In this article, we’re going to cover Amazon Best Sellers Rank; what it is, how it is calculated, and why it’s important. Amazon Best Sellers Rank, also known as Amazon Sales Rank, is one of the top factors that we take into account when scouting products.
Let’s dive in.
What is the Amazon Best Sellers Rank and where to find it?
Amazon Best Sellers Rank (BSR) is the numerical value given to a product by Amazon that explains the relationship among products within one category based on their sales performance. It indicates how often a product sells in relation to other products in its category.
For that reason, it’s a good indicator of how well a product is currently selling on Amazon. The lower the product’s BSR, the better its sales. So, a product with the BSR of #1 would be the best-selling product in its category.
To find a product’s BSR, simply go to an Amazon product page and scroll down to the product details section. If you’re on a mobile device, you may need to go to the product description block and click on it.
It’s important to remember that only products within the same main category are taken into consideration when calculating your sales rank. Each of the main categories have subcategories and those subcategories also have sales rank. However, we only care about a sales rank in its main category. This is because there are many weak subcategories on Amazon where a product can rank #1 in them but only net a few sales a month.
Here is an example:
As you can see, the Amazon Best Sellers Rank of the above product is over 126K in the main category of Grocery & Gourmet Food, but it also has a BSR of 101 in the subcategory Butter Cookies. If that had been the main category sales rank, this would translate into 9,900 sales per month. Instead, its main category sales rank of over 126K in Grocery & Gourmet Food translates to less than 1 sale per month. So, as you can see, the subcategory sales rank is mostly irrelevant. A product can have a very low subcategory rank but generate almost zero sales. There are many niche subcategories on Amazon, so be sure to disregard any subcategory sales rank, and focus only on the main category rank.
How is the Amazon Best Sellers Rank Calculated?
Although Amazon itself doesn’t reveal exactly how the BSR is calculated, there are several factors that influence and contribute to it, including:
Sales, both current and historic
Price changes, including sales and promotions
Similar competitive products
The BSR reflects current sales trends, as well as historical sales volume, and is updated hourly.
For example, if your product sold 5 units in one hour and your competitor sold 2 units, your BSR would be better than your competitors. However, if in the following hour you sold only two units and your competitor sold three, you would still have a better BSR because the historical sales are also taken into account, so you won’t automatically lose (or gain) a ranking that quickly. The BSR algorithm looks at your product sales overall and then allocates the numbers, so there are really never any drastic fluctuations.
An important thing you should notice is that the Best Sellers Rank does not change as quickly even with high sales volume when you offer your products at a discount via a promotion or a coupon. That is because Amazon has put this factor into place to deter sellers from “gaming” the Best Sellers Rank system using promotional giveaways to create phony sales velocity.
What’s the Difference Between Amazon Best Sellers Rank and Organic Rank?
As an Amazon seller, it’s likely that sometimes when you search products via Amazon query box for a given keyword, you may be surprised and wonder why many products appear at higher positions than others even though their BSR way is much higher. This brings to one confusing thing that a lot of new sellers confuse is the difference between Amazon Best Sellers Rank and organic ranking.
Best Sellers Rank vs Organic Rank:
Best Sellers Rank is how well the product ranks based on sales while the organic ranking is how well the product ranks for a particular keyword. In other words, organic ranking is where a product appears on Amazon’s search engine results pages (SERP) for a particular keyword. Sales are a factor in achieving a decent BSR, whereas relevant keywords used in the product title, bullet points and main listing are critical in achieving a high organic ranking on Amazon.
The product’s position on Amazon’s SERP has no bearing on the product’s current Amazon Best Sellers Rank. In fact, the products on the SERP are organized by what Amazon sees as the most relevant products for that keyword search.
However, just because a product ranks favorably on Amazon’s SERP doesn’t necessarily mean that it will have a good BSR as well. Your BSR doesn’t influence your organic ranking at all, just like your keywords don’t directly impact your BSR.
Although keywords and BSR both have totally different functions, these two factors are somewhat linked, after all, you need to ensure visibility in the search results through relevant keywords to make sales, and those sales will ultimately impact your BSR.
How can I use Amazon Best Sellers Rank to estimate sales?
Now that you know what sales rank is, where to find them, and that they represent sales estimation, it’s now time to learn how to use Amazon Best Sellers Rank to estimate sales.
For this we use a browser extension called Jungle Scout Pro. This tool provides monthly sales estimation at the click of a button.
There are plenty of other sales estimation tools available such as AMZScout, Helium 10, Scope, etc but after having tried all of them, we can confidently say that Jungle Scout has been far and away the most accurate. Now, it is not 100% accurate as no sales estimator is because it’s just not possible. Only Amazon has access to the true sales numbers, but in our experience, Jungle Scout is the best.
To get sales estimation using Jungle Scout extension, we just open the product details page, click on the icon and it will do the rest.
Once that button clicked, the tool will open up a big spreadsheet that shows us the following information:
- The average monthly sales for the product
- The average Amazon Best Sellers Rank
- And a whole lot more!
Tips: For those who don’t have a license of Jungle Scout extension and want to get your feet wet first, then you can use their free estimator application as an alternative (www.junglescout.com/estimator). Though the free app is less accurate and it doesn’t estimate the sales for an entire category like the paid extension version, it can make sales estimations simple for you if you prefer to do things the old-fashioned way.
Plus, if you want to just get a feel for Amazon and sell only a couple products at first, this might be the best way for you to go.
How Can I Improve My Amazon Best Sellers Rank?
To improve your BSR, you will need to generate more sales on Amazon than your competitors. Because the sales rank is a relative figure, you have to keep an eye on your own sales volume as well as that of your competitors. If you sell 3 more units per day, but your strongest competitor does as well, then your ranking won’t improve.
So, to really effectively improve your Amazon Best Sellers Rank you should look at the bigger picture. Below are the things you should focus on to increase sales:
1. Optimize Product Listing
First one first, make sure that both the “front end” and “back end” of your listing are well-optimized. Product title, bullet points, product description, premium search terms must include only relevant keywords. Also, make sure to choose only high-quality images that set you apart from your competitors.
2. Be Competitive on Price
Price is a significant factor when it comes to winning the buy box, so you must set your prices correctly. Consider using repricing software to remain competitive.
3. Utilize Amazon FBA and Prime
Buyers love speedy delivery and the trust and reliability that comes with FBA and Prime, so this brings you a huge opportunity to increase your sales – and ultimately your Amazon Best Seller Rank.
4. Invest in Sponsored Products
Take your Amazon game to the next level with a targeted advertising and organic strategy, and you’ll likely see your BSR rise as a result.
Final Thoughts
Now that you have an overall understanding of the Amazon Best Sellers Rank – what it is, how it’s calculated, how it differs from organic ranking, and how to use it to estimate sales, now let's wrap this subject up by a takeaway lesson. That is, we don’t think of sales rank as a number, instead, we look beyond it to find what it actually means in terms of units sold. We don’t care about sales rank, instead, we care about what they represent, and how they influence our product scouting and/or buying decisions.