The Buy Box is the particular tool that Amazon uses to select the offers of vendors selling the same product and to reward the best-buy proposal with greater visibility. In this article we will explore how to win the Buy Box on Amazon.
In the general context of the selling competition, winning the Buy Box can really make a big difference in whether your business will be a success or a failure. Besides allowing the potential buyer to add the product directly to his shopping cart, the Buy Box also represents the fundamental business card for the seller’s complete catalogue of products.
Variables that affect the Buy Box
Given that winning it is extremely important, you should bear in mind the numerous variables that can affect your concrete possibilities of winning the Buy Box. First of all, you must fully qualify as an eligible vendor. Hence, you must pay great attention to your performance metrics, like your order defect rate, for example.
One of the things the marketplace considers extremely important is the quality of the overall experience the consumer has when buying from a certain seller. Therefore, to increase your chances of winning the Buy Box, you should always guarantee the availability of your inventory and avoid momentarily running out of stock. It’s also advisable to show your seller rating.
So in order to get ahead of your competitors in the race to win the Buy Box on Amazon, let’s take a quick look at the 5 fundamental factors you have to pay very close attention to.
Logistics
Sellers who choose Amazon’s FBA usually have better chances of meeting the levels of efficiency requirements set by the platform. However, FBA is not the only choice possible. You can also opt for FBM fulfillment on condition that you can assure quick delivery time and competitive shipping costs.
Stock Inventory
The second factor is stock availability. It seems that Amazon penalizes excessive fluctuations in the availability of a product. Therefore, always make sure you consistently have enough inventory.
Efficiency
The third parameter that will increase your probabilities to win the Buy Box is your overall efficiency as a vendor. The value of this parameter is calculated on a combination of metrics that take into consideration the order defect rate (<1%), orders canceled prior to shipment rate (<2,5%) and late shipment rate (<4%).
Consumer experience
Amazon assigns great importance to the consumer’s buying experience. The main metrics used for this evaluation are the positive reviews of Amazon buyers, and also the customer feedback of the last year (especially of the last 90 days). So, it is strongly recommended that you respond to your customers’ requests promptly, within 24 hours.
Prices
It goes without saying that prices have a significant influence on Amazon’s algorithms. So, it is very important to set competitive prices that can nonetheless give you satisfying margins.
As you can see, you don’t need any tricks or secret formulas to win the Buy Box on Amazon. It does take a lot of hard work, though. So start concentrating on the 5 metrics we have outlined above. They will certainly be of great help as soon as you decide to scale up your competitor efficiency.