If you don’t know what the Buy Box is on Amazon, you might be in for a tough time getting shoppers to buy your products. They’ll buy, of course, just not from you. The Buy Box is a critical piece of Amazon’s marketplace, especially when more than one person is selling an item.
Key Takeaways
- You need to control the Buy Box to get sales
- They Buy Box is controlled by a variety of different variables that vendors and sellers can influence
- Take control first by learning about those that might be beating you out
Prioritize the Buy Box
When about 82% of sales go on Amazon go through the Buy Box, the seller or vendor who holds that critical position has the best chance of generating sales. And if you lose the Buy Box, it may be difficult to win back. Every business that sells a certain product on Amazon is fighting for the position, and if you aren’t in the fight, you are certain to lose.
Factors in Buy Box Positioning
Winning the Buy Box on Amazon involves many different variables. The larges of these being:
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- Price and Profitability –
For 1P vendors, winning due to price and profitability is controlled directly by Amazon. If you have competitive pricing, Amazon should be able to price match the lowest offers both on the detail page, or in the marketplace.
Amazon does price match with locations off Amazon.com to what they call “image competitors” such as Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart. For matching offers on Amazon.com they consider not just the price, but also the delivery promise. As an example, if your items are available with Prime shipping, Amazon may not price match a 3rd party offer with a delivery promise of 2 weeks. Keep such actions in mind when setting your pricing for Amazon.
That price, matched or not, then factors into the offer that goes into the Buy Box, often the lowest price for customers.
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- Shipping to Shoppers –
If Amazon has your products in stock at their fulfillment centers, they can use their impressive infrastructure to get products to shoppers fast. This factor has a significant weight in what offer populates the Buy Box, as customer satisfaction is so important to Amazon.
Competing with 3rd party sellers on a delivery promise typically comes into play with dropship or products that are out of stock. If a 3P seller offer has a Prime delivery message, but you’re drop shipping with a 5-7 day delivery promise, Amazon will likely give the Buy Box to the seller, assuming their pricing is competitive. Similarly, if your product is out of stock, Amazon will give the Buy Box to a 3P seller that has competitive pricing, and the ability to immediately fulfill customer demand.
Where to Start Taking Control of the Buy Box
If you are winning the Buy Box, great! But don’t get complacent. You never know what other businesses will have your products and want to sell them for a lower price than you. So, use the tools available to monitor that factor of your listings.
If you aren’t winning the Buy Box, start by figuring out if your offer is even eligible to win the Buy Box (for example, used products cannot win). Then learn from those businesses that are winning the Buy Box. What is their price for shoppers? Can you price your offer to Amazon low enough so that Amazon can make it profitable to order? Can you offer a direct discount to shoppers to make up the difference? How much inventory do they have? Will they run out soon so you will take back your place naturally? How fast is their shipping? Answering these kinds of questions will help you forma plan of action to make sure that your offer is the best for shoppers.
For more on the Buy Box, read our article on decreasing your lost Buy Box percentage. Navazon and its team of Amazon experts are here to fix Buy Box issues and navigate through many of the pitfalls that vendors encounter in their e-commerce business. Contact us today to discuss what your biggest challenges are and how we can help.