Lore

DSI (Downstream Impact) Framework

DSI (downstream impact) is Amazon's internal framework for measuring customer lifetime value: for a given customer action, how much is it worth in future value? Amazon reportedly used DSI to decide which seller categories to prioritize recruiting — e.g., a first wireless purchase was worth ~$1,200/year, a PC ~$3,000, a camera ~$2,000 — steering Amazon toward courting PC sellers over camera sellers.

Sellers can reverse-engineer the same logic without access to Amazon's internal dashboards, using a three-step process:

  1. Export 12+ months of Amazon-fulfilled shipment data from Seller Central.
  2. Upload it to an LLM (e.g., Claude) and ask it to identify repeat customers and, for each first-purchase ASIN, the average value of that customer's subsequent purchases.
  3. Interpret the resulting first-purchase → future-value patterns to see which product is actually acquiring the most valuable customers.

The output feeds directly into Gateway Drug ASIN Targeting — the specific ASIN identified as the highest-value entry point, and the resource-reallocation strategy built around it. Related tooling: LTV Calculation Spreadsheet (Back-Calculating LACoS), Consumer Behavior Analytics (Repeat Purchase Behavior Report).