Overview
The Gradient Audit is a battery of performance metrics for a chosen brand in a particular shelf in the Amazon marketplace. The Audit compares these performance metrics between two time periods. For example, how did Sony do in the DVD Players shelf last month versus the preceding month. To help brand leaders quickly digest the information, the Audit also highlights significant changes between the periods with Flagged Metrics.
Each Audit section shows metrics for your brand as a whole alongside metrics for the top brands in the category, as well as the benchmark metric for the category. The audit also displays the same type of metrics for your brand’s top product alongside the top products in the category.
Sections
Below is a description of the various sections you will find in a Gradient Audit.
Setup - Scope of the report, what brand, shelf (category), and date range.
Summary - High level information about the category and brand for these time periods, including the top 5 most significant flagged changes between the time periods, both positive and negative.
Gradient Score™ - Exploration of the 3 main components behind the Gradient Score™.
Sales Activity - Details about changes in sales rank, the sellers in the category, and product stock levels.
Presence - Overview of which brands and products dominate the category of interest as measured by shelf share.
Sponsorship - Insights on how much of a brand or product presence is due to online advertising (sponsored share of shelf). In fact, a brand may dominate a category because of high investments in sponsorship but this strategy may not last in time.
Ratings & Reviews - Insights on star ratings and reviews trends for the top brands and products in the category. This section also includes a snapshot of the star ratings distribution and the Gradient Score™ component that focuses on the response of a brand on Amazon to provide an idea on how well a brand is responding with respect to competitors.
Price - Overview of average prices and volatility for the top brands and products in the category.
Positioning - Overview of how well a brand or product is doing when it comes to the inclusion of top keywords in product listings and with respect to image quality (images being one of the most important components when it comes to purchase decisions). This section also includes the Gradient Positioning Score™ that focuses on the merchandising activities and overall positioning of brands and products with respect to competitors.
Flagged Metrics
If a metric changes by a significant amount, it will be flagged with a colored symbol next to the metric. These can apply to metrics for any brand or product. The summary area will show the top 3-5 flagged items for the audited brand. The thresholds for the different metrics are listed below.
