If you shop on Amazon like the rest of us, you’ve probably come across Amazon’s product sales rank, otherwise known as “Best Sellers Rank” (BSR). The BSR is used by Amazon to rank all of its products based on how many people are buying them. Think of it as walking into a store, and seeing a giant “Most Popular Items” sign indicating which products are the most purchased by shoppers. Amazon’s sales rank is the same thing, except Amazon ranks millions of items and ranks all of them from most purchased to least purchased. While you may think it is only for shoppers, Amazon’s sales rank system is also a great tool for Amazon sellers.
In this article, we’ll be breaking down the logistics behind Amazon’s Best Seller Rank and how sellers can leverage product rankings to growing their own Amazon business.
What is Amazon’s Best Seller Rank?
Amazon’s BSR system is based on each product’s recent and historical sales performance within a specific category. Amazon has dozens of categories and thousands of subcategories. Amazon checks the historical sales performance of all the products within the same category and ranks them from most sales (Rank #1) to least sales. A product’s rank is updated hourly to reflect recent and historical sales of every item sold on Amazon. The higher amount of products sold, the higher the Sales Rank will be.
For example, under the category of “Cellphones & Accessories,” we saw that the #1 Best Sellers Rank product was this “Ailun Glass Screen Protector.” That means that this product has had the most recent sales of all the products under the “Cellphones & Accessories” category. Within the next hour, this product’s rank may drop based on its sales performance.
How to find Amazon’s Sales Rank?
There are two main methods to find Amazon’s Best Sellers. The first method is through Amazon’s Best Seller page. You can access the Best Sellers page through Amazon’s Homepage. Simply go to Amazon.com, find the taskbar on the top left of the page, and click “Best Sellers.” Then, simply choose which category you would like to browse and a new page of the top products will appear.
The second way to find a product’s sales rank is through its product page. Find any product you hope to research, click on the product’s page. Then, scroll down to the Product Information. There you will find a small table with a row with “Best Sellers Rank” along with the product’s ranking and which category it is ranked in.
What does Sales Rank Mean for Sellers?
By now, you might be wondering, what can I use Amazon’s Best Seller Rank for if I sell on Amazon? Well, there’s are 2 great ways to utilize sales ranks as a seller.
1. Expanding Your Inventory
The most direct benefit is finding new products to sell on Amazon. Amazon’s BSR shows you the most popular and purchased products on Amazon. This means the products have high sales potential and are sought out by online shoppers. Higher sales also mean higher reviews and ratings, which also play a part in Amazon’s sales rank. Sellers who need there their new, high-demand products can look to Amazon’s BSR as a good starting point.
2. Scouting Your Competitors
By looking at a BSR product page, sellers can see who is selling each product, which products are sold by Amazon, and how many competitors are already sourcing and selling a best seller. Even if you don’t want to sell the same products as other sellers, the sales rank shows you an insight into your competitor’s selling strategy. Maybe your competitors are selling products you should too! Use the BSR to scope out the competition, identify different strategies, and then improve your own Amazon strategy.
Important Facts about the BSR
Before you start sourcing the best-selling products and hope to make some sales, there are a couple of things to note.
BSR Overtime
The first note about Amazon’s Best Seller Ranking is that the system is extremely volatile. What we mean by volatile is that a product’s rank can change dramatically and frequently. What does this mean for sellers? Don’t rely on the current rank of a product to estimate its sales and profit. A product could be ranked a top 10 seller on one day and ranked #1000 on the next.
When looking at a product’s ranking, look at its historical and long-term performance instead of its current ranking. See how the product has performed over multiple months or years if possible. That will give you a much better picture of the product’s success.
Seasonality
Another note is on seasonal products. Seasonal products are products that sell very well in some parts of the year, and very poorly in the next. We touch on seasonal products in our article on Evergreen Products, but the short story is: stay away from seasonal products. Look at a product’s rank over time to ensure it sells well throughout the year, That way, you can guarantee sales and profits all year long.
Should I rely on Amazon’s Best Seller Rank?
The simple answer is no. While Best Seller Rank is super important, it is not the only factor you should account for. Along with sales rank, you should also use these strategies to source your products:
BSR vs. Sales Estimation
Sales estimation works alongside the BSR and can give you an estimate of how many units you will sell per month and how much stock you should order. For example, you find the best-ranking product (ranked #1). You estimate that product sells 1,000 units a month and has 10 sellers, you can estimate that each seller (based on their model and price) will sell around 100 units a month. With the sales estimation, you can expect to sell 100 units in a month, so you should source 100 or more products per month. You can then take this amount to check how profitable the product will be. If you sell 100 units a month at $8 per unit, you will have $800 of revenue in one month.
By using sales estimation alongside the Best Sellers Rank, sellers can get a better idea of how many units they will sell, how many units to source, and how profitable the best-selling product will be.
If you don’t have a sales estimation tool, check out the Sellgo Chrome Extension. The Chrome Extension will provide sales estimation, sales rank, and competitor sellers for any product sold on Amazon. That way, you can use BSR and sales estimation all in one place!
BSR vs. Keywords
Another strategy sellers can use with the BSR is keyword research. One thing to note is that Best Sellers Rank does not impact visibility, keywords do. Keywords are the search terms used when shopping on Amazon. For example, if you wanted to purchase a reusable water bottle, you might search “Reusable water bottle BPA free” on Amazon. Amazon’s algorithm will find products that utilize all the keywords (reusable + water bottle + BPA free) to find the best matching product. Keywords play a bigger role in product visibility.
To use BSR with keywords, look at the products with the highest ranks and see what people are buying. In our previous example of the Ailun Glass Screen Protector, it was the #1 ranked product under “Cellphone & Accessories.” Since we know that this phone protector is selling well, we can infer that cell phone protectors are in high demand. As a seller, you can leverage this information to find other screen protectors and trends to source new products and increase visibility.
Expanding Your Toolkit
Amazon’s sales rank is a valuable tool that every seller should use to start product sourcing, but it is not the only tool and strategy they should use. Sellers should also take advantage of sales estimation, keywords, and other FBA tools to expand inventory, increase visibility, and improve profitability for their Amazon business.
One tool we recommend is the Sellgo Chrome Extension, which provides sellers with sales estimation, product ranking, and all the information we talked about in this article. If you want to accelerate your business or optimize your sales, head over to Sellgo and evolve your Amazon business today.
