Amazon seller analytics alongside your own store

Amazon is a different business

Selling on Amazon alongside your own store means running two distinct businesses with different economics, metrics, and optimization levers. Amazon provides reach and infrastructure but takes significant margin and controls the customer relationship. Understanding Amazon-specific analytics helps you evaluate whether the channel is truly profitable and how it fits your overall strategy.

The Amazon trade-off

What you gain and lose on Amazon.

What you gain:

Massive built-in traffic. Customer trust in Amazon. Fulfillment infrastructure (FBA). Prime eligibility. Lower customer acquisition cost.

What you lose:

Customer relationship and data. Margin to fees and commissions. Brand control. Pricing flexibility. Direct communication with buyers.

Sales and revenue metrics

The top-line numbers.

Gross revenue:

Total sales on Amazon before fees. Your headline number.

Units sold:

Volume of products sold. Important for inventory planning and understanding demand.

Average selling price:

Revenue divided by units. How does Amazon pricing compare to your own store?

Sales trends:

Growth or decline over time. Is Amazon growing faster or slower than your direct channel?

Profitability metrics

Amazon fees significantly affect margin.

Referral fees:

Amazon’s percentage of each sale. Varies by category, typically 8-15%.

FBA fees:

Fulfillment by Amazon charges. Pick, pack, ship, and storage fees.

Storage fees:

Monthly and long-term storage costs. Particularly painful for slow-moving inventory.

Advertising costs:

Sponsored Products, Brands, and Display spend. Often necessary to maintain visibility.

True net margin:

Revenue minus product cost minus all Amazon fees minus advertising. This is your actual profit per sale.

Fee analysis

Understand where money goes.

Fee breakdown by product:

Different products have different fee structures. Some products might be profitable; others might lose money after all fees.

Fee percentage of revenue:

Total fees as percentage of gross revenue. Track this over time—is Amazon taking more?

Fee comparison to own store:

Compare Amazon fees to your direct store costs (payment processing, shipping, marketing). Which channel has better economics?

Advertising metrics

Amazon ads are often essential for visibility.

Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS):

Ad spend divided by ad-attributed revenue. Lower is better. ACoS of 25% means you spend $0.25 to generate $1 of ad-attributed sales.

Total Advertising Cost of Sales (TACoS):

Ad spend divided by total revenue (not just ad-attributed). Shows advertising efficiency relative to overall business.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS):

Inverse of ACoS. Revenue divided by ad spend. ROAS of 4 means $4 revenue per $1 ad spend.

Organic versus paid sales:

What percentage of sales come from ads versus organic? High ad dependence affects profitability.

Search and visibility metrics

Amazon is a search engine.

Search ranking:

Where do your products rank for key search terms? Higher ranking means more visibility.

Impression share:

How often do your products appear in search results?

Click-through rate:

Clicks divided by impressions. Are your listings compelling enough to click?

Search term performance:

Which search terms drive your sales? Optimize for high-converting terms.

Conversion metrics

Turning views into sales.

Unit session percentage:

Amazon’s conversion rate. Units sold divided by sessions. How does it compare to your website conversion?

Page views versus sessions:

Sessions are unique visitors. Page views include repeat views. Understand the difference.

Conversion by product:

Which products convert best on Amazon? Different products might perform differently than on your own store.

Buy Box metrics

The Buy Box determines who gets the sale.

Buy Box percentage:

How often do you win the Buy Box? Losing the Buy Box means losing most sales.

Buy Box competition:

Are other sellers competing for your Buy Box? Resellers, unauthorized sellers, or Amazon itself?

Price competitiveness:

Is pricing affecting Buy Box wins? Amazon favors competitive pricing.

Inventory and FBA metrics

Managing Amazon inventory.

Inventory performance index:

Amazon’s score of your inventory health. Affects storage limits and fees.

Sell-through rate:

Units sold divided by average inventory. How quickly does FBA inventory move?

Stranded inventory:

Inventory at FBA that can’t be sold. Listing issues, restrictions, or errors.

Storage age:

How long has inventory been at FBA? Old inventory incurs extra fees.

Customer metrics

Limited but important.

Customer reviews:

Review count and average rating. Directly affects conversion and Buy Box.

Review velocity:

How quickly are you accumulating reviews? More reviews build credibility.

Return rate:

Amazon return rate compared to direct store. Easy Amazon returns might increase return rate.

Seller feedback:

Your seller rating. Affects account health and Buy Box eligibility.

Comparing Amazon to your own store

Apples-to-apples comparison.

Net margin comparison:

True profit per order on Amazon versus your store. Include all costs.

Customer acquisition cost comparison:

Amazon advertising costs versus your direct marketing costs per acquisition.

Lifetime value consideration:

Amazon customers are Amazon’s customers. You can’t remarket. Direct customers have ongoing value.

Cannibalization analysis:

Are Amazon sales replacing direct sales, or reaching new customers?

Strategic metrics

Big-picture channel role.

Channel mix:

What percentage of total business comes from Amazon? Diversification versus concentration.

Growth contribution:

Is Amazon driving overall growth or just maintaining volume?

Brand exposure value:

Does Amazon presence drive awareness that benefits direct store? Hard to measure but potentially real.

Amazon metrics to track

Focus on these analytics:

Gross revenue and units sold. Net margin after all fees. Fee breakdown and fee percentage of revenue. ACoS, TACoS, and ROAS. Organic versus paid sales ratio. Search ranking and impression share. Unit session percentage (conversion). Buy Box percentage. Inventory performance index and sell-through. Review count, rating, and velocity. Comparison metrics versus direct store.

Amazon can be a valuable channel, but only if you understand its true economics. Track comprehensively to ensure Amazon sales are actually profitable and strategically aligned with your overall business.