September 6th, 2022
Being an Amazon seller certainly has its perks, like the excessive amount of Amazon reports at your fingertips. Once you’ve established a presence, you’ve set the stage for endless opportunities and tremendous growth.
The world of ecommerce can feel overwhelming, so having reliable tools to gauge your business performance and help keep you on track is crucial. Fortunately, Amazon wants its customers to be happy and its sellers to succeed. Win, win, right?
This mutually beneficial relationship is more than just theoretical; it's been boiled down into hard data you can use and infuse into your business tactics. Account health has been broken into reports you can monitor to help you make the right decisions about your advertising, content, pricing, and a whole lot more.
You can leverage Amazon reports to develop and refine your processes along the way. But where do sellers begin?
What are Amazon Seller Central Reports?
Success on Amazon isn’t only about product promotion and order fulfillment. In the diverse and ever-fluctuating world of ecommerce, it’s important to monitor your seller reports and keep abreast of any trends that may surface.
Amazon Seller Central reports offer sellers a vast array of data and insights to help track your performance. These reports include conversion rates, visibility, total sales, inventory, and more. The list goes on and on.
Getting a handle on your data may be a time-consuming prospect, but it’s certainly worthwhile. This ongoing task is an important part of succeeding on Amazon and, when used correctly, can accelerate your sales and conversions as well as decrease spending.
To get started, go to the “Business Reports” section within Amazon Seller Central. Then go to the Reports Tab and click on “Business Reports.” A world of information is now at your fingertips!
How do I use my Amazon reports to monitor my business performance?
So, how do you know if you’re dedicating the appropriate amount of time to each report? All this data paints a bigger picture of how your business is performing and can help you strategize your course of action.
There are many reports you can view on Seller Central that will help you to make informed decisions and keep you in the loop about your account health. To leverage Amazon reports, you have to first prioritize the information that is most useful to you.
Determining your goals is always a great first step. Do you want to cut down on your ad spend or the overall cost of running your business? Are you trying to determine if your current strategies are working in your favor? Are you managing your inventory correctly?
Amazon Seller Central reports give you a CSV file of your data. Once you have access, you can analyze it on your own or with a professional. It never hurts to get the support and feedback of an Amazon seller consultant. They are well-versed in gathering the most important information and can leverage Amazon reports to help meet your goals.
Whether you choose to peruse the data on your own or with a professional, it’s important to stay on top of your information and put it to work. Make sure you’re regularly checking your Sales Dashboard.
This gives you a quick overview of your total sales on Amazon and allows you to filter by week to date, month to date, year to date, or a custom date range. On the left-hand side of your dashboard, there are additional reports available for review.
Which Amazon reports should I track?
Detail Page Sales and Traffic By Child Item
A great place to start is the Detail Page Sales and Traffic By Child Item Report. This is where you can view various metrics for each of your products, including your variations or child items.
Overall account health is important, but knowing how each one of your products is performing will help paint a more detailed picture of where you’re excelling and what can be improved upon.
This report tells you exactly how many views each product receives, as well as each one’s conversion rate. This information is incredibly useful in helping you decide how you price, promote, and sell your products.
You can leverage Amazon reports once you know how many visitors, page views, and orders you have accumulated within a given date range. The Detail Page Sales and Traffic By Child Item Report is a great starting point and should be viewed often to keep track of your most vital data.
Fee Preview
Whether you are an FBA or FBM seller, there are fees you have to pay in order to sell on Amazon. It’s important to leverage Amazon reports to make sure you have a firm grasp on your finances and profits. This information can include referral fees, per-item fees, subscription fees, storage fees, and more. Fees are in constant flux, so this is important data to track and stay on top of.
The Fee Preview Report is a highly valuable tool that many sellers miss along the way. This report shows the estimated Amazon selling and fulfillment fees for your current FBA inventory, as well as any upcoming fee changes that are in the works.
Fees can be viewed in two ways. Within your seller inventory, there is a column on the far right that shows the expected fee for that item. This report can also be downloaded on the right hand side.
Staying in the loop about fee changes is an absolute necessity, and can be the difference between sinking and swimming in a vast sea of competitors.
Inbound Performance
The Inbound Performance Report gives you a detailed overview of any issues Amazon has encountered with your FBA shipments at the fulfillment center. This is where you can check to make sure all of the units you’ve sent to Amazon are counted.
On the Seller Central home page, go to the Reports tab and select Fulfillment from the drop-down menu. On the Amazon Fulfillment Reports page, go to the left under Inventory and click Show more > Inbound Performance.
When there are problems receiving your products at the fulfillment center, Amazon typically emails the seller and flags the problem in their Shipping Queue. These problems can also be viewed in the Inbound Performance report.
Once you have this information, you can pinpoint which items in your shipments have had problems and unveil any underlying issues. Amazon can also provide coaching instructions to help you avoid these issues in the future. It’s important to leverage Amazon data to prevent losses, correct issues, and keep your processes running smoothly.
Inventory Age
The Inventory Age Report is another key piece of the puzzle that is often overlooked by sellers. A full-service Amazon consultant can help you track this data, or you can monitor it on your own by going to the Inventory Age report page, clicking request download for the most current data, and opening the downloaded .txt or .csv file in your preferred spreadsheet program.
Once you have unlocked this information, it will show you how long your inventory has been in fulfillment centers and will help you to identify items that will be subject to upcoming long-term storage fees.
This report also provides details about sales, current sellable quantities, your list price, and the lowest price on Amazon for the same item for all of your company’s FBA inventory.
It’s important to note that the Inventory Age report will be discontinued in 2022 and is being replaced by the Manage Inventory Health report. This updated report combines data from the Inventory Age, Inventory Health, and Excess Inventory report metrics. You can learn more about these changes on the Manage Inventory Health overview.
How to Leverage Amazon Reports
Information is power! But how do you use the data you’ve collected to initiate important changes and facilitate progress? Developing a strategy to monitor your reports is step one.
Once you have acquired all the information you need, it’s time to put this data to work. What trends are working for you? What is holding you back? When you have a clear view of what your expenses are and how inventory and sales are flowing, it is much easier to fine-tune these processes.
In addition to Amazon reports, there are other ways to utilize small business data. Our friends at DesignRush reviewed best practices and solutions.
You can leverage Amazon reports on your own or with the support of seasoned professionals. Our team of Amazon selling experts are here to lend a hand, help you manage the resources that are available to you, and find innovative new ways to thrive in the world of ecommerce.
We understand the intricacies of Amazon and can help you realize your goals. Reach out to our ecommerce experts to set up a free consultation. From there you will receive an email to schedule an appointment time that works for you