It is no secret that Amazon web traffic continues to increase, making it one of the fastest growing routes to market for those selling directly to both businesses and consumers.
In fact, Amazon web traffic jumped by 40% year on year in 2020 alone. If your business is selling on Amazon, then understanding one key component of its ranking algorithm – Amazon Sales Rank – will give you the edge against your competitors.
We will cover:
- What is Amazon Sales Rank?
- How do I find my product’s Sales Rank?
- How do I improve my Amazon Sales Rank?
What is Amazon Sales Rank?
Amazon Sales Rank can be a number ranging from #1 to #1,000,000 (depending on category). The lower this number, the better your Sales Rank. Every product on Amazon (including yours) will have a ranking for its sub-category but this is not always the case with the main category.
Understanding Your Product Sales Rank
Your products’ Sales Ranks show how well your product is selling compared to the other products in the same category over a period of time. It is believed that more recent sales carry more weight in calculating Amazon Sales Rank, which means that changes in individual Sales Ranks can appear volatile and fast moving.
Increasing Sales Rank will improve your Amazon SEO and product visibility in search. The better the Sales Rank, the higher the product will appear in Amazon Search Results for relevant keywords. In addition, when a product has been rated as a best seller by Sales Rank (scoring a #1) it will gain the orange best seller badge. The best seller badge makes the product listing stand out more in Amazon Search Results, and more likely to be clicked by the customer.
How do I find my product’s sales rank?
Amazon Sales Rank can be located within the Additional Information section of each Amazon Product Listing. Every product will have a sales rank as long as it has sales history. When inspecting your sales rank, bear in mind that these statistics are updated every hour – so fast moving categories can see huge shifts in Sales Rank in very short timeframes.
As an example the blender in the screenshot below is rated #6 in its main category (Home & Kitchen). This means there are only five other products currently selling in higher volumes within that same category. However, this blender is also rated #1 in the sub-categories ‘Mini Blenders’ and ‘Jug Blenders’. A rating of #1 means it’s the best seller in those categories and no other product in those categories is selling better.
How do I improve my Amazon Sales Rank?
The Amazon Sales Rank calculation is extremely complex and no one knows (aside Amazon) exactly how it works. However, there are things we know will lead to fast improvements in Sales Rank, which in turn will improve your product’s visibility (and lead to even more sales).
1. Get onto Amazon Prime
Amazon favours and promotes Prime listings above non-Prime listings in search results, so getting onto Prime means more chance at volume sales more quickly. There are currently two ways to sell through Prime – Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP), and Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA). Both have advantages and disadvantages, and Arthia can certainly help you determine which is best for your business.
2. Get more Positive Reviews
Getting a greater number of positive reviews will also help your product rank higher. Reviews aren’t easy to get, but Amazon’s built-in “Request a Review” button features above each order in your Amazon back end. Amazon also offer the Vine programme, which in exchange for a small amount of your inventory, will generate reviews from real users who Amazon believe give fair and honest reviews.
3. Do more keyword research
Whilst the process for determining your products keywords at the start of your Amazon journey might be long winded, updating your keywords to influence Sales Rank needn’t be complicated. Use Sales Rank to identify which competitor products are the best performing in your niches, and run these through a reverse ASIN tool to uncover which keywords they’re targeting, and use these also.
4. Make sure your pricing is competitive
Users looking for the best deals often sort search results by price (low to high), but Amazon also uses price as a ranking factor. If your products are priced, much higher than your competitors, you are unlikely to be getting the same visibility. Adjusting your pricing isn’t always a decision you can make without a lot of consideration, but Arthia can assist with calculations around prices, margins and sales volumes – as you gain more sales, better Sales Rank, and more positive reviews as a result, pricing can be pushed back up again with little negative affect. Being within 2% of the cheapest listings, and selling via FBA will also increase your chances of winning the “Buy Box” – which effectively makes your product the default added to basket when a user clicks the Buy Now button.
5. Make sure your content is driven by your shoppers needs
Conversion rates on your product pages also play a part. Products which have the best conversion rates share many common factors including use of high-quality images, multimedia & videos, and of course, professionally written copy which also includes the right keywords to get you ranking organically. Customers are savvy and don’t want to read poorly written descriptions which undermine trust in both the product, customer experience and the brand. If you worry your content isn’t yet supporting your sales, then get in touch – the experts at Arthia are ready to review your content and deliver strategies to leverage it in order to increase conversions.
6. Increase your Pay Per Click (PCC) Activity
If you’re running Sponsored Products or Sponsored Brand Ads, then increasing PPC in the short term will help too – generating sales quickly by “jumping the queue” on the organic listings will all help towards increasing Sales Rank and organic placement, as well as giving you more opportunities to collect positive reviews following each sale.
Need help on influencing your Amazon Sales Rank to increase your sales ?
As you can tell, there’s a lot that goes into Sales Rank which simultaneously improves and is influenced by factors such as reviews, optimisation, and pricing & shipping options. All these have to all be managed carefully – and it’s no easy task. If you’d like a tailored plan for succeeding on Amazon, then do get in touch.
Arthia can help design a strategy for you to help you meet your Amazon goals & objectives.