No matter how hard you try, the exact secrets to Amazon’s algorithms will generally remain secret. One metric that concerns most sellers is Amazon’s Best Sellers Rank (BSR). Sellers are in competition to improve their ranking and get more of their products into the Amazon Buy Box, but what does it all mean?
Understanding How Amazon Best Sellers Rank Works
Also known as “Amazon sales rank“, Amazon ranks products on an hourly basis according to how much time has elapsed since one was last sold. So if an item has just been sold, it’ll have a pretty high ranking, as opposed to something that’s been languishing for that whole hour.
Here’s an example showing the best sellers rank on Amazon for Joe Wick’s book, Lean in 15, which is currently ranked at number 12.
It’s Not Necessarily a Barometer of How Well Something is Selling
What many buyers get confused about is what exactly the sales rank signifies. While it does speak to how, and we quote Amazon here, “how well a product is selling overall, it doesn’t always indicate how well an item is selling among other similar items”. It’s a rather isolating mark of measurement, as opposed to being able to compare it within and across categories.
As well, the short time-frame in which the best sellers rank is calculated means that it’s a really small pool to be sampling. Say you’ve got a really small sales rank number (i.e. small in this case means as close to 1 as possible) — thinking it’s a hot seller isn’t necessarily true, as you, or the buyer, could simply be looking at something that’s been sold just a few seconds or minutes ago.
Did You Remember That Amazon ‘Sells’ Free Books?
Those with a Kindle account frequently take advantage of downloading free e-books. Why do we mention this? Because when it comes to the best sellers rank, Amazon does not differentiate between free and not-free books.
That’s right — if a free book is ‘sold’, it’s weighted just the same as if a buyer forked over cash for the same title. The only thing, then, that matters is how many of whatever title have been snapped up, and that number in turns becomes part of the algorithm used to calculate the sales rank.
You Still Have to Work Hard in Other Areas
We can’t stress enough to avoid making the mistake so many buyers have of placing too much importance on just the best sellers rank. It’s tempting to get caught up in the heady rush of seeing items fly off the shelves and your products have a small rank number, but there’s so much more involved than that.
You’re still in competition with other sellers for the same products. Using the example of books, let’s say you’re selling a first-edition copy of Tom and Huck along with nine other Amazon sellers. If all 10 of you sell one copy each of Tom and Huck within a couple hours of each other, you probably won’t see a jump in your Amazon sales rank. To get that spike for yourself, you have to out-sell the other first-edition copies of Tom and Huck so that your sales are higher than the other nine.
The opposite holds true, too, where your competitors can suddenly out-rank you in the Amazon best sellers rank. This usually happens if you’ve been selling at roughly the same rate each day, and one of them enjoys a considerable (and relative) spike on one day.
Last Things to Remember
There are pretty much just last takeaways we want to leave you with:
- Lousy Sales Ranks: This isn’t always or necessarily indicative of a bad-buy item, but only if you do it right. If you’re smart about it, like avoiding items with tons of competing offers, then you have the chance to make nice cushy profits. Just make sure you’re backing it with something like a Buy Box to increase your chances of a tidy profit.
- Product Reviews Matter: When buyers look at your items and see a low sales rank, it’s not the end of the world. If you’ve been an honest and hard-working seller and focusing on acquiring amazing customer reviews, then consumers will take that into account (and most likely a lot more than simply the sales rank).
