The most important Amazon KPIs at a glance: These metrics sellers should definitely pay attention to!

The myth persists: Amazon makes sellers rich. However, anyone who has dealt with this topic quickly comes to the realization: Amazon can work well for sellers, but it is by no means a guaranteed success! Like any other business, entrepreneurs must also keep an eye on the important KPIs on Amazon.
For the e-commerce giant quickly penalizes marketplace sellers who do not have their metrics under control. But first, we want to clarify what so-called Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, actually are and what they can be useful for. Afterwards, we will delve into the Amazon KPIs.
What are KPIs and why are KPIs useful?
“Key Performance Indicator” can be translated as “performance metric” and comes from business management. KPIs can measure the extent to which important objectives have been implemented or to what degree they have been achieved. In manufacturing, an important KPI could be, for example, the average utilization of a machine compared to the maximum possible utilization.
The concept has also gained widespread acceptance in the digital industry. Whether it’s a personal online shop or Amazon – an important KPI is, for example, the conversion rate. For advertisers, KPIs relate to the impressions of an advertisement and its click-through rate. B2B websites, on the other hand, often measure their success based on leads.
Thus, KPIs help to keep important performance metrics in view and systematically check critical success factors. Only those who measure their success or failure know where the issues lie in the machinery and what is already working well. Then it is also possible to optimize with purpose and understanding.
Which KPIs are relevant for Amazon?
Unlike sellers who have their own online shop, marketplace sellers face particular challenges. Relevant KPIs on Amazon are often set by the online giant itself. Those who do not pay attention to these performance metrics have no chance of ranking high with their products or winning the Buy Box. And those who do not succeed in this will hardly sell products.
Additionally, many of the usual KPIs, such as impressions or click rates, cannot be measured accurately or only approximately by the marketplace seller. The best chance to influence click rate, conversion rate, and sales is for sellers to know the KPI metrics set by Amazon and align the optimization of their business accordingly.
Penalty for non-compliance
There is another important reason why relevant Amazon KPIs should be monitored: Amazon does it too. If sellers ignore the performance metrics, they risk failing to meet the required standards. Once this happens, Amazon is aware of it – and this can not only affect the ranking or the profit of the Buy Box. Anyone who has ever had to create an action plan knows that this is not a desirable goal and only wastes time and money. In the worst case, the e-commerce giant may even suspend the entire seller account. For entrepreneurs whose core business is Amazon, this would be a disaster.
There is therefore much to be said for monitoring all performance metrics. If an Amazon KPI threatens to slip into a critical area, countermeasures can be taken early on to avoid account suspension.
Important KPIs: Seller Performance
That the shipping method and the shipping duration play an important role, by now every marketplace seller should have noticed. Amazon prefers it when merchants ship via the in-house program “Fulfillment by Amazon” (FBA). On one hand, this brings additional revenue into the coffers of the platform provider, on the other hand, it guarantees fast and uncomplicated delivery, which ensures customer satisfaction. But the shipping methods Prime by sellers or Fulfillment by Merchant also meet the standards.
Equally important as Amazon KPI is the overall seller performance. This consists of different indicators:
Amazon KPI | Description | Maximum value / Ideal value |
---|---|---|
Rate an order deficiencies | Negative rating, service-related credit card chargeback, A-to-Z Guarantee claim | below 1%, preferably 0% |
Cancellation rate | Cancellations by the seller before order processing | below 2.5%, preferably 0% |
Rate of validity of tracking numbers | Tracking numbers that are valid | at least 95%, preferably 100% |
Rate of late deliveries | late delivery = shipping confirmation after the expected shipping date has passed | below 4%, preferably 0% |
Dissatisfaction with returns | Return request with negative customer rating, return inquiries not answered within 48 hours, incorrectly rejected return requests | below 10%, preferably 0% |
Seller ratings | Average seller rating and number of ratings | as positive as possible, as high as possible |
Response time | average time taken to respond to customer inquiries over the last 90 days | below 24h, preferably below 12h |
Inventory | Out of stock, delivery difficulties | as rarely as possible |
Dissatisfaction with customer service | negative rating of a customer from a response in the buyer-seller inbox | as low as possible |
Rate of refunds | Ratio of refunds in the last 30 days to the total number of orders | as low as possible |
Other relevant KPIs for Amazon
Professional sellers do not only list their products on Amazon, monitor important KPI metrics, and then call it a day. There is more to it. Especially private label sellers must also deal with the topic of advertising. And the same performance metrics apply on Amazon that are used as KPIs in marketing in general.
Another important Amazon KPI is therefore the ACoS, short for “Advertising Cost of Sale”. This indicator relates the costs of advertising campaigns to the revenue generated by this advertising: ACoS = Advertising costs / Revenue.
With a revenue of 50,000 euros and advertising expenses of 3,000 euros, the ACoS would be 6%. However, how high the ACoS can be varies from product to product. To determine this, all costs that the seller incurs in addition must be deducted from the selling price, such as production costs, sales tax, or overhead costs. For example, if the seller makes a profit of 15 percent of the selling price with a coffee machine, the ACoS must not exceed 15 percent. Otherwise, it would result in a loss.
How high or low the ACoS can be as an Amazon KPI depends on many other factors that must be considered individually, such as the goal of the PPC campaigns, the margin, and how high the competitive pressure is within the product category. Unlike Google Ads, Amazon Ads not only contribute to the sales of a product but also always have an impact on organic visibility.
Due to this rather holistic effect, many sellers have started to increasingly focus on the Cost per Order (CPO) as an Amazon KPI. In this case, the advertising expenses of a specific period are divided by the total sales achieved in the same period. This takes into account the fact that Amazon Ads have a larger impact radius.
Conclusion: Those who do not monitor lose!
Selling on Amazon but not checking important KPI metrics regularly? You can try, but it’s pointless. Because those who do not know where the error in the system lies are hardly able to optimize their business in time. The consequences can be not only a downgrade in ranking or the loss of Buy Box – an account suspension is also a quite realistic prospect.
Therefore, Amazon sellers should always keep important KPI metrics in mind and respond promptly to problems. The same applies to the performance of PPC campaigns in the Amazon ecosystem, even if the guidelines here are not as concrete as for seller performance. Here, ACoS and CPO should be monitored to assess whether a campaign is achieving its goal.
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