BuyBox Amazon: what is it and how to achieve it

You know well that on Amazon the products are offered to the users with a univocal catalogue based on EAN codes. When you have more than one seller for each product, at the top right corner of the page you will see the BuyBox. In this box, Amazon suggests a particular seller. It is obvious that to stay in the Buy Box increases the sale of that particular product (until four times more, according to our experience) thanks to the agility to buy. From mobile you also have the “1-Click” purchase option. For these reasons, the Buy Box is obviously the goal of each seller.  

In this post, indeed, I will try to explain you what is the BuyBox and how to achieve it.

Let’s try to understand how to win the BuyBox

• PERFORMANCE – It is important to specify that not every seller is “eligible” for the Buy Box, in order to be eligible you have to satisfy a series of requisite imposed by Amazon that you can find in the previous post about Amazon Performances.

• PRICE – The price issue is surely fundamental if you want to achieve the Buy Box. You can briefly do this analysis from your Seller Central where you will find your price and the lowest price (of another seller). Always keep in mind that the seller with lowest price could not be eligible for the Buy Box, so there is the possibility to win the Buy Box without having the lowest price.Another element which can help in this process is the choice to enable a promotion, even if a small amount. In this case, even if you have the same price and conditions of another competitor, with the promo you will have the priority.  

• SHIPPING – It is not only a matter of price: also the shipping methods, e.g. by offering free shipping, can influence your Amazon rate. You are likely to win the Buy Box also if you add express shipping with very fast shipping time.

Those who cannot satisfy the parameters listed before but has some margin on the price can calculate the final price of the product with this formula you find online:

x – 2,7% x – 0,01 = BuyBox

X= is the lowest price of that product on Amazon

To be eligible for the Buy Box, other factors need to be taken into consideration even if Amazon move them to the background.  

I am adding here a list of these factors ordered for relevance.

FULFILLMENT BY AMAZON (FBA)

The fulfillment service allows to improve the performances of the seller as far as delivery method and time are concerned. For this reason, the use of FBA is considered as positive from the marketplace. As a consequence, the score of these factors is likely to increase:

• Shipping time
• Delivery volume
• Inventory depth

SALES PRICE – DYNAMIC REPRICING

Remember that Amazon itself changes always the price of the products in order to have the best offer. As a consequence, I suggest you do the same: the Dynamic Repricing is a good way to have the best price and defeat the competitors.

SELLER SCORE

The seller score is related to the performances of that seller. This includes the answers to the question about the product, the delivery performances and the percentage of answer to the customers. The more a seller is reliable, the more the customers are encouraged to buy.  

For this reason, Amazon encourages its seller to have an average score higher than 98% and:

• Order defect rate < 1%
• Late shipment rate < 4%
• Products not available < 2.5% - keep high the availability of your products in your stock -

SHIPPING TIME

Amazon also gives importance to the shipping service offered according to the handling time added by the seller. Here you have a list from the best to the worse:

1. 0-2 days
2. 3-7 days
3. 8-13 days
4. 14+ days

FEEDBACK SCORE

As said before, the user experience is always important to score the seller’s performance. Indeed, the seller’s performance is always updated according to the feedback received by the buyers. Amazon takes into consideration the performances of the last 365 days, giving more importance to the last 90.

Here you have the scores related to the events of the orders. All these events influence the feedback score:

If we could imagine to subdivide the percentages of feedback in groups, we should say that the eligibility for the BuyBox is also related to the group which fits you best:

• 100-98%
• 97-95%
• 94-90%
• 89-80%
• 79-70%
• 70-0%

LAST DECISIVE FACTORS

• Customer response time (less than 12 hours)
• Tracking number (100%)
• Number of Feedback
• Refund rate (0%)
• Products’ stock (increase volume depth)
• Order delete’s rate (0%)