Amazon guide 3/3

How to win the Buy Box on Amazon ?

How does it work

Whilst a client is on a product page, Amazon will display the price of a particular seller, this price appears in the “buy box”. This placement is highly sought after as 82% of sales are actualised thanks to Amazon’s Buy Box. Having the best price, but also the product in stock, positive reviews and good performance metrics are just as important for winning the Buy Box.

Percentage of visibility on Buy Box Winner

On the client’s side, Amazon uses cookies and their connection information in order to only display one Buy Box per hour. Meanwhile, Amazon’s algorithm prioritises the availability of the product or a new price, so that a new seller can win the Buy Box and that seller’s product can be valorised.

Avec le live repricing de Smart Price, le vendeur est informé en temps réel de chaque changement de prix dans le Back Office d’Amazon. Smart Price ajustera le prix en moins de 3 minutes pour obtenir la boîte d’achat.

Discover our repricing solution

How to know if your Buy box Eligibility

On Amazon’s Seller Central

Go to the tab “Stock” then “Stock management”
Click on “preferences”
In the column section displayed, select “Eligibility for Buy Box” and select “Display when available”.

The criteria and their importance

To be eligible for Amazon’s Buy Box, it is necessary to have a professional seller account, and to have been a seller for 90 days, without having gone over certain performance targets.

* Tip : the 90 day limit can be bypassed if the seller subscribes to Amazon FBA shipped by Amazon

Certain products can be eligible whilst others cannot :

Stock : you need available stock
The state of the product : the state of the product is also an important factor, only new products can win the Buy Box.

If these base criteria are met, Amazon’s algorithm will take into account different factors for the selection of the Buy Box, in order of importance :

Amazon Premium : FBA Amazon appears to place ahead sellers that use this FBA service “delivered by Amazon”

Amazon equally wishes to widen their reach with their premium offer to sellers which are rapidly expanding (2 days maximum) which also have very high performance ratings (Seller-Fulfilled Prime) which should constitute a definitive advantage for winning the Buy Box.

Low Prices : the criteria of price is an essential factor, it is essential to show the best offer whilst taking into account the competition, different costs and maintaining stable profit margins. This is a variable than can be modified which can also have a very fast impact.
Smart Price retrieves the prices of your competitors and adjusts the price of the seller whilst taking into account specific rules to prevent selling at a loss.

Discover our repricing solution

The rate of “Perfect orders” : the greater the rate of perfect order approaches 100%, the better the chances are of winning the Buy Box.

POP rate = perfect orders / number of total orders
This rate takes into account the orders from the past 90 days.

Late deliveries and shipments
The defect order rate
Late orders
Parcels with tracking numbers
On-Time delivery
Review rates
Average response time
Number of reviews
The availability : Amazon will prioritise the products which are in stock and have a certain volume for sale
The rate of cancellations and reimbursements

* The following criteria that could be taken into account in the future are the rate of return and client disatisfaction

The rates that must not be surpassed

To win the Buy Box, a seller must maintain these rates as low as possible :

Perfect order percentage score : must not fall below 95%
Delivered on time : must not fall below 97%
Parcel with tracking numbers : must not fall below 95%
Late shipment rate : must not go over 4%
Cancellation rate : must not go over 2.5%
Late shipment rate : must not go over 2.5%
Average response time : must not go over 10% for replies after 24 hours

It is important to verify the customer satisfaction statistics on a daily basis and to concentrate on prioritising on the criteria required to obtain the Buy Box.
It is essential to ensure that the other criteria are also met : failure to meet these may result in the removal of your selling privileges.

The price criteria being the most important criteria, necessitates an automatic repricing solution to win the Buy Box. A fully customisable, easy to manage, automatic repricing tool such as Smart Price, allows for the automation of competitive intelligence and price adjustment depending on the seller’s pricing strategies and goals.

Discover our repricing solution