What do Outperforming, Average, and Underperforming Category AICS values mean?

How should I interpret the Category AICS values of Outperforming, Average, or Underperforming?

The AICS values of Outperforming, Average, or Underperforming in the reports is an average of all of the items’ AICS values in the time period. This is an indicator of trends in the category. See below for some example scenarios:

Outperforming

This value might indicate that a lot of products that haven’t previously been in the top 100 (or lower in the ranks) have picked up steam and are seeing significant increases. This could be new products that have been recently introduced to the category and have seen significant sales volume increases or it could be established products that were out of stock and have recently come back in stock to return to a high level of sales

Average

An average value indicates that there haven’t been any significant rises or falls in sales ranks (or any rises and falls have balanced each other out). Most categories that are in a steady state will see an Average AICS value over a 30 day period.

Underperforming

When the overall AICS value is Underperforming it might indicate that more items are dropping significantly in the rankings but not being replaced by products that are rising through the ranks quickly enough to tip the scale to average. This could be caused by inventory issues among those items that are pulling the overall average AICS down to the underperforming levels.