Back to blog

Learn with Threecolts

Small group workshops to help you learn, optimize, and grow.

Learn About Coaching

Effective can also be efficient: How to make Tactical Arbitrage work faster for you

TacticalArbitrage
Kennedell Amoo-Gottfried
Published
July 27, 2022
Modified
September 16, 2022
How to make Tactical Arbitrage work faster for you

If you use Tactical Arbitrage, you’re going to pull in a whole lot of data - that’s the bottom line. TA is the most effective arbitrage product on the market, but what many users don’t know is that effective doesn’t have to mean slow. You also want your scans to be as quick and efficient as possible.

Combing through hundreds of sites to find the best deals can take time, and one of the questions we sometimes get from users is how they can speed things up so they can get on with the actual money-making part of the business. 

The kind of search you do on Tactical Arbitrage - and how you carry it out - can make a difference in how quickly you get your results back. The real time-consuming factor that slows a lot of sellers down, though, is actually figuring out your strategy and what to do. Too many Amazon sellers go into searches not knowing what they’re looking for.

Here are a few tips to move things along, maximize efficiency and get the most bang for your buck with your scans.

  • Use the cache
  • Don’t be too picky with filters and save your searches
  • Reverse search
  • Set notifications
  • Always be Scanning

Use the cache

While live searches are the best for finding real-time pricing information, they are not always necessary to get the same result - cache searches can be just as effective depending on what you’re looking for. 

Cache searches look through past live searches that other users have already pulled up and use those as a basis for prices, which in many cases is the better option. 

This is especially true if you’re trying to look at the sites that everyone looks at. Big-box retailers like Walmart and Target are ones that everyone - seriously, everyone - is looking at. Don’t waste your time duplicating a Walmart search someone else just made - do a cache on what they already did! Work smarter, not longer. 
Obviously, cache doesn’t give you real-time pricing, but using cached data can help you find items with little price change that can be consistent winners instead of an item that goes on sale only occasionally.
The flip side is that cache searching works most efficiently when scanning well-known sites - for lesser-used domains, chances are there’s not as much recent pricing info available for them, so TA will have to pull live data.

Don’t be too picky with your filters and save your searches

If you’re looking for a needle in a haystack, it’s going to take you a while to find it. If you’re not getting the results you want by looking for an ROI above 30%, then drop it to 20% in the meantime. If you’ve spent all day looking for an exact four-pack of lavender deodorant, then expand to larger scented packs. You’ll be surprised how many bargains you can find and how much more you can sell over the course of the month if you relax your parameters, not to mention how much time you can save.

Fine-tuning the calibration of your search is the hard part - finding that perfect mix that gets you the higher ROI is not always easy. Once you’ve found a combination you’re happy with, save it to make sure you don’t lose it! 

Reverse Search

If you already know what you want to sell - look for that first! If what you want to be selling is family-size boxes of Trix, there’s no point doing some extensive generic search for breakfast cereals. 

Make a list of ASINs you’re interested in, find the retailers that sell them and then you can see if you’ve got arbitrage opportunities on your hands - it’s that simple. You can do a quick search, search by keywords, or - if you have a lot of products you’re looking for - import bulk product codes. 

If you’re not sure where to start, Reverse Search will save you load of time, letting you search by: 

  • Amazon’s best sellers, 
  • Most wished for on Amazon Wish List
  • Amazon’s Movers and Shakers List

Set notifications 

Sometimes, the easiest thing to do is let the information come to you. From time to time, you’ll find that you’ve come across a great product, but the pricing wasn’t right at the time or the item was out of stock. Very annoying. 

You can set notifications - through email or text message - that are triggered based on pre-set conditions, such as hitting a target ROI, the item coming back in stock, when the product’s sales numbers are on a hot streak above a certain threshold, or even some combination of all three. 

Always Be Scanning

This is another great way to let the software do the legwork for you. Tactical Arbitrage’s Always Be Scanning feature is one that you need to activate, but once you do it can result in a goldmine of potential high-margin opportunities. 

As its name suggests, it will always be scanning around in the background for profitable deals. 

The great thing about ABS is that it searches through random categories and domains, giving you options you would never have thought to search for on your own - on sites you would not have looked at -  and lets you discover entirely new product lines.

The results are unique to you, meaning that there won’t be the same level of competition as the more popular ones everyone looks for.  ABS also constantly refreshes itself, meaning products won’t just sit there and go stale if you don’t end up using them. 

Need help?

Schedule a complimentary 30-minute audit call with a specialist today. 

Our Solution Architects are trained to understand your business and provide business growth assistance. All advice is customized to your needs.

About us

Threecolts acquires, launches, and grows eCommerce software & services, and owns other stellar businesses including Old Street Media, HotShp, SellerBench, Tactical Arbitrage, Bindwise, RefundSniper, ChannelReply, and FeedbackWhiz.

Old Street Media supports businesses with their advertising, inventory management, and other eCommerce services. We collaborate with over 4000 brands and have generated $600M in sales in the past year.

Reach out to HotShp for help with product titles, descriptions, bullet points, social posts, and blog posts.

Reach out to SellerBench for help with shipment reconciliation and FBA fee reimbursements. 99% of FBA sellers are owed money. Get your free audit today.

If you are more interested in the #1 Amazon Arbitrage software, try TacticalArbitrage. With over 6,000 users, TacticalArbitrage will help you discover profitable products to resell on Amazon.

Bindwise will help you to identify costly issues with your Amazon seller accounts. Receive instant Bindwise Alerts about everything related to your store on Amazon. 

RefundSniper is an international Amazon reimbursement service that runs audits on both Vendor Central and Seller Central. Find out how much you are owed by Amazon today.

If you're looking for a way to streamline multi-platform ecommerce support, ChannelReply has you covered. Cut your customer response time in half by having all your customer information in one hub. 

FeedbackWhiz is an Amazon sellers management software that helps merchants scale their business by automating email campaigns, improving seller feedback, getting more product reviews, monitoring listings, and analyzing profit and accounting data.