See Which Product Categories Perform Best For You On Amazon - MerchantSpring Sales by Category Tool

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Instead of reviewing every shampoo, lotion, cosmetic, accessory, or other product separately, you can step back and compare the broader categories those products belong to.

That makes it easier to see where revenue is concentrated, which categories are gaining momentum, and which parts of the catalog may need closer attention.

In this walkthrough, I will show you what the Sales by Category view means and how to turn the numbers into practical pricing, inventory, and growth decisions.

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What Does Sales By Category Show In MerchantSpring?

Sales by Category groups product revenue according to the category information available from the connected marketplace.

MerchantSpring describes this report element as a way to break down revenue by product category and identify the strongest-performing segments.

You can review the complete definition alongside the other available elements in the Official MerchantSpring report elements guide.

The benefit is that you no longer have to judge the business only through individual SKUs.

You can see whether an entire part of the catalog is carrying the business or quietly falling behind.

For example, a beauty brand may sell several types of shampoo, lotion, conditioner, and skin-care products.

Looking only at the top products could make one successful shampoo appear more important than the entire lotion range.

The category view gives you the wider context needed to understand how those catalog segments compare.

Why Category-Level Sales Data Matters

Category-level data helps you understand whether performance is being driven by a single product or by a healthy group of related products.

That distinction matters because a category supported by several dependable products is usually more stable than one relying on a single bestseller.

It also gives managers a cleaner way to communicate performance without presenting a long spreadsheet filled with individual listings.

A seller can quickly explain that hair care is growing, skin care is flat, and accessories are losing sales without reviewing every SKU during the meeting.

That creates a useful starting point for deeper analysis rather than replacing product-level analysis completely.

1. Identify the categories contributing the largest share of total revenue.

2. Spot catalog segments that are growing or declining over the selected period.

3. Compare the performance of different product types without opening every listing.

4. Decide which category deserves a deeper review of products, pricing, advertising, or stock.

5. Present a simpler performance summary to clients, managers, or other stakeholders.

How To Read The Category View Correctly

Start by checking the reporting period because category performance can look very different across a week, month, quarter, or seasonal campaign.

A category may appear unusually strong during a promotion even though its normal sales level is much lower.

The same problem appears when a seasonal category is compared against the wrong previous period.

Once the period is clear, look at each category’s contribution to the whole business instead of focusing only on the largest number.

A smaller category that is growing consistently may deserve more attention than a larger category that has started declining.

You should then open the related product views to see which individual listings are creating the result.

My complete MerchantSpring tutorial and platform review explains how the category view fits into the wider dashboard, channel, profitability, operations, and reporting workflow.

Revenue Does Not Automatically Mean Profit

The category producing the most sales is not always the category producing the best financial result.

High advertising costs, marketplace fees, refunds, discounts, shipping expenses, or expensive products can reduce what the business actually keeps.

That is why the Sales by Category view should be treated as the beginning of the investigation rather than the final answer.

When a category stands out, compare its revenue with the available profitability, product, advertising, refund, and inventory information.

How Category Insights Can Guide Inventory Decisions

Once you know which category is driving sales, the next question is whether you have enough stock to support that demand.

A strong category can lose momentum quickly when its most important products run out of stock.

However, ordering more of every product in the category can create the opposite problem by locking cash into slow-moving listings.

Use the category view to identify the priority area, then move into product-level sales and inventory data before placing purchase orders.

1. Find the category contributing the most sales or showing the strongest growth.

2. Identify the individual products responsible for that category’s performance.

3. Check the available stock and recent sales velocity for those products.

4. Review supplier lead times before deciding when the next order must be placed.

5. Confirm that the products remain profitable enough to justify the additional inventory.

My guide to the Sellerboard inventory planner for Amazon sellers explains the relationship between sales velocity, stock coverage, supplier timing, and reorder quantities in more detail.

How Category Data Can Improve Pricing Decisions

Category performance can reveal where pricing deserves a closer look, but it should not be used to make automatic price changes.

A declining category may have a pricing problem, but it could also be affected by stockouts, weaker traffic, lost Buy Box ownership, lower conversion, or changing demand.

Likewise, a fast-growing category does not always need a price reduction because its current price may already be supporting healthy demand.

The safer approach is to identify the category movement and then investigate the products creating that movement.

1. Compare current sales with a relevant previous period.

2. Check whether the change comes from units sold, price, or a small number of products.

3. Review product margins before testing a discount or price reduction.

4. Check competitor pricing and the strength of your product offer.

5. Measure the result after making a controlled pricing change.

How To Find Strong And Weak Categories

A strong category is not simply the one with the highest revenue during one reporting period.

The strongest categories usually combine meaningful sales, dependable products, healthy margins, sufficient inventory, and stable customer demand.

A weak category may have low sales, but that does not automatically mean it should be removed.

The category could be new, temporarily out of stock, poorly advertised, badly positioned, or affected by only one underperforming product.

Before making a major decision, investigate why the category looks weak and decide whether the problem is temporary, fixable, or structural.

Using Category Data For Catalog Growth

Category data becomes especially valuable when you are deciding where to expand the catalog.

If a category is growing and several products are contributing to the result, related variations or complementary products may deserve research.

You should still validate customer demand, competition, margins, supplier requirements, and advertising costs before launching anything new.

The Sales by Category view tells you where to investigate, but it does not replace proper product research.

My guide on How to choose a product to sell on Amazon covers the wider research process behind evaluating category opportunities.

A Practical Weekly Category Review

The easiest way to use the view consistently is to turn it into a short weekly review rather than opening it only when sales decline.

1. Confirm the period: Use a reporting range that fits your sales volume and business rhythm.

2. Compare performance: Review the current period against a relevant previous period.

3. Find unusual movement: Note any category with a meaningful increase or decrease.

4. Open the product data: Identify the products responsible for the change.

5. Check business context: Review profit, advertising, inventory, refunds, pricing, and operations where relevant.

6. Choose one action: Decide what your team will investigate, test, or correct next.

7. Review the outcome: Return during the next reporting cycle to see whether the action helped.

This routine keeps the dashboard connected to real decisions instead of turning it into another report that people view without acting on.

Watch The Complete MerchantSpring Tutorial

The Sales by Category view becomes more useful when you understand how it connects with the rest of MerchantSpring.

The full walkthrough below covers the wider platform, including dashboards, channels, reports, sales insights, customer data, operations, profitability, pricing, and setup.

Final Thoughts

MerchantSpring’s Sales by Category view gives you a faster way to understand which parts of your catalog are driving revenue.

It helps you move beyond individual products and see whether entire catalog segments are growing, declining, or becoming too dependent on one listing.

The view becomes most valuable when you connect it with product performance, profitability, inventory, pricing, advertising, and operational data.

That combination turns a simple category chart into a useful decision-making process for protecting strong categories and improving weak ones.