How to win the Amazon buy box and increase sales in 4 steps

What is the Buy Box on Amazon?

There is no limit to the number of resellers who can sell the same item on the Amazon marketplace. Still, you will share one product detail page with all other merchants who sell the exact same product (matched based on EAN or GTIN code). These merchants are your direct competition for the buy box on Amazon, which basically stands for the “Add to cart” button, located on the right side of the product detail page.

It’s all about the competition for the Amazon Buy Box

A growing number of resellers for the same product goes hand in hand with increasingly fierce competition for the Amazon buy box. In the end, only one seller can capture it and get customers to add their product to the shopping cart. Controlling the buy box means controlling your profitability!

Therefore, real-time adjustments of listing prices are no longer a nice-to-have but became a must-have if you want to be the winning seller who gets the order when a buyer adds a product to their cart.

How do I win the Amazon Buy Box?

The buy box on Amazon rotates between resellers based on a variety of factors. Fulfillment type and price are the two most influential ones, but other measures such as customer satisfaction, delivery standards, and sales performance are considered as well. Not every merchant is automatically eligible to compete for the buy box on Amazon. New resellers have to pass a probationary period and prove that their products actually perform well and are reliable; items must be new and unused, and merchants need to subscribe to a Professional Seller Account.

The following factors influence whether you can win the Amazon buy box:

Delivery standards

This might be the most complex topic. If you work with FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) you will score high for your shipment method, delivery times, and inventory standards. Nevertheless, looking into SFP (Seller-Fulfilled Prime) can be worth it when you are able to store and ship products yourself at Amazon Prime standards. With a strong track record of sales performance and customer satisfaction, SFP merchants will have a higher chance of winning the Amazon buy box than FBA merchants.

These fulfillment criteria are closely looked at over the past week and month:

• Valid tracking numbers: You need to provide valid tracking codes for 95% of the packages you have sent in the given time frames.
• Late shipments: If more than 4% of your orders were shipped after the handling time you indicate, you will lose your chance of winning the buy box.
• On-time shipments: 97% or more of your shipments must arrive within the given handling time.

Competitive pricing

Selling an item at the lowest price does not guarantee you the Amazon buy box. Your pricing including shipping and VAT must be competitive in combination with the other factors mentioned here.

Stock accuracy

Without the respective item in stock, you’ll lose the buy box on Amazon. Items can be marked as “backordered” but immediate availability will always win. Enough inventory to deal with constantly high demands is considered a big plus.

Customer satisfaction

The number of negative reviews, guarantee claim rate, and service chargeback rate are the three metrics that determine the quality of your orders. You want to keep the ODR (order defect rate) below 1% to avoid a penalty and have a chance to get the Amazon buy box.

Other important customer-related criteria (again, taking the 7 and 30 day time windows into consideration) are:

• Customer feedback rating & count
• Response time to customer feedback (must be within 12 hours)
• Cancellation and refund rate (must be below 2.5%)

How a Repricer tool can help you reach the buy box on Amazon and optimize sales

Adjusting your prices, all day, every day, every minute to optimize your profit margins can be an emotional and functional drain, especially for large product catalogs, logistically it’s not even possible. But don’t worry, there are ways to automate the process of finding the best prices.

A repricer tool helps sellers to lower or raise their product pricing in real-time. Through a predetermined pricing strategy, sellers can maximize their profit margin, capture the buy box on Amazon, and ultimately outperform their competitors.

Here’s why a repricer tool can lift the weight off your shoulders and support you in winning the Amazon buy box.

Real-time price adjustments

Repricer tools monitor the activity changes of your competitors. When a competitor changes the product price or runs out of stock, the tool adjusts and reprices your product prices instantly.

Competitive advantage

A Repricer gets you to win the Amazon Buy Box not only once, but frequently which will improve your chances of future sales, and put you in the pole position on the marketplace rankings.

You sell more at maximum profit

Don’t worry about bottomless price drops. The Amazon Repricer will find the optimal price point to win the buy box on Amazon while maintaining the highest margins possible for your offer.

Time efficiency

Checking prices, evaluating products, and monitoring competitors all the time is a complicated task when done manually. A simple mistake may reduce profits and devalue the product. Using a repricer tool will minimize the potential of human errors and speed up the process.

4 Steps to get the Buy Box on Amazon

Not competing is not an option, but does that mean you need an expensive, complicated, algorithmic-driven tool to compete against the ‘big sellers’? We say no, that’s why Channable has developed an affordable, yet powerful Amazon Repricer that gets you ahead of the competition in 4 simple steps:

1. Choose your competition strategy

2. Set maximum & minimum targets

3. Select your competition

4. Set your repricing conditions

These Repricer functionalities not only increase the chance of outselling your competition and winning the Amazon buy box but coupled with the other solutions we offer:

• Automated price updates for your entire product portfolio without any delay due to our real-time Amazon API
• Optimization of product information, order synchronization, and pricing for Amazon combined in one tool
• Availability for all 10+ Amazon connections in Channable
• The full control of your pricing strategy with our powerful IF-THEN rules

Could be the edge you need to permanently pull ahead of the pack! Manage and sell your products listings at the highest margins on Amazon - all within one tool.

Discover Channable’s Amazon integration, including the Repricer, in a free trial.