Amazon has become an increasingly popular platform for all types of sales channels. If you’re a new seller on Amazon, there is a lot of information to take in. One of the most common questions you might have about your profile is: what does sales rank mean on Amazon?
There are millions of products on Amazon. Understanding how yours compares with others on the market is essential. What does your rank mean? How does Amazon calculate it? How important is it, really?
Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about sales ranking on Amazon.
What Is an Amazon Sales Rank?
The Amazon sales rank, or Amazon Best Sellers Rank (BSR) is a number assigned to each item on the platform that represents its popularity in a category or sub-category. While every product has a sub-category ranking, it may not rank in the main category.
A product’s ranking can range anywhere between one and over one million. The lower the number, the more popular your product is. Amazon updates sales rankings on an hourly basis to reflect the fluctuation of sales across the platform.
Your Amazon sales rank is important for a few reasons.
When you rank in the top few results (Amazon sales rank one, two, three, etc.), your product will be at the top of the results in that category, which means shoppers are more likely to click your listing and buy.
Amazon’s continued growth has established it as one of the most prominent online marketplaces. Your success on this platform is instrumental to your business. It tells you how your product is performing, and how your competition might be doing better.
How Are Amazon Sales Ranks Determined?
To fully understand the answer to “What does sales rank mean on Amazon?” you must know how the site assigns your product that number.
Sales
As you may expect, sales play a large role in your Amazon sales rank. It’s not enough to have good sales numbers, however. You need to constantly increase your sales velocity. That is, you need to consistently sell more of your product each day.
If your sales stay consistent — or, even better, increase — your Amazon sales rank will improve.
Sales History
A sudden increase in sales will help you, but it doesn’t erase your history. Your Amazon sales rank reflects your current sales numbers, but it also takes into account your sales history. The longer your product sells well, the more your Amazon sales rank will increase.
Seasonal Spikes
You may notice some products’ sales rank increase during certain seasons. For example, if you’re trying to compete within the clothing category, you may see bathing suits becoming more popular during the summer.
This may cause your product’s rank to waver, but don’t worry. Since these products’ sales will plummet as soon as the temperature drops, you can expect to regain your rank soon enough.
Number of Orders, Not Units
When Amazon assesses your sales, they pay attention to your number of orders rather than units sold. This means that thirty people ordering thirty individual products will help your ranking more than one person buying thirty units of your product.
How Can You Improve Your Amazon Sales Rank?
If you’re dissatisfied with your current Amazon sales rank, you can improve it in a few ways.
Increase Product Visibility
Even if you have the best product on the market, it won’t get sales if potential customers can’t find it. You have to be strategic when you’re writing your products’ titles and descriptions. Your product titles should include the brand name, product name, and product details.
Product Research
Do research about the other products in your sub-category and main category. Determine your niche and how you can market yourself as a stand-out product.
Competitive Prices
Amazon users are looking for the best product at the best price. Offering a better price than competitors will increase your visibility on the platform, helping you climb the ranks.
Highlight Key Features
In your product descriptions, highlight the key features in a concise bullet-point list. Amazon users don’t want long paragraphs of text to sift through, they want to find what they need as quickly as possible.
High-Quality Images
Using high-quality images for your product establishes you as a professional and increases Amazon’s users’ trust in your product. The display image is one of the first things potential customers see, so you want to make a good impression.
How Do You Know If You Have a Good Amazon Sales Rank?
Understanding Amazon’s product search algorithm is essential to knowing what a good ranking is for your product. Amazon’s algorithm takes into account:
- Customer satisfaction: Selling products isn’t enough to boost your products in Amazon’s algorithm. You need positive reviews, too. A high order defect rate can have a detrimental effect on your visibility.
- Conversion rates: Higher conversation rates can boost your product search visibility, and therefore your Amazon sales rank.
- Relevancy: Increase your products’ relevancy with the right optimized keywords to ensure Amazon’s algorithm can direct customers to it.
All of these factor into your ability to gain sales, which contributes to your Amazon sales rank. The higher your sales are, the lower your sales rank is. Remember, a lower sales rank is better. The more competitive your market is, the more difficult it will be to secure a spot in the top results.
Focusing on increasing your sales and keeping them consistent is more important than focusing on your rank in the long run. Over time, this will naturally improve your Amazon sales rank.
Thrive on Amazon With Click Fluency
What does sales rank mean on Amazon? It is a reflection of how well your product performs in comparison to your competitors’ products.
With Click Fluency, you don’t have to handle Amazon keyword optimization or improvements to your Amazon sales rank alone.
Click Fluency is an Amazon agency that works to help Amazon sellers find success on the platform. With our agency, you get an entire team working toward Amazon growth for the price of one employee. Schedule a call today to learn more.