It is no news that Amazon is a big name in the global eCommerce landscape. The platform has about 200 million prime members competing to win the buy box which constitutes about 83% of Amazon sales.
The buy box is a widget on the right side of the Amazon product detail page, that enables potential customers to add products to their cart for instant purchase. However, note that not all products on Amazon have this buy box feature, but any product that wins it has the highest chance of purchase.
Several factors trigger the Amazon algorithm to qualify your products for the buy box share. Knowing these factors, you can optimize them and improve your chance of winning the buy box.
This article will show you how to win the Amazon buy box. Pay attention to the points discussed below:
- Understand How the Buy Box Works
- Become an FBA or SFP seller
- Maintain a Competitive Landed Price
- Have a Large Inventory
- Keep a Good POP Score
- Ensure Stock Availability
- Have a Good Order Defect Rate
- Valid Tracking Rate
Let’s understand this further!
1. Understand How the Buy Box Works
To win the Amazon buy box, you need to understand how it works. The Amazon buy box algorithm begins by analyzing each offer by the sellers of a product. It then evaluates each offer based on price, seller history, and several other variables.
Once the analysis is completed, Amazon then rewards the buy box—the best buying option—to its customers. However, not all sellers qualify to win the buy box. Plus, Amazon no longer rewards its buy box to just one seller. Rather, it rotates the buy box to several sellers.
As a seller looking to get a share of the buy box, follow through with the below steps:
2. Become an FBA or SFP seller
To win the Amazon buy box, become an FBA or SFP seller. The FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon) sellers and the SFP (Seller Fulfilled Prime) merchants have a higher chance of winning the Amazon buy box than the non-prime sellers.
This doesn’t mean that a non-prime seller cannot win the buy box. If you’re a non-prime seller and can meet up with other requirements, then the Amazon algorithm will definitely reward you with a share of the buy box.
How to become a Prime Seller on Amazon
To become a prime seller,
- Have an Amazon professional seller account
- Have a domestic warehouse from where you can fulfill your orders
- Deliver over 99% of your orders on time
- Ensure your order cancellation rate is less than 0.5%
- Use Amazon to buy shipping services for at least 97% of your orders
3. Maintain a Competitive Landed price
To win the Amazon buy box, maintain a competitive landed price. The landed price of a product is the sum of the product price, the shipping fee, and other costs. A lower landed price increases your chance of getting the buy box.
However, because Amazon needs to make a profit, if your landed price is too low, it can hinder you from winning the buy box. Giving the buy box advantage to products with very low prices will not yield a considerable profit. In most cases, Amazon marks these kinds of products as CRaP (Can’t Realize a Profit).
4. Have A Large Inventory
To win the Amazon buy box, have a large inventory. Sellers who keep large stocks in their stores tend to win the favor of the buy box. In other words, if you’re low on stocks, you’re reducing your chance.
This is understandable because if you have the buy box while your inventory is low, you’ll not be able to cater to the influx of customers at the time.
5. Keep A Good POP Score
Next, keep a good POP score. Your POP (Perfect Order Percentage) score depends on several factors including
- The number of orders you delivered on time
- The percentage of the complete orders
- The customer feedback
- Your responsiveness to buyers’ messages.
If your POP score is low, it serves to indicate that your order fulfillment and delivery are poor. Hence, you’ll find it hard to qualify for the buy box. You have to ensure your order and delivery are as decent as possible so your POP score can improve.
6. Ensure Stock Availability
For you to win the Amazon buy box, ensure your stock’s availability. If you do not have items in stock, your chances of winning a buy box will be slim and it’ll rotate to another seller. To avoid this, ensure you keep a good stock of your bestsellers.
To avoid losing your buy box and customers, place your products as “back-ordered” with a note on the product page. With this, your customers order with the understanding that it’s not available and can be shipped later.
7. Have a Good Order Defect Rate
To win the Amazon buy box, have a good order defect rate. Your order defect rate includes three metrics:
- A-Z guarantee claim rate
- Service chargeback rate
- Negative feedback rate
Amazon calculates these metrics to find out the number of your orders that were defective. To qualify for Amazon buy box, your ODR should be below 1%. Otherwise, you may be penalized.
8. Valid Tracking Rate
Lastly, to win the buy box, maintain a valid tracking rate. This is a new performance metric from Amazon. The valid tracking rate is the percentage of total packages shipping with valid tracking.
To preserve your buy box eligibility, ensure valid tracking is divided for at least 95% of the packages shipped. Anything less could affect your chances of winning the buy box and selling in certain categories.
Conclusion
As a seller on Amazon, winning the buy box will greatly increase your sales. If you want to improve your chance of getting the share buy box, become an FBA or SFP seller, maintain a competitive landed price and have a large inventory.
Furthermore, keep a good POP score, ensure your stocks—especially best sellers and available, have a good order defect rate—of at least 1%, and maintain a valid teaching rate for about 95% of your product to qualify. With this, you can win the Amazon buy box you desire.
