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As an Amazon seller, managing your Seller Central account is crucial for running a successful business on the platform. One of the most effective ways to stay on top of your business operations is by regularly reviewing the reports available in Seller Central. These reports provide key insights into your sales, inventory, customer feedback, and overall performance. But with so many options, which ones should you prioritize?
In this article, we’ll break down the most important reports in Seller Central that you should be reviewing on a regular basis. This will help you make informed decisions, optimize your performance, and ensure the long-term growth of your Amazon business.
One of the foundational report sections in Seller Central is the Business Reports section. It offers an array of data points related to your sales, orders, and customer behavior. The key reports under this section include:
Sales Dashboard:
This gives you an overview of your total sales, allowing you to track performance over specific timeframes (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). The dashboard also shows revenue, units sold, and conversion rates, making it easier to monitor trends.
Sales by ASIN (Detailed Page Sales):
This report allows you to track the performance of each product individually. You can see how much revenue each ASIN generates and how often it gets ordered. This data is essential for identifying your top-performing products and those that might need adjustments.
Sales and Traffic by Parent ASIN:
This report helps you compare parent-level products and their variations. It also tracks traffic sources and conversion rates, which can help you optimize listings and adjust pricing strategies.
Monitoring these reports allows you to stay informed about your overall sales performance, spot trends, and address any sudden changes. Understanding which products sell well can help you optimize stock levels, improve marketing strategies, and adjust pricing for maximum profit.
Maintaining an optimized inventory is essential for avoiding stockouts and overstocking. Regularly reviewing inventory reports helps you maintain the right balance. Some crucial inventory reports to monitor include
Inventory Health Report:
This report gives a comprehensive view of your current stock levels, including unsellable inventory, sellable inventory, and overstocked items. It also indicates how long your inventory will last based on historical sales data.
Manage Excess Inventory:
Amazon provides recommendations on how to handle excess inventory in this report. It includes suggestions for repricing, running promotions, or even disposing of unsold stock to avoid long-term storage fees.
Restock Inventory:
Staying ahead of stockouts is essential, and this report helps you by forecasting demand and providing restock recommendations. It’s based on your historical sales data and product performance.
Managing your inventory effectively can prevent potential losses from overstocking or running out of stock. These reports also give you insights into how to maintain an optimized stock level, avoiding Amazon’s hefty storage fees and maximizing profits.
If you’re utilizing Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service, there are additional inventory reports specific to FBA sellers. These reports provide detailed information about inventory levels in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, shipment statuses, and inventory removals. Key reports include:
FBA Inventory Age Report:
This report shows how long your products have been sitting in Amazon’s warehouses. Monitoring this is crucial for avoiding long-term storage fees, as Amazon charges extra for items stored for longer than 365 days.
FBA Inventory Reconciliation Report:
Sometimes, inventory discrepancies occur within Amazon’s fulfillment centers. This report helps you track and reconcile such discrepancies, making sure your inventory counts are accurate.
FBA Inventory Removal Report:
This report tracks inventory removals, either because of customer returns or Amazon’s decision to remove unsellable stock. Keeping an eye on this can prevent unintentional fees or lost products.
Regularly reviewing these reports allows you to manage your FBA inventory efficiently, prevent excessive storage fees, and handle customer returns or stock removals quickly.
If you’re running Amazon PPC campaigns, advertising reports are critical for analyzing the effectiveness of your ads and optimizing future campaigns. Key reports to track include:
Search Term Report:
This report shows the actual search terms customers used before clicking on your ad. Understanding which search terms drive conversions and which ones don’t will help you refine your ad targeting, optimize your budget, and improve overall ad performance.
Campaign Performance Report:
This gives an overview of your campaign performance, including impressions, clicks, conversions, and overall spend. It’s essential for tracking the return on investment (ROI) of your ad spend.
Keyword Performance Report:
Similar to the search term report, this focuses specifically on the keywords in your campaigns. It allows you to see how each keyword is performing, helping you identify which ones are worth investing more in and which ones should be paused or removed.
Optimizing your ad spend is crucial for maximizing ROI. These reports provide a granular look at what’s working and what isn’t, allowing you to fine-tune your campaigns for better results.
Seller Central also offers performance-related reports that give insights into your customer feedback, order fulfillment rates, and overall account health. These include:
Customer Feedback Report:
Monitoring this report allows you to see how customers are rating your products and services. High positive feedback can boost your product’s visibility, while negative feedback can help you identify areas for improvement.
Order Defect Rate Report:
Amazon tracks your order defect rate, which includes metrics like negative feedback, A-to-Z claims, and chargebacks. Keeping this rate low is crucial for maintaining your account health and avoiding suspension.
Account Health Dashboard:
This is not a report per se, but it’s a vital area to regularly review. It provides an overview of your account health, highlighting issues like late shipment rates, cancellation rates, and policy violations.
Maintaining a healthy seller account is essential for staying in good standing with Amazon. Regularly reviewing performance reports helps you stay compliant with Amazon’s policies and identify areas where you can improve customer satisfaction.
Understanding your earnings and expenses is key to running a profitable business. Amazon provides several reports to help you track your payments and fees, such as:
Payment Report:
This report summarizes your total earnings, including revenue, refunds, and deductions for fees. It also shows pending balances, allowing you to keep track of when payments will be disbursed.
Fee Preview Report:
This report breaks down the fees associated with each product, including referral fees, FBA fees, and storage fees. Monitoring this report can help you understand the true cost of selling on Amazon and identify areas where you might be able to cut costs.
Staying on top of your payments and fees ensures that you’re aware of how much you’re earning after expenses. These reports provide clarity on your profit margins, allowing you to make informed pricing and product decisions.
The Voice of the Customer (VOC) report in Seller Central is an invaluable tool for understanding how customers feel about your products and services. This report gathers customer feedback on your products and categorizes it into different levels of satisfaction. The key sections include:
Customer Experience Metrics:
This section shows how customers rate their experience with your products, whether positive, neutral, or negative.
Product Performance:
It highlights specific products that may need improvement based on customer feedback. This could include issues related to product quality, shipping times, or inaccurate descriptions.
Customer satisfaction is at the heart of a successful Amazon business. By regularly reviewing this report, you can address issues before they escalate and improve your products and services based on direct customer feedback.
Managing returns is a critical aspect of maintaining good customer service and minimizing revenue loss. Seller Central provides detailed return reports that help you track why customers are returning products, including:
Returns Performance Report:
This shows return rates for each product, providing insights into whether a product is meeting customer expectations. The report also highlights common reasons for returns, such as defects or shipping damage.
FBA Customer Returns Report:
If you’re using FBA, this report shows which items were returned, the reasons for returns, and whether the items were restocked or marked as unsellable.
Return reports are essential for understanding why customers are sending items back and for addressing any recurring issues. High return rates can lead to lower profit margins and negatively impact your seller rating, so it’s crucial to track this data.
Regularly reviewing reports in Seller Central is key to understanding the health of your Amazon business. From sales and inventory to advertising and customer feedback, these reports provide a wealth of information that can guide your decision-making, help you optimize your operations, and ensure long-term growth.
By consistently monitoring these reports, you can spot trends early, address potential problems before they escalate, and make data-driven decisions to maximize your success on Amazon.
FAQs:
Why are Business Reports important for Amazon sellers?
Business Reports give insights into overall sales performance, revenue, and customer behavior. Regularly reviewing them helps you monitor trends, track product success, and adjust strategies for better sales.
How can Inventory Reports help me manage my stock better?
Inventory Reports provide details on stock levels, sellable and unsellable inventory, and restock recommendations. Reviewing them ensures you avoid overstocking or stockouts, optimizing storage costs and sales opportunities.
What are the most crucial FBA Inventory Reports?
Key FBA reports include the Inventory Age Report, Inventory Reconciliation Report, and Inventory Removal Report. These help you manage your FBA stock efficiently, avoid storage fees, and track returned or removed items.
Why should I track Advertising Reports in Seller Central?
Advertising Reports, such as the Search Term and Campaign Performance reports, give insights into ad effectiveness. Regularly reviewing these helps you optimize your PPC campaigns, lower ad spend, and increase ROI.
How do Performance Reports affect my Seller Central account?
Performance Reports track customer feedback, order defect rates, and overall account health. They’re crucial for ensuring customer satisfaction and maintaining compliance with Amazon’s policies to avoid account suspension.
How do Payments and Fees Reports help me understand my profitability?
These reports show your earnings, pending balances, and associated fees (e.g., referral and FBA fees). Monitoring them allows you to understand your profit margins and make better financial decisions.
What is the Voice of the Customer (VOC) Report?
The VOC Report collects and categorizes customer feedback about your products, helping you understand satisfaction levels and product performance. Regularly reviewing it allows you to make improvements based on direct customer input.
Why are Return Reports crucial to track?
Return Reports provide information on return rates, reasons for returns, and whether items were restocked or marked as unsellable. Monitoring returns helps identify product issues and improve customer satisfaction while managing potential losses.
How often should I review these reports?
It’s recommended to review essential reports (Business, Inventory, Performance, and Advertising Reports) weekly or at least monthly to stay on top of your account’s performance and make timely decisions.
Can I automate report generation in Seller Central?
Yes, Seller Central allows you to schedule regular report generation and export them for more convenient review, ensuring you don’t miss any critical data.
