Why have my Amazon sales dropped when my visits are up?

By Glyn Berrington, 26 years in e-commerce

You open Seller Central and the visits are up. The orders are down. It feels like the shop is full and the tills are quiet.

When visits rise and sales fall, one number has moved: the share of visits that end in an order. Amazon calls it Unit Session Percentage in your Business Reports. The shoppers are arriving. Something on the way to the basket is stopping them.

Start with one question: did it change on one day?

This single question sorts the causes better than anything else.

• It dropped from one particular day, right across your account. That is almost never your listings, because listings do not all get worse overnight. It is the offer: what shoppers are being promised on price and delivery.
• It slid gradually, product by product. Then look at the listings themselves, competitors, reviews and the season.

How to find the day yourself

1. In Seller Central, go to Reports, then Business Reports.
2. Under By Date, open Sales and Traffic.
3. Choose the last 90 days and set the view to Day.
4. Look along the order item session percentage. You are looking for a step: a level before, a lower level after, and a date where it changed.

If it changed on one day: the usual causes, most likely first

1. The Prime badge went. Seller Fulfilled Prime was suspended, or FBA stock ran out on your best sellers. The delivery promise gets longer and shoppers who filter for Prime stop seeing you. What to do if you lost Seller Fulfilled Prime.
2. Prices went up across the range, through a repricer, a fee change you passed on, or a supplier increase.
3. Key sizes or colours ran out, or dropped off their parent listing. How sizes go missing from a listing.

If it slid gradually

• Products out of season. Summer lines fall in autumn every year; do not cut the price chasing them.
• A competitor undercutting you, which shows up as a falling Buy Box percentage. Why you lose the Buy Box.
• A run of poor reviews on a best seller.
• Listings that get visits but never convert. Listings with visits but no sales.