Amazon Sales Rank How the A9 Algorithm works

Anyone can get sales on Amazon, with the sheer amount of consumers looking for different products every day the odds are truly in your favor. But In order to create a business on Amazon, it is best to know how the Amazon Sales rank and A9 Algorithm work in the first place. Having a clear understanding of how it works will allow you to create a marketing strategy around the A9 Algorithm. To boost your sales and create a scalable business.

Amazon Sales Rank

Amazon sales rank is a number between 1 and 1 million that represents a product’s popularity within a product category. Basically the higher the number of the item the less it is selling. Ranking changes on a regular basis depending on the length between the last sale. So if your items consistantly sell every hour or regularly throughtout the day then you should espect a higher ranking.

If you are wondering how your sales rank compares to the rest of your category check out our Amazon Sales Rank Chart.

How to find your Amazon Sales Rank

The Amazon sales rank is located on the product detail page or located under sale rank tab in seller central. But to get more accurate information about the different categories your item might be placed in. I recommend looking at the product detail page.

1. Search for a product you want to find the sales rank for.
2. Once you get to the product detail page scroll down until you reach the product detail section.
3. Within the product detail section, you will see a colum saying best sellers rank. this is your amazon sales rank for the categories that you are in.

Core Pillars of the Amazon A9 Algorithm

Now that we have an understanding of Amazon Sales rank, I want to take a look at the ranking factors that influence this number within Amazons A9 Algorithm.

There are 4 Direct factors that A9 looks for when trying to rank your product.

Conversion rate (Sales Velocity)

The conversion rate of your products is a is one of the main influences on your Amazon ranking. Amazon looks for products that the user will most likely buy. If your product is selling like hot cakes then your ranking will increase due to the fact Amazon thinks the customer will likely buy it. To increase your overall conversion rate there is a number of indirect factors that help influence your sale velocity. These include reviews, product images, fulfillment method, A+ content and advertising methods that you are using.

Relevancy

Amazon directly looks at the relevancy of your listing. Product titles, backend keywords, bullet points, and descriptions all come into play here. This is where amazon trys to figure out your main keywords and what keywords to add to your search.

Advertising can have an impact on the keywords the you rank for. If you are running a exact match keyword campaign for “Bunny Socks” and gain alot of sales, then you will rank for the keyword “Bunny Socks” over time. Aslong as you are selling socks with bunnies on them.

Price

While your pricing also influences your conversion rate, it gets a category all on its own. Pricing on products that are directly in line with the average pricing for each page tend to rank better. Another example is winning the buy box by lowering your price by 1 cent. Thus the pricing of a product directly influences your ranking.

To get a better idea of where your product should be priced find the median price for each page on your main keywords. You will notice the median price tends to get higher as you go up to pages 3-5 compared to pages 1-2.

Inventory

Amazon keeps account of your inventory levels, higher levels of inventory that can meet the demand of your listing will rank higher. Products will start to sell less frequent as you approach lower inventory levels. If your listing runs out of inventory your sales rank will slowly decay. Amazon does look at sales history and once your product gets back in stock it should be able to gain back ranking after a few weeks.

I am not saying you should send in 1,000 units and you will rank better, this won’t be the case just keep track of your inventory and make sure you have enough stock to cover your sale velocity between shipments to FBA. This will help ensure that your listing won’t loses sales as it approaches 0 inventory.

Indirect Factors that influence rank Amazon A9 Algorithm

While the the direct factors actually influence your ranking there are indirect factors that help grow your direct factors.

Reviews

Reviews are probably one of the most influential indirect factors and also one you have the least control of. Selling high-quality products and having a strategy or software in place to obtain great reviews is important to your success.

Tips for getting more Amazon product reviews:

• Feedback and Review Management – Try having an automated email system that asks customers for there reviews or feedback. Feedback five Is our recommendation you can see our review of them here.
• Follow Up – Always follow up with your customers that leave a negative review. Not only will this look better for potential customers viewing your listing but you stand a chance of the customer contacting you. Which could result in getting the review changed if you play your cards right.
• Follow the Rules – When emailing customers for reviews make sure that you are following the rules. Otherwise, you are putting your sellers account at risk.

Images

Images play a key roll in indirect factors that influences the users buying decision. If your product photos are weak and don’t convey the best aspects of your product the user will most likely look elsewhere. Try to either have a professional photographer take your product photos or have the skills required to do it on your own.

There is a total of 8 images that you are allowed to use help sell your product. Product images should be broken down by the main image, detail images, and warranty / return information.

Main Image: your main product image must only be of the product that you are selling on a white background. 85% of the image must be that of your product. Please make sure this image is high quality as it is the first thing the customers sees and directly impacts your CTR.

Detail Image: The 2nd to 7th image should show different angles of your product, show packaging, and key selling points

Warranty Information: I try to include an image that shows warranty information to help build trust.

Please Note: To always use HD images and to follow Amazon‘s image guidelines.

A+ Content

For A+ content or Enhance Brand Content you will need to have a registered trademark. This will give you access to the brand registry. Having A+ content on your listing helps to create a better story for you to sell your product with added images and text area that replaces the description area on a product listing.

Fulfilment Method

Amazon shoppers are getting used to the idea they can get there product in 2 business days. Having your products in FBA or using seller fulfilled prime can increase your overall sale velocity.

Advertising

Obviously paying for sales is going to increase the amount of sales you obtain. Also doing exact match keywords will rank you higher for that keyword since there is sale velocity for that given term.

Running promotion coupons and outside advertising to your amazon listens will impact your ranking in some sort of way.

To learn more about getting started with advertising on amazon Please read that article.

Product Title, Bullet Points and Descriptions

The product information adds relevancy to your listings. So by putting your top keywords in your title while having related keywords in your bullet points and descriptions Amazon search engine will start placing your product for those keywords. But in order to rank for those exact keywords, you will need to gain sales.

(Remember to allows follow Amazon guidelines on title, bullet points and descriptions.)

We created an article on how to optimize your product listing I would recommend reading that to find out more information.

Final Thoughts

When creating any product on Amazon you need to keep in mind all the indirect and direct factors that influence your overall ranking. Optimizing and reviewing your current strategy should be always on your mind. When everything comes finally comes together your sales rank will increase and you will be able to get to the tops of page 1.It is not rocket size but having a clear understanding on how the Amazon A9 Algorithm works will improve your ranking in the long run.

Drew Kalinski

Founder of Amztut

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