Amazon Strategy
Amazon Sales Dropping? 9 Causes and How to Diagnose Each One
Feb 16, 2026
Your Amazon sales dropped 30% this week and you don't know why. You're staring at Business Reports, refreshing Seller Central, and running scenarios in your head. Is it the algorithm? A competitor? A suppressed listing? Seasonal?
Stop guessing. I've diagnosed revenue drops across 50+ brands and $205M in Amazon sales. There are exactly 9 things that cause sales to drop, and each one leaves a fingerprint in your data. Here's how to find it.
Why Did My Amazon Sales Drop Suddenly?
A sudden drop (more than 20% in 48 hours) almost always traces back to one of three things: a listing issue, a Buy Box loss, or an ad failure. Gradual declines have different causes — we'll cover both.
Before you do anything else, answer these three questions:
Did sessions drop, or did conversion rate drop? (Business Reports → Detail Page Sales and Traffic)
Is it one ASIN or your entire catalog? (If one ASIN, it's likely listing-specific. If all, it's account or ad-level.)
Did your ad spend change? (Campaign Manager → check for budget caps, paused campaigns, or bid changes)
Those three data points narrow the field by 80%.
Cause #1: Listing Suppression or Content Changes
Fingerprint: Sessions drop to near-zero on a specific ASIN. Sales flatline overnight.
Amazon suppresses listings for dozens of reasons: restricted keywords in your title, category node changes, compliance flags, image policy violations. The worst part — they don't always notify you.
How to check:
Go to Inventory → Manage All Inventory → filter by "Suppressed"
Check your listing quality dashboard
Search for your product on Amazon — if it doesn't show up, it's suppressed or deindexed
Check for "listing not buyable" alerts in Account Health
Fix: Address the specific suppression reason. Resubmit. If it's a false flag (and it often is), open a case with Seller Support with documentation.
Cause #2: Buy Box Loss
Fingerprint: Sessions remain stable, but sales drop sharply. Your "Buy Box percentage" in Business Reports drops below 90%.
If another seller — including Amazon Retail — has your Buy Box, your conversions tank even though shoppers are still viewing your page. They're just buying from someone else on your listing.
How to check:
Business Reports → Detail Page Sales and Traffic → Buy Box Percentage column
Check your listing directly — is your offer the default "Add to Cart"?
Look for unauthorized sellers on your listing
Fix: If it's price-based, check if a reseller is undercutting you. If Amazon Retail took the Buy Box, that's a different (and harder) problem. File brand registry complaints against unauthorized sellers.
Cause #3: PPC Budget Exhaustion or Campaign Errors
Fingerprint: Sessions drop during specific hours of the day (usually afternoon/evening). Sales pattern changes — strong mornings, dead afternoons.
This is the most common cause we see for "sudden" drops. A campaign hits its daily budget cap by 1pm, your ads stop showing, and you lose 40-60% of your daily impressions. Or someone paused a campaign accidentally. Or Amazon's suggested bid changes moved your bids to unprofitable levels and you pulled back too hard.
How to check:
Campaign Manager → look for "Budget limited" status on campaigns
Check hourly sales distribution in your Brand Analytics
Review any bid changes or campaign pauses in the last 7 days
Check if Amazon auto-applied any "suggested" changes
Fix: Increase budgets on profitable campaigns. Check bid change history. If you use rules or automation, audit what ran recently.
Cause #4: Organic Keyword Ranking Drops
Fingerprint: Sessions decline gradually over 1-3 weeks. Your main keyword positions slipped from page 1 to page 2+.
Amazon's A9/COSMO algorithm reranks constantly. If your sales velocity, conversion rate, or relevance score drops — even temporarily — competitors can leapfrog you. And once you're on page 2, the spiral accelerates because fewer eyeballs means fewer sales means lower rank.
How to check:
Track your top 20 keywords in a rank tracker (Helium 10, Data Dive, or Brand Analytics)
Look at Search Query Performance Report — has your query share declined?
Check if a competitor launched a new variation, coupon, or aggressive PPC push
Fix: Increase PPC bids on lost keyword positions. Run ranking campaigns. Ensure your listing relevance hasn't degraded (title keywords especially).
Cause #5: Competitor Hijacking or New Competition
Fingerprint: Your conversion rate drops while sessions stay flat or even increase. New competitors appeared in your category.
A competitor launched a similar product at a lower price. Or someone is running aggressive coupons and Lightning Deals. Or a major brand entered your niche. Your traffic is fine — shoppers are just choosing someone else.
How to check:
Search your main keywords — who's new on page 1?
Check for competitors running deals, coupons, or Subscribe & Save offers you're not matching
Look at your "Alternate Purchase" data in Brand Analytics
Fix: Competitive response depends on the threat. Price matching is a race to the bottom. Better: improve your listing conversion (images, A+ content, reviews), launch a deal of your own, or differentiate your value proposition.
Cause #6: Review Velocity Drop or Negative Reviews
Fingerprint: Conversion rate declining steadily. Check your recent reviews — has your star rating dropped?
A burst of 1-star reviews can crater conversion rate by 15-30% within days. Even going from 4.5 to 4.3 stars has measurable impact. And if your review velocity slowed (fewer new reviews per week), you're losing social proof relative to competitors who are gaining it.
How to check:
Check your star rating trend over the last 30 days
Look for any viral negative reviews (sometimes one review with 50+ "helpful" votes does outsized damage)
Compare your review count growth vs. top competitors
Fix: Enroll in Vine if you haven't. Use the "Request a Review" button systematically. Address the root cause of negative reviews (product quality, packaging, listing accuracy). You can request removal of reviews that violate Amazon's policies.
Cause #7: Seasonal or Market Shifts
Fingerprint: Category-wide sales decline. Your market share is stable, but the market shrank.
Some categories have sharp seasonality that sellers underestimate. Pool supplies drop in September. Tax software dies in May. Even "evergreen" categories have 15-25% seasonal variation. Additionally, macroeconomic shifts — consumer confidence drops, tariff news, inflation spikes — can hit discretionary categories hard.
How to check:
Compare your sales to category-level data in Brand Analytics
Look at Google Trends for your main keywords
Check your year-over-year data for the same period last year
Fix: You can't fight seasonality. Plan for it. Adjust ad budgets, run deals during slow periods, or use the downtime to improve listings and launch new products for the next up-cycle.
Cause #8: Inventory and Fulfillment Issues
Fingerprint: Sales drop correlates with low inventory alerts, longer delivery times, or "Currently unavailable" status.
If your FBA inventory runs low, Amazon throttles your visibility. If you go out of stock, you lose rank that takes weeks to rebuild. And if your delivery speed changed (FBA to FBM, or longer ship times), your conversion rate drops because Prime members expect 1-2 day delivery.
How to check:
Check your inventory levels — are any SKUs below 2 weeks of supply?
Look for any IPI score drops or storage limit changes
Verify your fulfillment channel hasn't changed
Fix: Maintain 6-8 weeks of FBA inventory minimum. Set up restock alerts at 4 weeks of supply. If you went out of stock, expect 2-4 weeks of recovery time and budget aggressively for PPC during the relaunch window.
Cause #9: Account Health or Policy Violations
Fingerprint: Multiple ASINs affected simultaneously. Possible listing deactivations or account warnings.
Amazon's enforcement has gotten more aggressive. Policy violations — even minor ones — can trigger listing deactivations or account-level restrictions. And the new IP complaint system means a single competitor filing a baseless claim can take down your listing for days.
How to check:
Account Health Dashboard — any new violations?
Performance notifications — check every tab
Verify no ASINs have been deactivated
Fix: Address violations immediately. Don't let them stack up. For false IP complaints, file counter-notices and escalate through brand registry support.
The Diagnostic Checklist: Run This When Sales Drop
Use this in order. Stop when you find the cause.
[ ] Check listing status — any suppressed, inactive, or deactivated ASINs?
[ ] Check Buy Box percentage — below 95% on any ASIN?
[ ] Check PPC — any budget-limited, paused, or errored campaigns?
[ ] Check keyword rankings — any top-20 keywords dropped off page 1?
[ ] Check reviews — star rating change or negative review spike?
[ ] Check inventory — any SKUs below 2 weeks supply?
[ ] Check account health — any new violations or policy warnings?
[ ] Check competitors — any new entrants, deals, or price drops on page 1?
[ ] Check market trends — seasonal decline or category-wide contraction?
Nine items. Takes 20 minutes. Identifies the problem 95% of the time.
Sales dropping and you can't figure out why? We diagnose revenue problems for brands doing $50K+/mo on Amazon. We'll find the cause and build a recovery plan. Book a free strategy call: https://calendly.com/d/crft-5qs-x9w
Hunter Harris is the founder of GigaBrands, an AI-assisted Amazon growth agency managing 50+ brands with over $205M in total Amazon sales.