More and more Amazon sellers are experiencing declining sales, yet few know how to pull themselves out of the slump. While there can be many potential reasons for Amazon’s sales being down, understanding the key factors is essential for turning things around. Below, we will explore five common why reasons your Amazon sales are down and how you can start to reverse declining profits today.
Understanding Amazon Sales Trends in Detail
Before diving into the specific reasons for low Amazon sales, it’s important to understand normal sales trends and fluctuations on the platform. Amazon sales can be unpredictable and are influenced by many factors outside of a seller’s control, like holidays, seasons, economic conditions, and more. Some key things to note about Amazon sales trends:
- Sales typically see a boost around major shopping holidays that we commonly refer to as “tentpole events,” such as increasingly popular and extended BFCM (Black Friday, Cyber Monday) and Amazon’s very own holidays known as Prime Big Deal Days and Prime Days.
- Sales may be lower at other times of the year, such as July 4th, Memorial Day, and Labour Day, when most Americans travel and spend more time outdoors away from their shopping. carts.
- New product launches, promotions from competitors, or changes to Amazon’s search and recommendation algorithms all impact sales from month to month.
- Global and local economic conditions play a role. Recessions or uncertainty in the economy may lead consumers to spend less, resulting in lower Amazon sales across categories.
Understanding these normal fluctuations is important so as not to overreact when Amazon sales are down. However, sellers can also face specific issues that cause prolonged or significant dips in sales.
5 Reasons Why Your Amazon Sales Are Down
1. Buy Box
If you’re selling on multiple platforms, then MAP pricing and ensuring your Amazon prices are equal to or lower than your other listed marketplaces are required. Otherwise, Amazon may remove you from the Buy Box leading to a significant drop in Conversion Rate and will eventually dry up your organic traffic that originates within Amazon. A lost buy box will also deem your products no longer eligible for advertising via Amazon Sponsored ads.
Additionally, competitors may be ‘hijacking’ the buy box from you by outbidding you on certain metrics like price, shipping times, seller feedback count and quality, as well as inventory availability. When another seller is shown in the buy box instead of you, it drastically reduces your sales, as most customers just click the buy box without considering other sellers.
Sometimes Amazon will “steal” your buy box due to them trying to sell an Amazon Warehouse (FBA) return at a slightly lower price and sometimes via a used offer. We don’t recommend sweating in those situations, as they are usually one to two orders at a time, and you don’t have much, if any, control over it.Regularly monitoring the buy box, managing your Amazon seller feedback, and adjusting your pricing and inventory levels is important to maintaining the highest level of your buy box eligibility. Do this correctly, and you’ll remain heading in the right direction.
2. Product Listing and Description
In 2024, Amazon has been rolling out numerous updates, leveraging their COSMO and RUFUS AI to force updates to your listings. For sellers with under-optimized listings, this can boost sales. However, for those with better-optimized listings, this can prove cumbersome and troublesome.
It’s important to execute a monthly, or at least quarterly, review to update high-quality product images, comprehensive details about features and specifications, and keywords in your listings to reflect current buying trends. Be sure to audit your listings to optimize for click-through and conversions.
Run Amazon Split Testing as often as possible, as that can easily and relatively cost-effectively increase your sales overnight.
Our mid-7 to mid-8 Figure sellers typically invest 3-5% of their annual revenues into Amazon listing optimization. We also work with them to capitalise on seasonality by tweaking main images and copy so it speaks to the impending event or time of year.
3. Reviews and Ratings
Customer reviews hugely influence Amazon shoppers, acting as a social proof factor for potential buyers. If your review count is low or ratings have dropped, it signals a higher risk to shoppers since they can’t touch and feel the product before buying. They will be less likely to purchase
Having low ratings can also cause your product to rank lower in Amazon search results. Over the last 10+ years, we’ve crafted unique tactics for removing. Click here to download our free guide on how we have removed 100s of reviews.
Furthermore, in 2024, Amazon started rolling out its Rufus AI which allows shoppers to communicate with your products with endless questions and recommended topics. This technology will respond based on context shared via your product reviews, including images and videos reviewers post.
We recommend interacting with Rufus on your listings monthly, or at least quarterly, so you provide additional context for questions that may need an answer that is otherwise not being provided.
4. Advertising Strategy
If an advertiser is not optimizing their campaigns, targeting the right audience(s), or promoting the right products, it can negatively impact sales. Factors like using outdated targeting, not testing different ad creatives, bidding too low on keywords, etc. can stall the effectiveness of ads over time.
An advertiser needs to continuously evaluate and refine their Amazon advertising strategy, looking at data on what’s working and not working to engage customers. Not doing this can shadow sales from the exposure gained through ads.
5. Competitive and Dynamic Pricing
Ensure you are regularly tracking your competitor’s prices and adjusting your own prices, and expectations, whenever they lower their prices or offer coupons and similar promotions.
Keep an eye on new entrants, who can temporarily steal your market share with deep discounts during product launches. Try not to fall into the trap of chasing them during their promotional periods as you’ll likely result in a race to the bottom. Instead, assess whether you need to run a temporary deep discount once they have lifted their prices in an attempt to recover as much market share as possible.
We dive into a slew of pricing tactic strategies for you here.
Skyrocket your Amazon Sales
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) – Reasons Why Your Amazon Sales are Down
1) What is the Amazon Buy Box?
The Amazon Buy Box is a featured section on product listing pages that allows customers to add a product to their cart with one click. Winning the Buy Box is crucial as around 83% of Amazon sales are made through it.
2) How often should I update my product listings?
It’s recommended to review and update your product listings, images and descriptions at least once a month or whenever there are significant product changes to keep listings fresh and optimized.
3) What are some tips for writing good product descriptions?
Include benefits, features and specs. Use optimised keywords. Highlight what makes your product special. Keep it concise yet comprehensive to motivate purchases. Bullet points, and headings help readability.
4) Why are product reviews important?
Customer reviews provide social proof for buyers and influence purchase decisions. They also impact search rankings – more reviews and higher ratings help products rank higher. It’s important to solicit reviews proactively if numbers are low
