With 2.5 million sellers on Amazon, new sellers face an uphill battle. Without doing proper research to find the best products to sell, any listings you post on the Amazon marketplace can easily get buried and remain unseen.
Fortunately, there are a number of tools that will help you find the best niches to sell in, the best products to sell, and the best suppliers to work with.
These software tools can even help you optimize your Amazon listings and PPC campaigns.
Today, we will be comparing two of the most popular Amazon seller software products: Viral Launch and Jungle Scout.
Let’s go through the top features you would expect in such a tool and see how the two products compare.
Market Research
Whether you are new to Amazon or are an established seller considering branching out into other niches, it is important to do your research first.
If you choose a niche that is too saturated, you might not be able to keep up with the competition. If you choose a niche that does not have enough interest, you will find it difficult to scale.
Viral Launch
Viral Launch’s Market Intelligence tool is an easy way to determine the current market situation for any product or niche. Just enter your keyword into the tool and you will be presented with the following four tabs:
- Top sellers
- Market trends
- VL analysis
- Cost calculator
In the top sellers’ tab, you will see the top-selling products for that niche or keyword, along with data such as unit margin and monthly sales.
In the market trends tab, you will see how interest for each product went up or down over time or how sales increased or decreased.
VL Analysis will give you a product idea score, how many monthly sales are possible, and how many reviews you will need to rank well.
The cost calculator will help you calculate your profits per sale after fees.
You will also get information for the niche in general, including monthly sales, average search volume, and average product price.
Jungle Scout
Jungle Scout’s Opportunity Finder also lets you analyze various markets, opportunities, and niches. Enter any keyword and you will get information such as search volume over time, average monthly units sold, and average monthly prices.
You will get a unique niche score (similar to Viral Scout’s product idea score) to help you make quick decisions about whether a product niche would be profitable or not.
Join the team of 500,000+ successful sellers. Jungle Scout provides an array of tools helping Amazon sellers to up their ecommerce game. From product research to product launch, Jungle Scout simplifies it all.
Product Discovery
Once you have chosen your niche, it is time to start looking for profitable products to sell.
Viral Launch
Viral Launch’s Product Discovery tool lets you find profitable product ideas by searching for:
- Products
- Keywords
- Brands
- Categories
You will first select your filters for each of those four categories. For example, if you are searching for products, you can set min and max values for monthly sales, review counts, and monthly revenue.
If you are searching by category, you can set values for opportunity score, maturity score, and more. When searching by brands, you can search by growth rate, number of products, total review count, and more.
Jungle Scout
Jungle Scout’s product database contains over 70 million products sold on Amazon. You can search for the best products using preset criteria and values.
You can quickly sort by categories, revenue, rank, estimated sales, high competition + bad ratings, bad listings, and Amazon FBA fees.
Product Tracking
What if you are unsure about whether a product will be worth it or not? Sometimes, you may not be ready to make a decision simply based on the initial information you get from any tool.
In those cases, you should track those products to see how they perform over time.
Tracking your products allows you to see whether a product’s popularity is a passing fad, and it also allows you to compare products to each other so you can select the best-performing ones.
Viral Launch
Viral Launch lets you “pin” both niche market ideas and product ideas. You can simply click the “track” button next to any of the product results you get in each tool.
There will be a separate tab for each of the products you pinned so you can go back and view them at any time.
Jungle Scout
Jungle Scout’s Product Tracker tool serves the same purpose. You can monitor daily inventory, sales, rank, and price to compare products over time.
You’ll get charts so you can easily see how a product is performing and check important information such as average Amazon fees, reviews count, and average daily revenue.
You can add products to the Product Tracker tool directly from the product database search results or the Chrome extension. Products can be organized into different groups if you are tracking products from different niches.
Join the team of 500,000+ successful sellers. Jungle Scout provides an array of tools helping Amazon sellers to up their ecommerce game. From product research to product launch, Jungle Scout simplifies it all.
Supplier Research
Now that you know which products you want to sell, you need to figure out where you are going to source them.
You can’t just choose any supplier — you need to look for suppliers who are reliable, ship on time, ship quality products so that customers are satisfied, and offer low prices so that you can increase your profits.
Viral Launch
Unfortunately, Viral Launch does not seem to have a supplier finder tool on their website.
They do have a blog post where they list various ways to find good suppliers, including searching on online directories and going to trade shows.
Jungle Scout
Jungle Scout, on the other hand, does have an extensive supplier database. This database is an easy way to find verified suppliers from different countries.
You can see each supplier’s confirmed volume and number of shipments, which will help you determine whether they are reliable or not.
You will get more valuable information as well, such as the top retail customers they sell to and their top products.
If there is a specific product on Amazon that you are interested in and you are wondering where they are sourcing it from, the database tool will help you find the supplier that best matches the product description.
You can also search by ASIN to find the supplier right away.
If you operate in a sub-niche, the database will help you find suppliers who can fulfill low order quantities.
You can contact each supplier in the database and save quotes so you can compare them side by side. You can even generate purchase orders in the database so you can save them for future reference.
Keyword Research
Finding the right keywords is important for getting more organic traffic to your listings. If you want to get more views, use popular keywords with low competition.
Keyword research is important for PPC purposes as well as it will help you find low-cost, high-traffic keywords.
Viral Launch
Viral Launch’s keyword tool is pretty awesome. Enter any keyword and you will get detailed information for that keyword plus various similar keywords.
The data you will get includes:
- Priority score (based on relevance and search volume)
- Relevancy score
- Search volume over the past 30 days
- Search volume decreasing or increasing percentage trends
- Opportunity score
- Average product price
- Average sales volume
- Average review count
All keywords can be saved so you can track them over time.
Jungle Scout
Keyword Scout is Jungle Scout’s keyword tool. It will give you similar results to Viral Launch’s keyword tool — a list of keywords along with important data points, including:
- 30-day search volume (exact + broad)
- 30-day search trend
- 90-day search trend
- Ease of ranking score
- Relevancy score
- PPC bid
You can see a keyword’s performance over the past two years to get a better idea of seasonal search volume and trending popularity.
Competitor Research
Once you are selling on Amazon, it is important to keep track of your competition. The competition you had when you started selling may not be the competition you will have later on.
Staying on top of what your competitors are doing will help you know how to adjust your own strategy so you can stay ahead of them.
Viral Launch
Competitor Intelligence is the tool you want to use to keep track of what your competitors are doing. Add competitor products by ASIN to get in-depth analytics of that product’s performance over time.
In addition to being able to track their products, you can also spy on their keywords. What keywords are they using to rank?
By analyzing various products and sellers you are competing with and figuring out which keywords the most successful ones are using, you can jump to the top of the game quickly.
Jungle Scout
Unfortunately, Jungle Scout does not have a special tool to help you track competitors. However, there are a number of other ways you can see what your competitors are doing, including by using the product tracker tool.
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Listing Builder
Writing the perfect listing is the key to being successful. A fully optimized listing with the right keywords, a great description, and awesome pictures will not only rank higher in the Amazon search results but also get more conversions and sales.
Viral Launch
Viral Launch has three tools to help you optimize your listings — Listing Builder, Listing Optimizer, and Keyword Manager.
Listing Builder: This tool helps you craft the perfect listing. It’s very simple to use — enter your target keyword and the tool will give you suggestions for your title, features, description, and more.
Listing Optimizer: Here is where the real magic begins. There will be three sections in this tool — Product Analysis, Suggested Keywords, and Competing and Complementary Products.
The Product Analysis section will give you an overall product score and evaluate each part of your listing: Your image, description, reviews, and competition.
You will be told if any aspect of your listing needs work, along with helpful tips on potential problems to fix.
The Suggested Keyword section will recommend additional keywords that can help your listing get more views, and the Competing and Complementary Products section will show you related products and tell you if they are competing with your listing or can be purchased by consumers as a complementary product.
Keyword Manager: The keyword manager basically tracks the keywords you are using on various listings. The tool will give you updated performance data so you can decide whether to keep or change those keywords.
Jungle Scout
The Listing Builder tool on Jungle Scout is what you will use to optimize your listings. It’s not just for building new listings — it uses AI to rate your existing listings based on their titles, descriptions, keywords, images, etc.
Join the team of 500,000+ successful sellers. Jungle Scout provides an array of tools helping Amazon sellers to up their ecommerce game. From product research to product launch, Jungle Scout simplifies it all.
The tool lets you import keywords you already searched for; you can also search for new keywords on the spot and import them.
PPC Automation
Many Amazon sellers use PPC ads to get more traffic and scale quickly. However, running PPC ads is a lot of work — automating the entire process can help you save time.
Viral Launch
Viral Launch’s Kinetic PPC service will give you detailed analytics on your current PPC campaigns. You will see which keywords are performing well so you can retain them and drop the bad keywords.
You can set up automation rules (the tool comes with pre-made customizable rule templates) to save time, and you will even get a free one-on-one call with a specialist to help you set up your first five automations.
You can track your PPC campaigns and compare them with your organic campaigns.
Jungle Scout
Jungle Scout does not offer PPC automation, but they do give you insights into your PPC campaign data and help you keep track of your results.
Launching New Products
When launching new products, you want the launch to come with a bang! Let’s see what each platform offers in terms of helping sellers launch new products.
Viral Launch
Of course, with a name such as Viral Launch, you would think that VL offers some sort of launch service — and indeed, it does.
When launching a new product, this launch service (which costs $200 for US sellers) will expose your product to a network of over 350,000 Amazon buyers. You can offer an unlimited number of coupons and discounts to get more sales quickly.
You can schedule when you want your launches to run, how many coupons you want to offer, and how long you want the launch to last.
Jungle Scout
Jungle Scout’s launch feature basically involves sending emails to your own customers with promotions and discounts. You can also send emails after purchases to encourage reviews or after refund requests to avoid negative reviews.
Inventory Management
If you don’t keep track of your inventory, you can easily end up in a situation where a customer makes a purchase but you have already sold out the item they are purchasing.
This will force you to cancel the order, leading to negative reviews and decreased customer satisfaction, as well as a lower Amazon seller ranking.
Viral Launch
Viral Launch does not have any inventory management or stock alert system.
Jungle Scout
JS, on the other hand, does have such a feature. The tool will automatically scan all of your products and assess your inventory needs.
You can easily check your inventory needs by looking at an easy-to-see list that will mark products in the following categories:
- Reorder now
- Reorder soon
- In stock
- Overstocked
You will also see the date for which you will need to restock each product, as well as the recommended restocking quantity.
Besides helping you avoid stockouts and keeping your storage fees low by not restocking too early, the tool will also help you calculate and save on Amazon FBA fees.
Chrome Extension
Both products have a Chrome extension that lets you search for crucial product data while browsing Amazon. This will save you time and make your life easier.
Viral Launch
The Viral Launch Chrome extension lets you do your Market Intelligence research while browsing Amazon.
All four tabs mentioned in the Market Intelligence review will show up in the top-right section of your browser when you want to see information about a product.
Viral Launch even has built-in support for Alexa. When you think of a product idea, just ask Alexa!
The Chrome extension is free to use with your VL plan.
Jungle Scout
Jungle Scout’s Chrome extension lets you do a number of things.
First of all, it lets you do your product research straight from Amazon; if you want to conduct quick research, you can just look at the opportunity score, and if you want to do more in-depth research, in-depth data is available as well.
Join the team of 500,000+ successful sellers. Jungle Scout provides an array of tools helping Amazon sellers to up their ecommerce game. From product research to product launch, Jungle Scout simplifies it all.
However, you can also use the Chrome extension to send review requests to your customers, via email, through your Seller Central account. This is a great way to get more reviews and boost your rankings.
Resources, Training, & Customer Support
Both VL and JS offer training resources to new sellers.
Viral Launch
Viral Launch has the following educational resources:
- How to Sell on Amazon (e-course)
- Amazon PPC Playbook (e-course)
- Seller Podcast: Follow the Data
- Discover Great Products (ebook)
- Product Discover Use Cases (ebook)
- Amazon FBA Profit Calculator (online tool)
You can contact customer support in a number of ways:
- Live chat
- Phone
Jungle Scout
JS has tons of resources to go through.
- Beginner’s Guide
- Million Dollar Case Study
- Webinars
- Podcasts
- Plenty of ebooks and guides
- Sales Estimator tool
- FBA Calculator tool
- Listing Grader tool
Although Jungle Scout offers email and live chat support, I could not find a phone number on their website.
Pricing
Let’s compare pricing plans on each platform.
Viral Launch
Viral Launch has four pricing plans:
- Beginner — $59/month
- Pro — $99/month
- Brand Builder — $149/month
- Kinetic — $199/month
You can compare the features for each plan in the chart above.
The beginner plan will only give you access to the most basic tools, and while the Pro plan gives you access to most features, you will still be limited to tracking three top-selling products at once.
For PPC features, you will need the Kinetic plan.
However, you can at least get a free 14-day trial with limited capabilities (such as five market intelligence reports per day).
In addition, yearly plans give you two months free each year.
Jungle Scout
Jungle Scout has two pricing schemes: Full access including the Chrome extension, and the Chrome extension only.
Full access plans are as follows:
- Basic — $39/month
- Suite — $69/month
- Professional — $99/month
However, you can get discounts of up to 30 percent if you pay yearly. Yearly billing plans are as follows:
- Basic — $19/month
- Suite — $49/month
- Professional — $79/month
The Basic plan gives you access to the basic features, but you will have limits on some tools. However, it gives you access to some things that Viral Launch does not on its basic plan, such as the keyword research tool.
Join the team of 500,000+ successful sellers. Jungle Scout provides an array of tools helping Amazon sellers to up their ecommerce game. From product research to product launch, Jungle Scout simplifies it all.
The Suite plan gives you access to all features, while the Professional plan removes most limits and includes priority onboarding.
Let’s move on to the Chrome extension plans, of which there are two: Extension and Extension Lite.
Extension costs $39/month or $19/month paid yearly. Extension Lite costs $29/month or $9/month paid yearly.
Extension Lite does not include category and seller ranking, historical sales and pricing, FBA Fees, opportunity score, and listing score.
Similarities And Differences
Here is a quick chart to help you compare what Viral Launch and Jungle Scout offer:
| Viral Launch | Jungle Scout | |
| Market Research | ✓ | ✓ |
| Product Finder | ✓ | ✓ |
| Product Tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Keyword Research | ✓ | ✓ |
| Supplier Research | X | ✓ |
| Advanced Competitor Research | ✓ | X |
| Listing Optimization | ✓ | ✓ |
| Product Launch | ✓ | ✓ |
| PPC Analytics | ✓ | ✓ |
| Inventory Management | X | ✓ |
| Chrome Extension | ✓ | ✓ |
| Phone Support | ✓ | X |
| Free Trial | ✓ | X |
Viral Launch vs Jungle Scout — Which Is Better?
All in all, Jungle Scout offers better value for money. Its plans are more flexible and much cheaper, and they include almost everything Viral Launch has to offer.
Although JS doesn’t offer PPC automation, it does offer other cool stuff like inventory management and supplier research.
Although there is no free trial for Jungle Scout, you can take advantage of its 14-day money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with its results.
Benjamin Levin is a digital marketing professional with 4+ years of experience with inbound and outbound marketing. He helps small businesses reach their content creation, social media marketing, email marketing, and paid advertising goals. His hobbies include reading and traveling.