If you are familiar with making money on Amazon, you have probably heard about BSR or the Best Seller Rank on some Amazon seller blogs and forums. Maybe some of your items are ranking good on Amazon’s Best Seller Ranking stats and you are really excited seeing your product ranked higher in the stream.
- However, does it really do any good for your product sales?
- Are there some ways to directly influence the BSR of your products on Amazon?
So without further ado, let us dive into the deep
What is Best Seller Rank (BSR)?
The Best Seller Rank or BSR is also called the Amazon Sales Rank. This rank is the score assigned by Amazon to a specific product. In a simple sense, we can say that BSR is a backend algorithm based on Business Intelligence (BI) that works to rank any specific product based on its sales and its historical sales statistics. This number or rank fluctuates after every hour.
The Best Seller Rank of any product can be found listed on several pages, including a main Best Seller Products page in a product details page as well as on a category-level Amazon Best Seller Products page.
Let’s take the example of this UV Flashlight Pet Urine Detector by “Vansky” below.
- It ranks #104 in Tools and Home Improvement.
- It ranks #1 in the more specific subcategory of Pet Urine Detector
- And it ranks #2 in the other specific subcategory of Handheld Flash Lights
This product also appears on the main “Best Sellers page” as well as on the main Best Sellers page in the category of “Tools & Home Improvement” page.
Factors behind Amazon Best Seller Rank
So what are the factors that make your Amazon Best Sales Rank up and down?
The process of calculating a product’s qualification for Amazon Sales Rank is based on the number of most recent sales and past sales statistics relative to all the other products in that same product niche or category.
There is one caution
Most if not all of us know, the Amazon algorithms prefer historical product data. However, they have also baked some business intelligence and predictive abilities in their system which gauges the possible success of a product.
Because of this, sometimes a very product just entered on Amazon a few days ago, can appear on higher rank as compared to a product released a year ago. Although the older item has more cumulative sales or historical data, Amazon’s algorithm is making a prediction that this new product can surpass the older one in the same category.
And in a true sense, you cannot put much stock in your performance if you post your product in a single category. The reason behind this is that Amazon created these listings to “highlight an item’s rank in categories or subcategories where it actually stands out,” not essentially in relation to other similar items.
Can You Track Changes to Your Product’s Best Sellers Rank?
Indeed! There are several Amazon selling tools that can be used to stay on the top of BSR.
How important a Product’s Amazon Sellers Rank is?
If you are focused on winning the Amazon Best Seller Rank to generate your product sales, you have to flip your strategy. Only because a product has a higher sales rank on Amazon, it does not mean it is technically ranking higher for all the search terms, particularly on the organic search side. One of the Market Place Channel Analysts at CPC Strategy, Dave Cooley once said that “BSR is more of a vanity metric…”
By now, more than 50 percent of online buyers begin their product search on Amazon, and Amazon’s search field is the first step to their product hunt.
The key phrases people use are compared with the search key phrases for the listed ASIN. If you aren’t winning many money-oriented keywords with a solid advertising strategy and strong organic content, you will lose sales.
Next Steps to Increase Your Sales and BSR
Do not bet your products BSR to radically increase sales. Instead, concentrate on using other proven methods to improve sales. Start by mastering Amazon Search Engine Optimizing (ASEO) and implementing Enhanced Brand Content to attract audiences in. Or invest in Sponsored Products and FBA. Take your game of Amazon selling to the next level by implementing organic strategy and targeted advertising and you will likely see this BSR be rising as a result. You can take the help of popular tools like Helium 10, Viral Launch, Jungle Scout and the like. I personally recommend Helium 10 if you need to improve your BSR in a matter of a few days. Check this Review about Helium 10 vs. Viral launch.
Helium 10 is all in one package for tools that can help you in to find out your competitors’ keyword strategy for paid and organic searches and the most relevant keyword to move your products to the top of Amazon’s search results as well as to analyze the development of sales and turnover over a specific period of time.
