Amazon Vendor Economics

SupplyPike vs Carbon6 vs ChargeGuard (1P)

By Robert Antolin · July 11, 2026

If you searched "SupplyPike alternative" or "Carbon6 alternative," you probably noticed the top results are software directories comparing ERP and inventory tools. None of them answer the actual question: what are the real options for an Amazon 1P vendor who wants deductions recovered? This page does.

First, the fact that changes the comparison

SupplyPike, Carbon6, and ChargeGuard are no longer three independent vendors. All three now sit inside one company: SPS Commerce.

• SPS Commerce acquired SupplyPike effective July 31, 2024, for a total consideration of $205.8 million net of cash acquired.
• SPS Commerce then completed its acquisition of Carbon6 on February 7, 2025, for approximately $210 million.
• ChargeGuard was already a Carbon6 product. Carbon6 acquired it in 2023 to add 1P recovery to its portfolio, and it now markets as part of SPS revenue recovery.

So if you are evaluating "SupplyPike vs Carbon6 vs ChargeGuard," you are comparing product lines within one owner, not competing firms. That is not automatically bad. Consolidation can mean more investment and better retailer coverage. But it does mean the market has fewer genuinely independent options than the brand names suggest, and it explains why so many vendors are searching for alternatives right now: pricing, packaging, and account teams change after roll-ups, and buyers want a second option before renewal.

What each product actually does well

An honest comparison starts with credit where it is due.

SupplyPike

SupplyPike built its reputation as invoice-deduction software: it monitors remittance data, identifies invalid deductions, and automates dispute filing, with reporting that helps you fix root causes. Its SupplierWiki content is some of the best free education in the category, including the definitive write-ups on Amazon's roughly 2-year dispute window for shortage and price claims. Historically strongest in Walmart supplier recovery, with Amazon coverage added alongside. If you have in-house staff who will work the disputes and you want software to find and file them, it is a credible pick.

Carbon6

Carbon6 assembled a broad toolkit for Amazon sellers on both sides of the platform: 3P reimbursement recovery (Seller Investigators), plus 1P deduction management through ChargeGuard. Breadth is the strength. A brand running both Vendor Central and Seller Central can consolidate recovery streams with one provider, and Carbon6's blog is a consistently useful reference on chargeback types and policy changes.

ChargeGuard

ChargeGuard is the 1P-specific offer: connect your Vendor Central account, get a free recovery audit, and pay nothing until refunds land. Published third-party reviews describe a 25% commission on recovered funds, with Carbon6 citing average recovery around 75% of eligible value. Contingency pricing with no upfront cost is genuinely vendor-friendly: the provider only earns when you do. For a vendor who wants disputes handled entirely hands-off, this model works.

The differences that actually matter

Strip away the branding and there are three real decision axes.

Software-first vs service-first. SupplyPike sells software your team operates. ChargeGuard sells an outcome a team delivers. The middle path, a consultant who runs the recovery process and fixes the upstream causes, is what the pure tools do not do: renegotiating allowance terms, correcting EDI and ASN processes so deductions stop accruing, and building evidence capture into your shipping workflow. Recovery without prevention is a subscription to your own problem.

Pricing model. SaaS subscriptions suit vendors with consistent seven-figure deduction volume and staff to work the queue. Contingency models in this category typically take 15 to 25% of recovered amounts. Neither is wrong; the math depends on your deduction volume, win rates, and internal capacity. What you should not accept is paying a full contingency rate on deductions that a process fix would have eliminated.

Who owns prevention. Deductions are not small. Compliance chargebacks alone typically cost vendors 1 to 5% of invoice value annually, and RT7 Digital pegs combined chargeback-plus-shortage leakage at 2 to 5% of shipped COGS. A recovery-only engagement claws some of that back every quarter, forever. A prevention-led engagement makes the number shrink. Ask any provider what percentage of their client base sees deduction rates fall year over year; the answer tells you which business they are really in.

For background on what these deductions are and why most shortages are recoverable, see our guides to Amazon vendor deductions and disputing shortage claims.

How to evaluate a 1P deduction-recovery partner: 7 questions

Use this checklist with any provider, including us.

1. Is Amazon 1P their core competence? Walmart-first tools bolt Amazon on. Ask how they handle Vendor Central Dispute Management specifics: individual claim filing (bulk disputes were discontinued), the roughly 2-year hard window for shortage and price claims, and the 30-day chargeback dispute window.
2. Recovery, prevention, or both? Ask for the split of their work. If 100% is dispute filing, budget separately for fixing root causes.
3. What is the all-in cost model? SaaS fee, contingency percentage (15 to 25% is the market range), or fixed fee. Model it against your trailing 12 months of deductions before signing.
4. Who does the work? Software you operate, their analysts, or a hybrid. Match it to your team's real capacity, not the capacity you wish you had.
5. What evidence do they need from you? Winning disputes requires signed PODs, BOLs, and ASN transmission logs indexed to POs. A provider who never asks about your evidence capture will plateau at the easy wins.
6. What happens at contract end? Do you keep the dispute history, the reporting, and the documented process? Or does the capability leave with the vendor?
7. Are they independent of your EDI provider? Post-consolidation, your EDI network, your recovery software, and your recovery service may all be one company. Decide whether that concentration helps or worries you.

Where a service-first partner fits

Tahiti North Consulting is not a software platform, and we do not pretend to be one. We are the service-first alternative: a margin recovery engagement that audits all deduction streams (chargebacks, shortages, price claims, co-op), files and escalates disputes with audit-ready evidence, and then fixes the upstream processes so the deduction rate falls instead of recurring. The dispute-quality gap is the whole game now that Amazon's automated review screens submissions: audit-ready packages win roughly 70% of the time, while unprepared submissions win under 40%. You can see the full offer on our services page.

If you are comparing SupplyPike, Carbon6, and ChargeGuard, add one more data point to the spreadsheet: a free deduction scan of your own account. We review your remittance data, size the recoverable pool by stream, and show you the number before you commit to anyone, us included. Request the free scan here.