In this article we cover the top 7 metrics you should be watching as part of your Amazon business.
Tip 1 Units Ordered
You need to know how many units you are selling by SKU on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Look out for trends in your sales data. After launch you should be growing your sales each day.
Sometimes it will bounce up and down, but month-to-month your overall sales unit numbers should increase. Using CashCowPro or Unicorn Smasher you can check how much your top five competitors are selling.
You should easily be able to do 80% of their average sales. Until you hit this number keep optimizing your listing.
Tip 2 Sessions
Sessions is important because it shows you how many people are actually landing on your product page.
To boost sales, first you have to optimize sessions, then optimize conversions, and automatically as these two numbers increase your sales also increase.
One way to boost sessions is to use more keywords in your listing and title, because that way you will be relevant to more searches. Also, you need to make your main image attractive so people will want to click on your product and not the competition’s.
You can include a bundled item that is red so that your listing pops out on the page. For example, if you’re selling a yoga mat you can include a free red massage ball.
Tip 3 Conversions
Your conversion rate is based on many factors from your photos to your price. You need to experiment with each factor because 5% changes in every critical area can result in 50 to 100% more sales.
Experiment with different prices, titles and main images as these have the most impact. You can do this automatically using cash cow pro software.
You should be hitting 20% to 30% plus conversions. If you are not, you need to optimize.
Tip 4 Keyword Ranking
Having done your keyword research, you should be tracking the top 10 keywords to see how you rank for each one. You can use the AMZ Tracker or CashCowPro keyword tool to do this automatically each day.
You need to be pushing each listing so it’s in the top five for each main keyword. It’s hard to stay number one for every keyword all the time. The competition for the top three spots is sometimes brutal but you should be aiming to be somewhere in the middle, around spot number five.
Start by doing promotions of 50 units over 10 days for your main keyword, and repeat this process for each keyword. Check your position once every two weeks and take action as necessary.
Sometimes it takes 7 to 10 days after a promotion to see the effect on your ranking.
Tip 5 Profit Margin
It’s great selling lots of products on Amazon but if your margin is small the work is almost pointless. You have to maintain a decent profit margin. There are two ways to do this.
Firstly, increase the value of the product by using great packaging, great branding and bundling to push up the price you can get from the customer. Secondly, do everything possible during sourcing and working with your supplier to keep your costs down.
For example, labeling every item at the factory instead of using Amazon’s inventory replacement service can save you $.50 or more per unit. In the Amazon game, every dollar counts.
Tip 6 Pay Per Click Performance
Not only can good pay per click be profitable, but it also helps your organic ranking.
You should be optimizing on a weekly basis to maximize sales through this channel. Check your ACOS, keep it below breakeven, monitor your impressions and review the best and worst performing keywords.
Tip 7 Number of Products
You can spend six months optimizing a product and boost sales by 50%. Likewise you can add a whole new product or two and increase your sales by 100 to 500% or more.
Do your best to optimize listings, but the real gains come from expanding your product portfolio. Monitor the products you have on a monthly basis and continually develop new items.