Do you want to make a lot of money and be a successful seller online? If yes, then you need to know everything about the Amazon Best Sellers Rank (also known as BSR).
Once you’ve made at least one sale on the AMZ website, you’ll notice that the AMZ system observes a hierarchical ranking system. If you keep on making more sales, the products that you sell will start gaining a Best Sellers Rank (BSR). But what is BSR, and what does it signify? Does it mean that your item is a bestselling product in your chosen category? Can BSR also help boost your sales?
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the BSR. This includes how AMZ calculates the BSR, what products are eligible, and how to maintain your ranking consistently.
If you are interested in learning about this ranking system and how it can give you more sales, read on.
Table of Contents
What is BSR (Amazon Best Sellers Rank)?
The Amazon Best Sellers Rank is awarded to almost all products within Amazon’s product catalog. The BSR given to a product depends on the number of sales that item gets within a particular category. The BSR, therefore, indicates how well an item is selling on the website at any given moment.
Whenever you make a sale on the platform, it slightly improves your BSR for that specific product.
So, how does BSR work? It’s pretty simple. The lower the Amazon best seller rank, the higher the sales; the higher the Amazon best seller rank, the lower the sales. This Amazon ranking system, in some ways, is a great indicator of a product’s popularity at a given time.
For example, an item ranked at #15000 has gotten way fewer sales than an item ranked at #10. That doesn’t mean that the #15000 isn’t profitable, it’s just that the item at #10 is enjoying a sales boost that updates hourly.
BSRs in Sub-Categories
The BSR also applies to sub-categories. In this case, the Amazon best seller rank shows how well a product sells compared to the other products in that sub-category. So, a product may have multiple BSRs depending on how many categories and sub-categories it belongs to. BSRs for sub-categories tend to be lower than BSRs for general categories.
For example, the product below has 3 BSRs:
- It has a BSR in the Toys & Games category
- Also, a BSR in the Toy Kitchen Sets sub-category
- Finally, a BSR for the Preschool Kitchen Sets & Play Food sub-category.
It is possible to find a product’s sales rank listed on various pages. This also includes the website’s main Best Selling Products page and also within the product’s detail page. It can also simultaneously exists on the category-level BSR page.
Furthermore, the search terms that customers use to find products with high sales ranks are also updated hourly. Therefore, it is just perfectly normal for a product to be removed completely from the rankings in just a few hours. Sometimes, you can use search terms to find a product on the AMZ bestseller page. When you use the same search terms again later to check the product, you might not find the product there if the best seller rank rapidly changes and updates hourly.
For instance, a product can rank on the “Toys & Games” main page. After which, it can also rank in the more specific subcategory of “Toys & Games > Grown-Up Toys > Games”. When this happens, the same product can have two ranks simultaneously. But their BSRs must also be treated differently.
Amazon Best Sellers Rank For Different Categories
Products listed in more than one category can also have multiple BSRs. A product listed in the Pet Supplies category can have a best of 11000. The same product, if listed in the Home and Garden category, can also have a BSR of 20000.
While the Best Seller’s Rank is a good indicator of how well a product sells, it’s not always the most reliable indicator. This is because the best seller rank updates hourly based on how well other products in the same category perform.
What is An Amazon Sales Rank Chart?
The Best Sellers List is the most prominent sales rank chart. The Amazon Best Sellers List lists the most popular items in each category on Amazon, based on the number of sales. This list contains all the top-selling products in each category with a sales rank of 1 to 100. You can also dig deeper to find the bestselling items in sub-categories. This Amazon ranking chart, like the BSR, is updated hourly, depending on the number of sales.
However, some third parties have developed a more detailed sales rank chart. On this Amazon ranking chart, you can view the total number of products in each category and the number of products ranked in each percentile.
Amazon sales rank charts are useful for assessing how competitive a product category or niche is.
How Do I Find A Product’s Amazon Best Sellers Rank?
Finding a product’s BSR is straightforward. Just open the product detail page and scroll down to the product details segment. Right below the Product Description/Product Information, you will see a product’s Best Sellers Rank.
Here’s what it looks like:
What Factors Determine Your Amazon Best Sellers Rank?
AMZ keeps the information about how exactly they calculate the BSR close to the vest. However, they do disclose that it is based on sales alone, not pricing, reviews, or rating.
A product’s Amazon Best Sellers Rank is largely influenced by its recent and historical sales data, relative to other products in the same category.
This means that a new product can have a higher position than an older product released years ago. Even if the older product has undeniably acquired more sales data, the recency of sales can affect its current position. In a way, AMZ is saying that this new product can ultimately outsell and surpass the old one. (That is if the new product’s sales trend continues)
Other Factors That Affect The Amazon Sales Rank Chart
The factors that appear to influence your BSR are your recent sales and your overall sales history. AMZ takes both of these into account when updating your position hourly.
So, say, your product sold ten units while your competitor sold one unit within an hour. Then your position would go lower than that of your competitor. In the next hour, your competitor’s product might get fifteen sales units while your product only gets five.
When this happens, your competitor’s BSR may not necessarily overtake yours even if you sold fewer units per hour. Since they also consider your product’s historical sales volume, you’re not likely to see drastic fluctuations. Not even as a result of a sudden increase or decrease in sales.
How Important Is The Amazon Best Sellers Rank?
As mentioned earlier, a product’s BSR influences the buying decision of customers. A customer who sees a trending product with a high BSR might be influenced to buy it because of its good sales rank.
When customers go to AMZ, the first thing they would likely do is go to the search engine bar and type a keyword. A set of products will then appear which rank for the keyword type in by the customer. For example, we entered the word “digital camera” on the search bar, and this is the result:
As you can see, on the upper left part of the results bar, you’ll notice a “Best Seller” tag. This tag means that the product is currently a best seller in the category it belongs to. The product’s sales rank is also shown in the upper left part of its thumbnail image. If you click that “Best Seller” tag to investigate, even more, this is what will you see:
Now you’ll see the list of the best sellers for the “digital camera” keyword initially entered. However, remember that these are the ones that maintain positions in the “mirrorless camera” category.
Organic Ranking vs BSR
Initially, we entered the keyword “digital camera”. However, we ended up in the mirrorless camera category because of clicking the BSR tag. The influence of the Amazon Best Sellers Rank goes beyond that of a simple search query. Ultimately, the BSR influences the shopping behavior of consumers through the suggestions offered by AMZ itself.
Sometimes, on the product’s keyword query result pages, BSR tags can be suggested by AMZ. This makes the tag very important for sellers because they can easily get more free marketing from having it. Also, the website’s algorithm knows that BSR lists work. Otherwise, they won’t be suggesting it to consumers in the first place.
Being a best seller is like getting free marketing from AMZ itself without having to pay for PPC. This is what makes the BSR crucial to a third-party seller’s success.
Is The Amazon Best Sellers Rank The Same As Organic Rank?
Some sellers often confuse the “best sellers” rank with the “organic” rank. However, the two are different from each other.
Organic ranking refers to the position in which your product appears on their search results page. When a particular keyword is searched for, the AMZ result’s pages will show the products most related to the query. Your organic position is based on how well your product ranks for that keyword. This is different from the BSR, which is a number given based on how well your item sells.
A low BSR does not necessarily translate to a high organic position. This is because your organic rank depends on how relevant your product listing is compared to the keyword search. It doesn’t care about how many sales or conversions you’ve made.
Your product may have so many sales, and it can be a bestselling product. But if your listing is not relevant to the keyword searched for, you will have a low organic rank. This means your product will be positioned low on the search results page.
Relationship between organic ranking and BSR
For the same reason, your good organic position does not mean you’ll have a good BSR. However, your organic rank can indirectly impact your Sellers Rank. This is because having a high organic rank gives you more visibility. And the more potential customers see your item, the more sales you’re likely to generate, which will, in turn, impact your BSR positively.
Your organic rank is more important than your BSR since it has a direct impact on how often your product is viewed and bought. So you should focus on doing keyword research and including highly relevant keywords in your product listing. We recommend the Keywords tool on Zonbase for finding the best keywords to target in your product listing.
You can also use the Listify tool on ZonBase to retrieve the keywords your competitor ranks for. Then you can use them to create a keyword-optimized listing.
Having said that, the Sellers Rank is a useful tool for predicting the sales frequency of a particular product or a category.
How to Use The BSR Information
As mentioned earlier, the Rank is a useful tool for calculating a product’s sales volume and frequency. You can also check your competitor’s BSR to see how well their products are selling, and what you can emulate from their listings.
For new sellers, the Rank is very useful for product research. Here’s how you can use this information to your advantage.
Using Amazon Best Sellers Rank For Product Research
Before starting your seller journey, you have to search for profitable products to sell. One of the key criteria is that the product has a high demand. You can gauge a product’s level of demand by looking at its BSR.
Instead of opening product detail pages manually one by one, you can use the Zonbase Chrome Extension tool. This can help you to view many BSRs while browsing on AMZ. This tool gives you information about items on the search results page, including their Rank (BSR) and sales history.
You can look through the results to see in-demand products based on their BSR. Remember, the lower the BSR, the better the sales. This tool shows you a product’s monthly sales, making your research easier.
And if you don’t know where to start your product research, you can use the ZonResearch tool on Zonbase. The ZonResearch tool allows you to search AMZ’s database for profitable products using your preferred filters. You can set your preferred BSR rank (using the advanced filter feature) and target high-demand products that generate a lot of sales.
Using Amazon BSR to Calculate Sales (BSR Calculator)
Remember that the BSR indicates how well a product sells? As a result, sellers often use a product’s BSR to gauge how many units it sells in a month. This doesn’t only help in the product research stage but also helps sellers spy on their competitors.
To make it easier for sellers, some service providers have developed a BSR-to-sales calculator that helps estimate sales. All sellers have to do is enter the BSR of a product, and then the BSR calculator generates its estimated number of sales per month.
The Zonbase Sales Estimator tool is easier to use than most BSR-to-sales calculators on the market. It provides an accurate estimate of a product’s average monthly sales without the BSR information. All you need to do is enter the product’s ASIN.
How to Improve Your Amazon BSR
Your BSR is mainly based on your sales volume, so the only way to improve your Amazon BSR is to make more sales and outrank your competitors. The goal is to do better than your competitors — sell more products and make more sales. The tips listed below will help you be better positioned to outrank your competitors and improve your BSR:
1. Optimize your listings
Optimizing your listings will help you reach more people and visibility is key if your goal is to make sales on Amazon. To optimize your listings, use attractive product images and catchy videos, and create listing content that captures audience’s attention. Also, use bullet points to highlight the features and benefits of your products, this enhances readability and make buyers more likely to follow through with their orders.
2. Maintain competitive prices
Fixing competitive prices will help increase your chances of winning the buy box which will in turn help you outrank your competitors and boost your sales.
3. Use Amazon FBA and Prime
If you use Amazon FBA and have the Amazon prime badge, customers will be more likely to shop from you because there’s a guarantee of fast and free shipping.
Conclusion
The BSR may not be as important as an organic rank in some people’s eyes. However, this feature still provides useful insights into the performance of a product. This is especially true if people look more into the top sellers in a category when searching for things to buy.
When it comes to improving your Amazon best sellers rank, there is nothing you can do but just make more sales. Since this ranking system gets influenced only by recent sales trends, closing in on sales is your best bet.
However, if you are trying to improve your organic position, you should look at Zonbase. Voted as the number 1 best-value seller of software today, Zonbase can help you improve your organic position. With its 13+ tools and services, such as Listify, Zonbase can help you find the best keywords for your product listings. This will further help increase your product’s organic position.
And if you don’t want to make the listing yourself, you can also hire Zonbase professionals to do it for you. With this, you can make more sales and hopefully translate into a higher Amazon Best Sellers Rank.
The all-in-one Zonbase software has all the tools you need to build a successful online business. Sign up for a free trial.
