How to Analyze Large Amazon Product Catalogs Without the Noise - MerchantSpring Sales by Group

MerchantSpring solves this problem by letting sellers combine related products into custom groups and review their performance as complete business segments.

Instead of asking which individual SKU sold today, you can see which collection, product type, season, or brand is actually driving your catalog.

This guide explains how Sales by Group works and how to turn grouped data into clearer inventory, marketing, and product decisions.

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What Is Sales By Group In MerchantSpring?

Sales by Group combines the performance of selected products into one organized reporting view.

You choose which SKUs or ASINs belong together, give the group a useful name, and then review the combined results.

The grouping does not change your Amazon listings or variation structure.

It simply creates a reporting layer that matches the way you already think about your catalog.

A skincare seller could group moisturizers, cleansers, serums, and supplements separately even when all of those products sit inside the same broader marketplace category.

A clothing brand could create groups for summer products, winter products, core basics, new releases, or clearance inventory.

This makes the report useful because it reflects your actual strategy instead of forcing you to follow Amazon’s catalog structure.

Why Large Catalogs Become Difficult To Analyze

The problem begins when hundreds of product rows compete for your attention at the same time.

One strong ASIN can make an entire product family look successful even when the rest of that family is struggling.

The opposite can also happen when one weak variation distracts you from a collection that performs well overall.

Seasonal demand, different price points, new launches, and discontinued products make the raw catalog even harder to interpret.

Sales by Group reduces that noise by moving your first question from individual products to meaningful segments.

How Custom Product Groups Work

A custom group starts with a clear business question and a selected set of products that can answer it.

MerchantSpring lets you create groups using selected products or products associated with a brand.

The setup process follows a straightforward sequence.

1. Open the Sales by Group area inside your connected channel.

2. Choose whether the group should be created from selected products or a brand.

3. Give the group a name that clearly describes what it contains.

4. Search for the relevant products by SKU or ASIN.

5. Save the group and allow the platform time to update the reporting view.

For larger catalogs, MerchantSpring also provides a CSV template that can be downloaded, updated, and uploaded back into the platform.

You can review the current process in the Official MerchantSpring custom groups setup guide.

How To Choose The Right Grouping Logic

The best group is one that answers a real decision you expect to make.

Creating random groups only replaces one kind of catalog noise with another.

Start by deciding what you want to compare before selecting the products.

A useful group should be easy to explain in one sentence.

If you cannot explain why the products belong together, the resulting report probably will not guide a clear decision.

Which Metrics Should You Compare?

The most useful metrics are the ones that reveal whether a group is growing efficiently or only generating surface-level revenue.

Available columns can vary according to the connected marketplace, account type, and reporting configuration.

The following areas provide a practical starting point.

1. Sales and revenue show how much each group contributes to the channel.

2. Units sold help separate high-volume demand from results driven mainly by higher prices.

3. Period comparisons reveal whether performance is improving or declining over time.

4. Advertising spend and advertising sales help connect group revenue with marketing activity.

5. ACoS and TACoS provide context about advertising efficiency and the wider relationship between ads and total sales.

6. Traffic and conversion metrics can help explain whether a group needs more visibility or a stronger product offer.

No single metric tells the complete story.

Revenue may rise because ad spending increased sharply, while unit growth may come with weaker margins or a higher refund rate.

The purpose of grouping is not merely to create a cleaner chart.

It is to place related metrics around a business segment so you can understand why its performance changed.

How Group Analysis Improves Business Decisions

Group analysis becomes valuable when the report leads to a specific action.

A seller can use the same grouped view to improve several parts of the business.

1. Inventory planning becomes clearer when you can see which complete product families are gaining demand.

2. Advertising allocation improves when budget can be compared across collections instead of isolated campaigns.

3. Product development becomes more focused when one use case or product family consistently outperforms another.

4. Seasonal preparation becomes easier when similar products are measured together across previous selling periods.

5. Catalog cleanup becomes more practical when weak groups can be identified before reviewing every ASIN individually.

6. Brand portfolio management improves when teams can see where growth is concentrated across several brands.

Imagine that five wall-brush ASINs appear individually among the strongest products in your account.

That may create the impression that wall brushes dominate the complete catalog.

Once all clothing brushes and all wall brushes are grouped separately, you may discover that clothing brushes generate more total volume across a much wider range of products.

That wider perspective can change which category receives inventory, advertising, and development resources.

Manual Group Creation Versus CSV Upload

Manual creation works well for small groups, while CSV upload is usually better for large catalog updates.

The correct option depends on how many products you need to organize and how often the membership changes.

A useful approach is to test a new grouping idea manually before expanding it through CSV.

This lets you confirm that the group answers a useful question before spending time organizing hundreds of products.

Common Sales By Group Mistakes

Most grouping problems come from creating segments without deciding how the results will be used.

Avoiding a few common mistakes will make the report much easier to trust.

1. Do not combine unrelated products simply because they share a broad marketplace category.

2. Do not compare seasonal groups without checking whether the selected periods are genuinely comparable.

3. Do not judge a group using revenue alone when advertising spend, price, or unit volume changed.

4. Do not leave discontinued or incorrectly mapped products inside active groups without reviewing them.

5. Do not create so many overlapping groups that your team no longer knows which report should guide a decision.

6. Do not stop at the group level when an unusual result requires product-level investigation.

Group reports work best as an early diagnostic layer rather than a replacement for detailed product analysis.

They show where something important is happening, and the product report helps you understand exactly which ASIN caused it.

You can review the available subscription options through the MerchantSpring pricing and plan overview.

Who Benefits Most From Sales By Group?

Sales by Group is most valuable for businesses whose catalogs have become too large or complex for simple SKU-by-SKU review.

1. Large Amazon sellers can organize hundreds or thousands of products into understandable segments.

2. Multi-brand operators can compare product families across different brands and accounts.

3. Agencies can create reporting structures that match each client’s goals and catalog strategy.

4. Seasonal sellers can isolate products that matter during specific selling periods.

5. Product managers can compare collections, launch cohorts, and use cases before recommending expansion or reduction.

6. Aggregators and portfolio managers can review performance at a level that sits between brand summaries and individual SKUs.

Smaller sellers can still use the report, but its value increases as the catalog grows and the number of possible comparisons expands.

How To Combine Group-Level And Product-Level Analysis

The strongest workflow begins with groups and then moves into individual products only where deeper investigation is needed.

This keeps you focused without hiding the details behind an average.

1. Start with Sales by Group to find the catalog segments showing meaningful change.

2. Compare the selected group against a relevant previous period.

3. Review the sales, unit, traffic, conversion, and advertising context available for that group.

4. Open the product-level view to identify which SKUs created the change.

5. Check whether the change came from one exceptional product or from consistent movement across the group.

6. Choose an action only after the group trend and product details support the same conclusion.

This approach avoids spending time opening every product while protecting you from making decisions based on an overly broad average.

MerchantSpring Sales By Group FAQ

What Does MerchantSpring Sales By Group Do?

Sales by Group combines selected products into custom reporting segments so their performance can be analyzed together.

Can MerchantSpring Groups Be Created By Brand?

MerchantSpring allows groups to be created using selected products or products associated with a brand.

Can Custom Groups Be Uploaded In Bulk?

Large custom groups can be managed through MerchantSpring’s downloadable CSV template and bulk upload process.

Does Creating A Group Change Amazon Listings?

Custom groups organize reporting inside MerchantSpring and do not replace or restructure the listings in your marketplace account.

Should Sellers Use Sales By Group Or Sales By Product?

Sellers should use group-level reporting to locate important catalog trends and product-level reporting to investigate the exact SKUs behind those trends.

Is Sales By Group Available For Every Marketplace?

Report and metric availability can vary according to the connected marketplace and the data its integration makes available.

Watch The Complete MerchantSpring Tutorial

The Sales by Group report is only one part of MerchantSpring’s wider analytics and reporting platform.

The complete walkthrough below covers the dashboard, connected channels, customer analytics, sales insights, profitability, operations, marketing, reporting, and pricing.

Final Thoughts

Sales by Group helps large-catalog sellers replace endless product rows with a clearer view of the segments that matter.

The feature is most useful when every group is built around a genuine business question.

Group products by type, season, collection, brand, launch period, or another structure that matches the decision you need to make.

Use the group report to locate important trends, and then move into the product report to identify the individual ASINs behind them.

That combination gives you the higher-level clarity of a strategic dashboard without losing the product detail needed for action.