There are very few things less scary than a sudden drop in Amazon sales. You open your seller central dashboard, hover to the daily sales section and BOOM! Sales are not happening as they should. A sudden drop in sales is not uncommon. There are times when your products just don’t find the sales rhythm. If you are going through this rough patch, you might want to ask yourself the below questions:
P.S: Our Amazon sales experts have also written the solutions, so you don’t have to hunt for the answers.
#1: Are you still the proud owner of the buy box?
For the newbies who don’t know, Amazon buy box is the white box right beside the bullet points where your shoppers can click on the “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button. Because of the cut-throat competition and Amazon’s customer-first approach, Buy Box belongs to only those sellers who have excellent seller metrics (unless all the sellers have great metrics, then the buy box will rotate, so every seller gets their fair share of sales). With over 82% of Amazon sales happening through the Buy Box, it is a deciding factor for sales volume. So, if you have just lost the buy box, the possibilities are that you see a sudden plunge in the sales.
Solution:
It’s simple. Get back that damn box! Here are a few tips that can help you out:
- Use FBA: It is an unspoken rule that Amazon always favors the sellers who use FBA. FBA ensures super-fast and flawless shipping, which the shoppers love. Plus, FBA makes the seller eligible for Prime and we all know how much Amazon loves its Prime members. Ostensibly Amazon wants Prime-eligible sellers to have Buy Box because Prime shoppers aren’t interested in anything that can’t be delivered in two days.
- Set a competitive price: Price is the most significant factor that affects your buy box eligibility. And by price, we mean the total price, including shipping. Analyze your competitors and set a price that gives your customer a “great deal.”
- Ensure all time stock availability: Out of stock label or inadequate inventory is bad for the health of your buy box. Amazon believes optimum inventory prevents shoppers from getting frustrated because of not being able to order what they want.
- Other variable metrics that affect buy box are order defect rate, valid tracking rate, late shipment rate, feedback score and count, customer response time, sales volume and cancellation and defect rate. Get an A+ in all of them and you’ll never lose buy box or sales.
Bonus tip to avoid any such situations: Tell your Amazon ranking expert to constantly check the buy box eligibility status from the seller central.
#2: Did your listing get some hatred lately?
Have you ever bought a product without reading the reviews? No, me neither. Reviews are the social proof that makes or breaks your listing. They significantly affect your conversion rates and also your click-through rates. Reviews prominently appear on the search result pages and if you don’t have enough reviews or boast-worthy star ratings, shoppers won’t even click on your product, no matter how low your price is. Ideally, sellers should immediately remedy any negative review, or else the impact on your sales could be dramatic. Even if it’s one, a recent negative review could explain the drop in sales.
Solution:
Negative reviews and feedback are a big headache, but they are part and parcel of your online selling journey. The good news is that there are ways to efficiently deal with reviews.
- First, examine if the review breaks any of Amazon’s feedback guidelines. If the language in the review is abusive or the review redirects to another website, then you can create a case with Amazon and ask them to remove the review.
- If you are using FBA and the review is about shipping/fulfillment, Amazon will immediately remove the feedback
- If you aren’t lucky enough to be any of the above situations, try contacting the customer directly and ask them to remove the review in exchange for a refund, discount, or free product. Please note that this is a common black hat trick and can risk your account
- A safer option would be to reply to the review and solve the buyer’s problem. This won’t just help you remove the review but will also paint you as a trustworthy brand that takes its customers seriously
- Another thing you could do is increase the number of 5-star reviews to counter-effect the neutral (3 star) and negative reviews. Here are some of the white hat tricks to increase 5-star ratings.
#3: Ever tried putting yourself in customer’s shoes?
Search for your product as a customer and look at it from their perspective. First, identify whether the visibility is good or your product is barely visible for the main keywords. If your product isn’t searchable, you would obviously see no sales. Then go to your product detail page and see if it’s customer-friendly enough. If you aren’t able to stay unbiased, ask someone else to do so. If your product isn’t appealing or easy to find by the customers, this could be the reason why your sales have taken a plunge.
Solution:
- To improve visibility, conduct thorough Amazon keyword research and add those relevant and profitable keywords in your detail page copy and back-end. You can also accelerate your advertising effort to get a boost in visibility
- For better conversion, optimize your product listing with the Amazon listing optimization experts
#4: Maybe you didn’t notice that your sales season just went by!
If you are selling Halloween costumes or Christmas ornaments, your peak sales day may not be more than a few days/weeks/months. Once that time’s gone, you might not see excellent sales for the rest of the year. So if you are selling fancy dress costumes, it is pretty normal to see a sudden sales drop after the 31st of October. It is recommended to keep track of yearly and monthly sales figures so you can identify the seasonal trends.
Solution:
You cannot do anything to increase sales of seasonal products in the off-season. However, there are some measures to ensure a subtle sales flow:
- Offer off-season discounts
- Cross-sell and up-sell to existing customers
- Hold a giveaway to keep your brand on the top of the mind of the customers
- Connect and build a relationship with your loyal customers
- Focus on B2B selling as well
#5: Did a big sale event just end?
Low sale or no-sale days after Prime Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, or Cyber Monday is very common. You should never compare an after-discount sales volume to a normal day sales volume. Instead of feeling low and succumbing to the pressure, look for ways to revamp things up and get back to normal.
Solutions:
Follow these actionable tips to get optimum sales even in the bleak months.
#6: Is your listing still active?
Although it formally should, most of the time, Amazon doesn’t bother to inform you that your listing has been suppressed or blocked. The best way to check this is by finding your listing by ASIN and if you see a dog, your listing has been removed temporarily. Common reasons for a deactivated listing could be too many complaints regarding a product or use of content that violates Amazon’s policies. If one of your top-selling ASIN is blocked for a while and you aren’t aware, your total sales number could drastically decrease.
Solution:
The simple solution to avoid this is by checking the listing regularly and remedy the situation immediately.
#7: Do you have any fakers on your listing?
Popular products from popular brands often face such situations. The counterfeit sellers list a cheaper version of the product at a lower price. Because price is one of the greatest deciding factors for the buy box, they get the sales and ship customers a fake version of the product. As a result, the reputation of your brand and your product is at stake. To make things even worse, a frustrated customer leaves a negative review on the listing. If your listing has rogue sellers, then you might see softer sales in the long run.
Solution:
- Regularly check your listing and place test orders frequently
- If you suspect anything, immediately contact Amazon with a proof
- Enroll in brand registry to take back control of your brand
For more information, click here.
#8: Maybe its time for some math
Take out the guesswork and make data-driven decisions. Amazon gives you a lot of metrics through which you can identify the exact reason for the plummeting sales. Here is a quick explanation for a few of them:
- A dip in impressions signals a lack of visibility and this can be improved by increasing your advertising efforts. You can also add some high volume keywords in your copy to improve organic visibility
- Low page views mean low click through rates. Your click-through rate is affected by your title, the main image, prime eligibility and reviews
- Low conversion indicates that your page lacks information needed to make a purchase. Conversion rate is directly proportional to the page content, images, reviews, buy box and price. You can also leverage Enhanced Brand Content to give your page a conversion boost.
It’s okay; this too shall pass
Every seller experiences a sudden slump at some point in time in their selling journey. The good news is that now you know the reason and also know how to take back charge of the market share. However, we would always recommend leaving some tasks to the Amazon experts. Not only will it save you time and hassle of dealing with such situations but their proactive management will never let such a situation arrive in the first place. Did you notice that most of the scenarios could be avoided only if we are a little more attentive? Hiring a dedicated Amazon consultant at your service will prevent burnouts and allow you to concentrate on your next steps.