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All About Amazon BSR and How to Improve Your Product's Ranking

To increase sales and enhance your overall performance on Amazon, standing out is essential. A strong Best Sellers Rank (BSR) serves as a badge of credibility that captures customers' attention and directs them toward your products. Sellers aim to achieve a top BSR because it signals success on the marketplace and contributes to future business growth.

In this article, we’ll dive into the concept of Amazon’s BSR and explore effective strategies that can improve your product ranking on the platform.

What is BSR on Amazon?

“BSR” is an indicator of how well a product sells compared to others in its category at a given time. Amazon tracks sales consistency and velocity, analyzing a product's sales history to assign rankings. A BSR of 1 indicates the highest-selling product in its category, with lower numbers showing higher sales performance relative to other items.

It's important to note that a product can have different BSRs in different categories. For instance, a reusable grocery bag might have a high BSR in the "Grocery & Gourmet Food" category while ranking differently in the "Eco-Friendly Products" category.

You might be wondering how to find BSR on Amazon:
  • Amazon Bestseller List: This is displayed as an orange badge with a number in the top right corner of a product card in the Amazon bestsellers list for each category.
  • Product page: You can check this in the “Item Detail” section under a product description. The BSR badge is also located under the ratings for the most popular products.
A strong BSR not only reflects high demand for a product, but also brings several advantages to sellers. The key ones include:
  • Increased visibility: Amazon’s algorithms favor products with a strong BSR, which results in giving them higher placement among search results and more traffic.
  • Boosted customer trust: Products with a solid BSR usually have plenty of reviews and high ratings, which builds trust with potential buyers.
  • Competitive advantage: A better BSR makes it easier to stand out from competitors, helping you capture more of the market.
These factors all contribute to higher sales and greater revenue. That’s why sellers often ask how to turn their products into Amazon bestsellers. Some effective strategies are explained below.

Strategies for Improving Amazon BSR

Improving your BSR starts with boosting sales, and that requires focusing on key areas of your Amazon business. Below, we’ll explore three essential strategies to help drive traffic and increase your chances of making more sales.

Optimizing Your Product Listing

To boost your sales, it’s essential to make your product stand out, and optimizing your listing is a key factor. Amazon's algorithms favor optimized listings, ranking them higher among search results. Well-crafted listings also resonate with customers, which makes them more likely to make a purchase.

Improving your listing involves several key components:
  • Writing captivating text: Highlight the benefits of your product while keeping the language clear and customer-friendly.
  • Using effective keywords: Incorporate keywords that will help your product appear at the top of search results.
  • Respecting Amazon’s guidelines: Comply with guidelines by adhering to character limits and avoiding restricted words.
Balancing these tasks can be time-consuming, as this requires thorough research and thoughtful content creation. To streamline the process, consider outsourcing this work to Sellerhook’s professionals.

To use services from Sellerhook, follow these simple steps:
1. Place an order on the Sellerhook website. Choose either one or three product listings.
2. Complete a short questionnaire. Provide details about your business so the experts can customize the listing to fit your specific goals.
3. Receive your listing. In 8-10 business days, you’ll get your optimized product listing delivered directly to your email. The listing will include an SEO-optimized title, bullet points, and a customer-friendly description, saturated with keywords carefully selected to ensure maximum relevance and performance.
Sellerhook’s services save you time and ensure that your product listing reaches a broader audience, helping to drive more sales for your store, which in turn can boost your BSR.
Check out a sample of a ready-to-use listing

Running Amazon PPC

Running Amazon PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns can significantly boost your product's visibility, as ads are prominently displayed across the Amazon platform to attract potential customers. When set up correctly, these campaigns can lead to increased clicks and sales, which also has a positive impact on your BSR.

To optimize your PPC, it's important to utilize relevant keywords that resonate with your target audience. This requires analyzing multiple factors, including identifying which keywords sell the most. Understanding your competitors' strategies can be advantageous and helpful for generating new keyword ideas and gaining insights into top-performing keywords.

By ordering Sellerhook's Competitor Keyword Research, you can easily obtain a comprehensive list of the most effective keywords used by your leading competitors. This service provides you with:
  • A curated list of top keywords that are relevant to your product.
  • In-depth competitor research, including their pricing and selling strategies.
  • Actionable tips and strategies for using keywords effectively in your PPC campaigns.
This 2-in-1 service combines the benefits of keyword research with competitor analysis. By strategically applying these insights, you can improve your product visibility, sales and, consequently, your BSR.

Leveraging Promotions and Discounts

One of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your store is by offering promotions and discounts. To do this, you need to set up an Amazon Professional account, which allows you to create coupons and limited-time deals. These promotions create a sense of urgency, which encourages customers to make quick purchases. As your sales increase within a short period, Amazon rewards this boost in sales by improving your BSR.

Additionally, your product can be featured in sections like “Today’s Deals”, giving it even more visibility while attracting price-conscious shoppers. Keep in mind that when you run these types of promotions, you also need to ensure your pricing is still competitive yet profitable. Finding the right balance helps you maximize your sales while maintaining a healthy profit margin.

By applying these strategies consistently, you can not only boost your product’s visibility but also increase your overall sales. The more sales you generate, the higher your product will rank within its category, helping you achieve a better BSR and stand out in the market.

Common Misconceptions About BSR

Several terms are often used interchangeably with BSR due to their similar features, but they each have distinct meanings. Here, we’ll clarify the differences between them and explain their specifics.

Amazon’s Choice vs. Amazon BSR

“Amazon BSR” and “Amazon's Choice” both boost product visibility on the platform, but they focus on different criteria. Amazon BSR is determined by sales performance and indicates how well a product is selling compared to others in its category, reflecting sales volume and velocity.

On the other hand, Amazon's Choice considers a broader range of factors, such as product price, availability, shipping speed, customer reviews, and more. This designation highlights the key attributes that make a product a compelling purchasing option, and helps customers find high-quality choices.

Amazon Product Ranking vs. Amazon BSR

Amazon search ranking and Amazon BSR both involve rankings, but have different meanings and purposes. Amazon search ranking determines where a product appears in search results based on a customer’s query. This is influenced by SEO factors like using the right keywords, customer reviews, and more.

Amazon BSR (Best Sellers Rank), on the other hand, is purely based on sales data. In short, search ranking is about visibility as it helps customers find your product through searches, while BSR reflects how well a product is selling, indicating its popularity and sales success within a category.

Amazon BSR vs. Amazon High Sales Volume

While both Amazon BSR and high sales volume relate to sales performance, they represent different concepts. Amazon BSR measures a product's sales performance within its category, ranking it against others in that same category. A low BSR indicates good sales within the category, but doesn't necessarily mean high sales across all of Amazon. BSR is category-specific, so a product can have a great BSR in a niche but lower overall sales compared to popular categories.

In contrast, Amazon High Sales Volume refers to the actual number of sales a product achieves across the entire Amazon marketplace, regardless of category. To measure sales volume accurately, sellers can use tools like the AMZScout PRO Extension, which provides insights into a product's sales history, average sales volume, competition, and more. The built-in Profit Calculator app also helps sellers evaluate a product’s long-term profitability, enabling them to make smarter investment decisions.

In summary, BSR is category-specific and relative, while high sales volume is an absolute measure of how much a product is selling across all of Amazon.

By gaining a better understanding of the Amazon BSR concept, sellers can refine their strategies more effectively to achieve a better ranking. Below, we answer some of the most frequently asked questions about BSR to assist sellers with optimizing their performance on the platform.

FAQs

How is BSR calculated?

Amazon doesn’t reveal the exact formula for calculating BSR, but it’s known to assess sales volume and velocity. The platform compares items by tracking not only current sales but also historical performance. The list updates every hour, reflecting the most recent sales data.

What is a good BSR on Amazon?

Typically, sellers aim for a BSR under 10,000 to enhance item visibility. However, the concept of a good BSR varies by category due to differing competition levels. In saturated niches with over 100,000 results, maintaining a rank within the first 20,000 is considered good. Conversely, for categories with fewer than 1,000 products, a BSR of 100 is preferable.

How do you become a bestseller on Amazon?

In order to become a bestseller on Amazon, it’s crucial to maintain consistently high sales. This can be achieved by optimizing your selling strategy, which includes setting a competitive price and offering high-demand products. Additionally, driving traffic to your store is essential. For more details on these strategies, click here.

What is a good BSR for books on Amazon?

The Best Sellers Rank (BSR) for books on Amazon varies by genre and category. Generally, a BSR within 10,000 is considered strong. However, in smaller niches with low competition, aiming for a BSR below 1,000 is ideal. For authors who use KDP, a BSR within 100 is excellent, meaning there is high visibility for the book, which can lead to increased sales and royalties for the author.

What is an Amazon #1 best seller?

It’s hard to define an Amazon #1 Best Seller because it varies by category and subcategory. The list updates every hour, so the top products are constantly changing. Bestsellers typically have the highest sales, and often feature strong brands or products that have gone viral on platforms like TikTok.

Conclusion

If you want to improve your Amazon Best Sellers Rank (BSR), you need a comprehensive selling strategy in order to rise to the top of your category. To streamline this process, consider outsourcing tasks like listing optimization and competitor research to Sellerhook. This approach frees up your time to focus on other vital aspects of your business while helping you achieve a higher Amazon BSR.
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