Influential Factors in Increasing an Amazon products Sales Rank

TL;DR

This paper identifies key factors influencing Amazon product sales rank, highlighting the importance of related product views, purchases, and pricing across multiple categories.

Contribution

It provides an empirical analysis of influential factors affecting Amazon sales rank using real product and review data, revealing consistent patterns across categories.

Findings

Number of 'customers also bought' products impacts sales rank

Number of 'customers also viewed' products influences sales rank

Product price is a significant factor in sales rank

Abstract

Amazon is the world number one online retailer and has nearly every product a person could need along with a treasure trove of product reviews to help consumers make educated purchases. Companies want to find a way to increase their sales in a very crowded market, and using this data is key. A very good indicator of how a product is selling is its sales rank; which is calculated based on all-time sales of a product where recent sales are weighted more than older sales. Using the data from the Amazon products and reviews we determined that the most influential factors in determining the sales rank of a product were the number of products Amazon showed that other customers also bought, the number of products Amazon showed that customers also viewed, and the price of the product. These results were consistent for the Digital Music category, the Office Products category, and the subcategory Holsters under Cell Phones and Accessories.