Online sellers tend to gravitate towards highly active and profitable online marketplaces, which is why millions of online entrepreneurs venture into the Amazon marketplace.
Currently, there are almost 2 million third-party selling partners on Amazon.
Making a significant and consistent profit on Amazon can be quite challenging, especially for newbie Amazon sellers.
However, although the marketplace can be competitive, making a profit is still possible.
Winning the Amazon Buy Box is one of the ways to become a profitable Amazon seller despite the competition.
This article discusses some significant insights to help you improve your Amazon Buy Box win rate.
What is the Amazon Buy Box & Why Does It Matter?
When Amazon shoppers are redirected to a product detail page, they are presented with numerous information that can influence them to purchase the product.
Some of the prominent information includes but is not limited to the following:
- Product Title
- Product Image
- Product Description
- Variations of the Product
- Customer Reviews
- Amazon Buy Box
Of all the features mentioned above, the Amazon Buy Box interests most sellers because most sales happen through the Buy Box. It is what shoppers click on if they want to order the product.
The Buy Box is simply the widget visible on listing pages where the “Add to Cart” or “Buy Box” buttons are located. It is positioned on the right-hand portion of the product detail page.
Technically, the Buy Box is a feature on the Amazon website that allows customers to make a quick purchase with just a click of a button.
The Amazon Buy Box facilitates effortless sales on Amazon through a swift and uncomplicated checkout process, which reduces the likelihood of Amazon cart abandonment.
The Amazon Buy Box is valuable to you as a seller because it decreases buyers’ indecisiveness while increasing your sales and revenue.
How to Become Buy Box Eligible
To win a share of the Amazon Buy Box, you should first aim to become Buy Box eligible. When it comes to Buy Box eligibility, Amazon outlined three essential criteria:
Type of Selling Account
To become Buy Box eligible, you should have a Professional Selling Account. If you currently have an Individual selling account, an upgrade is necessary.
Account Health
Another factor Amazon considers for Buy Box eligibility is your Account Health.
It would be best to have good performance metrics to obtain a good standing with Amazon.
Having an excellent Order Defect Rate, Cancellation Rate, and Late Shipment Rate can help you increase your chances of becoming Buy Box eligible.
Order Volume
Amazon also requires a sufficient order volume, which varies depending on the product category.
Buy Box Algorithm and Essential Elements
Amazon is known to be a customer-centric company. It only wants the best experience for all its shoppers.
To provide the best possible value to shoppers, it has a Buy Box algorithm that operates by determining which listing should be featured on the Amazon Buy Box.
The Amazon Buy Box algorithm evaluates multiple factors to identify which offer can provide the best customer experience.
Some of the elements assessed by the algorithm when awarding the Buy Box include but are not limited to the following:
- Listing Price
- Product Availability
- Delivery Speed
- Good Customer Service
Keep in mind that if you are already Buy Box eligible, it does not necessarily mean that you can immediately win the Amazon Buy Box.
The Buy Box algorithm likewise evaluates the above mentioned elements to determine which listing can deliver customer satisfaction.
How to Increase Your Amazon Buy Box Win Rate
Winning the Amazon Buy Box can significantly impact your overall sales performance.
If you wish to increase your Amazon Buy Box win rate, even as a newbie seller, here are some of the things you should observe when selling on Amazon.
Offer a Competitive Listing Price
Price is one factor that shoppers evaluate when purchasing an item online.
As part of Amazon’s goal to provide customer satisfaction, the algorithm considers listing prices to determine which product is priced competitively.
Competitively priced products are more likely to be featured on the Amazon Buy Box.
For you to obtain a competitive advantage over other sellers in terms of pricing, you can use an Amazon repricer.
When it comes to repricing software, you can either utilize Amazon’s repricer or try a more sophisticated AI repricing software from third-party developers.
Inspect Condition of Items
To increase your Buy Box win rate, you should take into account selling items that are considered “NEW” under Amazon general condition guidelines.
It means that the item is brand-new with original packaging present and the manufacturer’s warranty still applies.
Generally, for a product to be accepted by Amazon, it should be clean and have no sign of damage, corrosion, heaving staining, or mold.
Moreover, the product must not be expired or have exceeded the acceptable portion of its remaining shelf life.
Maintain Healthy Amazon Inventory
Inventory management is crucial when selling on Amazon.
You must keep substantial inventory levels to increase your chances of winning the Amazon Buy Box.
Offering a product that is low in stock or already out of stock is counterintuitive to Amazon’s goal of customer satisfaction. Thus, affecting your Buy Box win rate.
To optimize inventory management, you can use Amazon inventory management tools.
This Amazon seller tool helps sellers ensure that there are enough products to meet customer demands without overstocking or excess Amazon inventory items.
Increase Positive Feedback
Customer feedback is another factor evaluated by Amazon when awarding the Buy Box.
Once the algorithm sees you have numerous positive feedback from previous shoppers, the likelihood of your listing being featured on the Buy Box increases.
You can organically increase positive feedback by providing the best customer service to shoppers.
In particular, providing honest, detailed, and relevant product information on the detail page can encourage positive reviews from shoppers.
Not only that, you’ll simply get more orders, and customers may even share their Amazon cart with other customers just because of how satisfied they are with the product and experience.
In a sense, you should provide shoppers with a well-optimized product listing.
Furthermore, you can also use Amazon feedback software to generate automated emails for customers.
The type of emails this Amazon seller tool generates may include a request for seller feedback or a request for product reviews.
Get To Know Your Performance Metrics
Understanding your performance metrics can drastically increase your Buy Box win rate.
Checking your performance metrics via the Amazon Dashboard can help avoid instances detrimental to your Buy Box campaign.
You can increase your performance metrics by reducing claims and chargebacks.
Similarly, minimizing negative feedback, responding to shoppers’ messages, avoiding cancellation of orders and late shipment of items are also beneficial.
Going Beyond the Amazon Buy Box
Winning the Amazon Buy Box is not an easy undertaking.
However, with the help of proper Amazon seller tools and implementation of the tips mentioned above, you can increase your Buy Box win rate.
Always remember that more than just aiming to win the Amazon Buy Box, you should first seek to provide a high-quality customer experience.
You can create more marketing and sales opportunities for your Amazon business by providing excellent service to shoppers.
