May 17, 2019 Essential Guides Amazon,
By PricingPaul Maplesden
What is the Amazon Buy Box, how do sellers “win” it, what is Buy Box suppression, and how does the Buy Box algorithm work?
Amazon seller app on mobile device
The Amazon Buy Box is an elegant way for Amazon to keep things simple for buyers, when multiple merchants are competing to sell the same product. Just one seller is highlighted, even when a product is being offered by dozens of different vendors.
Sellers need to know how to win the Buy Box, if they want to significantly boost their sales. Although the Buy Box seems simple on the surface, it hides a complex algorithm. This is what allows Amazon to run a marketplace with millions of sellers, but have one detail page for each particular product rather than a different page for every seller offering that product.
This article answers your questions on how the Buy Box works, the impact it has, what you can do to win it, and much more. You’ll learn to optimize your strategy to boost your share of the Buy Box, get into the rotation more often, and increase your revenue.
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What is the Amazon Buy Box?
The Buy Box is a feature on Amazon that helps customers make purchases without needing to consider exactly who they are buying from – whether it’s Amazon themselves or a marketplace seller. It’s located at the top right of every Amazon product page.
Standard Buy Box
Many products are available to buy from multiple Amazon sellers, so Amazon uses the Buy Box to select the “best” seller for each product. In the image above, EpicCo has “won” the Buy Box. This is also called being “in” the Buy Box or “owning” the Buy Box. It means that they are Amazon’s selected seller for this product, at this point in time.
When a customer clicks “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now”, the merchant who is in the Buy Box at that moment automatically wins the sale. The customer can expect Amazon to have chosen a seller who provides a competitive price, rapid delivery, strong customer service and various other factors that will help ensure their satisfaction.
Most sales on Amazon come through the Buy Box, so sellers who appear there regularly will make a lot more sales than those who are rarely featured. Over time, this can dramatically improve product sales.
Can sellers who are not in the Buy Box make any sales?
Below the Buy Box, you will find a box called “Other Sellers on Amazon”, whenever there is more than one seller of a particular product.
Other Sellers on Amazon
This is how merchants who are not in the Buy Box can gain some sales, but only if the buyer clicks the link to see the list of other sellers. Only a small proportion of sales on Amazon happen this way.
The Buy Box is even more important for customers buying on a smartphone, as it appears directly below the product image and price. The “other sellers” box on mobile browsers, and the Amazon app, is even less prominent than on computers with large screens.
The takeaway is that sellers must win the Buy Box if they want to capture a significant share of sales. Understanding what it takes to do that should be a priority for all third-party sellers of competitive products on the Amazon marketplace.
What percentage of sales go through the Buy Box?
Sellers very often report that their sales increase dramatically when they are in the Buy Box for a particular product. But exactly how many sales happen because a customer clicked on one of the Buy Box buttons, versus the link to view other sellers?
Various sources state that 82% of sales go through the Amazon Buy Box. This figure originates from a 2013 report by software company Feedvisor. As this was a third-party study, we cannot assume this number is correct. The fact is that only Amazon itself knows what proportion of sales actually go through the Buy Box.
What we can say with confidence is that the percentage of sales that go through the Buy Box is very high. It is common sense that most shoppers will take the most convenient path and use the Buy Box to make a purchase, while only a minority of buyers will go to the trouble of researching other sellers to try and save a few extra cents.
The increase in mobile shopping in recent years is likely to have increased the proportion of sales that go through the Buy Box, as the Buy Box is even more prominent on mobile browsers and the Amazon app.
Is the Buy Box relevant for all Amazon sellers?
While the Buy Box appears on all product pages, it only really matters to sellers of “competitive products”. In other words, sellers of items which have other merchants offering that exact product as well.
For example, a pack of Energizer AA lithium batteries with ASIN B071D87WPV currently has 40 merchants competing for the Buy Box.
Amazon product 40 offers
Note that Amazon itself is one of the sellers competing, as well as Amazon-owned accounts such as Amazon Warehouse Deals. You can compete with Amazon to win the Buy Box, but it’s usually more difficult to beat than a third-party seller. There’s more on that in the Buy Box myths at the end of this article.
Products that only have one seller still have a Buy Box, but you do not have to compete with anyone else to win it (however it can be “suppressed” if Amazon doesn’t think your offer is good enough).
Typical examples of products with only one seller include:
Private label products sold under your unique brand.
Direct-to-consumer brands sold only by the manufacturer or an exclusive partner.
Many sellers have turned to creating their own private label own products to avoid having to compete for the Buy Box.
How can I win the Buy Box?
If you are the only seller of a particular product, you will automatically win the Buy Box.
Otherwise, it’s usual for the Buy Box to be shared between multiple sellers rather than owned by the same seller 100% of the time. To win a share of the Buy Box you must:
Be eligible to win the Buy Box
Be chosen as the winner by the Buy Box algorithm
There is more information on eligibility and the Buy Box algorithm below, but here’s a quick summary.
Eligibility
To be eligible to win the Buy Box for your products you need:
A Professional selling account
Good performance metrics
Sufficient order volume
Algorithm
Amazon’s algorithm takes into account the following factors to decide on the Buy Box winner.
Factor Importance How to improve
Item qualifies for Prime High Use Fulfillment by Amazon or Seller Fulfilled Prime
Total price to customer High Use automatic repricing software, keep shipping costs down
Shipping time
(for non-FBA items)
Medium Optimize your fulfillment and delivery processes
Performance metrics Medium Monitor and improve your Amazon metrics
Seller feedback Medium Reduce potential complaints, deal with actual complaints effectively
Consistent stock availability Low Use sales forecasting software, take account of supplier lead times, maintain safety stock
Note that Amazon does not publicly disclose how its algorithms work. But the Buy Box has been studied quite extensively, so we can have a high degree of confidence around the factors above.
How does Buy Box eligibility work in detail?
There are certain criteria you need to meet as a seller to be considered for the Buy Box.
You must have a professional selling account, with a paid monthly subscription of $39.99. Individual selling accounts do not qualify.
Your Order Defect Rate, Cancellation Rate, and Late Shipment Rate performance metrics must be in good standing.
You need to have a high enough order volume, which varies depending on the categories you sell in.
You can check eligibility at a product level in Seller Central. The “Buy Box Eligible” column is not shown by default so needs to be turned on as follows:
Select “Manage Inventory”
Then select “Preferences”
Finally select “Buy Box Eligible”
Save changes
Now the relevant inventory reports will include a Buy Box Eligible column.
Buy Box Eligible column
Note that while Buy Box eligibility is mostly decided on a seller level, the order volume requirements vary by category so it is possible to be eligible for some but not all of your products.
What factors are used in the Buy Box algorithm?
The Amazon Buy Box algorithm takes several areas into account. Here’s a summary:
Prime
If your product offer has the Prime badge you will get a big boost in the Buy Box. The two ways that marketplace sellers can qualify for Prime are:
Using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
Qualifying for and shipping under Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP)
Signing up for FBA is one of the simplest ways to increase your chances in the Buy Box. Seller Fulfilled Prime achieves the same goal, but you must first demonstrate to Amazon that your shipping operation has consistently excellent performance.
Total price
The total price the customer pays is another factor of very high importance in winning the Buy Box. Keeping the price down by using a repricing tool and not charging for delivery can significantly increase your chances of appearing in the Buy Box.
Other factors
The factors above have the highest influence on your Buy Box placement, but there are several others that the algorithm takes into account.
Shipping time (non-FBA): If you ship items yourself, keep your handling times as short as possible. Same-day shipping is now commonplace.
Performance metrics: Unlike Buy Box eligibility, the algorithm can take into account any metric that relates to customer experience, including negative feedback rate, A-to-z guarantee claims, valid tracking rate, late shipment rate, customer response time, cancellation rate and more.
Sales volume and inventory: Selling more items, and always having products in stock is also a factor in the Buy Box algorithm.
If your items qualify for Prime and you have the lowest price, or are close to it, these factors can help push your share of the Buy Box higher than competitors.
What is a share, percentage or rotation of the Buy Box?
The Buy Box is not exclusive to one seller. Every merchant who sells the same product has a chance of appearing in the Buy Box. The number of times a seller appears in the Buy Box, versus the total number of times a product is viewed, is that seller’s “share”.
For example, if a product is viewed 100 times and you are in the Buy Box for 15 of those times, then your share is 15%.
This is also known as the “Buy Box percentage” or “rotation” and can be viewed in Seller Central.
Buy Box Percentage
The Buy Box algorithm decides which seller wins the Buy Box for a specific product at a specific time, which over time results in each seller’s percentage share.
For example, if there are five sellers of a particular item, all using FBA and with identical pricing, performance metrics, stock availability and so on, then each merchant should have a Buy Box share of exactly 20 percent.
In reality, things are never that simple. Each seller is unique and their individual factors will lead to different Buy Box shares. Amazon does seem to try and rotate the Buy Box between different sellers when there is not much difference between them, but it will weight the rotation more heavily towards the “better” sellers. The share will rarely be equal in the real world.
Note that the Buy Box will not always rotate between sellers for a particular product, and that Amazon will try to keep the Buy Box winner consistent when a shopper views the same product multiple times. You are unlikely to see the rotation by simply refreshing the product page yourself, but you might see it if you visit repeatedly an hour or more apart.
Often sellers shouldn’t aim to get exclusive access to the Buy Box, but to get the largest share that they can. It’s not a zero-sum game where one seller wins and all their competitors lose.
What is Buy Box suppression?
Buy Box suppression happens when the Buy Box does not appear on a particular product detail page, even if there are multiple merchants competing. Amazon may decide to suppress the Buy Box for reasons including:
None of the sellers are eligible for the Buy Box
The sales volume is too low
Amazon believes the price offered is too high
The third reason – the price being too high – is the one that is seen most often. What makes a price “too high”? Here are the most common reasons:
The price is higher than the manufacturer’s recommended price
Other ecommerce sites have a significantly better price
The price has jumped up quickly
A suppressed Buy Box can be identified easily, because instead of the buttons to “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now”, it has a button labeled “See All Buying Options”.
Buy Box suppression
The shopper can click “See All Buying Options” to show all the prices and sellers for this product – the offer listing page. However, the main effect of removing the usual buttons is to deter buyers from making a purchase at all. Many shoppers will have a knee-jerk reaction that the product is not available, and return to the search results to find an alternative.
This shows Amazon’s “Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy” in effect. This policy says:
Amazon regularly monitors the prices of items on our marketplaces, including shipping costs, and compares them with other prices available to our customers. If we see pricing practices on a marketplace offer that harms customer trust, Amazon can remove the Buy Box, remove the offer, suspend the ship option, or, in serious or repeated cases, suspending or terminating selling privileges
If you are eligible for the Buy Box, but the Buy Box is suppressed for a particular product, the first thing to look at is usually your price.
But that’s not what I’ve heard about the Buy Box!
The Buy Box is hugely important in determining a seller’s success of Amazon, but it is governed by computer algorithms – those mysterious, opaque systems that rule so much of our world today.
So, not surprisingly, there are several myths around the Amazon Buy Box, and we’re here to bust a few of them.
Myth 1: You can’t beat Amazon to the Buy Box
It’s true that Amazon itself often wins the Buy Box for products that it sells, but it is possible for third-party merchants to get at least a share of the rotation.
This example, on Amazon.co.uk, shows Amazon behind three marketplace sellers in the offer listing. The top seller, Kidco, is in the Buy Box on the product detail page.
Amazon losing the Buy Box
Amazon do also go out of stock sometimes, which can be another opportunity to beat them to the Buy Box.
Myth 2: The lowest price always wins the Buy Box
Price is a big factor for the Buy Box, but not the only one. The other factor of almost equal importance is having the Prime badge, either through FBA or Seller Fulfilled Prime.
This doesn’t mean that having Prime is an open license to charge high prices, but Prime items can often be priced somewhat higher than others and still win the Buy Box.
In this example, the Buy Box is being won by BMTech with a Prime-eligible offer of £278.16, even though the lowest price is £259.99. This is also another example of a marketplace seller beating Amazon to the Buy Box, with a price only one penny lower this time!
Lowest price not in the Buy Box
Myth 3: You can keep the Buy Box to yourself
There’s plenty you can do to enhance your chances of appearing in the Buy Box, but even if you’ve optimized everything, you might not get exclusive access.
The Buy Box algorithm will often give other merchants a chance to appear, especially if their price is lower than yours. It could take very aggressive pricing to win the Buy Box 100% of the time, and be more profitable overall simply to share it with others.
Myth 4: You just need to turn Buy Box eligibility on
There’s confusion is some places about Buy Box eligibility. Amazon decide if you’re eligible to appear in the Buy Box, not you.
The thing you can turn on in Seller Central is simply the Buy Box eligibility column in the reports. You aren’t turning on eligibility itself, but wouldn’t it be great if it was that easy?
Found on: https://www.webretailer.com/lean-commerce/amazon-buy-box/