Amazon is responsible for about a third of all online retail transactions, with the buy box accounting for a significant portion of those sales. You're missing out on a tremendous potential to generate huge income if your product offer isn't in the Amazon Buy Box. Winning the buy box on the product detail page is critical if you want to enhance your Amazon sales. But before we can talk about winning the buy box, we must know what it does exactly.
What is the buy box?
Customers can add things to their cart in the Buy Box, which is a white box on the right side of the Amazon product description page. On Amazon, a Buy Box allows buyers to make a quick purchase without having to think about where they're getting it from.
Customers can also change the number of products they want to purchase. They check out by clicking the 'Add to Cart' button once they've finished choosing their items. Simply put, the Buy Box allows shoppers to make a low-friction purchase on Amazon by allowing them to complete their purchase in just two or three steps. The Buy Box, however, is separate from the listing itself, and vendors compete for possession of the widget, which most buyers are unaware of.
Who is Eligible for the Amazon Buy Box?
A seller must have a Professional Seller Account in order to be eligible for the Buy Box. The Buy Box is immediately available to FBA sellers. The Buy Box is not available to individual vendors. In addition, the seller's Account Health must remain in good standing.
Eligible merchants get priority placement on Amazon for their offerings. Their listings are eligible to compete for the Buy Box, and those that do not win it will be placed in the More Buying Choices box. It is important to note that eligibility does not guarantee Buy Box placement. It only gives you a chance to win it.
How to win the Buy Box
Even if you match the Buy Box's minimum qualifications, you may not be selected for the Buy Box straight away. Understanding how Amazon's algorithms work will enable you to improve your performance on important variables, increasing your chances of winning the Buy Box and outperforming the competition. And, while Amazon doesn't say what factors its algorithm takes into account when awarding the Buy Box to merchants, the following are the most likely factors, in order of importance:
FBA Method
To sell on Amazon, sellers can use their own fulfillment process or third-party fulfillment services. However, due to its advantages in the buy box and elsewhere, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is quickly becoming the most popular option. FBA receives a perfect score from Amazon for a number of factors, including shipping method, on-time delivery, and inventory depth. Despite the fact that a non-Prime seller can qualify for the Buy Box, Amazon prioritizes its Prime sellers. This makes it extremely unlikely that merchants will be able to outperform FBA sellers.
Competitive Prices
The overall price of an Amazon product, including shipping and handling expenses, is known as the landing price. The lower your landed price, the better your chances of winning the buy box. Low prices are synonymous with happy consumers at Amazon. Interestingly, you can boost your chances of winning the Buy Box by putting your goods within 5% of the current Buy Box pricing.
The belief that vendors with the lowest price will win the Buy Box is a frequent misunderstanding. While having a lower price increases your chances of getting a piece of the Buy Box, it is only one of the criteria, albeit a crucial one. You mustn't be too frantic about getting to the top of the buy box. Check to see if you can afford the buy box at its current pricing, and adjust your price accordingly.
Fast and Free Shipping
The shipment time measures how long it takes a merchant to ship an item. This has a significant impact on winning the Buy Box, especially for perishable commodities. Seller shipping has an impact on buy box ownership and overlaps with pricing and availability if you don't use FBA. Based on your expected shipment time and actual shipping time, Amazon determines how well you're doing with shipping. It's important to consider that customers don't only expect cheap or free shipping from Amazon. They also expect their products to arrive sooner than expected thanks to Amazon Prime.
Optimal Inventory Count
If you don't have the item in stock, you won't be able to win the Buy Box, which will be given to another seller. This is why it is critical for retailers to maintain adequate stock levels of their best-selling items. If you sell a product that is in short supply, your sales may not reach specific customers on time. As a result, Amazon may assign the Buy Box to other sellers who are available.
Positive Feedback Rating
The seller's feedback rating is the sum of all of the seller's feedback scores, with the most recent feedback having the most weight. Although it's unclear how Amazon's algorithm considers seller feedback when awarding the Buy Box, it's presumed that merchants with poor performance metrics have a lower chance of winning than those with positive metrics.
Losing the Amazon Buy Box
Winning the Buy Box is only the first step. You can still risk losing your placement if you fail to keep a consistent overall quality. Here are a few of the common reasons why sellers lose their Buy Box placement and eligibility:
Unoptimized Product Information
Retailers want you to match your product content as closely as possible to what customers want and expect. Customers are less likely to purchase incorrect goods if product titles and descriptions are clear and accurate. If wrong purchases are often made due to poor product content, you run the risk of bad customer reviews which could take you out of the running for the Buy Box.
New Competition
Newcomers can win the Buy Box if they join your listing and lists the product at a lower price. This hijacking tactic can cause serious harm to your eligibility, especially if the listing was for a private label product that you created yourself. Amazon's algorithm rewards the new seller with the Buy Box if they set their price lower than yours.
Prices That go Against the Market
Even if you're the sole seller on the listing, if your pricing is too high or too low in contrast to the average price, you may lose the Buy Box. This approach stops vendors from presenting their goods at a low initial price in order to generate early sales and reviews, then raising the price once the product has gained traction.
Selling Unprofitable Items
Selling things that are unprofitable on Amazon can result in you losing your Buy Box share. Items labeled as unprofitable may result in no future orders for that product. Items that are frequently out of stock, are big or heavy, have a low-profit margin, or have a slow sales velocity are at a greater risk of being classified as such.
Geographic Hurdles
Due to your location, you may lose the Buy Box, which is designed to assist customers in finding the best offer with the quickest delivery time. If your product cannot be delivered to a buyer's doorstep within 48 hours, you may not be selected to be featured in the Buy Box.
No Available Stock
If your inventory is running low, you may find that you aren't getting a part of the Buy Box anymore. If a product listing is marked as out-of-stock, the site allows other qualifying merchants and sellers to rapidly take over the Buy Box.
Out-of-stock situations can harm not just your sales but also your relationship with Amazon. The more frequently your products sell out, the less likely you are to win the purchase box. The algorithm favors vendors that have a lot of inventory on hand.
Tips for Success
Repricing your ASINs on a regular basis is one of the most effective ways to enhance your Buy Box eligibility. Selling on Amazon is a huge undertaking given its competitive environment. You can gain an advantage by using automated repricing tools or third-party technologies. You can also consider establishing private label items or bundled products that are exclusive to your business if Buy Box dominance is your goal. By holding the ASIN, you theoretically own 100% of the Buy Box for that item.
Conclusion
A spot in an Amazon buy box can mean a lot for your product's performance because of its prominent placement and simple purchasing capabilities. Winning the buy box can mean the difference between making a transaction and watching another seller make one.
To conquer the Buy Box, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, but rather a complicated web of measures that must be tracked and improved. Simply figuring out how to get the Buy Box on Amazon isn't enough to ensure long-term success. Your Amazon Buy Box strategy should be evolving all the time. Every day, new competitors enter the market competing for a slice of your share. You'll need to be vigilant and well-informed to make sure you maintain your placement.
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