How to read Keepa charts before you buy wholesale stock

Price and rank history reveal what the current price hides. Learn the patterns that matter before you order.

What a Keepa chart shows

A Keepa chart plots a product's history: the Amazon price, the lowest new offer, the Buy Box price and the sales rank. Together they show how stable a product really is.

Look at the Buy Box price over 90 days

The Buy Box price is the one customers usually pay. If it moves between two levels, work out your profit at the lower level, not the higher. A product that is only profitable at its peak price is a gamble.

Sales rank tells you how often it sells

Each time the sales rank drops sharply, a sale usually happened. A rank line full of small downward steps means regular demand. A mostly flat line with the occasional step suggests slow sales. Compare the rank to the category, since a good rank in one category is a poor one in another.

Spot the warning signs

• A steady downward price trend, which suggests a price war.
• Amazon itself appearing and disappearing as a seller, which can take the Buy Box.
• A price spike that coincides with a stock-out, meaning the high price was temporary.
• Seller count rising sharply, which usually pushes prices down.

Use it as a second opinion

History is best used to confirm a decision, not to make it. Run the numbers on current data first, then use the chart to check whether those numbers are likely to hold. In Wholesale Analyzer every product page shows a Keepa chart and flags the history as a warning when it disagrees with the scan-data decision.