Demystify the Amazon Buy Box in 2023

But let’s start by the beginning: what is the Amazon Buy Box?

Here’s a quotation on the featured offer section:

The most common question sellers ask is how to win the buy box on Amazon. To answer that question, one must understand the essential elements.

• You need to have a professional selling account.
• You need to have experience in providing customers a great shopping experience.
• You need to have eligible items.

Amazon has a simple method that allows you to check the eligibility of your items. Follow these quick steps:

1. Go to seller center
2. Click on “manage inventory”
3. Select “preferences”
4. Choose “buy box eligible” after scrolling to the bottom.
5. Click on “save changes”

At this point, you will see a column devoted to items that are buy box eligible. The minimum requirement is to have them be new items. Otherwise, they will need to meet other quality standards.

Part of the Amazon Buy Box Eligibility requirements is to switch to a professional selling program. Thankfully, Amazon provides you some helpful steps on how to get this done:

1. Under “account info,” select settings
2. Go to the “your services” account section and select “manage”
3. Look for the row that says “sell on amazon,” choose “upgrade” if it does not display you with a professional account

Account upgrade requests can take up to three days for Amazon to review. Professional sellers are granted additional tools and do not have to pay a fee per item. You can confirm this by looking at the “statement view” tab.

Doing this not only allows your items to potentially be part of the desktop buy box, but you also get access to the mobile version.

Sellers wondering how to get the buy box on Amazon had issues back in July of 2020. The eligibility ranking came out lower, some FBA sellers lost the buy box for unclear reasons, and some sellers could not add non-buy box offers to the checkout.

Some speculate some errors came from the COVID-19 pandemic, but most assume that removing the buy box widget caused this issue. Forum users of Seller Central discussed the problem in detail.

Selective Removal of One-Click Purchases

Some Amazon sellers understandably have concerns with replacing the “add to cart” button with “see all buying options.” It takes from the instantaneous feel of adding an item. Instead, it allows the shopper to have more profound thoughts on the subject.

An Inc.com article states that an Amazon spokesperson had this to say on the matter:

Here’s a guide for you to Identify Amazon Buy Box Competitive Dynamics.

Price Wars

When asking how to get the buy box on Amazon, price battles are pretty standard. While you shouldn’t get into the habit of lowering your price to match others, it is an unfortunate reality of things.

In this case, you can try and match their prices but cutting costs elsewhere. But in the battle of quality, you can find other methods to increase your sales. This target doesn’t always have to be through your Amazon buy box percentage.

Later in the article, we plan on mentioning alternatives to the buy box.  These alternatives sometimes have similar requirements, but others do not.

• Add a competitor’s item on your cart to see if your product appears among featured offers.
• Check out the column under your list of Amazon Products to see if it indicates the buy box.

Neither of these options will tell you the share, but they will confirm that you are here.  To verify your Amazon buy box percentage score, follow these instructions:

1. Log in at Amazon Seller Center
2. Under “reports,” select “business reports”
3. Sort data by date or ASIN
4. The buy box percentage tracker is on the far right of the table

Amazon’s choice is another category of buy box that prefers Amazon’s products. For example, the image above indicates the most appropriate item for a tablet case is an Amazon Fire 7. Not all products are like this, so Amazon’s products may not always be at the top of Amazon’s choice.

Much like being a featured item, your item needs to be popular enough, be associated with good customer service, and have a low return rate. But if Amazon also sells these items, be prepared to compete with them.

A big part of working with the Amazon Buy Box algorithm comes back to being the best in the business. One of these focuses comes down to good customer service. As a vague term, let’s break this down a bit:

• You need to offer products with fast shipping, so being on Amazon Prime will increase your chances.
• It would be best if you had a consistently packed inventory to meet the needs of those who are buying.
• You need to offer a quality product that meets (or exceeds) user expectations on what your product claims are.
• You need to have a responsive customer service staff just in case something goes wrong with your product.

Amazon Seller Central contains a database that will inform you of your account’s health. Anything that is negatively affecting your account’s health needs immediate handling.

Going back to bullet point number two, having a complete inventory is essential. But what can you do to handle this while also managing other day-to-day aspects of running a business? You can rely on the Amazon Selling Coach.

The Amazon Selling Coach provides you information on different opportunities for improvement. For example, inventory opportunities inform you when it’s time to restock so you can avoid the potential of order cancellations for customers who are unwilling to put up with a delay.

Other areas of importance include increasing inventory numbers for trendy and associated products that may interest customers. The Amazon Selling Coach also addresses potential shipping issues.

By being an FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) seller, you already know about the importance of offering products through FBA. These products will include free shipping, Amazon Prime, and other benefits unique to FBA sellers.

The overall focus on providing these FBA-specific selling opportunities involves you attracting more potential customers. If Amazon is handling much of the heavy lifting, you can focus on brand-building activities.

Whatever you choose, ensure that you utilize a high-quality shipping service and continue to follow informative best-practices to reduce order cancellations and delays.

Not many products on Amazon can take advantage of this, meaning that it’s not typical for winning the buy box on Amazon. However, there are some products with significant demand fluctuations that may appreciate additional attention.

• The Other Sellers Section & Offer Listing Page
• Amazon Posts & Amazon Ads (Sponsored Products)
• Your Amazon Store Page

You will also see sections related to “items you’ve viewed” and “top picks for you.” These are also sections, but only if you make a wide array of similar items. As a result, we won’t delve into those as profoundly.

If you want to know more about Amazon branding and their storage page, check out this article on utilizing Amazon Brand Analytics. This target goes beyond having a professional seller account, providing you more significant analysis potential.

You can choose a variety of strategies in these fields. They can include inventory boosting systems, customer service strategies, and pricing strategies. Whatever you pick, the idea is to be better than your competition.

Don’t be afraid to try things out until you get the right balance of things. Adjust your price dynamically to be responsive to changes in demand or competition. Try to keep a similar profit margin and win the war on both title, image, and customer review quality.

Oh, and try not to get into any price wars, as that ends up ruining everyone.

To win the buy box, you might have to try a few things out. Once you find the right balance, this buy box can be yours.