What is Amazon BSR And How to Improve Best Seller Rank?

What is Amazon Best Sellers Rank (BSR)?

According to the official Amazon guide, the Amazon BSR is calculated based on sales on Amazon and is updated hour by hour to show new and historical sales of each item. To make things easier, Amazon lists best sellers in various categories and subcategories. This determines the rank of that product in different types.

Note that Sales Rank is based on product rank in different categories. A product does not have a general BSR but has different BSRs based on various categories and subcategories in which it is located. For example, a tablet is both in the Electronic category and in the subcategory called Computer Tablets. Or a men’s hoodie is in the primary type of Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry, but its subcategories are: Men’s Athletic Hoodies and Men’s Sweatshirts. BSR is calculated separately for each of these categories and subcategories.

The lower the BSR number for a product, the better the product sold in a particular category. That is, a product with a rank of 1 has sold better than a product (in the same type) with a level of 10. But this number does not indicate how much this product has sold compared to all other products sold on Amazon. If you use the Amazon FBA business method, it is better to consider the best BSRs of your products.

Factors That Amazon Consider in Calculating BSR

Amazon did not specify the criteria by which it calculates BSR. But some of the factors influencing this ranking are:

•  Current Product Sales

•  Product Sales History (Previous Sales)

•  Change the Price of the Product

•  Advertisements Provided on the Product

•  Product Position Compared to Other Products

BSR shows both current sales and product sales history.

For example, if a product has 50 units sold in one hour but only three units sold in the next hour, it does not necessarily cause the BSR to go down. Amazon’s BSR algorithm considers both its recent sales and its previous sales. The following example illustrates the point more clearly.

We want to compare two hypothetical products in the category of Cell Phones and Accessories.

Suppose the first product in this category is in the 20th category and the second product in the same category is in the 40th category. The first product last sold 600 units in one hour and the second product 300 units.

Now suppose in the next hour the first product sells 300 pieces and the second product 600 pieces. That is quite the opposite of the previous hour. Does this mean shifting the position of these two products in BSR? That is, does the first product now rank 40 and the second product 20?

No! Product positions do not shift based on their hourly sales. Their sales history is also taken into account. In the example above, the hourly sales of the first product are halved but not necessarily doubled. In this example, the position of two products may change more slightly by shifting sales. For example, the position of the first product should be 25 this time (five ranks lower), and the position of the second product should be 35 (five ranks higher).

How to Find Amazon BSR for a Product?

To find a BSR for a product, go to the product page on the Amazon site and scroll down to get to the Product Information section. In this section, you can find the Amazon Best Sellers Rank or BSR. In the image below, this section is specified. The product ranks 32nd in the video game category (you can see a list of the top 100 products in this category) and ranks first in the PlayStation 5 Consoles category.

The image below is of a men’s sock. You can see that its Sales Rank is in the product details section.

If sales of a product are very low or have just been added to Amazon, Amazon’s API may not yet have given it the Amazon Best Sellers Rank. In this case, this criterion is not visible on the product page.

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How to Improve Amazon Best Sellers Rank?

With the previous explanation, you must have realized that improving the ranking in BSR means more sales. When a buyer comes to Amazon, if a product has a Best Seller tag in its category, it is more likely to go to it. But raising your BSR is not an easy task. Remember that Best Sellers Ranking does not grow fast even if you have a lot of sales in a short time. So you have to be patient and try to sell more.

But how do we get more sales? By trying to make your product better seen. Here are two great ways to get product visibility and more sales. SEO and  PPC (pay per click) advertising.

The Role of SEO in Improving BSR

If you use the right keywords in the product title and product description, the chances of your product being seen in customer search will increase. Your text should describe the product well, be attractive, user-friendly, and follow SEO principles. Try to use terms and words that your target audience (potential customers of your product) use to search. In this case, your product will appear in their search results, and your chances of selling your product will increase. More sales mean higher BSR rankings.

The Role of Click-Through Advertising (PPC) in Improving BSR

Some people believe that clicking on Amazon click ads is ineffective. But it is not. These clicks also help to increase the visibility of your product. Don’t forget that the higher your product results when a user searches, the more likely it is to be seen. One of the best ways to improve your product search ranking and thus improve your Best Sellers Rank is click-through advertising.

Is a High BSR Good or Bad?

In general, remember that Amazon Best Seller Rank is a rating, not a score. So the lower the BSR, the more sales the product has. For example, the best-selling product in the kitchen product category has a BSR of 1. Amazon’s Best Sellers list is a good indicator of how well a product has sold in a category. But to compare the sales of one product with another similar product cannot always be enough of this criterion. Do not forget that each customer may be looking for a specific category and through it to your product. So the Amazon BSR rating of your product may be good in one type and not good in another.

How to Use Amazon BSR to Estimate Sales?

Let’s look at this with another example. Suppose we have a product with a BSR of 1900. We know from our sales review that the 1900 rank in the BSR means 950 sales per month. But a month ago, our average BSR for 30 days was 3,500, and we had 420 online arbitrage deals that month. But, in the previous season, our BSR product for 600 days was 600, and we had 1710 sales that month.

What do we understand from this data? We can see that if another product on Amazon other than our product, the Best Sellers Rank, had about 3,500 in our product category, it would have sold nearly 420 units per month. And if a product is now ranked 600, it means that it has sold about 1700 units per month.

To become a professional Amazon seller, read this article: What is Amazon FBA Inspection?

Differences Between Amazon BSR & Organic Ranking

Amazon novice sellers are sometimes confused between the two concepts. In a nutshell, a BSR ranking has nothing to do with a product ranking in the SERP or Amazon’s Search Engine Results Page. So far, we know how much Amazon Best Seller Rank means a product has sold. But what does Organic Ranking mean? This means that for a particular keyword, where a product appears on the Amazon search page. In fact, organic ranking is defined in relation to a keyword and is related to the Amazon search engine.

Final Thoughts

This article talked about Best Sellers Ranking, its position in sales, its calculation methods, and ways to improve it (such as SEO and click-through advertising). We said that the Amazon BSR of a product is specified in different categories, and we do not have a general BSR for a product. We know that a lower BSR means a higher product position in sales. And if the product has a higher status, more customers will come to it.

In general, if you want to have a higher BSR, you should try to increase the sales of your product. So start now!