January 25th. I woke up to this graph.

Units ordered: 28 → 5 in 24 hours.
Revenue: £4,200 → £700.

My client panicked. “Should we slash prices? Run a Lightning Deal? Pour more money into PPC?”

I said: “Do nothing. Yet.”

HERE’S WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED:

Day 1 (Jan 25): Sales crater. Panic mode.

Day 2 (Jan 26): I opened Seller Central. The answer was hidden in plain sight:

✅ Inventory: In stock
✅ Buy Box: We still owned it
✅ PPC: Running normally
❌ Search rank: Dropped from Page 1 → Page 4 for our #1 keyword

The culprit? A competitor launched a Lightning Deal at 40% off. Amazon’s A9 algorithm temporarily boosted their rank, crushing ours.

WHAT WE DID (THE 48-HOUR RECOVERY PLAN):

STEP 1: Protect the Base (Hour 1-6)

• Increased bids by 30% on Exact Match campaigns for our top 3 keywords • Launched aggressive Product Targeting ads on the competitor’s ASIN • Added “Limited Stock” urgency to our listing title

STEP 2: Create Momentum (Day 2-3)

• Sent targeted emails to our past customer list (15% off for next 48 hours) • Ran external traffic from Facebook to our listing (drove 240 clicks) • Requested reviews from recent buyers (Amazon’s “Request a Review” button)

STEP 3: Ride the Bounce (Day 4-7)

• Sales started climbing Jan 26-27 as competitor’s deal ended • Their BSR dropped, ours recovered • Organic rank returned to Page 1 by Jan 28 • We hit 28 units/day by Jan 30—back to baseline

THE RESULTS:

📊 Jan 20-24: 236 orders | £35,746 revenue
📉 Jan 25-26: The Dip (Crisis Point)
📈 Jan 27-31: Recovery Mode → Sales normalized

Key Metric: Average order value stayed strong at £151.47—proving it wasn’t a product problem, it was an algorithm visibility problem.

THE LESSON?

Amazon sales don’t drop randomly. There’s ALWAYS a reason:

🔍 Inventory issues
🔍 Buy Box loss
🔍 Algorithm shifts (competitor deals, ranking changes)
🔍 PPC budget depletion
🔍 Seasonal demand shifts

The difference between panic and profit?
Data → Diagnosis → Action.

Most sellers see the dip and react emotionally: ❌ Slash prices (kills margin)
❌ Panic-launch deals (no strategy)
❌ Pause PPC (loses rank further)

What works:
✅ Investigate first (Seller Central forensics)
✅ Defend your position (PPC + external traffic)
✅ Outlast the competitor (their deal ends, you stay)