What is the correlation between Amazon rankings and sales?

Amazon has different approaches to rank products. However, Amazon Bestseller Rank seems the leading one. This rank is still a mystery for many sellers. 

In this short post, we will discuss the meaning of the Amazon sales rank and how it should be correctly calculated. Moreover, we will consider how Amazon sales rank can be implemented as an indicator of performance. This post will help you to understand which items are selling well on Amazon and which products may be your primary competitors. 

Before we proceed to the discussion of Amazon ranking and sales system, I would like to mention that Amazon does not explicitly state how the Bestseller Rank is working and how we should as the sellers calculate it. 

What is Amazon Bestseller Rank?

If you scroll down the Amazon product details page, you will be able to see Amazon Bestseller rank. This metric is calculated hourly and is linked to the number of recent sales of the particular product. 

Generally speaking, it shows how well a product is selling relative to other items within a definite market niche. A thing that has the first (the highest) bestseller rank is considered as the most well-purchased product in a category. It is worth to mention that the rank of one product can be different in various Amazon stores because each store represents a different market. However, one item can have an Amazon sales rank in more than one subcategory. In such a way, in a general category, it may have a lower rank than in more narrow down subcategory. 

It means that using this ranking system, Amazon provides sellers with the data of how many other products are selling better than their own. 

Common misconception toward Amazon Bestseller rank

First of all, it is worth to note that it is a common misconception that Amazon sales rank is based on reviews and rating. It is based only on sales, both recent and historical. However, this rank does not present an overall sales volume. It relies on how a particular item has been selling very recently compared to its competitors within one market niche. 

How to calculate Amazon Bestseller rank?

Amazon does not reveal a secret how Amazon Bestseller rank is calculated. What is clear about it is that volume of sales alone is taken into consideration without any other figures such as the number of clicks, reviews, etc. 

Moreover, it is not clear for a period of time is taken into account by Amazon crawlers to calculate Amazon Bestseller rank. Some Amazon representatives claim that it is 12 hours, while other experts talk about 24 hours. In any case, it states that your primacy can be lost in a day. However, some recently made researchers show that Amazon sales rank falls systematically over the course of several weeks or even months. In other words, sales history matters a lot for Amazon Bestseller rank.