PO Assistant helps you decide whether to buy a product, and how much. It reads one product's market like an experienced buyer and leaves every decision to you.
Run it on a product
Open a graded catalog's results and click a product. In the side rail, right under the product, PO Assistant has a Run button that shows about how many credits a read uses, such as about 3 credits. Press it and PO Assistant reads that one product, in about 5 seconds. The table never changes.
A product marked No match can't be read until you mark it a match.
What you get
- A recommendation in words: Buy 3 cases, a price to ask your supplier for, such as Ask for $11.82, or Pass for now.
- The numbers behind it: the units, what the order costs and how long it should last, such as 12 units, $117 and about 45 days. The quantity covers your share of the listing's monthly sales, split evenly with the sellers on it.
- One thing to watch out for, such as a price war.
- Things to know, each numbered to match its mark on the chart. Hover one to light up its mark; click it to show it.
When a number is missing, the read says why: "no sales data", "cost not found" or "pack unclear".
The marks on the chart
- Break even: a dashed line at the price where the product stops making money.
- Usual range: where the price sat on most in-stock days last year, carried forward from Today to the day your order arrives.
- Arrives: that day, from your supplier's lead time, or 14 days when it isn't set.
- Out of stock and Amazon selling: when nobody had stock, and when Amazon sold.
- Sellers piling in: several sellers joined at once.
- Price war: the Buy Box falling while sellers join.
- Spike: a short jump well above the usual range; don't price on it.
Events sit under the chart, numbered as in Things to know.
The same marks show in Price history, the larger chart (press H).
Your saved read
A read is saved and shows at once when you open the product again. Once prices change or it gets old, it shows dimmed with "Prices changed since this read (Oct 6)" and Run again.
Ask
Under a read, Ask about this product takes your question or a suggested one; press A to jump there. An answer can suggest order changes you apply with a click, light up marks on the chart, and draft an email to your supplier that you copy and send yourself.
Buying preferences
Your Buying preferences hold how many days an order should last, your minimum ROI, your minimum profit a unit and, optionally, the most an order should cost. Change them in Settings, or from the ⋯ menu beside Read today once a read is showing. Ask for $11.82 is the unit cost that reaches your minimum ROI at today's price; see Asking for a better price. Once a read is showing, the rail's footer offers its quantity, such as PO Assistant suggests 3 cases, with Use 3 to fill it in.
You decide
PO Assistant recommends; you decide. It never changes your order without a click from you, and it never sends anything to a supplier. Every read and every answer uses credits, listed in your credit history as PO Assistant read and Ask PO Assistant.
A worked example
A jar of salsa sells about 320 a month, with 3 other sellers on the listing. You press Run, about 3 credits. Your share is 320 split four ways, 80 a month; for 45 days that's 120 jars, so with 12 in a case the read says Buy 10 cases.
The chart shows break even at $10.21 and a usual range of $13.50 to $14.20, carried forward to Arrives 14 days out. Mark 1, a Price war two months back, took the Buy Box from $14.20 to $11.60 as sellers doubled to 8; it ended. Thing to know 2 says the usual low sits $3.29 above break even. You add 10 cases, or fewer to start smaller.