Amazon

What is Amazon Best Seller Rank (BSR)?

By Tinuiti Team

You’ve likely heard about the Amazon Best Sellers Rank (BSR) on some forums or other Amazon seller blog posts.

Perhaps some of your products are ranking well on the BSR stats, and you’re excited about it.

But does it actually do anything for your product sales? And can you directly influence your product’s BSR?

Let’s dive in.

 

What is the Amazon Best Sellers Rank (BSR)?

 

The Amazon Best Sellers Rank (BSR), also known as the “Amazon Sales Rank” is a score that Amazon assigns a specific product based on historical sales data. It fluctuates hourly.

You can find a product’s BSR ranking listed on multiple pages, including on a main Best Selling Products page, within a product’s detail page, and on a category-level Best Selling Products page.

For instance, Cards against Humanity (below), ranks #2 in “Toys and Games” and #1 in the more granular subcategory of “Toys and Games > Grown-Up Toys > Games”.

 

cards against humanity best sellers rank

 

This game also appears on the main Amazon Best Sellers in Toys & Games category page, as well as the main “Amazon Best Sellers” page.

 

cards-against-humanity-in-games-category-bsr

 

 

Which Factors Impact Your Amazon Best Sellers Rank?

 

A product’s eligibility for Amazon Best Sellers Rank is calculated by the number of recent sales and historical sales data relative to any other products in that same category. 

There’s one caveat – we know Amazon values historical product data but they’ve also baked in predictive abilities into their algorithm that weighs the potential success of a product.

This is why sometimes a new product can have a higher ranking than a product released two years ago. Even though the older product has more historical data or cumulative sales, Amazon is making a prediction that the new product is likely to surpass the older product.

And really, you can’t put much stock in your performance in a single category, because Amazon created these lists to “highlight an item’s rank in the categories or subcategories where it really stands out,” not necessarily in relation to other similar items.

 

Can You Track Changes to Your Amazon Best Sellers Rank?

 

Yes. There are plenty of Amazon seller tools you can use to stay on top of your Amazon Best Sellers Rank. Here are a couple solid options:

 

How Important is a Product’s Amazon Best Sellers Rank?

 

If you’re focused on winning the Amazon BSR to generate sales for your products, you need to flip your strategy.

Just because a product has made it to the BSR doesn’t mean the product is technically ranking highly for any search terms, especially on the organic side.

“The Amazon Best Sellers Rank is more of a vanity metric than anything else…”

 

-Dave Cooley, Marketplace Channel Analyst at CPC Strategy

 

By now, we know that half of all online shoppers start their product hunt on Amazon, and the search bar is the primary way that they’re finding those products.

The keywords they use are matched against search terms for a listed ASIN. If you’re not winning money making keywords with solid organic content and a strong advertising strategy, your sales will fall flat even if you do rank.

 

Next Steps to Improving Your Sales & BSR

 

Don’t bet on your BSR rank to dramatically increase sales. Instead, focus on using other methods to increase sales.

You can start by mastering Amazon SEO and employing Enhanced Brand Content to draw users in like Dream Water did. That shift in focus resulted in a +77% lift in sales and a +41% increase in orders.

Or you can do what Great Art Now did, and invest in FBA and Sponsored Products. (They saw a subsequent +274% lift in order volume.)

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.

 

 

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