< < BACK
Home

       Help Resource Center

Support Contact Us Company Polls and Surveys

Used with permission from an Amazon dealer.

Amazon Sales Rankings – Approximate, with observations about selling on Amazon.

The rankings that Amazon displays for most of the books on the site are not an indication of how many copies have
sold in any measured period, nor are they a good indicator of how quickly the next copy will sell, nor of how many
will sell in any given future period.

These numbers are best used for Used and Collectible copies. New books have different rules, very often the lowest
price determines who gets the sale.

They are only a measure of the time since the most recent copy sold. That’s it.

For example (these numbers are from a dealer’s sales records):

Time since last sale      Ranking (approx)

1 day                          140k
2 days                        223k
3 days                        427k
4 days                        480k
5 days                        560k
6 days                        629k

1 week                       707k
2 weeks                    1.17m
3 weeks                    1.49m

1 month                    1.81m
2 months                  3.16m
3 months                  3.45m
4 months                  3.56m
5 months                  3.66m
6 months                  3.73m
7 months                  3.81m
8 months                  3.88m
9 months                  3.94m
10 months                4.00m
11 months                4.05m

1 year                      4.11m
2 years                    4.56m
3 years                    4.81m

Just because a book has a high ranking number, does not mean a copy won't sell tomorrow, just as a low ranking
number doesn't mean that a copy will necessarily sell anytime soon. A book that hasn't sold for 3 years may get a
sudden demand from a single buyer, or a group of buyers if something special happens, like a teacher requiring
if for a course, or the author mentioning it while on tour for another of his books. Or a book that sold yesterday
may not have another sale for years.

Ranking numbers tell you nothing about sales (if any) previous to the most recent one. There could have been none
for quite a while, or many just before that.

If a book has no ranking number, that means Amazon has no record of it ever selling on their site. That could be
because there were not any copies available for most of the time the page existed, and there actually is a pent-up
demand for it. Don't avoid listing books just because there is no ranking for it, unless there are already several
low-priced copies just sitting there.

Books that have rankings that stay below 140k day after day, are continuously selling one or more copies per day.
On those you should never lowball or even match the lowest price. You will be leaving-money-on-the-table if you do.
Price well away from that point. It will still sell soon enough, once the buyers have cleaned out all the low-priced
copies. I have sold books where my listing was not even on the first page-of-25 when I listed it. It may take a week
or two, but is worth the wait.

One other observation: Dealers with higher feedback can sell their books for higher prices, and having a full
bibliographical description that matches the product detail page without self promotion can also increase the
likelihood that you will get the sale, even if your price is higher than the competition. Buyers KNOW you have the
book that Amazon is advertising with their product detail page. Also, enabling Expedited and/or International
shipping can sometimes make the difference.

A different, updated view of Sales Rankings:

5,460,000 - 7,000,000                over 3 years ago

5,150,000 - 5,460,000                2 - 3 years ago

4,590,000 - 5,150,000                1 - 2 years ago

4,364,000 - 4,590,000                9 - 12 months ago

4,099,000 - 4,364,000                6 - 9 months ago

3,775,000 - 4,099,000                3 - 6 months ago

1,869,000 - 3,775,000                1 - 3 months ago

1,696,000 - 1,869,000                3 - 4 weeks ago

1,405,000 - 1,696,000                2 - 3 weeks ago

1,029,000 - 1,405,000                1 - 2 weeks ago

 931,000 - 1,029,000                 6 - 7 days ago

 839,000 - 931,000                    5 - 6 days ago

 748,000 - 839,000                    4 - 5 days ago

 655,000 - 748,000                    3 - 4 days ago

 514,000 - 655,000                    2 - 3 days ago

 226,000 - 514,000                    1 - 2 days ago

 150,000 - 226,000                    12 - 24 hours ago

 90,000 - 150,000                      6 - 12 hours ago

 30,000 - 90,000                        2 - 6 hours ago

 1 - 30,000                                0 - 2 hours ago

 

How does Amazon sales rank work?

Amazon sales rank is basically a popularity contest, in which each purchase of a book constitutes a vote for it. It is not an absolute measure of sales quantity, but only a relative measure of where one book stands among all others sold on Amazon. Approximate correlations of average Amazon sales rank to U.S. sales can be found both in Aaron Shepard’s Aiming at Amazon and in Morris Rosenthal’s Amazon sales rank analysis. But these are ballpark figures only—especially Aaron’s—and besides, they’re subject to changes over time and season.

Amazon sales rank for all books is now updated once each hour, and all at once. At that time, a book jumps to a higher sales rank (a lower number) for the sale of any new or used copy. With no new sale, the sales rank will drift lower (to a higher number) as books that have sold copies push it down. If a book has no sales rank at all, that means no one has ever bought it!

The time of hourly updating is fairly regular but changes over time and also varies according to your geographical location. For instance, at the Sales Rank Express control center in Washington state, it was found one day to occur regularly at about a quarter after the hour. On the same day, at the Foner Books offices in Massachusetts, it was found to occur on the hour. And on another day here in Washington, it started out at quarter to the hour, then switched later to a quarter after.

The jump in Amazon sales rank that results from a sale will probably not occur at the next hourly update. Tests in May 2007 showed a typical time lag at Amazon.com of around two to three hours between the sale and the jump in sales rank.

Occasionally, Amazon’s system may become “stuck,” so that sales rank does not advance after a sale. You may see sales ranks remain completely static for long periods, or see most of them drift slowly downward. Just wait a while, and Amazon will fix it.

Amazon sales rank is a lot less steady than it used to be, now being subject to wide fluctuations. So, you’ll have to check a book’s sales rank now and then over an extended period to get a good sense of its true position. This, of course, is a weakness of a sales rank checker like Sales Rank Express as opposed to a sales rank tracker with its recording of historical data. But the upside is that you’ll get a better sense of short cycles in book sales.

Also, a sales rank tracker might check sales rank only once a day in the middle of the night, when some books may not sell at their best. Sales Rank Express, by contrast, shows your sales rank as it is right at the moment, in real time.

Updated May 30, 2009