Amazon Best Seller and Amazon’s Choice badges are two labels that every seller wishes to have with their product.
New sellers are often intimidated by these badges though. They seem to think that sellers with these labels must be doing something out-of-the-world or that their level of expertise is unmatchable.
Well, we’re here to tell you that that is not at all true.
Almost every seller with either one of these badges actually applied specific strategies to earn them. Lucky for you, we’re going to be discussing all these strategies (and more!) with you today.
Let’s get started by first explaining what the two badges actually mean:
What does the Best Seller Badge on Amazon Represent?
As obvious from the name, having the Best Seller badge means that you’ve been selling the most number of units in your product category for a specific period of time (not revealed by Amazon).
Here’s how this works:
Every product on Amazon is assigned a number called the Best Seller Rank (BSR). The BSR for a particular product is calculated on the basis of:
- Recent sales data
- Historical sales data
This number is updated every hour for each product on Amazon.
Lower the BSR, the better the rank. Sellers with the top 100 Best Seller Ranks are awarded the Best Seller badge.
Amazon’s Choice Badge – What is it Really Based Upon?
Getting the Amazon’s Choice badge sounds like having Amazon’s seal of approval for being the best in your category. The term itself makes it sound like someone actually tried out the product and is now recommending it.
This obviously is not the case though. Products with “Amazon’s Choice” badge have been chosen through an algorithm driven process, not by any “experts”.
Most importantly, Amazon’s Choice products are actually keyword-related, not department-related. Let’s explain this by an example:
A customer searches for ”silicone kitchen utensils,” finds your product in the search results and buys it. Another customer searches for that same keyword and he ends up buying your product too.
As more and more customers buy your product like this, there comes a point when it gains enough sales to be titled as Amazon’s Choice for that particular keyword.
To understand this idea better, you should know that Amazon’s Choice first came in 2015 for Alexa voice-operated devices. If you asked Alexa to buy you “silicone kitchen utensils”, then it would choose the Amazon’s Choice from the search results.
Difference Between Amazon’s Choice and Best Seller
As a seller, you should know that the main difference between Amazon’s Choice and Best Seller is that the former is linked to keywords while the latter is linked to departments or categories.
As we said before, Amazon’s Choice items are selected through an algorithm. But what are the factors taken into consideration by this algorithm?
We did some research and identified some similarities between various Amazon’s Choice products. Here’s the list:
- Available to be shipped right away
- Lower return rate
- Higher conversion rates
- Eligible for prime delivery
- Positive ratings
Although being the best seller in your category may help you with being Amazon’s Choice, the badge still does not have much to do with BSR directly.
On the other hand, Best Seller badge has everything to do with the BSR. The more sales you make, the better Best Seller Rank you’ll have.
Now that we understand what both of these badges represent and the difference between them, let’s move on to the real deal: which one’s better for a seller?
Amazon’s Choice vs. Best Seller – A Comparison
Product 2 here is Amazon’s Choice but if we compare it with product 1 then we see:
- The one without any badge is rated 4.7 while Amazon’s Choice is rated 4.4
- Amazon’s Choice is not the only product with Prime shipping, almost all other products have it too
- Number of sales for Amazon’s Choice is actually less than that of product 1 (not displayed here but can be checked in the individual product detail pages)
Amazon’s Choice doesn’t really sound like a sensible choice now, does it?
There’s more. We monitored a few other Amazon’s Choice products and noticed that some of them lost their badge the very next day while others retained theirs for days. Well, what’s the criteria here? Amazon refuses to disclose.
Lastly, Amazon’s Choice badge is too dependent on keywords. For instance, if a buyer searches for “flashlight”, then the ThorFire Led flashlight appears as Amazon’s choice:
However, if the buyer searches specifically for “led flashlight” then the ThorFire is no longer Amazon’s Choice:
Therefore, your product will appear as Amazon’s Choice only when it is searched for using a specific keyword. If not, it will be just like any other product from the search results.
Best Seller – Pros and Cons
Unlike Amazon’s Choice, Best Seller is more straightforward and easier to understand (and hence easier to achieve).
First, buyers trust this badge because they have a reason to. They understand the product is a best seller and think “well it must be good if so many people are buying it”.
Moreover, unlike Amazon’s Choice, retaining the Best Seller badge is entirely up to your abilities, not just pure luck (don’t worry, we’ll be sharing strategies in a bit).
If you keep selling more than others, you will remain at the top no matter what. If someone else makes more sales then they will takeover. Sounds pretty fair.
Lastly, Best Seller is best seller everywhere in the marketplace regardless of the keyword being used to search for it.
Consider this for an example:
Notice the different keywords? The Best Seller badge did not disappear just because the search keyword was a bit different. In fact, your product will still have its badge even if it appears in an entirely unrelated niche.
There’s only one catch though. Unlike Amazon’s Choice, Best Seller badges are not unlimited. There can only be 100 badges per department all over the Amazon marketplace. So there is less room to play here as compared to Amazon’s Choice.
So, what’s the conclusion when it comes to their difference?
Having the Best Seller badge is definitely more profitable than Amazon’s Choice. Not only does your badge appear everywhere with your listing on Amazon, it is also more trusted by customers.
It is also easier to achieve. Most of the Amazon’s Choice sellers don’t even know how or why they got the badge in the first place or how they lost it later. Best Seller, on the other hand, makes a lot more sense.
How can my Product become a “Best Seller”?
The one line answer to this is: Sell more products. But how?
Let us share 3 tried and tested strategies to boost your sales:
- List your product in the right category. The “right category” means a less competitive, more specific category where there may not be thousands and thousands of sellers to compete with.
For instance, if you’re selling cans of cat food, then don’t list it in the “pet supplies“ category where there is already so much competition. Instead, list it in the more specific “canned cat food“ subcategory where there is a higher chance of becoming a Bestseller.
- Temporarily lower down your rates as much as possible or better yet, set up a lightning deal. (Remember, only items with 4+ ratings and Amazon Prime are eligible for lightning deals).
Make sure to decide how many units you want to sell at this price beforehand and also keep track of your sales later so that your sales don’t go over this number.
*Offer Facebook discounts! In our opinion, promo codes are a super effective way to boost your sales. You can choose however to execute this but the best way is to start low and then go higher if the response is good.
This means that you can vary the discount percentage as well as the number of units sold per day according to the initial response.
These 3 strategies were for boosting your sales in order to get the #1 Best Seller badge. But what to do after you’ve received the badge? How to retain your Best Seller status for as long as possible?
The very first thing to do is to stock up. You’re going to be selling a large number of units first as discounts and later when your sales boost after claiming the Best Seller badge.
Secondly, regardless of whichever of the three strategies you choose to give a temporary boost to your sales, always follow up with PPC.
Getting the “Amazon’s Choice” Badge for Your Product
Since it’s keyword-focused, the Amazon’s Choice badge comes with slightly different strategies.
Let’s look into these one by one:
- Target the right keywords and optimize your listing accordingly. Like categories, keywords are also competitive. The right keyword is specific, but not too specific that it targets only a handful of audience.
Also make sure to include the speciality of your product in the keyword. Mentioning it clearly in the description and also on images is a good idea as well.
*Set up a facebook promotion campaign. This is similar to the Best Seller strategy but with one crucial difference: your product’s link that you include in the promotion must be of the listing that you get after searching for the targeted keyword.
Unlike for Best Seller badge, it is wise to keep setting up small promo codes occasionally for Amazon’s Choice. This is because here there is no hourly updation here so you have to stay at the top of the organic ranking for a while.
* Include the targeted keywords in your PPC campaign. The goal here is to get as many sales as possible from your keyword, so why not optimise your PPC accordingly?
Luckily, Amazon considers all sales equal whether they’re sponsored or organic so it’s best to make use of PPC here.
Everyone buying your product through its PPC ad would contribute equally as someone searching for your targeted keywords and then buying your product from the results.
Retaining Amazon’s Choice status is almost the same as retaining Best Seller (but with less certainty). You obviously need to stock up units here as well and also follow up your campaigns with keyword-optimised PPC.
Frequently Asked Questions about both Badges
Let’s answer a few commonly asked questions about Amazon’s Choice and Best Seller before we conclude this post.
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Does Amazon’s Choice care for my Product’s Sales Ranking?
Not really. Above discussed examples clearly prove that BSR has little to do with Amazon’s Choice items. -
Do Customer Reviews get checked for Best Seller?
Well, ratings are not “checked” for the badge but they definitely affect a product’s likelihood of receiving it.
According to PowerReviews, one-third of online customers refuse to buy an item that has not been positively reviewed.
What this means is that although product reviews don’t directly affect the possibility of getting the best seller badge, it is obviously impossible for a negatively rated item to become a best seller.
- Can I have both these Badges at the same time?
No, you can’t.
Some sellers say that they have had both of the badges at the same time and that the Amazon’s Choice badge appeared whenever their listing was found using the targeted keywords and Best Seller appeared whenever it was found otherwise.
This has not been proven though but anyhow, it is impossible for your listing to display both of these badges together.
- Would I still keep my badges if I raise prices?
There’s no hard and fast rule about this and it depends entirely upon your strategy and plan. If you think that raising prices will not hamper your sales and hence your badge, then go for it!
Final Thoughts – Which One is More Desirable?
We discussed both the badges in detail and know one thing for sure: Amazon’s Choice is far more unpredictable than Best Seller.
We asked some sellers and got their opinion on the matter. We weren’t surprised when most of them said that they were focused more on getting the Best Seller badge rather than the Amazon’s Choice.
Some of them who claimed having both the badges even complained about Amazon’s Choice calling it a “curse” to their Best Seller status. The reason for this is already discussed in our FAQs section above.
Another reason for sellers to not make efforts for Amazon’s Choice badge is because it is almost a wild goose chase. Sure, Amazon does not reveal anything about the selection criteria for either one of the badges but Amazon’s Choice is still far more unpredictable and inconsistent.
So, which one do you prefer? Let us know in the comments section!
