When a customer logs on to Amazon and tries to find what they want to buy, badges like “Amazon’s Choice” and “Best Seller” can make certain products look more appealing than others. They convey a level of authority and imply that the product may be better than others, more trustworthy, or more popular that day. They suggest that the product might have more to share. As a seller or company, getting these badges can become a major priority. But what might these labels really mean, and how does Amazon decide which items are awarded them?
Use this amazon choice vs best seller guide to help you demystify the intimidating Amazon’s Choice and Best Seller rank. These badges can be easily attained for your new listings as an Amazon seller if you know how they work.
Here’s What it Means When an Item is Marked ‘Amazon’s Choice’
The name of the badge makes it sound like these items are selected by some board of qualified people at Amazon, rather than the Best Seller title, which implies that the badge is based on pure data. This means that sometimes the Amazon’s Choice title seems a bit more ambiguous at first glance. Who makes this important choice and is any part of it based on sales or search results?
The reality is that the Amazons Choice badge is chosen through the use of an algorithm using data just like the Best Seller badge. This is beneficial if you are a seller because there are ways to tailor your product to be a candidate for an Amazon’s Choice badge. The difference in the way that products are appraised for the Amazon Choice badge is that it is based on keywords. Products that achieve the most clicks and purchases for certain keywords appear as Amazons Choice for that keyword when it is searched. While this information has been gleaned by observations, Amazon has yet to share the exact metrics their algorithm uses to determine Amazon’s Choice selections.
Amazon’s Choice Badge Doesn’t Necessarily Mean A Product Is Good
This badge has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the product. The item is only chosen based on its sales among items that share its keyword. While the title implies a level of personal selection that occurred to curate the items that appear to Amazon shoppers by the company, it is not the case. The title is an accurate measure of popularity within that keyword, but it is important to keep the parameters and the metrics for giving that title in mind.
Difference Between Amazon’s Choice and Best Seller
Whether you are selling a new item on Amazon or are interested in the process as a customer, use this guide to learn the ways that these badges are different. If you are selling on Amazon, knowing the important ways these badges are different can help you understand which might be more profitable to pursue.
The biggest difference lies in the way these badges are awarded. Amazon’s Choice is awarded based on units sold per specific keyword. Best Seller is given based on many factors including units sold historically and recently, as well as a few other factors. They are both selected using an algorithm, not by any personal choice by a human.
There are also fewer Best Seller badges available to be awarded than Amazon’s Choice ones.
What does the Best Seller Badge on Amazon Represent?
This badge represents a product that has sold the most within its category within an unspecified period. The exact method to Amazon’s madness has not been revealed but based on observations, many have ventured fairly accurate guesses as to how the system tends to work. With this information, you can improve your product’s rank within its category as a seller.
The Best Seller Rank within categories is updated on an hour-by-hour basis for maximum accuracy, but what information does Amazon use to make this recommendation? Amazon uses a few different metrics to choose which products get the Best Seller (BSR) badge on the website. These factors include:
- A product’s past sales data
- Sales data in a recent period
- Case-by-case factors
Past Sales Data
The record of how these highly rated well-priced products available to ship immediately have sold in the past is an essential factor of the Best Seller badge.
Recent Sales Data
Amazon also examines the recent sale data for the product. This is to determine market demand for the item.
Case-By-Case Data
Oddly enough, Amazon takes more into consideration regarding your Best Seller ranking than just how well it has sold. The company is looking at every aspect of the product, including rights reserved and incentivizing promotions and coupons that can inflate sales. To counteract these boosts that are due to coupons, any product that appears to offer this bargain won’t improve its ranking using this method.
You can find the Best Sellers rank on any listing by scrolling down to the product details section. The rank is broken down by category, so it will likely say something like “#300 in Electronics.”
Best Seller – Pros and Cons
Having a customer see the Best Seller label on your product is certainly an advantage. Is it profitable for you to focus your efforts on attaining it though? Sift through these pros and cons to get a feel for whether this badge might be worth pursuing.
Pros
- The title of Best Seller is clear and specific. It implies that the product has sold well among people, implying popularity and effectiveness. This has been proven time and time again to be profitable for sellers as a marketing technique to improve the visibility of and trust in their product. The Amazon’s Choice badge is a bit more ambiguous, making the BSR (Best Seller Rank) title more immediately appealing to customers.
- You can change your Best Seller ranking, it is not up to anyone else’s opinion and is purely sales performance-driven. This is the same for sellers pursuing the Amazon’s Choice badge.
- This badge remains on your product regardless of the keyword used to make it appear.
- Your product will appear in the Best Sellers section which is visible in the main menu on the website.
Cons
- Because the Best Seller badge is awarded per popularity in a category rather than per search keyword, there can only be one #1 slot per type of item. There is not an unlimited variety of badges to be awarded. There are only 100 per department.
Amazon Choice vs Best Seller FAQs
How Can My Products Become Best Sellers?
First, ensure that you have good customer service, focus on garnering positive reviews, and share your listing to organically boost units sold. You can also make it easier to qualify for the badge if you choose the right category for your item. For example, while candles may qualify for many categories, you will want to choose one that would lead to less competition. The key to choosing good new categories is specificity.
How Can My Products Become Amazon’s Choice?
Amazon has pointedly not said much about how their algorithm works, but from what people know, keywords are essential. Look for one that people will search for, but that doesn’t have too much competition. You need to know that anyone who types this search term will want to buy your product, so conducting market research is a great way to start.
What Does it Mean When it Says Amazon’s Choice?
These badges indicate that the listing and the order are the most popular within that keyword. Here’s an example: If a customer completes a search for the keyword “drip coffee maker” and then buys your item, it improves your ranking within that one search keyword. While many items may appear when that term is searched, yours will have the Amazon’s Choice label.
Is Amazon’s Choice Trustworthy?
The badges may appear correlated to value when you first see them on a listing, but they are really just correlated to units sold per keyword. This means that if you choose general keywords, Amazon’s Choice badge is a reliable indicator of popularity compared to other products that appear for those search results. Be sure to look at reviews to see if those customers ended up satisfied with their order.
What is Amazon Best Seller?
With a mixture of historical (past) and recent sales information as well as a few other data points, Amazon ranks products within their respective categories, rights reserved. An example of this would be that if your product is getting a high rank like #25 in Books, it means your listing has the 25th highest BSR for items in that specific category. The title of Best Seller and a high rank can boost sales and improve visibility and legitimacy.
The Best Seller rankings are updated not just every day, but every hour, meaning that the trends can change fast. There is even a Best Seller tab in the menu on the website. This placement in the menu is great for visibility.
What Does Amazon #1 Best Seller Mean?
The Amazon #1 Best Seller badge appears on one product if that one thing has sold more units (looking at recent and historical results) than any other thing in that category. You can get this title easier and faster by outselling within a smaller niche or specific grouping.
The title can help you to gain more clients and get better visibility without having to share your listing anywhere or work on search optimization.
Conclusion – The Verdict
If you want to follow the trends and get your products in front of more customers, the Amazon’s Choice and Best Seller badges are a great place to start. Throughout this review and guide, you’ll see that there are benefits to each of them. The Best Seller badge though has clear advantages when it comes to profits that Amazon’s Choice just can’t match. These advantages include visibility and predictability as well. Amazon’s Choice is very vague with criteria, so pursuing the title can become difficult and a waste of time and resources. The BSR can be easier to reliably pursue and can get you more clients.
