Drew KalinskiAnyone 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. You will need to know how the Amazons A9 Algorithm works 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.
First, let us start with learning what Sales Rank is. This number represents the popularity of a product within a certain category. Our efforts in influencing Amazon A9 Algorithm will be dictated by this number to a certain degree.
What is Amazon’s A9 Algorithm
Amazon A9 Algorithm is what is running behind the biggest product search engine on the web. It is able to handle hundreds of thousands of different queries to give it’s customers the product they are looking for. It is the unsung hero of Amazon making it one of there biggest features and a key reason for Amazon Success. The A9 algorithm is what ranks your products within the search results. It takes a number of different factors into consideration, to give a result for each query. These results as Amazon sees it are what a customer is most likely to buy for that given search term.
Now you have to keep one thing in mind. Amazon will show search results for products the customer is most likely to buy. All the factors that influence Amazon A9 Algorithm are factors that will help convert a sale. Unlike other search engines such as Google that show queries based on trying to answer a question and focus on the broader scope of the query. Amazon A9 is basing there queries on the odds that that customer will make a purchasing decision after seeing the results.
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, the less the product is selling. Ranking changes on a regular basis depending on the length between the last sale. So if your items consistently sell every hour or regularly throughout the day then you should expect a higher ranking. By optimizing your listing to improve on the direct factors that influence the A9 Algorithm you will get a better product 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 under
- Search for a product you want to find the sales rank for.
- Once you get to the product detail page scroll down until you reach the product detail section.
- 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.
As you can see from the above image this product is #122 in its parent category of Home & Kitchen. And number #4 in Bed Pillows which is its subcategory. Depending on your product you might be listed under multiple subcategories. The subcategories are more important to rank for as they are the categories your customers will most likely be searching for your product. The parent category has more competition ranging from all the other subcategories, so it isn’t the most crucial category to rank for because of unfair competition.
Core Pillars of the Amazon A9 Algorithm
Now that we have a
Within the A9 Algorithm, there are going to be 4 direct factors that influence the over ranking of your product. These are the 4 pillars that are going to be holding up your listing. Now there are also indirect factors that are just as important as the direct factors but this helps influence your actually direct factors.
For example, the conversion rate is a direct factor that influences A9. But in order to gain a higher conversion rate, there are indirect factors that influence this. such as product, photos, review, etc.
Direct Factors that influence Amazon A9 Algorithm
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
Advertising can have a
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
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 frequently 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 lose sales as it approaches 0 inventory.
Indirect Factors that influence rank Amazon A9 Algorithm
While 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 o
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
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
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 a
Please Note: To always use HD images and to follow Amazon
A+ Content
For A+ content or Enhance Brand Content you will need to have a
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
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.
