Helium 10 vs Merchant Words: Which Is Better for Your Business?

Picking the right Amazon seller tools is an essential part of your overall success strategy. This article will look at Helium 10 vs Merchant Words since they are two top-rated options.

When I started selling on Amazon, I didn’t really use paid tools; I soon realized that I ignored one of the biggest advantages available to me. With so many tools out there, you need to pick the right one for you.

By the end of this review, you will know whether Helium 10 or Merchant Words is a good fit for your business.

If you are in a rush, let me help. Here is a comparison table to show you the differences based on my own research.

Before we start I will say that I don’t have a discount coupon for Merchant Words, I do however have one for Helium 10. If you are looking to use Helium 10 but you don’t want to pay full price, you can save 50% using the coupon below.

What is Helium 10?

Created by Amazon sellers, Helium 10 is an all-in-one product research and marketing toolset. It is certainly one of the more comprehensive tools available today.

Whether you want to find the right products to sell, spy on your competitors, or ensure your listings get found, Helium 10 can help.

You would think that having so many tools to choose from would make this an overwhelming platform to use, but it’s anything but.

Over and above the web platform, there is also a useful Chrome extension, making it possible to use Helium 10 in conjunction with Amazon (This is something I use almost every day).

Helium 10 is made up of over 20 tools in total. When I say they have really thought of everything, I mean it.

Source: Helium 10

What is Merchant Words?

Founded in 2012, Merchant Words is renowned for being one of the largest Amazon databases in the world. If you want an inside view of what your customers are thinking, Merchant Words has a few tools that will help.

The Helium 10 platform is packed with a wide selection of tools for Amazon sellers, Merchant Words keeps things simple by sticking to the basics.

As a Merchant Words user, you can keep an eye on competitors, source the best keywords, and discover top-ranking products.

Unfortunately, Merchant Words doesn’t have a Chrome extension. However, you may not need one, depending on what you’re looking for in a product research tool.

Source: Merchant Words

How are Helium 10 & Merchant Words Different?

To help you decide which of these tools is right for your business, let’s start by looking at how they’re different.

Data Sources

One of the key differences between Helium 10 vs Merchant Words is their data sources.

Merchant Words is said to source their data mainly from organic search, which is how they can spot emerging trends.

Helium 10, on the other hand, takes it one step further by also looking at the listing and pay-per-click data.

This begs the question, which tool offers more accurate data? On the plus side, both platforms give you the option to sign up for a free account, giving you the chance to find out for yourself.

As someone who personally uses Helium 10, I can say their data is highly accurate. In this case study, I show you the results of different software versus my actual sales results.

Product Research Capabilities

Both Helium 10 and Merchant Tools give you the option to find out about top-selling products.

However, Helium 10 also makes it possible to search for the types of products you’re interested in. Helium 10 gives you the option to apply filters to your product search, Merchant Words does not.

Source: Helium 10

Inventory Management

Have you ever struggled trying with your inventory management strategy?

Helium 10 can help.

As previously mentioned, Helium 10 was created by Amazon sellers, so it comes as no surprise that they included an Inventory Management tool in their offering.

By connecting your Helium 10 account to your Seller Central dashboard, you will know exactly when to order or transfer products. Helium 10 can even assist with inbound shipments.

In the past we have spoken about different inventory management tools, having used a few i can confirm that Helium 10 offers great functionality on this side of things.

Hijack Alerts

Amazon listings get hijacked more often than you realize, which is why Helium 10 introduced their Hijack Alerts feature.

Without the help of 24-hour surveillance, it can be difficult to detect when a listing is hijacked, so this feature is a huge plus for me.

They also have alerts to tell you when your listing has had a category change, a weight change (Could mean wrongly inflated fees), or has been suppressed. By being notified of these points straight away, you can minimize the risk of loss of sales by raising relevant cases as quickly as possible!

Refund Genie

Lost or damaged inventory is a part of being an Amazon seller. Fortunately, Helium 10 makes the reimbursement process much easier. Instead of manually generating FBA refund estimates, Helium 10 generates the totals in seconds.

They also provide you with pre-written messages to send along with your reimbursement requests; we’ve literally saved $$$$’s.

Marketing Toolkit

Since marketing and advertising can help scale your business, Helium 10 also makes it possible to manage your PPC campaigns directly on their platform.

I must say though their PPC tool is far from perfect yet; currently, we still use ignite to manage our PPC.

The second part of their marketing toolkit is their landing page builder. In just a few clicks, you can create highly customized landing pages using information directly from Amazon. You can then use these pages in conjunction with your external paid traffic, email, and all of your social media campaigns.

How are Helium 10 & Merchant Words Similar?

Both Helium 10 and Merchant Words are very easy to use, but let’s dive into some of their other similarities.

Keyword Research

Both Helium 10 and Merchant Words have strong keyword research capabilities. Discover which keywords you should be targeting based on the products you plan to sell.

I find that Helium 10 offers more in-depth information on each search term, including related keywords, distribution stats, and how competitors are using a particular keyword.

If you’re a new seller, Merchant Keywords can provide you with some basic keyword data. However, if you are ready for a more advanced approach, Helium 10 is far superior (In my opinion).

If you are looking for a like-for-like comparison to Helium 10 on the keyword research side of things i’d have a look at Jungle scout.

Source: Helium 10

Source: Merchant Words

To be fair to Merchant words, I do like the aesthetics of their platform; my overall preference to Helium 10 might be the fact that I have used them for a very long time! It’s only right that you are aware of this when making your decision.

If you would like to see how my team uses Helium 10 for keyword research, watch the below video:

Reverse ASIN Search

If there’s a specific ASIN (or three) that you plan to compete with in the future, both Helium 10 and Merchant Words can tell you what keywords that ASIN ranks for.

This is golden information! You can literally reverse engineer any ASIN on Amazon!

Again Helium 10 provides far more data on a particular ASIN than Merchant Words. They even go as far as telling you which products are frequently purchased with a specific product.

Competitor Analysis

If you have specific competitors you would like to track on Amazon, Helium 10 and Merchant Words can provide you with that data. Track the overall health of the market, how your competitors are performing, and where you stand. By tracking what drives product performance in relation to the market, you can always stay one step ahead.

Listing Optimizer

Lastly, there’s the optimization functionality.

Both Helium 10 and Merchant Words have SEO and listing optimization capabilities. How they work is a little different, though.

Helium 10 guides you through the product listing creation process using the keyword opportunities you’ve identified.

On the other hand, Merchant Words provides you with market and competitor data to help you build your listings on your own time.

Source: Merchant Words

Source: Helium 10

Helium 10 has a precise listing tool called Scribbles, it can be tricky to get used to (screenshot above), but once you get the hang of it, the process is straightforward!

If you are still looking for an alternative on the listing optimization side of things you could have a look at Viral launch. They have a suite of tools that can help you optimize and craft your listings in more ways than one.

Who Should Get Helium 10 (and Why)?

For me, Helium 10 is a tool for full-time Amazon sellers who want to take their businesses to the next level.

Along with the basics, Helium 10 gives you access to an array of extras that you will certainly use throughout your online business journey.

What’s more, they make some of your usual day-to-day tasks a little easier to manage, including inventory, refunds, and PPC campaigns. I also really appreciate the fact that they pull their data from multiple sources to ensure higher accuracy.

Helium 10 is currently one of our most recommended tools! If you’d like to save money on any of their paid plans, you can use either of the discount coupons below.

If you use one of our links (there are a few in this article), we will make a commission! Only fair that we make you aware of that!

Who Should Get Merchant Words (and Why)?

Merchant Words has everything you need to get started as an Amazon seller or sell on a part-time basis.

If you don’t need anything more than a product, competitor, and keyword research tool, Merchant Words is ideal.

I also think the aesthetics of their platform is pretty cool; looks unique!

Helium 10 vs Merchant Words – Which is Better?

In terms of which tool is right for you, this depends on your specific needs as an Amazon seller. Both tools are reliable and easy to use.

Both Helium 10 and Merchant Words also give you the option to try the platforms for free before you buy.

Overall, their pricing is more or less the same across all packages. However, if you consider what you’re getting as a Helium 10 user, their packages offer more value for money in my opinion.

In the end, Helium 10 comes out on top in this race.

If you would like to consider another option, I compare Helium 10 to AMZScout here. If you’d like me to test out any other Amazon seller tools, please get in touch!

More soon!

Tags: Amazon Software Comparison, amazon tools, helium 10, merchant words, product research