What Is Sales Rank On Amazon

Curious about Amazon sales rankings? Ihor Dubovetskyi of Profit Whales shares valuable information in this guest post.

The Amazon sales rank, also referred to as the Best Seller Rank (BSR), is a score awarded to all Amazon products by the A10 algorithm. It is calculated with a complex formula that is unavailable to the general public.

What we know for sure is that the algorithm takes into account certain variables related to a particular product and its performance on Amazon. And they all have to do with sales:

Change in sales rank correlates strongly to a change in sales (by sales we mean some orders that have been paid for by the customers)
A history of sales influences it over some period: the more consistent your sales are, the better your BSR (as opposed to someone selling as much as you do, but more sporadically)

Here are examples of BSR for two competitors from the Amazon page one search results for the search query bow:

Amazon sales rank example for search query bow, first place in subcategory

Amazon sales rank example for search query bow, fourth place in subcategory

Why Do Sellers Bother With BSR?

Since BSR is awarded to every product of every seller, it's a competitive metric. This means that anyone can measure how well their product is faring compared to the rest of their market.

Bear in mind that there are 2 BSR values:

Example of product details and sales rank placement on Amazon listing

General Category Rank
Subcategory Rank

While it would certainly be an excellent ego checkbox tick, getting a number one BSR in a general category wouldn't improve sales. Very few shoppers buy the first item they see when jumping to a category homepage. Instead, you should pay attention to the subcategory BSR.

Basically, this number lets you see the RESULTS of your recent selling efforts compared to your historical results - as well as the efforts other sellers in your market put into their business.

Does a Good Amazon Sales Rank Benefit Me?

Let us break this one down with an example.

Imagine your potential customer types a search query on Amazon.

As we all know, the Amazon A10 search algorithm takes hundreds of variables into consideration in the split seconds after a customer dials in her search query:

Does your product have a history of successful impressions, clicks, and purchases with this particular search term (i.e. a keyword)? If it does, it already has some historic keyword ranking value. That value is taken into account by the A10 when processing this query.
Your current inventory level is considered. After all, there's not much point in showing a product (even a very relevant one!) if stock will run out in a couple of days.
Product reviews are considered (both how many and how good). A product with better reviews is more likely to get bought, so it is ranked higher.
Did you pay for Amazon Sponsored Ads on this particular keyword? If you did, your score will increase.

And then there are sales. Did the customers buy your product in the past? Even if what you sell may look weird, have a stupidly high price, display 30 odd reviews where competitors boast 3000… if people paid their money, it MUST be worth it, right? And this is no small deal. Previous sales history (and recent history at that) has a huge impact on the position a product will get on the Amazon search results page. Real values are kept secret by Amazon, of course - but some exploring sellers believe that good historical sales comprise up to 30% of the resultant search query score.

Illustration showing how Amazon sales rank impacts sales

Does the latter variable sound familiar? Well, it should, because that IS what BSR is calculated with.

A good BSR is an indication that one of your product's major parameters (historic sales) is in its top form. It helps you with your current sales, along with the solid listing, keyword-rich, and well-orchestrated PPC campaigns (like the ones we at Profit Whales make with our Zero to Hero software), sufficient inventory, and positive reviews.

Can a Bad BSR Cause Problems?

On the other hand - a high Amazon sales rank value (meaning a bad position) is still a useful gauge. Like all numbers that incorporate a certain population, it has a bell-shaped curve. Most sellers who do okay with their sales will find themselves somewhere in the middle.

So If you are, say, a #412 in your subcategory - is there much point in looking at how #411 goes about its business and what they do to get more sales?

No.

But if you try and dissect what the top three sellers are doing (What kind of photos do they use? What are their bullet points? What complementary products do they sell together? etc.) and try to take their best practices, then you may one day see your BSR be #350. It is this jump in Amazon sales rank that will tell you that you did something right, and you should continue doing that.

The Bottom Line

A small hint that an Amazon sales rank should really teach all of us sellers is this: BSR considers only the number of sales. Not keyword ranking, not inventory, not PPC budget. Just sales.

Get more sales, and you will climb higher up all Amazon ranks. And those do not necessarily have to come from the Amazon search console. Links from your company site that go to your Amazon product page and result in sales on Amazon can also help boost your BSR.