New Amazon app store offers selling tools to Marketplace partners

A new business app store for the Amazon Marketplace e-commerce platform will allow third party retailers to procure software to help them increase sales.

The Amazon Marketplace Web Service (MWS) has more than one million SMB users and is essentially a way for sellers to share information about inventory, orders and logistics with Amazon.

The new ‘Seller Central’ app store will make it easier to identify tools that can help with pricing, inventory, advertising and other tasks. It will be rolled out on a gradual basis to ensure there are no significant teething problems.

Amazon Marketplace selling tools

"Many developers have innovated and created applications that complement our tools and integrate with our service," Amazon told CNET. "We created the Marketplace Appstore to help businesses more easily discover these applications, streamline their business operations, and ultimately create a better experience for our customers."

Seller Labs will be one of the first software publishers to use the platform, offering its Ignite product for advertising management and Feedback Genius, which aids reputation management and customer communication.

"The open communication with Amazon and the new Developer Council helps Seller Labs ensure it's developing the right features for our customers and provides the best experience for sellers," said Hank Harris, CEO of Seller Labs. "The Marketplace Appstore is simply the beginning of bringing more effective tools to Amazon sellers."

Steve McCaskill is TechRadar Pro's resident mobile industry expert, covering all aspects of the UK and global news, from operators to service providers and everything in between. He is a former editor of Silicon UK and journalist with over a decade's experience in the technology industry, writing about technology, in particular, telecoms, mobile and sports tech, sports, video games and media.