Amazon is an ecommerce company built on big data and anyone who has been selling on amazon knows that they have plenty of it. Sellers like myself use data that amazon gives to us directly for free, and some of the data we pay for using services like Keepa, Jungle Scout, or Helium 10. There are lots of companies that pay amazon to use their data to create tools for sellers looking to embrace selling products on amazon. However, a lot of data can be obtained from one free key metric that everyone loves to talk about is amazon sales rank, So that's exactly what we are going to talk about today!
What is sales rank on amazon?
Sales rank, also referred to Best Sellers Rank (BSR) is a number that amazon assigns to a product based on how fast the product sells with 1 being the fast selling item in that category.
Typically, when a seller is looking at the sales rank it can give them a snapshot in time at how that specific product is performing at that time. It may be able to help the seller decide if the product going to sell fast, or just sit on the shelf.
is a high sales rank good?
No, the higher the sales rank the slower that product will sell in general terms. Every category is different and have different parameters that determine how fast an item sales in regards to that category. For example, a book with a rank of 250,000 will sell a lot more often than a video game with that same rank.
Should amazon rank be high or low?
Generally, You want your amazon sales rank to be as low as possible with number 1 being the best selling item in that category. As a seller, you should focus on buying items that sell and not items that will sit in a warehouse forever. General, rule of thumb is to be in the top 1% of items sold on amazon within a category. The top 1% is where majority of the sales on amazon come from.
How do I find the sales rank of a product on amazon?
The sales rank of any product can be found directly on amazon on the product page in the product details section. You are gonna want to look at the Best sellers Rank which will be followed by a number and category. This is my favorite way to find the sales rank outside of paid tools. Alternatively, if you have the amazon sellers app downloaded, you can click the camera button and point it at a barcode and see the sales rank that way as well.
Why do some items not have sales rank?
Some Items do not have sales rank because that item has not been sold on amazon under that listing. When a listing is created the product hasn't had a chance to rank because it has not sold yet. Once that product sells, it will then be given a rank based on the how fast that item sells within that category. When a listing is first created, it may take several months of consistent selling to determine a typical rank for that product.
How often does amazon update its sales rank?
Amazon is very automated and this process usually only takes a few minutes to update. A great example of this is when a book sells with a very high sales rank. If it is a merchant fulfilled book and you get the notification, you can look into the listing and may be able to catch the rank at 3,758,820 for the example's sake. wait a few minutes, eat a banana while you wait, and check it again, Now the rank is 187,258. That is a huge a difference in just a matter of minutes.
What does amazon rankings mean in terms of sales?
Amazon rankings have a direct correlation with sales on a logarithmic scale. What does this mean? When the rank is closer to 1 the products sell much more often possibly of hundreds of units per day. However, there is a point when the units slow down in speed and this creates a proportionally harder for some products to rank in top 100 or top 1000. The top 1000 products may be comprised of products that sell from 50 plus times per day. Then the same rule will applies in the top 100,000 with the lower half possibly selling on 30 units per month.
On the other hand, when the product sales fall to less than 1 per day the rankings begin to rise in between each sale until another sale happens. Particularly, the books category is one of the best examples of this. Books is such a large category with over 60 million titles, anyone could purchase a book that hasn't been purchased in a while. Books with ranks over 200,000 will come down to a number typically under 200,000 regardless of how high that rank is. Every category is different and each category has its own inflection point when sales slow to less than a day, or less than 10 a day, or any number of sales per day and rank gives you more clues about the success of that product.
Does sales rank matter?
Yes, sales rank matters to amazon sellers, and manufacturer's of that product. Sales rank at its core is not that important to a business's overall success and many people can find success without consideration of sales rank. However, sales rank can give you clues as to how fast your item is selling and weather or not you should try to increase your sales rank.
How can I Increase my seller rank?
Increasing seller rank is as simple as increasing sales. There are several ways to increase sales on amazon and here is a quick list of some things you can do to improve your sales and seller rank.
Update Pricing
You can get more sales by simply lowering your price, although this can get you more sales, it will squeeze your margin. This may be a good route if you have very high margins and are a private label brand. Also, not getting the buy box especially on your own listing will have a detrimental impact on your listing. Playing with the pricing may cause your listing to show the buy box making it easier to win sales.
Improve Listing Photos
Alternatively, you can really improve your listing to have optimized images of your products. Amazon wants the main image to have a white background but the remaining images you pretty much have is a blank canvas to paint your product to be the solution your customer is looking for. Some simple things you can do is by using a mixture of infographics and lifestyle images featuring your product in real life examples.
Improve Your Copy
Having good copy is essential for any success of your product and listing on amazon. Your copy is the words that you use to make your product page stand out. This includes using keywords and phrases that will be used to help you show up in more search results. Its vital to include as many real world search terms built around your product. Look at other successful listing to compare to see how you can improve your own copy.
Run PPC Ads
You can try to run a PPC or pay per click ad campaign. This will help your item show up more often for the specific search terms that you would like your product to show up for. You should only run PPC on a listing that has been optimized. Without optimizing, your PPC ad can definitely cost more money especially if the customer has similar products options.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, sales rank can be used to help determine how fast a product can sell and it can also mislead you on how fast a product can sell. Use sales rank to the best of your ability but there are more important factors than just sales rank alone. I like to think of products in terms of units per month as my prefered metric but this can sometimes only be determined with paid software.