Amazon retail analytics was the forerunner of Amazon Brand Analytics. Two alternative modules (Amazon Retail Analytics Basic and Amazon Retail Analytics Premium) existed within Vendor Central where vendors could get insights on sales and traffic, operations (inventory) and consumer behavior by generating reports with metrics on the different topics. However, there were key differences between ARA and ARAP. The main difference between the two was that ARA Basic was free whereas ARAP could be a costly investment, but provided much more detailed reports. ARA Basic offered reports on sales and operations which sometimes included data on traffic and data snapshots. These reports also included information for inventory regarding planning and forecasting. ARAP, on the other hand, provided in-depth reports on sales, dashboards for operations, traffic, and consumer behavior, as well as real-time sales data, and summary reports.