Sales numbers showing how many sold "last week" or "last month" wildly inaccurate
Has anybody noticed that now on the main Amazon site, popular items now show quantities of "...sales in the last week" or ".....sales in the last month?" There are a number of items where we are currently the only seller, and the numbers are several times the magnitude of actual sales. An obvious concern is that tempts new sellers to jump in with totally unrealistic expectations (and the inevitable consequent price cutting). I'm not thrilled about the public having this transparency into our sales numbers, but this is even worse.
Sales numbers showing how many sold "last week" or "last month" wildly inaccurate
Has anybody noticed that now on the main Amazon site, popular items now show quantities of "...sales in the last week" or ".....sales in the last month?" There are a number of items where we are currently the only seller, and the numbers are several times the magnitude of actual sales. An obvious concern is that tempts new sellers to jump in with totally unrealistic expectations (and the inevitable consequent price cutting). I'm not thrilled about the public having this transparency into our sales numbers, but this is even worse.
27 replies
Seller_xGoCZWi4ciH8M
I agree, we have seen the same thing. In fact, we have listing that only sell 2-4x per month, but the listings shows 50+ this week. This should be interesting..
Seller_rFyxk4x2i2V6L
I saw the same thing. Saying "300 sales in the last week" when it's more like 5 pieces. This seems like a textbook case of false advertising, and will invite consumer lawsuits especially in certain states (California.) Someone at Amazon should get these numbers fixed or taken down entirely.
Seller_27lQXuZPqUkar
Pull your transaction data and see how many units you sell yourself. Just takes a little pivot tabling and some Index/Match or Vlookup formulas to do it. We use Seller Central's data very little vs. the reports (which we have found to be accurate since they're tied to Order #s).
Seller_hLH0bAcCwYcos
Yeah, no joke! I saw one product in toys that says 2,000+ sold in last month, and it only has 1 SELLER, with only 2 units in stock. And its a super expensive item, the kind you are lucky to sell 1 unit in a month. Doesn't sound like it's the kind of product that sold 2000 units in a month. Not even close!
At first I thought that was perhaps a "national" sales figure (not just Amazon), but even that doesnt check out. There are only 6 units for sale on ALL of Ebay. The product has been out of print for 6 months. NOBODY stocks it...
Seller_TqIQHKpUKWLQb
yeah, have no idea what is the calculate logic. The sales number showing on my listing is not accurate.
Seller_B9cQnbg2oZzCm
Our Experience across ~8 products in the Grocery category is that it is pretty accurate with us selling between 300 - 1,000 units per week of specific ASINS and being the only seller on our brand listed items.
Seller_9Uf78DYSZ2lcW
Ok, seems to me on one of my listings they are showing 50+ sold in the past week.
I know that has to be stretching the truth a bit for that particular ASIN. So I think there is a chance they are lumping some similar products together and claiming they are similar enough to count as the same, OR maybe they are choosing the best single day in the past month and then extrapolating that for a full week to get their numbers?
In any case, I believe it is just a marketing ploy to let buyers know what products seem to be popular. Kinda like the Amazon Choice badge or star ratings etc.
Seller_OZLbFbESxvGGQ
I saw the exact opposite, there was a product I was the only seller of. Last week sold more than 300 ( very cheap products), but showed 100+.
I would also like to be able to show it by actual, so I can estimate the size of the whole market.
Seller_qjgCwogfD2oXM
believe gradually the number of sales will become acurate, the current overstating is designed as a buffer.
amazon obviously wants the sellers to compete more intensly, to reap more profit from them in sales commision, advertising, transportation and storage, but doesn't like them to feel the means for it in case of strong bounce-backs.
