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Selling on Amazon is no easy feat, with small- and medium-sized businesses selling around 4,000 products on the online marketplace per minute. To enable sellers to monitor their products’ performance in their category and subcategory, Amazon created a metric called Best Seller Rank (BSR).
Most products that have been sold on Amazon are awarded the Best Seller Rank. As its name suggests, a high ranking indicates that a product sells well, making it more appealing to customers. For that reason, Amazon sellers aim for a high BSR to boost their brand image and revenue.
This article will explain how Amazon BSR works in 2024, helping you keep track of the list and fuel your e-commerce store’s success.
Amazon defines BSR as a metric that indicates how an item sells compared to other items in the same category. It displays the bestsellers for each featured category in near real-time, so it’s updated many times throughout the day.
The lower the score, the higher the Amazon sales rank. For example, if your store’s iPhone case ranks #5 in the BSR for Cell Phones & Accessories, it means it’s the 5th bestselling item in that category.
You can see the BSR ranking of an item on the Product Details page when you scroll down to the Product Information section.
As the image shows, an item can have more than one BSR, particularly if it’s listed in multiple categories. Some products may not have a BSR, a typical case for electronics, though you’ll still see the items in the Best Sellers list. The image below shows the Product Information for Apple AirPods Pro. It doesn’t have the BSR details, yet the product is still displayed as the number 4 best seller in the electronics category.
The Amazon BSR only points out how well a product sells overall. It’s not a metric for determining the product’s quality. Moreover, it doesn’t always show how a product sells in relation to the same products. That’s why some items have more than one BSR. It allows buyers and sellers to identify the exact category where the product really stands out. For example, an item ranking #2563 in the Clothes, Shoes, & Jewelry category may rank #50 in Women’s Tunics.
The BSR ranking is unrelated to a product’s page view data or customer reviews. An item with several positive reviews isn’t necessarily a top seller; likewise, a product with significant page views isn’t automatically a best-selling item compared to its rival products.
Lastly, an item’s BSR may vary depending on the Amazon store. For instance, an item that ranks #10 in the United States may have a higher or lower ranking in the United Kingdom.
Amazon awards a BSR to an item based on the following factors:
Recent sales have a higher impact on the BSR than historical sales. That’s why a product’s BSR changes frequently. However, it doesn’t change with every sale. For example, if you sell 15 iPhone cases in one hour and only 10 in the following hour, the item’s BSR won’t necessarily decline. The BSR algorithm will consider both factors for the next ranking update.
You can see the live Best Sellers List by accessing this page. It shows the most popular products for each featured category in chronological order. You can also go to the Amazon homepage, choose any category from the menu, click “Sort by:” on the top-right corner of the screen, and select “Best Sellers.”
Here are other tips on keeping track of the Best Sellers List:
Check Out Customer Reviews
Look for products in your business’s category and read customer reviews. It will help you identify the product’s strengths and weaknesses and compare them to your item. If you notice a lot of faults, you may also be able to spot patterns in the complaints. For example, if customers frequently complain of the product’s flimsy material, perhaps you can create an alternative with a more robust material and outperform your competitor.
Compare Sales Metrics to BSR Scores
Use your Seller Central account to view and monitor key metrics and KPIs, such as Impressions, Clicks, Clickthrough Rate, Purchases, and Return Buyers. Compare these metrics to your products’ BSR scores to gain valuable insights on promoting your business and expanding its reach. Growth in sales metrics and BSR scores may let you know which products to focus on, while declining figures may signify that you need to phase out poorly performing products.
Conduct Keyword Research
Your competitors’ products may be selling better than yours because they utilize keywords customers use to search for items in your business’s category. To research keywords, type various words and phrases in the Amazon search box. Look at the suggestions in the drop-down selection and create a list of relevant keywords for related listings.
You can also experiment with similar searches to discover what’s already out there and compare search items to determine which keywords generate the most accurate results.
If you have a Professional plan in Seller Central, you can unlock Brand Analytics to conduct more streamlined keyword research and access reports on search catalog performance, audience demographics, and more. There are also several free Amazon product research tools that can help you with this process.
Monitor Your BSR Through Seller Central
If you’re a registered seller in Seller Central, you can view your products’ BSR scores even without access to Brand Analytics. Click Reports from the top menu on your dashboard and select Business Reports. Go to Inventory in Stock and find the Sales Rank column to view BSR scores.
Amazon recommends the following techniques to improve your product’s BSR score:
Select Product Categories Deliberately
It’s crucial to choose the category of your listing with deliberation because Amazon BSR scores rise and fall relative to the items within the same category.
Explore the Best Sellers list to accurately identify the category and subcategory of the item you want to list. If your product has variations, assign the parent Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) and all child ASINs in the same category.
Optimize Amazon Listings
Optimizing your listings increases their visibility and search ranking. Focus on the seven most critical aspects of a listing: keywords, images, titles, pricing, descriptions, key features, and backend search keywords.
Here’s an overview of the steps to optimizing your Amazon listings:
Price Your Products Competitively
Monitor your competitors’ pricing and experiment with different amounts to identify the price that pulls in the most sales. You can also use the Automate Pricing tool to make the prices of your products automatically adjust depending on the trend.
Increase Marketing and Advertising Efforts
Promote your products on multiple channels, including social media, search engines, blogs, and more. Boost customer retention by offering cost-effective subscription boxes, bundles, and other incentives. Amazon also offers exclusive advertising options for their sellers, so check that out.
Engage with Your Customers
Ensure a smooth and excellent customer experience from browsing to delivery. Provide complete product information, answer questions quickly, and respond to reviews, including positive ones. Additionally, be active on social media so customers can reach you in other channels.
If you’re still in the process of becoming a registered Amazon seller, researching the most recent bestsellers can help you decide on a profitable product to sell. Here are the online marketplace’s top 5 bestsellers in each category as of writing:
Clothing, Shoes, and Jewelry
Beauty and Personal Care
Kitchen and Dining
Electronics
Toys and Games
Sports and Outdoors
These items became bestsellers for the following reasons:
Factors such as average price, average revenue, search volume, and BSR scores also influence the sales rank of Amazon products. Note that items in the list change frequently and may vary depending on your location.
The Movers and Shakers list shows Amazon’s biggest gainers in sales rank over the past 24 hours. Like the Best Sellers List, it also changes in near real-time.
It will also be helpful to monitor the Movers and Shakers in your product’s category to recognize trends and patterns, like how often an item like yours increases or drops in sales. The list also calculates the rate at which an item’s sales increases. For example, if a Kitchen and Dining product currently ranks 10 in the Best Sellers List but was only ranked 30 twenty-four hours ago, its sales have soared to 200%.
Now that we know what kinds of products sell the most on Amazon, let’s figure out how to create a product that will dominate the Best Sellers List.
High demand, little to no competition, low seasonality, and the other factors previously mentioned determine the marketability and profitability of a product. Let’s form a more generalized idea of what type of products meet these criteria.
Commodities
Commodities are items everyone needs daily, like bath products, laundry products, salt, pepper, etc. They are available in many small and large retail stores without significant differences in price and quality.
However, despite their high demand, selling them on major marketplaces like Amazon can take time and effort. A solid branding strategy is key to making your commoditized product sell well. With tons of competitors on Amazon, you need to create a more personalized brand that incorporates your expertise, passions, and values into your product. Your marketing message should be carefully tailored to your target audience. You can utilize Seller Central to optimize your listing with a brand story and other essential elements.
Niche Products
These are products available in only a few retail stores and have limited suppliers. They are usually handmade, which gives you a competitive advantage. The downside is that niche products are typically more expensive than commodities, making their market relatively small.
Amazon offers a space for handmade products on Amazon Handmade. Artisans from over 80 countries are currently registered sellers. To join, sign up to Seller Central, and once your account has been approved, send your application to Amazon’s artisan-only community. Handmade-approved applicants enjoy the benefit of a waived Professional Selling Fee, allowing them to save $480 per year. In addition, when you sell a handmade product, Amazon will deduct a 15% referral fee.
Create a Product You’re Passionate About
You can only sell a product more easily if you’re passionate about it. This approach may be a little risky, but with sufficient knowledge about the market and running a business, you can form a feasible plan and identify the right market. If your product is related to a hobby or activity you enjoy, your community of like-minded people can be your customers. Just make sure that your product solves a problem or enhances one’s quality of life for it to be valuable for your customers.
You can invest in any of these trusted e-commerce solutions to streamline tracking Amazon’s Best Sellers list and maximizing your product’s sales potential.
Threecolts
As the world’s most comprehensive e-commerce solution, Threecolts offers a variety of tools for managing online marketplaces, including Amazon, Walmart, and eBay. Bindwise, its monitoring tool for Amazon sellers, allows you to discover active hijackers selling your product so you can immediately report them. Securing your Amazon store is crucial in aiming for a good BSR score because it cements your business’s legitimacy. The more trusted your Amazon store is, the more customers will become confident about buying your products.
Bindwise also detects significant defects in your listings, alerting you before Amazon hides your listings from customers without your knowledge. As a result, you’ll immediately learn what to fix and prevent sales loss from unnoticed defects.
If you’re selling books, ScoutIQ should be your go-to Threecolts solution for determining your book’s sales potential. The software scans books to estimate its profits with FBA fees, shipping costs, and other expenses taken into account. It also calculates the book’s sales rank to help you make informed decisions about selling a particular title.
Jungle Scout
Jungle Scout offers an array of tools for managing your store on Amazon and other e-commerce sites. One of its excellent Amazon seller solutions is Product Tracker—a software that helps you compare product ideas and sales metrics. It also identifies a product’s average daily rank, allowing you to monitor your item’s performance compared to similar products in its category.
To track more advanced sales metrics, it also has a platform that acts as your Amazon financial command center. It displays a product’s current and historical sales; generates data on revenue, PPC campaign performance, and supplier and shipping costs; creates your business’s profit and loss statement; and documents your expenses. As such, Sales Analytics can be a handy tool for your pricing strategy and boosting your profitability.
Seller App
Seller App delivers product intelligence, keyword insights, advertising automation, and sales analytics to your Amazon store. Its solution for tracking BSR and sales metrics is the Amazon Product Research Tool. It pulls up reports on your Amazon data with comprehensive filters to help you focus on products relevant to your business. It also sends alerts regarding critical changes in the products you’re tracking, like spikes and drops in BSR. Additionally, Amazon Product Research streamlines your optimization efforts by gathering insights into your competitors’ SEO strategies and other marketing tactics.
Amazon Best Seller Rank is a reliable metric that allows sellers to estimate their product’s potential in the market. However, it is only one factor that influences your product’s value. Just because an item belongs in the top 5 best sellers doesn’t mean it’s high-quality and essential, so you shouldn’t rely on BSR scores alone to measure your product’s profitability. While the numbers matter, people who genuinely need your product won’t likely check its BSR score before purchasing them. Focusing on your entire marketing plan is the ultimate key to fueling your business’s success.
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