How to Win the Amazon Buy Box

Those who approach eCommerce want to give themselves the best chance at competing. If you are one of those people, you need to focus on winning the Amazon buy box. Below, we will explore what a buy box is and how you can effectively win it. 

What is the Amazon Buy Box?

The Amazon Buy box is the “add to cart” button that receives the most attention on Amazon. When you browse a product listing, the best person who sells that product will “own” the buy box. Having this enables them the best exposure for selling shared listings. 

Amazon prefers to call the buy box their featured offer. The two are interchangeable, emphasizing those who meet Amazon’s requirements. 

The remaining sellers receive far less exposure, left to the “other sellers” box. These people are doing their best to win the buy box, making it an incredibly competitive target. 

How does the Amazon Buy Box work?

The Amazon buy box works by prioritizing the “best seller.” However, the most competitive buy boxes won’t have one person; they might switch between multiple sellers. 

Buy box percentage, which is the percentage of times you appear compared to total page views, is rarely 100%. How Amazon determines your share of ownership comes from the A9 or A10 algorithm. 

Because Amazon rarely likes to discuss company secrets, there is little about how the buy box works. However, through the experience of selling on Amazon, you can find five factors below that impact your ability to become Amazon’s Featured Offer. 

Five Factors that Impact the Amazon Buy Box

Fulfillment method 

If you are starting a business on Amazon, you need to know FBA. Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) is Amazon’s preferred fulfillment method. Choosing FBA means you have Amazon manage your storage and shipment. FBA sellers get access to Amazon prime, making it a stronger fulfillment method. 

FBA is the alternative to FBM, or Fulfillment By Merchant, meaning you handle all shipping and storage. If you’ve already established a logistical piece for your business, you might prefer FBM.

While there are no bad fulfillment methods, Amazon has a strong preference for those who use FBA. Much of this comes from Amazon getting a more significant piece of your sale, compensating themselves for shipping fees, and the greater exposure you get from Amazon’s fulfillment centers.

Pricing        

 

Amazon’s goal is to be the most customer-centric company in the world. Because they believe a massive portion of this comes back to being the cheapest, Amazon strongly prefers those who offer the lowest prices.

Amazon loves competitive pricing, ensuring that the customer gets the best deal. As a new seller up against a larger company, this can cause some people to buy into products they have no chance of profiting from. 

Using third-party tools (like the Dealavo Price Monitoring Tool or the AMZScout Online Arbitrage and Dropshipping tool) can help you determine competitive levels and whether pricing is within your range. Looking at rank, current price, and buy box history can help you determine whether a target product can make you money.

Good Seller Feedback score

The seller feedback score measures (you guessed it) seller feedback, better known as customer reviews. Unlike the reviews you see on a product, this refers to the customer experience in shipping. You could feasibly have a poor feedback score while the product review you attract is five stars. 

To prevent this from happening, focus on engaging with the customer. Because amazon prevents you from reaching out, try to insert a little thank-you note in the packaging. 

You can also encourage people to follow you on Facebook, where you can spend a little time talking about your business history. Sharing your business story can be inspiring, giving people a reason to leave behind positive feedback. 

Don’t directly ask for positive customer feedback, as this is against Amazon’s Terms of Service. Instead, as for feedback in general and don’t discourage them from leaving negative reviews. 

Keep products in stock     

An inventory stockout happens when you cannot keep up with the demand for your product. Otherwise, it might happen if you try to phase out a product. Regardless, sellers who suffer from stockouts rarely recover, giving the buy box to competitors.

Managing inventory is one of the more challenging aspects of running a business. If you are an FBA seller, this comes down to deciding between storage fees or the potential of being understocked. Spoiler alert: keeping your inventory stocked is always preferred. 

Usage of historical sales will help determine this, so those third-party analytical tools can help. In addition, always account for extra stock during special events (holiday season, Black Friday, Prime Day). 

Shipping time

If the existence of Amazon Prime wasn’t a sign of it, people are expecting faster results when it comes to receiving their goods. Amazon Flex pushes this further, enabling delivery drivers to earn an extra buck for same-day deliveries. The faster you can get it there, the higher you will rank.

For most people, this problem is solved by becoming an FBA seller. FBM sellers (by comparison) get the shorter end of this stick. However, most FBM sellers don’t have a fleet of airplanes for shipping (like Amazon does). 

If you want to improve your shipping time as an FBM seller, it comes down to strengthening your logistical approach. Perform a detailed analysis of your process to check for bottlenecks. If you identify issues where people are held up, remove them or improve them. 

Whatever you decide to do, always look for cases where you can earn more profit. 

Tips for Winning the Amazon Buy Box

To become the winner of the Buy Box, it isn’t enough to know the fundamental factors; you also need to understand how to boost your chances. Here is a roundup of tips you can use when becoming the Featured Offer: 

• Use Amazon Advertising to get sales out of buy box 
• Encourage people to leave feedback through product inserts and social media
• Draw attention to new products through social announcements 
• Update your inventory before products run out of stock
• Don’t sell garbage products; make sure you test the products you sell
• Stay consistent and start by targeting low-competitiveness ares 
• Focus on the basics
• Don’t sell products that Amazon sells (focus on those with only FBA or FBM sellers) 

A big part of becoming a Featured Offer is doing better than others. This means thinking carefully about the products you sell.

If your product is top-rated, expect 17 other sellers to destroy your chances. Otherwise, if your product is somewhat popular and has a handful of sellers, you increase your chances of winning. Being realistic is one of the most critical aspects of winning the buy box. 

 Conclusion 

To become the winner of the Amazon Buy Box, you need to keep your head up and stay focused. It isn’t an overnight ordeal, and you might run into a few unseen blockades. Regardless, winners of the buy box are competitive and responsive. 

To help you remain competitive, our price monitoring and eCommerce system can help. Request a demo with Dealavo to learn how you can leverage this data to your advantage. Thanks for reading, and good luck with your future eCommerce business.