Winning the Amazon Buy Box in 2023
It’s more important than ever to do everything you can to carve out a competitive spot in the Amazon listings. As e-commerce sales through Amazon continue to grow, competition to win the Buy Box gets tougher and tougher. This competition is in part responsible for the competitively low pricing, but contrary to what you might think, pricing is not the only factor responsible for helping you win the Buy Box.
Winning the Amazon Buy Box is determined by an algorithm that takes into account a number of factors including pricing, seller rating, buyer experience, and more. If you want to win the buy box for your products in 2023, you’ll have to keep all of those factors in mind. Keep reading to learn more about the Amazon Buy Box, and the most effective strategies for winning it!
What is the Amazon Buy Box?
When on a product listing page, you should see a white box on the right hand side with two buttons ‘Add to Cart’ and ‘Buy Now’ where buyers can purchase the product. That’s the Amazon Buy Box. Winning the Buy Box means that you (the seller) has been selected by Amazon’s algorithm over other competing sellers. Then, whenever a buyer buys a product through the Buy Box, it’ll be your product that gets sold over another seller’s.
Note: sometimes, a product doesn’t have a Buy Box but instead will have an option to ‘See all buying options.’
Why is the Amazon Buy Box important?
Winning the Buy Box gives you a major advantage over other sellers. Most Amazon buyers purchase products directly through the Buy Box because it’s fast, easy, and often the cheapest option.
Although Amazon doesn’t readily release their statistics, it’s estimated that more than 80% of all Amazon sales go through the Buy Box! And this number could be even higher with mobile sales, which are on the rise. Winning the Buy Box means a guaranteed boost in sales, so read on to learn our top strategies!
Who is eligible for the Amazon Buy Box?
Every seller listing a particular product is eligible to win the Buy Box for that product. However, you have to be a registered seller with a professional account. A professional seller account currently goes for $39.99/month and lets you sell as much as you want at no additional cost, as opposed to the individual selling plan, which is a pay-as-you-go type plan where you pay $0.99 per sale. Most sellers should, without hesitation, go for the professional account. The only reason you might want the individual plan is if you have fewer than 40 sales per month.
So if you are a seller with a professional plan, you are eligible to win the Buy Box. Usually, only new products win the Buy Box, but there is a separate Buy Box option for used products, too.
Do I have to price my product low to win the Amazon Buy Box?
In the e-commerce world it is often believed that price is the only factor in determining who wins the Amazon Buy Box. However, we’re here to tell you: that’s a myth!
Although pricing does matter in a highly competitive market, it is not the only deciding factor. Remember how Amazon uses an algorithm to decide who gets the top spot in the Buy Box? There are a number of other important factors, which we’ll get into here.
Winning the Amazon Buy Box in 5 Steps
Okay, so you have a professional account, you’ve listed a product, and now you want to win that Buy Box! Since Amazon is all about customer satisfaction, the steps you can take to help you win the Buy Box are ultimately all about building up your seller reputation and providing excellent customer experience.
So what is this mysterious Amazon Buy Box algorithm? We’ve broken it down to five key steps which you can take to win the box and stay on top.
Maintain inventory
One of the easiest but arguably most important factors to winning the Buy Box is maintaining a stocked inventory. Whether you are selling FBA (fulfillment by Amazon) or FBM (fulfillment by Merchant), it’s critical that you have enough inventory to supply sales. If Amazon thinks you don’t have enough inventory in stock to fulfill future sales, it won’t select you as top seller.
In the same vein, your likelihood of winning the Buy Box becomes less when you can’t keep up with demand. You should always be looking ten steps forward, not backward. Keeping track of inventory should be a no-brainer, but it can be streamlined by regularly checking inventory reports.
Ensure fast shipping
In today’s e-commerce world, fast shipping is a must. Your chances of winning the Amazon Buy Box will not be very high if your shipping times are longer than what the buyer is willing to accept. The buyer’s psychology has been drastically affected by Prime, which not only offers free shipping to eligible customers, but has promised to cut shipping times down to as little as one or two days!
Shipping times generally fall into several brackets:
0-2 days
3-7 days
8-13 days
14 days or more
In trend with Prime delivery options, Amazon’s Buy Box algorithm gives preference to sellers who offer fast delivery (0-2 days or 3-7 days) and who do not fail to deliver on that promise (literally). FBA sellers usually have an advantage here because Amazon has the capacity to deliver faster than most other delivery services.
Keep your seller rating high
We can’t stress enough how important customer satisfaction is to helping you win that Amazon Buy Box. Amazon’s seller rating system falls on a 0-100 scale, with 100 being the highest possible rating, and 0 the lowest. Your chances of winning the Buy Box will increase the higher your rating.
Your seller rating is determined by multiple factors, and you should take care to maintain a good track record in all of them. The most important factors include: fast customer response time, few order cancellations, few A-to-z claims, and consistently positive customer feedback. Amazon tracks all of these, and things like delayed response times or negative customer feedback will lower your seller rating.
Moreover, your ‘order defect rate’ should fall below 1% if you want to have a high chance of winning the Amazon Buy Box, so make sure that you’re selling excellent products!
Product pricing
Amazon has been instrumental in driving down product pricing by pitting sellers against each other. Although pricing is not the only factor in determining which seller wins the Buy Box, it’s not negligible, either. Amazon has made it its mission to provide exceptional products at the lowest prices possible. Customers love this, but it can be tricky for sellers to remain profitable in this highly competitive market.
Ultimately, the lower your product’s price, the better your chances of winning the Buy Box as opposed to other sellers offering the same product. However, it’s important that you don’t end up selling your product at a loss, and if you can maintain high ratings in the other metrics, pricing may not be as instrumental as you imagine.
Keeping track of changes in pricing is extremely tedious, but necessary if you want to stay competitive. Luckily, there are tools available that will help streamline the process by altering you to price changes. Other tools such as repricing tools can even automate the whole process, which we’ll get into later.
Sign up for Amazon FBA
If you’re determined to win the Amazon Buy Box, it is crucial to take every advantage you can get. One such advantage (and a major one at that) is FBA (fulfillment by Amazon). FBA sellers have an advantage over FBM sellers when competing for the Buy Box because Amazon guarantees to streamline the whole process.
With FBA, Amazon takes your inventory and deals with the packaging, shipping, and customer service. It should also be noted that products under this category qualify for Amazon Prime, ensuring easy and fast delivery. Non-FBA sellers can be eligible for Prime through SFP (seller-fulfilled Prime), but only with an extensive and impeccable sales record and ranking. Please note: new applications for SFP have been paused for some time.
Although FBM sellers are still eligible to win the Buy Box, it is more difficult since you’ll be responsible for every aspect of the selling process, so signing up for Amazon FBA will definitely help you win that Amazon Buy Box!
Does seller experience really matter?
Seller experience is determined by the length of time you’ve been a seller. This metric is factored into the algorithm that determines the seller who gets the Buy Box, but unfortunately it’s one that you have little to no control over. Although experienced sellers are at an advantage, newer sellers still have a chance at competing for the Buy Box by ensuring that they have high ratings in all of the factors that they can control!
How to Use Pricing to Win the Buy Box
Although product price is not the only factor that determines whether or not a particular seller will win the Buy Box, it’s important. Moreover, it’s important to note that often, the seller that wins the Buy Box has offered the lowest, most competitive pricing.
There’s many strategies that you can use to control and change your product price to help you win the Buy Box. Sometimes, even a tiny change can help you, but you probably don’t have the time to sit around watching price changes and reacting to them. There are three main ways to reprice your products:
Manual repricing
By far the most basic repricing method is going in to manually change the product price through the seller interface. Although it sounds simple, it can actually be quite tedious because it not only requires you to keep track of pricing trends on each product, but also to know when and by how much to change a price to stay competitive yet profitable.
To give yourself the highest chance of winning the Buy Box manually, you should be regularly checking prices offered by other sellers, and lowering your own price when necessary in order to stay competitive. While the level of control offered by manual repricing can be great for a seller with one or two products, it becomes impossible for any seller with many products.
Rule-Based repricing
Luckily for you, the seller, there are repricing tools out there for you to take advantage of! Rule-based repricing is popular and easy. You set the parameters around which you’d like the price to shift up or down, and the tool will automatically do so. This means you can factor in profit margins as well as competition for the Buy Box.
Rule-based repricing requires little work on your part once it has been set up, but that doesn’t mean you can just ignore it. You should regularly check your product prices to make sure that your needs are being met and that you are staying competitive. On the flip side, rule-based repricing can sometimes lead to price wars if multiple sellers use the automatic tool and the price just keeps bouncing back and forth, lower and lower…
Before setting your parameters on a rule-based repricing tool, make sure to talk to a West Valley Marketing Group Amazon rep to confirm the profitability of your product!
Algorithmic repricing
Another popular type of repricing tool uses algorithmic repricing (such as GoAura). This tool requires the least amount of manual input from the seller; unlike rule-based repricing, you don’t set the parameter. Instead, the algorithm will calculate everything for you including profitability and competition for the Buy Box.
Algorithmic repricing is a great option if you have many products because of the low amount of manual input. Although these tools can be expensive, you should consider how much time they will save you and the benefits of having your prices monitored automatically.
As with rule-based repricing, make sure to review the tool’s performance as well as changes in your product’s price to ensure maximum efficiency. And don’t forget to keep an eye on all of the other seller metrics (such as inventory and shipping times) to make sure you are staying on top of the Buy Box competition!
Why Can’t I Win the Amazon Buy Box?
Have you been following the steps we’ve outlined but still aren’t winning the Buy Box? There could be several factors preventing you from achieving success. Even if on the surface your performance seems good, it’s possible that other sellers still have you beat.
For example, maybe your seller rating or customer satisfaction is lower than you think. Although you can’t change every customer’s experience, you can make sure that you are taking all of the right action steps; providing excellent communication, offering refunds when necessary, etc. Or maybe Amazon thinks you don’t have enough inventory, or your pricing just isn’t competitive enough.
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact culprit, which isn’t helped by the fact that you don’t have access to your seller rating. So the only way for you to get better is to really take a close look at every aspect of your sales and address any shortfalls you find. If time isn’t on your side, maybe consider signing up for FBA to reduce the amount of work and customer service to do on your end.
If FBA isn’t an option for you right now, maybe you can aim to be an SFP seller. You can also shift your focus when it comes to pricing by using automatic repricing tools.
Does Amazon Always Win the Buy Box?
It might seem that every time Amazon starts selling a particular product, it wins the Buy Box. Is there any chance for sellers around the world to beat the e-commerce giant? Has Amazon rigged its own game?
Fortunately for you: no. Every seller is eligible to win the Buy Box and has a chance to do so. Remember that who controls the Buy Box is determined by a complex algorithm that factors in various parameters such as customer satisfaction, shipping times, pricing, and more. The reason Amazon seems to take control of the Buy Box so easily is simply because it has a ton of resources at hand. If you can keep your own performance rating high, you still have a great shot at winning the Buy Box!
What Do I Do If I Lose the Buy Box?
If you’re reading this article because you had the Buy Box but then lost it, worry not. The Buy Box can change hands constantly if a product has many sellers competing against each other. Even if you lost the Buy box, you can win it back, and trying to do so as soon as possible is best so that you don’t lose out on precious sales.
To figure out what made you lose the Buy Box in the first place, and how you can fix it, you should take a look at every aspect of your performance. Ask yourself these questions:
Do I have enough inventory?
Is my pricing competitive enough?
How fast is shipping?
Are customers satisfied?
Have there been defective products recently?
Chances are, you’ll find a few things that you can work to improve to help you win that Buy Box back! Although changing your product pricing can be a valuable tool to help you improve your chances, you can also offer short-term discounts or promotions.
Bonus Tips to Help You Win the Buy Box
By now it should be clear to you that winning the Buy Box can seriously help your success as an Amazon seller. Without the Buy Box, it can be difficult to ensure regular and consistent sales.
We’ve reviewed some of the major factors that influence your chances of winning the Buy Box, and although pricing is important, you should make sure that you’re not sacrificing your profit margins just to win the Buy Box.
In the meantime, you should work to improve as many metrics as you can: provide excellent customer service and respond to consumers as quickly as possible for good seller feedback, ensure proper packaging to prevent product damage, and maintain a stocked inventory that’s ready to handle more sales.
If you’re following these guidelines, you’re working towards building a strong seller rating, and with effort and hard work you’ll be able to win that Buy Box in 2023!
Have you won the Amazon Buy Box? Do you have other tips for sellers like you? Let us know below!