The Amazon Buy Box

August 27, 2021

In today’s competitive Amazon marketplace, having a solid understanding of the Amazon Buy Box is critical. Over time, your ability to “own” the Buy Box can be the difference in thousands of dollars of sales.

What is the Amazon Buy Box?

The Buy Box is the “box” on a product detail page where customers can begin the purchasing process by adding items to their shopping carts. 

When multiple sellers are selling on a single Amazon listing, only one seller “owns” the Buy Box. Theirs is the featured offer that is accepted when a customer clicks “add to cart” on the right hand of a listing page. 

Why is Winning the Buy Box Important?

• You will sell more.
  When there is more than one offer available on a product listing, customer may view the additional offers, however most buyers – over 80% – purchase their product straight from the Amazon Buy Box. Therefore, winning the Buy Box usually means winning the sale.
• You will maintain your ability to advertise.
  A great way to keep eyes on your products and sales momentum up is by utilizing Amazon advertising. However, this highly advantageous feature is only available to those sellers that have the Buy Box. If you’re not winning the Buy Box, your ads will be automatically disabled.

How to Win the Buy Box

There are many contributing factors that establish who the Buy Box winner on an Amazon listing is. Amazon makes this determination automatically through their own proprietary software by comparing a set of variables:  

1. FBA vs FBM Sellers. FBA sellers have an advantage over non-FBA sellers.
2. Price. Because better pricing leads to more sales, Amazon rewards competitive pricing by giving the Buy Box to the lowest-priced offers. This is what the term “Winning the Buy Box” is in reference to. For example, if two sellers are both offering a product at the lowest price, those sellers rotate the Buy Box evenly while sellers with higher-priced offers lose the Buy Box altogether. Amazon also monitors price across multiple online platforms. If a brand’s products can be found elsewhere on the internet at a better price, product listings are likely to be suppressed. Because Amazon is less likely to make a sale when the same product can be found elsewhere for a better deal, the algorithm gives priority to products with consistent pricing.  For this reason, MAP is key to brand success on Amazon.
3. Shipping timeliness. A history of slow shipping speed can prevent sellers from winning the Buy Box.
4. Order defect rate, refunds and cancellations. Amazon rewards sellers with a history of high-quality products and penalizes those with a history of low-quality or defective products.
5. Inventory performance. Low inventory numbers or a history of going out of stock may inhibit a seller from winning the Buy Box. 

The good news is that failing in any of these areas can be overcome with consistent and improved performance. Buy Box wins can occur even after poor reviews or lapses in inventory. Detailed, consistent management and care for the account is the best guarantee of success.

The Importance of MAP

While all of these variables are key contributors, price is the most important factor for maintaining the Buy Box. Without enforcing MAP, rogue sellers and other online retailers continue to lower the price point to win the Buy Box and make the sale. This race to the bottom drives pricing down to an unsustainable level and is detrimental to a brand’s Amazon channel.

How ZQUARED Keeps Your Brand Winning

Keeping track of all of the factors affecting Buy Box and monitoring your ASINs 24/7 can be overwhelming and time consuming. ZQUARED works to help our brand partners identify and track resellers so that they are able to manage MAP. We have over a decade of expertise in helping our brands win and maintain the Buy Box by and have streamlined a detailed process to help manage all of the variables that affect it. 

About ZQUARED

Our company was born from a service mindset. Our passion is helping you navigate the online retail space in a way never imagined. With years of industry-leading experience selling on Amazon, we invest in brands who sell on Amazon.

Managing all aspects of the Amazon platform for your brand is a top priority. We do design, fulfillment, product listings, enhanced brand content, headline and sponsored ads and MAP violation support. Understanding all aspects of this sales channel can be overwhelming. We break down every aspect of your brand and what you will need to increase sales on Amazon.

To learn more about how ZQUARED can help you stay ahead of Amazon’s ever-changing rules, contact ZQUARED at 234-ZQUARED (978-2733), fill out our Contact Us form here, or email us at partners@zquared.com.