due to this blindspot.

Keep these blindspots in mind as this comparison continues. It should factor heavily into what repricer you choose - and which one I declare the winner at the end of this article.
repricers covering up the blindspot issue

What's bad about ChannelMax?

Each tool has significant flaws and downsides. Let's cover what I would improve about ChannelMax.

I spent a lot of time actually exploring ChannelMax page by page, and navigating through all the settings (see my video below). I was specifically looking for ways it was both better and worse than NeuroPrice. So what follows are the disadvantages of ChannelMax. (NeuroPrice also has some big flaws, and I'll cover those in a minute.)

#1: Overwhelming number of settings. Once you sign up for ChannelMax and start navigating the settings, it's difficult to not be immediately confused. I found just getting everything set up to be an overwhelming process. This is regular complaint you'll hear about ChannelMax if you spend time in Amazon forums and Facebook groups.

This is the concept that's called "feature bloat": So many settings and features, that it overwhelms the user and becomes worse than too few settings.

An excessive number of settings can be fine, if they are organized for clarity and set up in a linear manner. Unfortunately, I did not see either of those things with ChannelMax.

#2: Inadequate onboarding process. When you sign up for ChannelMax, they dump you into the settings with no guidance. This would a negative experience for any repricer, but with a repricer as complex as ChannelMax, this is especially negligent.

ChannelMax does send some onboarding emails, but as far as any in-app guidance, I did not receive any help navigating the setup process when I signed up.

#3: Entire site is written in broken English: This is a complaint I never thought I'd have about a repricing tool in the US.  The ChannelMax site and all the settings are written in poorly-translated broken English. There's some evidence ChannelMax is an Indian company (there is an Indian phone number on their website), which would explain why the English is bad. However, for a company that has been around for 20 years, it's hard to excuse not hiring a translator in all that time.

In many instances, the bad English isn't just mildly confusing, it's totally indecipherable. What would be comical is often a significant disruption to using ChannelMax.

(See my video tour of ChannelMax below, where I come completely unhinged live on camera trying to make sense of the poor English.)

#4: It forces you to only price against the lowest price offer. This is quietly the single biggest defect in ChannelMax (and most other repricers). From what I can tell, ChannelMax only lets you compare your price to the following competing prices:

1. Buy Box price.
2. Lowest overall price.
3. Lowest FBA price.

This means that if you use ChannelMax, you are completely prevented against comparing your price to higher-pricer competitors. For example, you are prevented from a strategy such as "price below the 3rd lowest FBA price by 5%." This inherently drags prices down, and makes ChannelMax a very costly choice.

#5: No option to price based on Sales Rank.  Setting prices based on the demand for an item is pretty basic. It's hard to imagine any strategy that doesn't take "best seller rank" into account. However ChannelMax does not offer that option.

Let's take for example two books. One has a BSR of 100,000 and another has a BSR of 10,000,000. With ChannelMax, you would be forced to reprice these exactly the same. Sound crazy? It is.

#6: No option to price based on product category. I did not see the option to set different repricing settings based on the product category. This isn't as serious as the Sales Rank issue above, but still a big blindspot. I think most sellers would prefer to price a category like Toys very differently than CDs or DVDs (for example).

#7: ChannelMax is more expensive. Prices start at $35/month. NeuroPrice starts out at $17/month for the same number of SKUs. Over twice the cost.

#8: Many broken links. When exploring ChannelMax, I encountered multiple broken links to important parts of the site. This led me to believe (temporarily) that ChannelMax was a "zombie" repricer that wasn't maintained anymore. For example, I noticed their YouTube channel hadn't been updated in over five years. I did confirm it is actively maintained, but the abundance of broken links is strange, to say the least.
 
#9: SUPER confusing settings. This is similar to, but different than, the "broken English" issue explained above. Even when the settings are described using proper English, they are often very poorly worded, leaving no clear idea as to what they actually do. When using ChannelMax, I was frequently left with no idea as to what a setting did. And while most settings had a "tooltip" icon where you could get more info, many do not. And the ones that do are often (again) described with broken English. Some of them display complete gibberish (random letters and numbers)! Since pricing is so sensitive, it's a big red flag when a repricer does not clearly describe their settings.

#10: Biases towards Buy Box pricing. The primary focus of ChannelMax seems to be optimizing prices for the Buy Box. A large percentage of the settings only reference the Buy Box, as though that was the only way to price (and as though you can optimize your way into the Buy Box, which is not how the Buy Box works). Many sellers have different strategies, but the Buy Box bias is stronger in ChannelMax than any repricer I've reviewed.

#11: Pricing blindspots. As with any API-based repricer, ChannelMax is limited by the the rules and restrictions of Amazon's API. This imposes several blindspots. Among them (for example), the inability to compare Used offers to New offers, allowing the possibility of your used inventory to be priced higher than new condition competitors. This is just one example of a blindspot that can cost you money.

What's bad about NeuroPrice?

#1: It's only for smaller sellers. For reasons I'll explain in a minute, NeuroPrice is most appropriate for smaller sellers with less than 20,000 SKUs. Things get a little unstable beyond that (at least for NeuroPrice right now). For that reason, if you're a larger seller I would suggest choosing ChannelMax.

#2: No repricing based on ROI: This is a big miss for NeuroPrice. You are able to protect your profits with settings such as staying inside min/max boundaries, and setting a price-floor, but with NeuroPrice you are unable to set prices based solely on your profit.

#3: Missing full automation: This will be a dealbreaker for a lot of sellers. With ChannelMax, you can schedule automated scheduled repricing, or real-time repricing. This means your inventory is , automatically repriced multiple times throughout the day, or within a few seconds of any price changes (depending on which ChannelMax plan you choose). With NeuroPrice, you have to click the "Reprice" button to reprice your entire inventory.

Personally, I think repricing anything more than twice a day is excessive, and two clicks a day is a small price to pay for the benefits of NeuroPrice. But this detail will be a dealbreaker for any sellers who need a totally hands-off approach.

How much does ChannelMax cost?

ChannelMax's prices are broken into two categories: One set of prices for "real time" repricing (adjusting prices every two to three minutes when your competitor's prices change), and regular scheduled repricing.

Real Time Amazon Repricing:

    $35 (up to 500 SKUs)
    $50 (500 to 2500 SKUs)
    $70 (2,500 to 5,000 SKUs)
    $100 (5,000 to 10,000 SKUs)
    $125 (10,000 to 25,000 SKUs)
    Additional pricing tiers for larger sellers.

Standard Amazon Repricing Plans:

    $50 (up to 10,000 SKUs)
    $75 (10,000 to 25,000 SKUs)
    $100 (25,000 to 50,000 SKUs)
channelmax pricing table
ChannelMax pricing table

How much does NeuroPrice cost?

NeuroPrice has a slightly simpler pricing structure:

1 to 500 SKUs: $17/month
500 to 2,000 SKUs: $27/month
Unlimited SKUs: $47/month
neuroprice pricing table

Comparing cost: NeuroPrice vs ChannelMax

Across all inventory levels, NeuroPrice is the cheaper option.

If you're reading this, you're probably a smaller seller, and would qualify for the cheapest ChannelMax plan. So how much more will ChannelMax cost you? 

Inventory up to 500 SKUs: ChannelMax is $18 more expensive.
Inventory is 500 to 2,000 SKUs: ChannelMax is $23 more expensive.
Unlimited SKUs: ChannelMax is a minimum of $23 more expensive.

What should a repricer cost?

While NeuroPrice costs significantly less than ChannelMax, it should be mentioned that "cheaper" can actually be more expensive. Keep what follows in mind as you shop for a repricing tool.

Even if ChannelMax was cheaper, there are a couple of features of NeuroPrice that virtually guarantee it will extract more revenue from your inventory than a competitor - much more than the extra money you might pay (depending on your inventory size). In other words, it costs more to not have access to these features, which can make the "cheaper" option actually more expensive.

The two obvious features are:

1. No pricing blindspots
2. Being able to target higher priced competitors (not just the lowest)

Since both of these result in NeuroPrice extracting more profit from a certain portion of your inventory, it literally means more cash in your pocket.

How much more? Impossible to quantify, but let's say your inventory is 1,000 units. And let's say each of these two features converts to an extra $5 per day. That's $300 extra revenue per month that you're extracting from the same inventory vs another tool. What if each one only extracts $2 per day (a pretty absurdly low number, in my opinion)? That's still $120 a month.

For that reason, the conservative math usually favors NeuroPrice, any way you run the numbers.

(You may also decide, since other tools may have an increased level of automation, that this will translate into more revenue for you. This is reasonable as well, especially if you're a larger seller.)

Step-by-step guide to repricing with NeuroPrice

Getting started with NeuroPrice is pretty straightforward.

You start your free trial with any bank card (no PayPal option yet) and are immediately directed to an onboarding page with a "welcome" video and the steps to start (see screenshot below).

Right away this is a better process than ChannelMax, since the steps to get started are laid out in a very linear format.

First step from there is to install NeuroPrice. There's a link to the Chrome store page, where NeuroPrice installs with one click.
neuroprice onboarding page
Since there's no need to connect your Amazon account, you can jump right in and set up your pricing rules.

To do that, you head to your Manage Pricing page inside Amazon Seller Central. NeuroPrice is embedded right at the top, with all the settings and controls in one place.

The last step before repricing is to head to the Preferences page (link is in the top right corner of the page) and make sure certain columns are visible. NeuroPrice requires the activation of a few columns (like the Product Category, SKU, and the min/max price columns) in order to do its work. Check a few boxes and you're good to go.

We haven't even started repricing yet, but we are already seeing a huge advantage over ChannelMax - a clear, linear process to get started, no multiple pages to jump between, and no need to connect your Amazon account. Pretty cool.

Step by step guide to repricing with ChannelMax

I'm going to be very detailed here, but I have to mention how challenging it was to detail this process. The settings in ChannelMax are almost indecipherable and barely written in English. Tons of confusion without having access to a translator, but I did my best.

First you sign up for ChannalMax on their site. They offer a 30-day free trial (longer than most repricers)

Then you are dropped into their Dashboard, where you'll find repricing statistics. Since you haven't repriced yet at this point, everything is blank. It's not clear what you're supposed to do from here, but if you poke around for a second, you'll stumble on a page for their "Repricing Model," where you can start setting pricing rules.

From there, you got through each of these steps to start repricing:

Step #1: Home tab

The settings here are:

*Use CMAX algorithmic repricing: Yes or no.
*Price against FBA: Match, price lower, or price higher.
*Non FBA (FBM?) Match, price lower, or price higher.
*Amazon's offer: Match, price lower, or price higher.
*Seller fulfilled Prime listings: Match, price lower, or price higher.
*"Generic" settings (this is actually how it's labeled): Here, you set options for "Ships later" (this is not explained," "Low Baller," and "Buy Box Nobody" (???), "My Own Catalog: FBA," and "My Own Catalog, Non FBA." Its very difficult to make sense of what any of these means.
*"Not New Item Strategy" (I think they mean "used"?): Settings for used, refurbished, and collectible.

Here's just one example of what I mean when I refer to ChannelMax's extremely confusing settings. Buried among the settings listed above is something called "Yo Yo Pricing." Kind of a funny name, so naturally you'd want to know: What does this mean? Here is ChannelMax's explanation:

“It’s nearly impossible to get BuyBox when Amazon is selling. But if you can make Amazon go higher and come down at a faster pace, then you surely can get some BuyBox, and get some sale. What happens if this process is repeated over and over again, you surely can benefit.”

Pure comedy, but "surely" frustrating if you're a ChannelMax user.

ChannelMax Pricing Floor settings
Step #2: Floor / ceiling price tab

This is where you side the minimum and maximum price boundaries. The options here are:

*Price floor:
*Price ceiling:
*Price when you're the only seller:
*Minimum advertised price options:

And then an additional set of options:

*Add actual shipping to floor.
*Add actual shipping to floor only if free shipping.
*Add total FBA fees to floor calculation.
*Add Amazon commission to floor calculation.
*Add internal shipping cost based on item weight.
*Overwrite floor by category setup.

Again, most of these settings are poorly explained and poorly labeled.
ChannelMax floor and ceiling page
Step #3: Seller tab

This has a few options centered around what competing sellers to ignore, such as "Never ignore Buy Box seller."
ChannelMax seller tab
Step #4: Sales Velocity tab

Enable/disable what they call "velocity" pricing. Here, you can set a pricing strategy based on how frequently an item is selling (but not by Sales Rank).
Step #5: Time variant tab

This gives you settings based on changing the frequency and type of pricing based on the time of day.
ChannelMax time variant page
Step #6: Custom code tab (actually mispelled as "Custome Code")

A blank field where you can enter 30 different "macros." This is not explained well in my opinion and appears to only be relevant to users who can write computer code. Very strange they do not turn these "macros" into settings, and save the user the work of learning code. Since ChannelMax has no issue with excessive settings, it is odd they don't just convert these "marcos" into user-friendly settings.
ChannelMax custom code page
Step #7: Misc. tab

Contains two random settings where you can override Buy Box-based repricing, and ignore the Buy Box. Unclear why these are given their own tab and not placed elsewhere, which would simplify things.

Once you complete Step #7, you're ready to reprice.
ChannelMax misc settings page
Step #8: Dashboard

This is where you see all your inventory, along with various attributes, and start repricing.
ChannelMax repricing dashboard
There are quite few other tabs and settings that aren't central to actually getting up and running, but here's small sample of some other tabs inside ChannelMax:

Other feature #1: Refunds manager

This is a built-in tool that automates the process of obtaining refunds for lost and returned inventory.

Other feature #2: Repricing summary

This provides an audit of past repricings.

Other feature #3: Category setup

This is where you set different min and max prices for each category.

There's more pages of settings I could have reviewed, but the links are broken and lead to this:
ChannelMax broken links

Full video tour of ChannelMax

Since it can be hard to visualize everything I'm talking about here, I made a video tour of me going inside ChannelMax and touring the entire tool. You can see me seeing everything for the first time. Due to how much broken English and errors there are in the descriptions, this tour quickly devolves into me exasperated. Enjoy the unintentional comedy.
My in-depth tour inside ChannelMax.

The process of repricing with NeuroPrice

You have NeuroPrice installed, so here's how to get started repricing...

All of NeuroPrice's settings rest at the top of the Manage Pricing page inside Seller Central. The settings are in two parts:

Global settings (at the top): These are settings that govern the rules - meaning, they apply to every rule you set. This is where you create settings like which conditions to reprice (and what to skip), how to price when you have no competitors, how far to stay below Amazon, if it should factor in your buy costs, etc. Everything is intuitive and easy to understand.

Advanced Settings (below global settings):

Pricing rules (below): These govern how different batches of your inventory are repriced, based on Sales Rank, SKU, or inventory age (or all three). For example:

"For every Book, with a sales rank of 250,000 to 500,000, price 10 cents below the 3rd lowest FBA offer."

You can set an unlimited number of rules.

If you're coming from another repricer, you might start to celebrate at this phase. You haven't even repriced yet, but setting the rules is so much easier than every repricer I've used. It's literally the only one that doesn't force you to navigate settings on multiple pages (as mentioned, ChannelMax has multiple pages).

Now it's time to reprice, and you have two options:

1. Reprice The Page
2. Reprice Everything

What is "Reprice The Page"? Since NeuroPrice reprices on the Manage Pricing page, you have the option of repricing one page of inventory at a time. A page can either be 10 items, 25, 50, 100, or up to 250 (you can set this number on the Preferences page). This option is for sellers who want to take a slower and more measured approach to repricing. Specifically, those who want to review all price changes before making them live on Amazon.

If you choose this option, NeuroPrice edits an entire page's worth of prices (at a rate of about 1 minute per 100 items), then gives you an audit of how many prices were raised, how many lowered, and the before & after price for everything. This lets you review everything at a glance. If it looks good, you save the changes, locking the prices in. Then go through the rest of your inventory one page at a time.

But that's not the "normal" way to reprice. The full automation option reprices your entire inventory with a single click. You can watch NeuroPrice essentially "hijack" your Manage Pricing page, and make the price changes right on the page in real time. Kind of fun.

Finally, your repriced inventory loads in a table that is overlaid on top of the Inventory page, where you can see the old price, the new updated price, the percentage changed, the dollar amount changed, and other useful data. This is also an opportunity to review any changes, and make edits if you choose.

And there you go: Your inventory is repriced.
neuroprice repricing totals

Video demonstration of repricing with NeuroPrice

Declaring a winner: Which repricer is better?

I've tried to keep my review pretty balanced up to this point, but it may be obvious who the winner is.

NeuroPrice far and away beats ChannelMax as the better Amazon repricer.

While ChannelMax certainly wins on "complexity" and  "number of features," I don't think these are good things. Overall ChannelMax loses to NeuroPrice - which has raised the bar for repricing simplicity and precision.

Eight reasons NeuroPrice is better than ChannelMax

Reason #1: NeuroPrice has no pricing blindspots

If you're a seller using any other repricer, you are at risk of serious impacts from this blindspot. Almost no software companies even admit this blindspot exists, and they hope you don't find out. It's simply negligent for any seller to ignore the impact this can have on repricing. If you care about maximizing your profits (and who doesn't), there's simply no excuse to not switch to NeuroPrice immediately.

Reason #2: NeuroPrice lets you raise prices (aka more profit per item)

#1 impacts FBA sellers only, but this impacts all sellers. 

ChannelMax only allows you to compare your prices to three types of competitor prices:

1. Buy Box
2. Lowest Merchant Fulfilled
3. Lowest FBA

This means if you're using ChannelMax (or any repricer that's not NeuroPrice), your prices are getting unnecessarily forced downward. No repricer besides NeuroPrice can raise prices with frequency and precision that NeuroPrice can, due to their ability to use the 2nd and 3rd lowest priced competitor (in MF and FBA) as a comparison price.

So with NeuroPrice, you can set a rule that goes something like "Price 2 cents below the 3rd lowest competitor," raising your price. That is not possible with ChannelMax.

This chains your inventory to your lowest priced competitor like a rusty anchor, and drags you down with them.

NeuroPrice is the only tool that can compare your offer to higher priced offers, letting you raise prices (when the situation calls for it). This is an essential feature that in a very direct way means more profit for sellers.

Reason #3: NeuroPrice offers plain-English settings

With NeuroPrice, you never have to wonder "What does this setting do?" Everything is in plain English. (In ChannelMax, the settings are often not in proper english at all).

Its so simple that I wouldn't even recommend you watch a single video to get started. But if you need to, there's a 5 minute tour video that covers everything in simple language.

Reason #4: NeuroPrice is dramatically easier to use

It's dizzying trying to navigate through all the pages of settings inside ChannelMax. And it's not just about volume of settings - they are poorly described.

NeuroPrice has just one page of settings - actually, less than one, and more like 1/3 of one page. Everything is confined to one simple box, with almost nothing to navigate or learn.
Reason #5: NeuroPrice lets you reprice by Amazon Sales Rank.

This was by far the most confusing omission of ChannelMax (hard to believe, honestly). Nowhere did I see any mention of Sales Rank in the pricing rules. 

Setting different rules based on the demand for an item is something I would consider fundamental to pricing strategy. And I simply didn't see Sales Rank mentioned anywhere. Hard to believe.

Reason #6: NeuroPrice lets you reprice by category

Another option I saw no mention of anywhere in ChannelMax was a setting to reprice based on product category. You can set a min/max price by category, but I didn't see anything beyond that.

Let's say you're selling Books, Grocery items, and Toys. You're likely going to want different rules set for each of these, since they each have their own particularities. Not possible with ChannelMax (that I could tell).  

Reason #7: NeuroPrice lets you exclude lowball sellers

This appears to be a NeuroPrice exclusive, and is a big selling point: You can tell NeuroPrice to ignore competing offers if they are more than a certain amount below the 2nd lowest price. This is another huge way that NeuroPrice keeps your prices higher than other repricers.

Reason #8: NeuroPrice is cheaper

At minimum, NeuroPrice is $18 cheaper than ChannelMax for the smallest sellers, and a minimum of $27 cheaper for larger sellers. While I recommend NeuroPrice primarily to smaller sellers, no matter how big or small you are, NeuroPrice will save you money.

NeuroPrice has some big downsides (the lack of full automation being the biggest), and its not a perfect tool. But these eight things make it the clear winner.

Settling the NeuroPrice vs ChannelMax debate

My attempt with this article was to provide the only deep analysis of these two repricing tools: An established repricer vs the new "disrupter" in the Amazon repricing space.

The main takeaway I would offer is this:

NeuroPrice is vastly better for smaller sellers due to its price, its simplicity, and its ability to extract more profit by raising prices.

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Offering the first in-depth comparison of various Amazon repricing tools.
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