Are you looking to increase your sales on Amazon, one of the best-selling platforms? If so, learning how to win Amazon Buy Box and Amazon ad is a must!
The Buy Box on Amazon is a prominent button on the right-hand side of a product detail page. It makes the purchasing process more convenient for customers by allowing them to add products to their cart with a single click. When Amazon sellers win the Buy Box, they can significantly increase sales on Amazon and enhance their visibility and overall success on Amazon.
In this article, we will explore the various strategies and tactics you can use to increase your chances of getting the Amazon Buy Box. Whether you are a new seller on Amazon or an experienced veteran, this article will provide:
- How you can achieve Amazon Buy Box
- Winning practices to win the Buy Box for FBA and FBM sellers
- How you will secure your Buy Box on Amazon
And more. Let’s dive in!
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How Does The Amazon Buy Box Work?
The Amazon Buy Box uses a unique algorithm to determine which seller wins the box for a particular product. This algorithm considers several factors, such as the price of the product, seller ratings, fulfillment method, shipping time, and customer service.
When multiple sellers are offering a product in the Amazon marketplace, the algorithm compares the offers. Then, it selects the one that is most likely to result in the best customer experience. The seller who wins the Buy Box is the one who provides customers with the most value, such as fast shipping and low pricing, while maintaining high satisfaction ratings.
How to Win Amazon Buy Box: Tips to Success
Here we come to the most thrilling part – how to win your Amazon Buy Box and get that boosted sales! To achieve your Buy Box on Amazon, make sure to:
- Optimize your listings
- Maintain excellent seller metrics
- Have competitive pricing
- Satisfy your customers
Now let’s delve into the details!
1. Optimize product listings
Optimizing your product listings is crucial for the process of how to win Amazon buy box.
Here’s a breakdown of key steps to take:
- Keyword research: You should conduct thorough keyword research to identify the most relevant and high-volume keywords for your product. Tools like Amazon’s own keyword research tool or third-party tools can help you discover the most effective terms to include in your listing.
- Compelling title: Craft a title including your primary keywords while clearly describing your product. Your product title can comprise key details such as brand, product type, size, color, and any unique features that make it stand out from your competitors
- Informative product description: Don’t forget a detailed and informative product description that highlights the key benefits and features of your product. Additionally, you can use bullet points to make the information easily scannable for customers.
- High-quality images: Dress to impress! Invest in professional product photography that showcases your product from different angles and perspectives. This holds significant importance for various top-selling products on Amazon, including apparel and accessories, cosmetics, makeup, etc. Ensure that your images are well-lit, sharp, and accurately represent the product’s appearance.
- A+ Content (Enhanced brand content): If you have an Amazon brand registry, take advantage of A+ Content to create visually appealing and informative content. This feature allows you to showcase additional product details, lifestyle images, and even videos to engage customers and increase conversion rates. For example, if you are selling books on Amazon, you can use A+ Content to showcase information about the author, provide a summary of the book’s contents, and include an excerpt or sample chapter.
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2. Maintain excellent seller metrics
To maintain excellent seller metrics and enhance your likelihood of how to win Amazon buy box, focus on the following aspects:
- Feedback rating: You need to encourage customers to leave feedback by providing exceptional customer service and addressing any concerns promptly. In addition, don’t forget to monitor your feedback rating and respond to negative feedback by offering solutions or refunds if necessary.
Encourage customer feedback is needed
- Order defect rate: Keep your order defect rate low by ensuring accurate product descriptions, prompt shipping, and effective packaging to minimize any chances of defects or issues.
- On-time shipment: Shipping orders on time is to meet Amazon’s performance standards. You can utilize reliable shipping carriers and automated shipping solutions to streamline your fulfillment process and minimize delays.
- Customer response time: It is vital to respond to customer inquiries and messages within 24 hours or less. To do this, you can use the Seller Central messaging system or automated tools to stay on top of customer communication.
3. Implement competitive pricing strategies
Competitive pricing is vital for how to win Amazon buy, but it’s essential to strike a balance between competitiveness and profitability. Here are some strategies to consider:
- Analyze competitor pricing: This is to determine competitors’ price points and evaluate how you can differentiate yourself while remaining competitive.
- Automated pricing tools: Utilize automated repricing tools that can adjust your prices in real-time based on competitor analysis and predefined rules. This ensures that your prices remain competitive without the need for constant manual monitoring.
- Lightning deals and promotions: Participating in this promotional program can help you attract customers with discounted prices. These time-limited offers can increase your sales velocity and visibility, positively impacting your Amazon buy box wins.
4. Enhance customer experience
To address how to win Amazon buy box, it is essential to prioritize delivering a remarkable customer experience.
Here are some actionable steps you can take to achieve Amazon buy box:
- Quick and accurate fulfillment: Streamline your order fulfillment process to ensure quick and accurate shipments.
- Clear return policy: Establish a clear and customer-friendly return policy that builds trust and confidence in potential buyers. Clearly communicate your return process, including any refund or exchange procedures.
- Customer support: It is very important to provide excellent customer support by promptly addressing inquiries, concerns, and issues. This aims to resolve customer problems as quickly and effectively as possible, demonstrating your commitment to customer satisfaction.
Winning the Buy Box with FBA and FBM
Now we’ll get to know how you can win the Amazon Buy Box using both FBA or FBM services. Let’s dive in just now!
How to win Amazon Buy Box using FBA?
To optimize your FBA usage and increase your chances of winning Amazon Buy Box, here are some tips you can follow:
- Keep your prices competitive: Amazon’s algorithm favors sellers with the lowest prices, so make sure your prices are competitive with other sellers.
- Use FBA for all your products: FBA sellers automatically qualify for Prime, which can significantly increase your chances of winning the Buy Box.
- Ensure timely and accurate fulfillment: Amazon prioritizes sellers who can deliver products quickly and accurately. Make sure your inventory is up-to-date and your orders are fulfilled promptly.
- Offer excellent customer service: Amazon values sellers who offer excellent customer service. You need to respond quickly to inquiries and address any issues that arise promptly and professionally.
- Optimize your product listings: This helps you ensure that your product descriptions are clear and informative.
- Track your performance metrics: Tracking your performance metrics is an integral part of your efforts to get Amazon Buy Box wins. This helps you stay in control of your performance and easily take steps to improve them. Metrics you should be interested in include order error rates and shipping times.
How to win Amazon Buy Box using FBM?
Based on our research, here are some tips for improving FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant) performance. This can help you address how to win Amazon buy box:
- Offer excellent customer service: Providing excellent customer service can help you build customer loyalty and positive reviews, which can improve your sales performance on Amazon.
- Ship orders quickly: Shipping orders promptly can help improve customer satisfaction and increase your chances of winning the Buy Box.
- Use Amazon’s performance metrics: You should use Amazon’s performance metrics, such as order defect rate and pre-fulfillment cancel rate, to monitor your performance and identify areas where you can improve.
- Supervise your inventory levels: Regularly tracking your inventory levels can help prevent stockouts and ensure you have enough stock to meet customer demand.
- Be responsive: Respond to customer inquiries and messages promptly and professionally and be sure to address any concerns or questions they may have.
- Use automated tools: Utilize automated tools such as email templates and chatbots to save time and streamline your customer service processes.
- Have clear policies: You need to have clear policies in place for returns, refunds, and customer service requests, and make sure to communicate these policies clearly to your customers.
- Monitor feedback: Use this information to improve your customer service processes and identify areas for improvement.
4 Requirements of Amazon Buy Box
To vie for the Buy Box, sellers must meet four essential criteria:
- Professional Seller account: Only those with a Professional Amazon Sellers account, which incurs a monthly fee of $39.99, are qualified for the Buy Box.
- Buy Box eligibility: To compete for a portion of the coveted Buy Box and be considered Buy Box Eligible (formerly known as Featured Merchant), sellers must satisfy the criteria for the specific product. It’s important to note a seller’s Order Defect Rate, Cancellation Rate, and Late Shipment Rate metrics must be in good standing to attain Buy Box eligibility.
- Item condition: A Buy Box position cannot be secured by used items over new ones. Instead, a separate Used Buy Box has been established for this purpose.
- Stock availability: This requirement is self-evident; an item must be in stock for a seller to compete for the Buy Box, with the exception of back-ordered items.
To determine Buy Box eligibility, sellers can refer to Seller Central inventory reports. The default view does not display the “Buy Box Eligible” column, but you can enable it by following these steps:
- Go to Manage Inventory.
- Select Preferences.
- Choose Buy Box Eligible.
- Save the changes.
How Can I Secure the Buy Box on Amazon?
Achieving excellence in these factors and providing an exceptional customer experience is the most effective way to gain a share of the Buy Box.
1. Fulfillment Method – Extremely Crucial
Fulfillment is undoubtedly the most critical factor considered by Amazon. The order fulfillment can be carried out through three methods: FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant), or Seller-Fulfilled Prime (SFP). FBA receives a perfect score from Amazon for various variables, including shipping method, on-time delivery, and inventory depth, making it challenging for merchants to outperform FBA sellers.
Sellers enrolled in Seller-Fulfilled Prime have a higher chance of winning the Buy Box compared to FBA sellers. To participate in the Seller-Fulfilled Prime program, sellers must demonstrate strong performance metrics and a proven track record of meeting customer expectations.
2. Landed Price – Extremely Crucial
On Amazon, there are two prices for a product: the listed price and the landed price, which includes shipping and VAT (applicable to UK and EU only). When pricing products, it’s essential to consider these aspects. A common misconception is that having the lowest price guarantees winning the Buy Box. While a lower price does increase the likelihood of winning a share of the Buy Box, it is just one of the criteria, albeit an important one.
If your seller performance surpasses your competition for a particular product, you may be able to raise your price and still secure your share of the Buy Box.
3. Shipping Time – Extremely Crucial
The time taken by a seller to ship an item, known as the shipping time, has a significant impact on winning the Buy Box, especially for items like birthday cards and perishable goods. Shipping time is categorized into the following brackets, considering only working days: 0-2 days, 3-7 days, 8-13 days, 14 or more days. The shipping time can be viewed on the product detail page, indicating the estimated delivery date.
4. Stock Availability – Extremely Crucial
Typically, if a seller doesn’t have the item in stock, they can’t win the Buy Box, and it will rotate to another seller. Therefore, it is crucial for sellers to maintain sufficient stock levels for their best-selling products. An exception to this rule is when a product can be listed as “back-ordered,” accompanied by a note on the product page. Backordered items can still be featured in the Buy Box, but products that are immediately available are preferred.
5. Order Defect Rate – Important
The Order Defect Rate (ODR) consists of three metrics: negative feedback rating, A-Z guarantee claim rate, and service chargeback rate. Amazon calculates these metrics to identify the number of defective orders. According to Amazon’s guidelines, the ODR should be below 1%, and sellers above this threshold may face penalties.
6. Valid Tracking Rate – Important
This is a new performance metric introduced by Amazon, representing the percentage of total packages shipping with valid tracking. To maintain Buy Box eligibility, sellers should provide valid tracking numbers for 95% of packages shipped. Falling below this threshold could affect their chances of winning the Buy Box and selling within a specific category.
7. Late Shipment Rate – Important
The Late Shipment Rate indicates the number of orders that ship later than the expected ship date. Sellers can set their handling time in Seller Central, and those who don’t will be assigned the default shipping time of 1-2 business days. A Late Shipment Rate below 4% improves the chances of securing a share of the Buy Box. This metric is available for the last seven and 30 days in Seller Central.
8. Delivered On-Time Rate – Important
The Delivered On-Time Rate represents the percentage of orders that buyers receive by the estimated delivery date. Sellers should aim for a rate of 97% or higher. This metric is viewable for the last seven and 30 days in Seller Central.
9. Feedback Rating – Important
The Feedback Rating is a culmination of all feedback scores the seller has received over the last 30 days, 90 days, and 365 days, with the most recent feedback carrying the greatest impact. The Feedback Rating can be viewed in Seller Central.
10. Customer Response Time – Important
Amazon evaluates responses for the last seven, 30, and 90 days and compares them among competing sellers. Replying to customers within 12 hours increases the chances of winning the Buy Box. Failing to respond to more than 10% of messages within 24 hours or not responding at all can negatively affect seller ratings. However, marking messages as “no response needed” can remove negative feedback on Amazon.
11. Feedback Count – Important
The Feedback Count represents the number of buyers who have provided seller feedback. A higher feedback count can contribute to winning the Buy Box.
12. Inventory Depth/Sales Volume – Somewhat Important
Amazon favors sellers with sufficient inventory to meet Buy Box demand. Sellers with large inventory, consistent sales, and a good stock history are more likely to gain a higher Buy Box share. Frequent stockouts significantly reduce the chances of winning the Buy Box.
13. Cancellation and Refund Rate – Somewhat Important
The Cancellation and Refund Rate is determined by the number of orders canceled before shipping and the number of orders refunded after shipping. A rate higher than 2.5% could impact the chances of winning the Buy Box.
How to Win the Amazon Buy Box – FAQs
The Amazon buy box, located on the right side, enables customers to conveniently add products to their cart or make immediate purchases. However, not all products or sellers have access to the Buy Box, and competing for it can be highly challenging. The Amazon buy box winner is determined by a sophisticated algorithm that considers various factors. The key factors that influence Amazon buy box placement include: However, the exact algorithm used to determine Amazon buy box placement is not publicly known and may be subject to change. To improve your chances of winning the Amazon buy box , you can consider the following strategies: Here are some criteria you should consider when it comes to how to win Amazon Buy Box:
Get That Amazon Buy Box and Rock Your Sales!
How to win Amazon Buy Box is a challenging task that necessitates a careful blend of strategic decision-making, operational excellence, and customer-centric practices. By gaining a thorough understanding of the Buy Box dynamics, effectively leveraging FBA or FBM, and implementing targeted strategies, sellers can significantly enhance their likelihood of securing the Buy Box and generating higher sales on the Amazon platform.
If you’re interested in running an eCommerce business, you may want to consider taking a look at LitCommerce’s Retail Blog to learn more about this topic. Finally, if you need more extensive assistance, don’t hesitate to contact LitCommerce for specialized advice. We are happy to provide guidance and assistance.