The Amazon marketplace in the United States has hundreds of millions of products listed in over 30 categories.
And, while those figures may appear astounding, what’s even more astounding is that the vast majority of items available on Amazon (that have made one or more sales) are given a special ranking known as the Amazon Best Sellers Rank (BSR).
What Is Amazon’s Best Seller Rank (BSR)?
Amazon BSR is an abbreviation for best sellers rank. As you might expect, it is indicative of Amazon’s best sellers.
Amazon products will be ranked using metrics such as historical sales and current performance. The site assigns scores based on the product’s category.
For instance, a product that is ranked #1 sells a lot more than a product that is ranked #200,000.
But the BSR only looks at how well a product sells in one category. In other words, products don’t have an overall BSR that compares their sales to those of every other product on Amazon.
But since many items on Amazon sell in more than one category, an item could have more than one BSR. Especially when you consider that almost every main category and subcategory on Amazon has its own ranking system for best sellers.
Can there be more than one BSR for a product?
Yes! The BSR shows how well a product does in a certain category. This means that a BSR can be earned in more than one category.
What factors go into determining the Amazon Best Sellers Rank?
Although Amazon does not divulge how the Best Sellers Rank is determined, it is influenced by a number of criteria, including:
- Sales in the present and the past
- Changes in product prices and promotions
- Products that are competitive
- Current sales trends, as well as past sales volume, have the most influence on the BSR, which is updated hourly.
How Does Amazon Determine BSR?
As you might expect, Amazon is vague about how it calculates its best-seller rankings. What we do know is as follows:
The website uses recent Amazon sales as well as historical data to calculate Amazon’s best sellers’ rank. This means that a rank provides a good indication of how well a product performs in a specific category.
It should be noted that the ranking does not take into account factors such as pricing, reviews, ratings, and so on.
- Is it possible for a newer product to have a high sales rank?
- If you’re paying attention, you might have noticed that a newer product has a higher sales rank than an older product.
- How can this be if a sales rank is based on current and previous Amazon sales?
The BSR algorithm has predictive capabilities in addition to analyzing current and historical sales. It can predict how well a product will perform in the future. This is why a newer product may outperform an older product in terms of sales rank.
Is BSR valuable for consumers?
As previously stated, your BSR may be appealing to your customers. They can be compelled to buy if they see your product on the bestseller page. Alternatively, customers may notice your sales rank when reading the product description.
However, we’ve seen that BSR isn’t always at the top of a shopper’s list of priorities.
They’d rather see that you’re a well-known brand with a lot of favourable feedback. Instead of attempting to increase your BSR, concentrate on encouraging your customers to submit reviews, share with their friends, and so on.
Final Thoughts
You should know what BSR is by now. It’s just a number that Amazon’s best sellers use to rank products in different categories. It shows how well your sales are going and can help people believe in your products.
Still, getting a better BSR shouldn’t be your only goal. Even if a product is on the list of best sellers, Amazon won’t push it on customers. You need to use the right keywords, make sure your listing is optimized, and so on.
