Amazon FBA How To Win The Buy Box
What It Takes
Most products you will sell on Amazon are going to face some competition from other sellers. Rarely will you find a product which only you are sourcing unless your private labeling. Because of this you will need to learn how to win the buy box as 82% of all sales on Amazon are from the buy box.
Amazon doesn't tell us exactly the algorithm that decides who will win the buy box, however Amazon does give us an idea of the formula that decides who will win the buy box. It's dependent upon a number of factors. In this post we'll discuss what factors affect your ability to win the buy box over otehr sellers and how you can increase your chances of winning the coveted buy box.
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| This Shows Buy Box Vs. Other Sellers - 82% Of Amazon Sales Are Buy Box Sales |
These Elements Play A Role In Who Gets The Buy Box
1. ‘Buy Box Eligibility’
There used to be a feature called "featured merchant status", that no longer exists. The purpose of this was supposed to show a seller was recognized by Amazon as being a consistant seller. To replace this Amazon decided to add a new feature called "Buy Box Eligibility".
Customers cannot see if you are buy box eligible, only you can. If you want to be buy box eligible you must have a professional seller account and you also need to have been trading for at least 2 months. You can shortcut this and win the buy box immediately if you opt to go Amazon FBA since they are handling the fulfillment for you. You also need to have a history of showing high performance levels. Some of these factors will be...
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| Check If You Are Buy Box Eligible |
- A History As A Successful Seller –having a history of fulfilling a large number of orders with no customer complaints shows Amazon you are a reliable seller and will provide a positive buying experience to the customer which is ultimately what Amazon is trying to provide.
- Great Customer Service – a few things that affect this are...
– Responding To Customer Inquiries in 24 hours or less, even on weekends
– Shipping Quickly
– The number of ‘perfect orders’
– The condition of the products you ship
– The number of orders you have cancelled - low cancellation is key
- Having good customer metrics – if you have good customer metrics
you show Amazon that you are a reliable and trustworthy seller. These
are the sellers Amazon want to give the Buy Box to. If you want to
improve your chances of winning the Buy Box you must have good customer
metrics! As with eBay where longterm success often requires caving to customers to keep good ranking, feedback and metrics, Amazon is the same way. Arguing with a customer about a return to save a couple bucks will cost you much more if you wind up losing the buy box.
To check your Buy Box eligibility, follow these steps:
- Head to the your Inventory tab (in Seller Central) and select ‘Manage Inventory’;
- Then select the ‘preferences’ tab;
- Within the ‘Column Display’ section find the ‘Buy Box eligible’ tab;
- Select ‘Show When Available’ within the drop-down menu;
- Look at the Buy Box eligible column at a particular SKU and you’ll see a “yes” in the seller is eligible.
2. A Competitive ‘Landed’ Price - Item Price + Shipping = Landed Price
What Amazon calls the "landed" price is the price of your product and the shipping or delivery. Many people seem to believe the myth that lowest price is the only factor that determines who wins the buy box. This is only part of the equation so be careful when considering your pricing. You don't need to be the lowest priced, but you do need to be competitive.
You are going to want to ensure your item is competitively priced including the shipping. Keep in mind the shipping cost is factored in so lowering the price of a product and increasing the shipping price will not work to cheat the system.
You also want to be aware of your competitors changing their pricing as this could cause you to lose the buy box. You can do this manually by just taking a look over at your inventory on a regular basis and making sure your the lowest price or close to it.
There are also automated pricing tools which will allow you to automate this process. You can automatically drop your price when a competitor drops their price. You can also set limits on on how low you are willing to go on price so a competitor can't drop the price down to a penny to mess with you and make you lose money.
Personally I do this manually, however some automated tools I've heard good things about are Appeagle and Repricer Express
4. Good Feedback
I always stress this when it comes to both eBay and Amazon. Have good feedback, it's probably the most important element to how you rank in searches. Amazon always puts the customer first and wants to ensure you are providing a good customer experience to the buyer. If the majority of your buyers have left you a positive seller feedback Amazon will be much more likely to give you the buy box.
You can keep your customers happy by quickly responding to issues. Amazon says you should have a response time of 24 hours or less, this even includes weekends so it wouldn't be a bad idea to get the Amazon Seller app on your phone so you can keep on top of customer inquiries.
5. Keeping Adaquete Inventory
If you win the buy box you will in turn sell more and become essentially the main seller for this product. Amazon wants to ensure you can handle the demand. Amazon does not want a customer to add an item to their cart only to find out when they go to checkout it's no longer available. This is due to the fact that numerous buyers can add your items to their cart at the same time. In order to be the top choice for buy box doesn't mean you have to have the most inventory but you should have an adaquete inventory. If you only have a few items you probably won't win the buy box.
Say for example I keep 20 pieces of inventory for an item in stock. If I know I can get more of that item quickly I may say I have 100 pieces of inventory. This gives me a better chance of winning the buy box and if by some chance I wind up moving 20 unites over the course of 2 days, if I know I can get more inventory shipped to me within a timely manner this isn't a bad strategy.
If you do decide to do this make sure you don't run out of inventory. If this happens and you have to cancel an order your seller metrics will suffer and your chances of winning the buy box on that and other items will suffer.
If yo are only selling on Amazon FBA this process will be automated, however if you sell on other channels like eBay and a Shopify store for example, make sure you don't oversell on one platform. If you were to oversell on your own website or eBay, I would recommend choosing to fill your Amazon orders over your site orders as you don't want your Amazon seller metrics to suffer.
6. Fulfilment
Some would argue that the largest influencer in winning the Buy Box is using Amazon FBA. By letting Amazon handle the shipping and fulfillment of your items and customer service, your offering Amazon's world class customer service. Amazon doesn't have to wonder how quickly you'll ship an item or how much inventory you actually have. Amazon is in control of all of this so they know they can provide a positive buyer experience.
Using FBA doesn't gurantee the buy box, but it has a huge positive effect that contributes greatly to you being a more competitive seller and winning the buy box.
If you choose not to use FBA you need to ensure your own fulfilment service is fantastic. You need to offer a wide array of shipping methods with a quick shipping turnaround. If you only offer one standard delivery rate you should also be adding at least one expedited rate.
Personally I choose to create two UPC codes and with most items I sell I'll sell one on FBA and sell one through MFB or merchant fulfillment where I ship the order. I feel this gives me the best of both worlds.
