If you’re an Amazon seller with a Professional selling plan, you may have heard of a little thing called the ‘Buy Box’. For those of you that don’t already know, the Buy Box is the box on a product detail page where customers can begin the purchasing process by adding items to their shopping carts. It looks something like this:
A key feature of Amazon is that multiple sellers can offer the same product. If more than one eligible seller offers a product, they may compete for the Buy Box for that product. Beneath the Buy Box are Additional Seller Listings of merchants that offer the same product but did not ‘win’ the Buy Box.
So, why ‘win’ the Buy Box?
To give customers the best possible shopping experience, sellers must meet performance-based requirements to be eligible to compete for Buy Box placement. Winning the box is important because for many sellers, Buy Box placement can lead to increased sales.
But how do you do it?
Amazon doesn’t have a set formula or ‘magic answer’ on how to win the Buy Box, but there are plenty of factors that are known to affect one’s ability to win it.
Here’s the top factors that will help you win the ever-so-coveted Buy Box:
Buy Box Eligibility
- Must have a professional seller account
- Must have been selling for at least 2-6 months OR be using the FBA service
- Must show consistently high performance levels including: a history of successful selling, excellent customer service, strong customer metrics, etc.
To check your Buy Box eligibility:
- Head to the your Inventory tab (in Seller Central) and select ‘Manage Inventory’;
- Then select the ‘preferences’ tab;
- Within the ‘Column Display’ section find the ‘Buy Box eligible’ tab;
- Select ‘Show When Available’ within the drop-down menu;
- Look at the Buy Box eligible column at a particular SKU and you’ll see a “yes” if the seller is eligible.
A Competitive ‘Landed’ Price
The ‘landed’ price is the price of your product including delivery. Make sure your item is competitively priced. This doesn’t necessarily mean your product needs to be the cheapest on offer, but it should be one of the lowest offers. Many merchants think that if they have the cheapest price, they will automatically win the Buy Box, but this is not the case. Amazon takes into account many factors when deciding who will get the box.
The problem with staying competitively priced is that it requires you to constantly react to what your competitors are doing. There are various software solutions out there that can help you automatically set your prices in order to keep them competitive against all other sellers. Click
here for a few examples of
product repricing programs that can help.
Good Seller Feedback
Amazon takes what customers have to say about you very seriously.
Remember to keep your customers happy by being quick to respond to issues, and by fulling their orders fast. For help with processing orders quickly, we recommend
integration between Amazon and your back-office accounting or ERP system.
If the vast majority of your customers have given you positive seller feedback, Amazon will be much more likely to give you the Buy Box.
Fulfillment
Most Amazon sellers think pricing is the biggest influencer in winning the Buy Box, but in fact, the biggest influencer is actually using Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA). By letting Amazon handle the dispatch of your items and the customer service, you’re offering your customers the world class customer service of Amazon.
That being said, using FBA by no means guarantees you the Buy Box. It does, however, add numerous positive benefits that contribute to you being a more competitive seller.
We make integrating your Amazon FBA store easy