DataHawk Data Concepts

A few core concepts come up constantly in DataHawk dashboards and datasets. This page explains them in plain language so you know what each identifier, marketplace concept, and platform-specific view means before reading the analysis guides.

ASIN — What it is and why it matters

An ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) is Amazon's internal identifier for a product. Every product listed on Amazon has one. Think of it as Amazon's own product ID; separate from any reference you or your supplier use.

ASINs are marketplace-specific: the same physical product sold on Amazon.com (US) and Amazon.co.uk (UK) will have different ASINs in each country.

DataHawk uses ASINs as the primary key to identify and track products across all datasets. When you look at sales, keyword rankings, pricing, or inventory data in DataHawk, it's always tied to an ASIN.

SKU — Your internal product reference

A SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) is the product identifier you assign. It's your own internal code, not Amazon's. While ASINs are assigned by Amazon and shared across all sellers who list that product, a SKU is specific to your seller account.

One ASIN can be linked to multiple SKUs (for example, if you sell the same product through different fulfillment methods), and one SKU maps to one ASIN.

In DataHawk, SKUs appear in private data (orders, inventory, profit) because they come from your Seller or Vendor account. Public data (rankings, estimates, keyword visibility) is indexed by ASIN only.

Parent ASINs and Child ASINs — Understanding product variants

Amazon groups product variations together using a parent/child structure:

• A parent ASIN is a virtual container that groups related variations: It doesn't exist as a buyable product itself. You can't add a parent ASIN to your cart.
• A child ASIN is a specific, purchasable version of that product: For example, a blue t-shirt in size M.

Example: A t-shirt sold in 3 colors and 4 sizes would have 12 child ASINs, all grouped under one parent ASIN.

This distinction matters in DataHawk because some data is reported at the parent level (e.g., total product visibility in search) and other data at the child level (e.g., individual sales or inventory per variant). The platform will usually indicate which level a metric refers to.

BSR — Best Seller Rank

BSR (Best Seller Rank) is a number Amazon assigns to each product within a category, based on recent sales velocity. A BSR of 1 means the product is the top seller in that category.

A few things worth knowing:

• BSR is updated hourly by Amazon, but DataHawk captures it on a daily snapshot.
• A product can have multiple BSRs: One for its main category and one or more for sub-categories.
• BSR is a relative ranking, not an absolute sales figure. A BSR of 500 means 499 products are selling faster than yours in that category, but the category size varies enormously.
• BSR drops (numerically higher = worse rank) can indicate lost sales, price increases, or competitor surges. Even if your absolute sales are unchanged.

DataHawk uses BSR as one of the signals in its sales estimation model and surfaces it in product tracking dashboards.

Marketplace vs Channel

In Amazon's terminology:

• A marketplace is a country-level storefront: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, etc.
• A channel (sometimes called a selling channel or fulfillment channel) refers to how products are fulfilled: FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) vs FBM/MFN (Fulfilled by Merchant).

DataHawk tracks data per marketplace. If you sell in multiple countries, each has its own data collection, and metrics are not aggregated across countries by default in the raw datasets.

Amazon Vendor views: Sourcing vs. Manufacturing

Amazon Vendor Central can expose data through different reporting views. These views are controlled by Amazon's relationship with the ASIN, not by DataHawk. The two most important views are Sourcing and Manufacturing.

If a product is available only in Sourcing, you may see sales and inventory data but miss traffic, forecasting, or some order-related metrics. If a product is available in Manufacturing, Amazon usually exposes a broader view of the product's total performance, whether Amazon bought the product directly from you or from another vendor.

If you see data in one view but not the other, it usually reflects Amazon's permissions and reporting model, not a DataHawk collection issue. For troubleshooting steps, see I cannot see data in manufacturing views, but I see it in sourcing.

Walmart equivalents

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Technical reference

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