Amazon Sales Data Update: What Sellers Need to Know

Starting March 15, 2023, Amazon now displays sales volume data for each product within its search results. Have you seen it? Currently, Amazon doesn’t give you much information but provides an estimate for how many units of that product were purchased in the last month.

With this update come a few questions:

• Why is Amazon doing this?
• How accurate is Amazon’s sales data?
• What do Amazon sellers need to know?

In this article, we’ll answer these questions and explain why this will not replace tools like Jungle Scout.

Why is Amazon adding product sales data to its SERP?

We believe Amazon added sales volume estimates to its Search Engine Results Page (SERP) as another validation tool for customers (rather than sellers). Similar to reviews, customers want to see social proof that others are also buying this product.

If customers see a product purchased over 1,000 times in the last month versus another that sold 200, they may opt for the former. (Just like if customers saw a product with 1,000 reviews versus 200 reviews, they’d likely purchase the one with the higher review count.)

And although this feature aligns with Jungle Scout’s product research tools like Extension and Product Database, it doesn’t provide nearly the same amount of essential data as Jungle Scout.

For example, Amazon tells you how many products were purchased in the last month, whereas Extension
shows daily sales, monthly sales, revenue, net profit (with a profit calculator), net fees, ,sales rank, and much more.

How does Amazon’s data compare to Jungle Scout’s?

The numbers shown by Amazon seem to be rough estimates (e.g., 800+) without additional context. In contrast, Jungle Scout provides sellers with more data points and accurate sales estimates based on an algorithm that forecasts average daily, weekly, and monthly sales for millions of Amazon products.

Looking at exact sales figures from Seller Central, Jungle Scout estimates, and Amazon figures, each party’s numbers are pretty close, but we found that Jungle Scout was actually more accurate than Amazon’s figures.

Because Amazon’s sales estimates are so broad, we have limited context and examples to explore. But let’s dive into some actual sales data and compare accuracy.

For the Jungle Creations Washable Pee Pad product, total sales for the month of February were 1,098 units. Amazon’s estimate for our product says “800+.”

But to be fair to Amazon, this wouldn’t be far off either because our primary variant sold 876 units in February, which could suggest that Amazon is not adding sales from all variants of a product, but only those for the most popular variant.

Let’s try comparing sales data over a shorter time frame.

Above, you can see that Amazon states “100+ purchased last week.” However, when we look at the last week of our actual sales data from Seller Central, we see that this product sold over 200 units in the last seven days.

These new Amazon sales data estimates are not 100% accurate, and since this information isn’t available in Seller Central, it tells us that the feature is customer-focused. It may be useful directionally, but the big downside is that sellers will only see sales estimates for the last week or month. (We’ve seen both options appear for different people.)

If you are a seller, you should really consider a longer time frame so that you can be sure of the product you are evaluating before placing a large order.