Which was the only marketplace open during the Covid-19 pandemic?
That’s right; it was Amazon. The global online retail space has been arguably the most popular market on the planet in recent years.
In this time, Amazon has gone over to dominate the e-commerce sector with its lightning-fast deliveries and services.
There are two main reasons why Amazon has received the importance that it has today: its efficient workforce and its army of vendors.
As is common knowledge, millions of vendors sign up on Amazon to sell their products online on the company’s air. These businesses’ efforts fuel Amazon’s growth into one of the biggest conglomerates in the world.
Since Amazon’s marketplace is fundamentally a collection of vendors trying to do business, the company has introduced a system called the BSR. BSR stands for Best Seller Rank.
Every product on Amazon has a BSR. Let’s look at what this ranking system is, why it exists, and how you can make the best out of it.
What is Amazon’s Best Seller Rank?
Every product on Amazon has a best seller rank. If one unit of a product has been sold, that product obtains a BSR.
However, getting a ranking does not mean what you think it means. BSR, also known as the Amazon Sales Rank, indicates how well your product is doing on the market.
Product sales are inversely proportional to the Sales Rank. Therefore, products with low sales have high BSRs, and those with high sales have low BSRs.
Every product category has a ranking system for its products. Therefore, buyers can judge a product according to its BSR in every category they are listed in.
For example, a beard trimmer for men will be listed in various categories like ‘Health and Wellness,’ ‘Men’s Electric Trimmers,’ and ‘Men’s Electric Shavers.’ It will have a different BSR in each category.
It is difficult for buyers to judge a product based on its BSR in a broad category. Therefore, buyers must also look at sub-categories before deciding to purchase a product.
Additionally, Amazon BSRs are determined by the location of the sales. Therefore, every regional domain on Amazon – amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, etc. – will have different ranks for the same product.
Moreover, BSRs fluctuate by the hour. Thus, a product that had a certain BSR an hour ago may not have the same rank now.
One of the primary uses of the BSR is that sellers can quickly determine the demand for their product using these ranks.
It is an excellent indicator for sellers to pump their inventories when the BSR goes down and boost demand when the BSR goes up. Sellers can also decide which products they want on the Amazon shelves using BSRs. Find out more about what Amazon BSR is.
How is BSR calculated?
Amazon has managed to keep the method of BSR calculation a secret. However, we can guess that several factors are used to do the math and determine the BSR of a product.
Also, the primary factor, in this case, has to be product sales. Other factors involved in the calculation could be:
- Historic sales along with current sales.
- Price changes, including sales and promotions.
- Similar competitive products
Amazon calculates BSRs for every product every hour. Therefore, your BSR will change depending on how many units of your product you sell in one hour. If you sell more units than a competing vendor, then your BSR will be better than it was an hour ago.
However, if you sell a lower number of products in the following hour, your BSR will not go up drastically because historical sales are considered. There are never drastic pitfalls or rises in Amazon Sales rankings because the algorithm looks at overall product sales and allocates necessary ranks.
Why should sellers care about Amazon BSR?
Sellers on Amazon can use BSRs for quite a few tasks.
Product research for new entrants
Sellers must decide what products they want on their online shelves.
Research involving product BSRs would prove helpful in their endeavors to determine which products make it online. Sellers can even come up with sales strategies using BSR data.
Competition research for experienced vendors
Amazon clubs together similar products. When buyers look for products, they see only one product that numerous vendors sell.
Therefore, vendors are engaged in healthy competition to make more sales than their counterparts. The BSR of a product can help in letting you know about the sales made by your competitors. If their products have better BSRs than yours, you could consider changing sales strategies.
Estimate of sales
With the knowledge of your BSR at different times, you can calculate a fair estimate of your product sales.
Matching your BSR data with past sales data can give you a fairly accurate summation of your current sales.
Can sellers improve their BSR?
Every seller wants their products to have the best BSRs. In fact, if your products are running a BSR of less than a hundred, you deserve a pat on the back.
With that ranking, your products will appear on Amazon’s bestsellers list, giving you a massive bounty of profits and increasing sales.
The most straightforward way to lower your BSR is to generate more sales. An old sales adage goes, “always be closing.” Vendors need to embody that saying to raise their BSR ranks. Moreover, vendors need to keep an eye out for competition.
They need to have more sales than their competitors to get a better BSR.
A few methods that vendors can use are:
- Optimize your Amazon product title.
- Ensure that you are competitive on the price.
- Keep your product information clear and comprehensive.
- Use different product images than your competitors.
Conclusion
Amazon runs a service called BSR on its marketplace. BSR is a ranking-based system that allows customers to gain an insight into how many units of the desired product have already been sold.
In addition, it gives customers a comparative analysis. A product with high BSR has more units sold than a product with a low BSR. Current and past sales are both used in the algorithm that calculates the BSR of a product.
Vendors need to be vigilant about their BSRs and design their business plans according to them.
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