Amazon Retail Analytics (ARA)
Imagine you're an online retailer trying to find your footing in the vast Amazon marketplace. You've invested time and resources into sourcing products, creating listings, and optimizing your store, but despite your best efforts, your sales have been stagnant.
This is where Amazon retail analytics (ARA) step in
ARA provides you with data-driven insights that can be the game-changer for your business. For instance, it can reveal that adjusting your product descriptions, using specific keywords, or running targeted ads could boost your sales by 30% or more. In this blog, we'll dive deep into ARA, helping you understand how these insights can transform your business' fortunes on Amazon and beyond.
What is Amazon retail analytics?
Amazon retail analytics (ARA) is a powerful suite of data-driven tools and services offered by Amazon to vendors on its platform. It's designed to provide valuable insights into various aspects of your ecommerce business, helping you make informed decisions and optimize your performance on the platform. ARA enables you to access a wide range of data related to your product feed, customers, and advertising efforts.
Accessing Amazon retail analytics is a crucial step for vendors looking to harness its potential. Here's how you can access ARA:
- Log in to your Amazon Vendor Central.
- Navigate to the ARA dashboard, go to the “Reports” menu and choose “Retail Analytics”.
- Once you navigate to your preferred dashboard, two views will appear: manufacturing and sourcing.
- The manufacturing view is exclusively accessible to brands that are manufacturers on Amazon. It provides an overview of your brand's combined sales and inventory performance, irrespective of the products' origins or suppliers.
- The sourcing view focuses on metrics that are directly associated with your account's performance. It specifically represents the sales and inventory that Amazon has procured from your inventory, excluding any external sources.
Benefits of Amazon retail analytics (ARA)
Harnessing the power of Amazon retail analytics offers a multitude of advantages for vendors. Here are some key benefits:
- Informed decision-making: ARA equips you with data-backed insights, enabling you to make informed decisions on product catalogs, inventory management, and marketing strategies.
- Inventory management and demand forecasting: With insights into inventory performance, you can manage stock levels more effectively and forecast demand, reducing the risk of overstocking or understocking.
- Enhanced product listings: ARA enables you to optimize your product listings based on customer behavior and preferences, increasing your chances of attracting more buyers.
- Competitive analysis and pricing strategies: You can analyze competitor performance data and adjust your pricing strategies to remain competitive in the marketplace.
- Advertising and marketing optimization: ARA provides data on advertising and marketing performance, helping you refine your campaigns to maximize ROI and reach your target audience more effectively.
- Customer behavior insights: Understanding customer preferences, shopping patterns, and feedback allows you to tailor your products and services to meet their needs, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Key reports by Amazon ARA
- Sales and traffic report: This report offers an overview of your sales performance, including revenue, units sold, and conversion rates. It also provides data on the traffic to your product listings, helping you gauge the effectiveness of your listings.
- Inventory performance report: This report helps you manage your inventory effectively by providing data on inventory levels, restock recommendations, and stranded inventory, which can occur when a product is not available for purchase due to various reasons.
- Real-time sales report: These reports provide up-to-the-minute data on your sales, offering immediate insights into your ecommerce performance, allowing you to adapt strategies in real-time and respond to changing market conditions.
- For example, an online book store can see that they’ve already earned $500 in revenue and sold 30 books of a specific author today. So, the store can now arrange for more copies of these books to drive better sales.
- Net PPM: Amazon defines Net PPM as the Net Pure Product Margin, which reveals the real profitability of a product once the following costs are subtracted: product expenses, supplier financing, and sales discounts. This metric assists in assessing if a product generates adequate profit compared to its revenue and if operational expenses remain manageable and within the set limits.
- Catalog: Within vendor central, the catalog report section provides the capability to scrutinize and oversee the quality of your Amazon product listings. This becomes especially advantageous when aiming to confirm the replenishability of products or when assessing whether a product necessitates additional preparation to avoid potential penalty charges, known as chargebacks, on your account.
As we reach the end of our exploration into Amazon retail analytics, it's important to recognize the transformative power of data in today's ecommerce landscape. Businesses leveraging data-driven strategies saw a 20% increase in sales within their first year of implementing insights obtained from retail analytics. In 2020, Amazon renamed it Amazon Brand Analytics. But in August 2022, Amazon relaunched and rebranded ARA with a brand new dashboard and data tables.
So, what's your next step? Are you ready to dive into the world of Amazon retail analytics to supercharge your ecommerce venture, or do you have questions about making the most of this valuable tool? Connect with us and explore Productsup Retail PX more!