Making it to Amazon’s Best Seller Badge List is similar to scoring a spot on the Billboard Hot 100—a true testament of your product’s popular appeal. The Amazon best seller badge stands to increase visibility and credibility. Plus, it draws more traffic to your products, leading to an uptick in sales. No wonder this goal is on every Amazon Seller’s bucket list!
In this article, we will discuss everything about the Amazon Best Seller Badge and share how to get your product tagged as a bestseller in your category.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
What is an Amazon Best Seller Badge?
As the name suggests, it is the badge of honor that Amazon gives to its bestselling products. Amazon crowns its most saleable products with an eye-catching orange ribbon every hour, giving sellers dozens of opportunities to nab the tag on a daily basis.
Apart from the striking label on the top of the product page, Best Sellers get their own section on the top navigation of Amazon’s home page. This gives top sellers additional air time to strut their stuff and close those sales.
With that said, there are things you should take note of when understanding how Amazon badges and bestseller rankings work:
Badges are not exclusive – this means that you can win or lose the badge in the next hour depending on market performance.
Rankings are marketplace-dependent – if a product ranks as the #1 Best Seller on another Amazon global marketplace such as Amazon.ca or Amazon.fr, it will not be displayed as #1 on Amazon.com (US market) and vice versa. So if you are an international seller, you have to optimize your performance for each marketplace to get those badges displayed on your listings.
Not all categories get an Amazon badge – if there are no sales data about a certain category or subcategory, chances are that no badge will be displayed on any of the products. But this can definitely change depending on market performance in the succeeding hours.
How Do You Get an Amazon Best Seller Badge?
All professional vendors and sellers have the opportunity to get their items tagged with the orange ribbon icon, and there are two efficient ways to do so. The fastest route is by becoming either a 1P supplier (vendor selling wholesale to Amazon) or an Amazon brand-registered FBA seller.
1P suppliers are chosen based on their capacity to meet larger demands for competitively priced products sold by Amazon itself – which usually leads the pack in terms of sales. While successful third-party FBA sellers benefit from Amazon’s fulfillment services which results in great customer experiences and yes, you guessed it, higher sales as well.
To put it simply, it’s a numbers game. Rankings and badge eligibility are purely influenced by your product’s sales velocity, and not by factors such as ratings and product reviews.
How Do I Find My Best Seller Ranking (BSR) on Amazon?
If you’re curious to know if any of your products are on the Best Seller lists, you can refer to your BSR.
To find your BSR, simply go to your product listing page on Amazon and scroll down until you see the “Product Details” section. Your BSR will be listed there.
It’s important to note that the BSR is calculated based on sales of a given product on an hourly basis, so it can fluctuate greatly over time. Additionally, the rank assignment also considers the current sales velocity compared to the past performance of the same product in order to determine its rank.
What Is Considered a Good Ranking?
#1 of course! But considering the level of competition on Amazon, products with a BSR of 1,000 or lower are considered to have a good ranking.
Understanding your BSR can help you make informed decisions about pricing, promotions, and other strategies for increasing sales. By keeping an eye on your BSR over time, you can get a better sense of how well your product is performing relative to others in its category.
3Cs of the Amazon Best Seller Badge
Before we discuss how to get the Amazon best seller badge, there are 3Cs every seller must understand first. That is Competition, Calculations, and Category.
Competition
To be successful in the Amazon marketplace, it’s essential to stay ahead of your competition. Optimize all aspects of your online presence – from pricing and account health to shipping speed and ratings – for a competitive edge that will attract buyers. You might even win the Buy Box at this point and enjoy the benefits of a whopping sales boost and get good bestseller rankings.
However, it is in every seller’s best interest to accept early on that there isn’t much success trying to compete for #1 with private label products offered by Amazon; these are usually low-priced items on Prime fulfillment labeled as “Amazon’s Choice” within their respective categories.
We’re not trying to be a Downer here, but no one can really beat Amazon on Amazon. Except for Sellers who are competing hard in product categories or subcategories, where Amazon isn’t.
Calculation
To give your product its best chance of success, you must understand how Amazon evaluates sales performance. Amazon factors in historical sales data through a specialized predictive analytics system to determine which products are worthy of recognition.
Unfortunately, Amazon’s algorithm doesn’t take lifetime sales or short-lived surges from flash sales and launches into account. So sellers must do their best to perform well consistently over time.
Category
Categorizing products is not as straightforward as it seems. Categories within the platform are not created equally, nor do they give the same benefits for products under them.
For example, “Grocery & Gourmet Food” is a highly competitive category because of the following reasons:
- It is highly populated with a myriad of brands and grocery products.
- Shoppers typically go for common keywords like “groceries” during the product discovery phase. Therefore, this keyword’s search volume is higher and many sellers are vying for it compared to more specific categories like “Produce” or “Dairy” during the customer journey.
So if you’re selling Popsicles or Ice bars for example, you have a better chance of ranking well on the bestsellers list of specific subcategories like the “Frozen” category rather than the competitive category of “Grocery & Gourmet Food”.
But even then, it’s important to note that since buyers naturally shop by typing in keywords rather than filtering by category, sellers need to optimize the listing across all touchpoints by using the right keywords and listing these products under appropriate, more specific subcategories for the best chances of success.
How Do I Get an Amazon Badge?
Here are three seller tips to increase your chances of getting an Amazon Best Seller Badge.
1. Re-assess Your Business Model & Chosen Fulfillment Method
Position yourself by choosing efficient business models and fulfillment methods. Ensure that you sell products with good profit margins so you can stay competitive, and use a fulfillment method that can make your store a money-making powerhouse.
Being a 1P supplier/vendor (wholesale) or an FBA seller is the fastest way to achieve the badge. In order to qualify as a 1P supplier, it’s important to demonstrate that your products are competitively priced and able to meet large-scale orders. While as an FBA seller, you will benefit from using Amazon’s fulfillment services which usually produce terrific customer experiences and higher sales figures for successful third-party sellers.
Ultimately, if you want to gain rank with Amazon, then it’s simply down to producing enough sales so that you meet the Amazon best seller badge eligibility requirements. Ratings and reviews don’t factor in here – only sheer sales numbers will make the difference.
So if you’re still an FBM seller, consider pivoting to more efficient models.
2. Choose The Right Category & Optimize
Choosing the right category for your product is crucial to increase its visibility and ultimately earn an Amazon best seller badge. When selecting a category, make sure it accurately reflects your product’s features and benefits. Start by researching different categories that your product could fit into, and analyze their sales volume and competition level.
It’s also important to consider the keywords that customers use when searching for products in that category. Once you’ve identified the best category, optimize your product listing with relevant keywords, high-quality images, and a detailed description. By aiming for the right category and optimizing your product listing, you can increase your chances of earning a bestseller badge on Amazon.
3. Accelerate Sales with the Amazon Flywheel
The Amazon Flywheel is a business model that Amazon uses to focus on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and long-term growth. With this model, sellers can accelerate sales by creating an experience that customers will want to come back for.
The cycle begins with providing great customer experiences which leads to more traffic and sales. As customers become more loyal to the brand, they are more likely to purchase from it again in the future. This helps sellers increase their sales as they gain more repeat customers.
The flywheel has four parts. Let’s discuss how Sellers can create great customer experiences for each.
Part 1: Discovery
Improve the way your shoppers discover your product. After all, they can’t buy what they can’t find. By optimizing your product’s titles, descriptions, and bullet points with compelling copy that carries the right keywords, you can increase your visibility. Don’t forget to throw backend keywords into the mix for added support.
Choosing the right keywords is vital in the discovery phase. Essentially, a Seller’s goal is to compete for keywords with high search volume with low competition.
You can find those by learning how to do keyword research. Keyword research is a full topic on its own so we’ll keep this guide short and sweet with our top keyword research methods:
Method #1: Manual Keyword Research
Search Bar Method
Amazon’s search bar works the same way as the Google search bar. Simply type in a few words related to your product type and an auto-suggest drop-down list will show you the top searches. Collect general and longtail keywords from there and see how they can fit into your listing optimization strategy.
Skyscraper Method
Identify your top competitors and have a quick look at the keywords they’re using on their product’s titles, descriptions and bullets. Work their usage and keyword placements into your own product listings.
Manual keyword research is only advisable for those with small portfolios as it can be time-consuming if applied to a wide range of products. Moreover, manual research doesn’t give you a full picture of what you’re working with due to the lack of data such as actual search volume, competition level and search intent among others.
Method #2: Third-party tools
Explore available software such as Google’s Keyword Planner, Jungle Scout, AMZOne or Helium10. These tools provide robust functionalities for sellers in terms of keyword research such as suggesting suitable keywords, competitor keyword research and so much more. Many of these tools are paid and must be counted in your monthly investment – along with the time you spend learning and navigating the platform to your advantage.
Proper keyword research requires time, patience, and some mean analytical skills to get it right. Sellers can skip the learning curve and the frustrating trial and error phase by handing listing optimization over to the Pros. Lab 916 supports hundreds of successful Amazon brands with high-performance listing optimization to increase product visibility on Amazon.
Oh, and before we forget,
Apart from acing your listing by implementing a good keyword strategy, make sure that your listing is complete. Completing your listing means:
- Every listing is detailed, transparent and free from distracting or misleading information. This helps Amazon match your listing better and save you from the horrors of customer returns.
- Fill out all relevant fields such as Manufacturer Part Number, specifications and categories.
Part 2: Traffic
Get more eyeballs on your products through paid advertisements. Unless you’re consistently trending on social media, investing in paid ads regularly is the fastest way to reel people in. There are Pay-Per-Click options that you can consider such as Sponsored Product Ads, Sponsored Brand Ads and Sponsored Display Ads. Each type of ad caters to varying goals.
- Sponsored Product Ads – Use this ad type to increase product sales, ranking and customer rating on Amazon.
- Sponsored Brand Ads – Build brand awareness and drive traffic to your Amazon Storefront from within the Amazon platform.
- Sponsored Display Ads – Build brand awareness and drive traffic to your listing from on and off Amazon.
Alternatively, you can go for the following methods as well:
- Amazon Demand Side platform
- Social media marketing
- Influencer & affiliate marketing
Managing PPC campaigns require savvy and are hard to DIY, unless you have unlimited time and budget to learn this yourself. Stop wasting your advertising budget and leverage the expertise of Lab 916. Lab 916 is equipped with proprietary tools and the know-how to implement successful advertising campaigns that are tailored to any brand’s budget and revenue goals.
Part 3: Conversion
Once you get traffic to your listing, it’s time to work on sealing the deal. This is the most important part of the wheel because this is where sales are closed.
Essentially, you have to convince people to choose your product over the others. You can do so by
- Keeping your price competitive
- Developing compelling A+ Content – Check out our samples here!
- Adding more images and helpful information to help them with decision-making
- Offering coupons and promos
- Offering fast & free shipping
Part 4: Feedback
To complete the loop, focus on gathering favorable reviews from customers. Imping up on social proof can help you build your brand’s reputation, encourage conversion and keep customers loyal.
Overall, building momentum through a customer-centric approach such as the flywheel can increase your chances of bagging the bestseller award.
Final Thoughts
Becoming an Amazon Best Seller is surely anything but simple. It involves more than just having a top-selling status, it takes dedication and strategy in order to get the coveted Amazon best seller badge. Despite how formidable this task may seem, there are professionals like Lab 916 who make sure that attaining such a goal isn’t impossible with our full-service support and expertise.
Be a Best Seller with the help of these Lab 916 services:
- Amazon Listing Optimization
- A+ Content Development
- Storefront Design Optimization
- Amazon PPC Advertising Management
- Full Seller & Vendor Account Management
- Amazon Consulting
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