How to Win Amazon Buy Box
The Buy Box is largely responsible for the success of Amazon sellers. Because there is only one for each product – if it ends up with the competition, sales end up there too.
The success of an Amazon retailer depends on various factors: Is the product good and in demand, does it rank high in the appropriate search queries, is it always in stock and buyer satisfaction is high? But even if all of this is the case, the success can have a quick end – namely when the retailer loses the Buy Box. The Buy Box decides on Amazon with which provider the sale of a product will ultimately be carried out. With a lot of competition there is often a bitter fight over it, we reveal how you can increase your chances of getting the Buy Box.
What is the Amazon Buy Box and why is it so important?
The Buy Box on Amazon is visually quite inconspicuous, but extremely important. These are the two buttons “Add to shopping cart” and “Buy now”, which can be found on the product detail pages on the marketplace. The special feature: The Buy Box is only available once for each product (or more precisely for each ASIN). All other dealers who offer the same product are grouped under “Other sellers on Amazon” below the Buy Box.
An estimated 90% of Amazon customers use the button in the Buy Box for their purchase – after all, a simple shopping experience is one of the main goals of the marketplace giant. This underlines how important the Buy Box (also called the shopping cart field) is for the success of an Amazon seller . With the help of various strategic decisions and optimization measures, traders can actively influence and increase the probability of receiving the Buy Box.
Private label seller: Easier fight for the Buy Box, but other stumbling blocks
When it comes to Buy Box, it is important to consider the situations of resellers and sellers with their own brand differently. In the case of commodities, the battle for the Buy Box is usually much more difficult, as several retailers compete for it. But even private label sellers have no guarantee that they will receive the Buy Box. There can be several reasons for this:
- Bad sales strategy: As a seller of your own brand , it is important to include considerations about marketplaces like Amazon in your sales strategy at an early stage. “As an Amazon agency, we often experience that retailers with their own brands are unsuccessful on Amazon because other sellers have already successfully established the same products there. The dealers have to compete with their own resellers or partners, ”explains Moritz Reich from the Dresden Amazon agency Namox . Restricting distribution rights on online marketplaces or setting binding sales prices can be sensible solutions here.
- Amazon does not give out a Buy Box: It happens rarely, but it can happen that Amazon does not give a Buy Box for a product. This can happen, for example, in the event of a sharp price increase or poor seller performance.
- No sales history: Even new dealers can have a hard time getting the Buy Box at the beginning. It is often said that this is only awarded after 3 months in the professional sales tariff. However, there are also numerous forum posts in which examples are given in which dealers immediately received the Buy Box.
How do sellers get the Amazon Buy Box?
Exactly which factors are decisive for the award of the Buy Box is – like so much in the Amazon cosmos – not officially known. However, empirical values have shown some adjusting screws with which sellers and vendors create ideal conditions and thus significantly increase the probability of the Buy Box.
WIN AMAZON Buy Box: #PRIZE
The price is one of the most decisive factors in the battle for the Buy Box. Not always, but very often the provider with the lowest price wins the shopping cart field and thus achieves the coveted sales. If the selling price is significantly higher than the competition, it is extremely unlikely that you will receive the Buy Box. However, if the price is only slightly higher, this can be offset by other factors.
WIN AMAZON Buy Box: # SELLER PERFORMANCE
These factors are summarized in the seller performance. Incidentally, it is also relevant to the success of various Amazon SEO measures. If the price is slightly higher than the competition , but at the same time the delivery time is shorter, the rate of order defects is lower or the return rate is lower, this can compensate for the price difference and reshuffle the cards of the Buy Box allocation. Amazon says it wants to be the “most customer-centric company in the world”. It therefore makes perfect sense that the price is not the only decisive factor in awarding the Buy Box. If it can be assumed that a customer offers a significantly better shopping experience at a retailer with a slightly higher price, this is preferred by the Amazon algorithm.
WIN AMAZON Buy Box: #SHIPPING
For the same reason, products that are sent via Amazon FBA often have a better chance of getting the Buy Box. Here, Amazon takes over the storage, packaging and shipping itself and can ensure that the shipping takes place as quickly as possible. At Amazon FBM, shipping is done by the retailer himself and is therefore not controlled by Amazon. Traders who have to fight for the Buy Box and use FBM should therefore at least deal with the “Prime through Seller” program.
Can traders lose the Buy Box again?
Once a retailer has received the Buy Box for a product, he shouldn’t rest on it, because it can be lost again at any time. The control of the Buy Box quota should therefore be carried out by traders just as regularly as checking the competitive prices and optimizing their own seller performance.
Conclusion: win and keep Amazon Buy Box – that’s how it works
The Amazon Buy Box is extremely important for every Amazon retailer. If it is lost, it is immediately reflected in sales and revenues. It is all the more important that sellers do everything possible to receive and keep the Buy Box.
The success factors behind it: a competitive price and optimal salesperson performance.
