Whatever you've done, if you're selling something on Amazon, you have probably wondered about the "Amazon Sales Rank".

A lot of people have written a variety of things about this topic and much of that information is either dated or inaccurate. This article aims, once and for all, to clarify what the Amazon Sales Rank is, how it works, and how you can put it to work for you as an indispensable tracking & market analysis tool.

Every person who has made use of Amazon as a medium for sales has a tendency to want to know how their product is performing - this is simply human, or should I say "business", nature. Amazon provides their sales rank as a tantalizing insight into how products are performing throughout their various online locales - yet frustratingly, it's not always easy to interpret what the sales rank actually means.

1)Each Amazon locale (.com, .co.uk, .co.jp, .ca, .fr, .de) maintains its own sales rankings.

2)All products sold on Amazon are ranked within appropriate categories. For example; books, kitchenware, DVDs and so on.

3)The "Sales Rank #" assigned to each product is included in the product description:


4)A lower Sales Rank means a product is selling more.

5)Sales ranks are updated on an hourly basis.

Amazon does not disclose the algorithm it uses to calculate the sales rank, but they do offer a simple explanation of their Sales Ranking system:

"The calculation [of the sales rank] is based on sales and is updated each hour to reflect recent and historical sales of every item sold..."

To visualize this concept, take a look at the following three graphs (Note the difference between the sales estimate for each graph and compare that to its respective Sales Rank trace):

Book #1)

Best Rank 1666
Worst Rank 5154
Average Rank 3245
Sales Estimate 95
[Graphs & Estimates provided courtesy of RankTracer.com]

Book #2)

Best Rank 16844
Worst Rank 179650
Average Rank 102373
Sales Estimate 5
[Graphs & Estimates provided courtesy of RankTracer.com]

Book #3)

Best Rank 515
Worst Rank 1304
Average Rank 847
Sales Estimate 275
[Graphs & Estimates provided courtesy of RankTracer.com]

Comparing the different graphs it is clear that the relationship between the sales rank and the number of sales is fairly complex. In other words, book #2 with an average rank of around 100 000 made 5 sales in the week. Book #1 with an average rank of around 3 000 made nearly 20 times the amount of sales at 95. While Book #3's sales rank averaged around 800 and made nearly 300 sales.

Another key point to remember is that a product's average sales rank is not always a good indicator of its actual sales. It is possible for products with different sales figures to have similar sales rank averages. It is also possible for the converse to occur. Compare the following graph and statistics to book #2:

Book #4)

Best Rank 46426
Worst Rank 437078
Average Rank 213191
Sales Estimate 4
[Graphs & Estimates provided courtesy of RankTracer.com]

In this case, the weekly sales differ by one, yet the average rank for Book #4 is more than double that of Book #2. There are a number of oddities associated with the Amazon Sales Rank that are not immediately easy to intuit - of course, it helps to have the analysis done automatically as shown in these examples.

It is important to take note that a product's sales rank, taken in isolation, is not particularly informative.

To demonstrate; if a product has a sales rank of 60 000, it is not possible to determine whether it has just had a sale unless its previous sales rank is known. Here are two rough scenarios to consider - first, the sales rank may have dropped from 300 000 to 60 000 in which case there has been a recent sale. Second, the sales rank went from 50 000 to 60 000 in which case, there was no sale. This illustrates how it is possible for one product to have a similar rank to another yet retain a completely different sales profile.

Touting the Amazon Sales Rank as an essential tool for market analysis might sound like a bit of a tall order, but just think about what this information can actually tell you (apart from keeping you updated about how your product is selling over time):

Competitive Analysis: The Amazon Sales Rank is released for every product on Amazon, which means you aren't limited to tracking your own products. Track the sales of a variety of products within a niche to compare and contrast their performance.

Review/Press Impact Indicator: The Amazon Sales Rank is updated hourly, so the effects of any new reviews or publicity can be tracked pretty much in real time. Consider the following quotes that were taken out of a review on Slashdot.org for a recently released computer title:

"It [the book] provides a generous amount of information about Drupal, and discusses the material at an even pace that should not overwhelm even the most inexperienced programmer."
"%u2026the book does an excellent job of covering all the important topics that would be of interest to beginning and intermediate Drupal programmers."
"The author clearly has a genuine passion for Drupal, and frequently encourages readers to contribute to the Drupal community and its growing body of knowledge. 'Building Powerful and Robust Websites with Drupal 6' is a comprehensive, approachable, and valuable guide to making the most of Drupal - easily recommendable."

Now have a look at the following sales rank graph that depicts the titles' sales for the period of the review's release (can you spot exactly when the review was posted?):


In this case, the sales rank graph is a great indicator that something has happened and can alert you to good (or bad) press almost immediately. Having an email alert service for precisely this reason is also a good idea.

Advertising feedback & research: What happens if you want to work out how best to spend your advertising dollars? Again, use the Amazon Sales Rank as an indicator. For example, if you take out a newspaper ad and your sales rank hasn't changed, you know that particular channel is not effective. Alternatively, you might spend money on online advertising on one site with yet again no effect, but from another your sales go haywire. Within the hour you know which option is better and which you should use in future.