How to win the Buy Box on Marketplaces (Amazon, Zalando, etc.)

What is the Buy Box on marketplaces?

The Buy Box on online marketplaces, such as Amazon, Bol.com, or Cdiscount, is a critical feature that significantly influences online sales. It represents the section on a product detail page where customers can add items to their cart or proceed to checkout directly. Due to the presence of multiple sellers offering the same product, the Buy Box becomes a competitive spot, awarded based on factors like price, seller performance, shipping efficiency, and customer service quality. Winning the Buy Box means gaining prime visibility, as it is the default option for customers to make their purchase, thereby drastically increasing the likelihood of sales.

As such, for sellers on these platforms, securing the Buy Box is a primary goal, necessitating strategies that enhance their competitiveness on price, availability, and service standards to meet the marketplace’s eligibility criteria and preferences. On Amazon, for example, more than 80% of the sales happen through the Buy Box. This gives an indicator for other marketplaces as well where at least half of the sales are driven by these “Add to Cart” boxes.

General criteria that influence the ranking

The criteria for winning the Buy Box on these e-commerce platforms are multifaceted and designed to ensure a high-quality experience for customers. While each platform has its specific algorithm, the core criteria are generally similar across these marketplaces:

• Price competitiveness: This includes the price of the item plus shipping costs. Marketplaces favor listings that offer the best value to customers.
• Seller performance metrics: High-performance metrics are crucial. This includes metrics such as order defect rate, cancellation rate, late shipment rate, and return rate. Sellers must maintain excellent performance standards.
• Shipping speed and reliability: Offering fast and reliable shipping options can significantly increase your chances of winning the Buy Box. Sellers using the platform’s fulfillment services (like Amazon’s FBA or Zalando’s ZFS) often have an advantage.
• Availability: Ensuring that items are consistently in stock is essential. Frequent stockouts can negatively impact your Buy Box eligibility.
• Customer service: Providing outstanding customer service, including timely and helpful responses to inquiries and efficient resolution of any issues, is critical.
• Product condition: For the same product, new items typically have a better chance of winning the Buy Box over used or refurbished ones, although separate Buy Boxes may exist for different item conditions.
• Sales volume: High sales volumes can indicate to the marketplace that customers trust and prefer your listing, potentially increasing your Buy Box share.
• Length of time selling on the platform: While not always a direct factor, being an established seller with a track record on the platform can contribute positively.
• Feedback score and reviews: Positive seller feedback and high-quality product reviews can influence Buy Box eligibility, reflecting the seller’s reliability and the product’s quality.

It’s worth noting that the exact weight and importance of these criteria can vary by platform and over time as marketplaces adjust their algorithms to best serve their customers.

Buy Boxes on marketplaces compared

Amazon

The Amazon Featured Offer, previously known as the Buy Box, is the KEY element on product detail pages that highlights a seller’s offer above others, based on criteria like price, condition, and delivery speed. To be eligible, sellers must have a Professional selling plan and maintain competitive pricing, stocked inventory, fast delivery, and new or like-new product conditions. Winning strategies include offering fast and free shipping, competitive pricing, excellent customer service, and keeping stock levels up.

To make it easier for marketplace sellers to understand the algorithm, Amazon has once disclosed a minimum level of the following metrics (some might have evolved over time). Here is an overview:

• Percentage of perfect orders: 95%
• On-time delivery: 97%
• Percentage of order traceability: 95%
• Late delivery rate: <4%
• Cancellation rate: <2.5%
• Delivery time: <14 days
• Customer response time: 90% of responses within 24 hours

Nota bene: 5 of the 7 factors are impacted by delivery.

Zalando

On Zalando, getting the top spot as a seller means focusing on quick shipping (try to deliver within four days) and always having your items ready to send. Zalando isn’t keen on changing prices too often; they want stable prices. Yet, dropping your price by about 5% might help if you’re not using Zalando’s own service, ZFS, which boosts your chances to be the preferred seller. Zalando picks the top sellers based on stock, fast delivery, and if you’re using ZFS, with top performers getting noticed first. If sellers are on the same level, the one with the best price gets the spotlight.

Nota bene: Zalando Wholesale holds precedence, provided it possesses inventory, with manufacturers selling directly taking the next priority. Following these, other merchants come into play. Only one option is displayed (all the other ones are hidden in contrary to other marketplaces).

OTTO

OTTO Market operates on a competition on the article approach, where sellers list identical products under one entry, enhancing customer choice. The platform groups these offerings by their EAN for a streamlined experience, alerting sellers about existing variants to avoid duplicates. OTTO selects the most beneficial content for customers, automatically choosing product details based on quality. Sellers can improve their visibility through detailed descriptions, quality images, and comprehensive attributes. Offer rankings hinge on factors like price, delivery, and seller reputation, with competitive pricing and service boosting Buy Box positions.

Cdiscount

Cdiscount‘s system uses your offer feed to test different content combinations from your images and texts, highlighting the most relevant listings. Winning the BuyBox isn’t solely about price and shipping costs; service quality, customer ratings, and delivery times are crucial. For instance, offers with ratings below 2 or delivery times over 12 days are excluded. To improve, consider reducing logistic costs with Octopia Fulfillment, prioritizing fast delivery, paying attention to customer ratings, and enhancing product visibility with marketing and SEO strategies.

Bol.com

To secure the buy box on bol.com, sellers must excel across eight critical areas (great transparency from the marketplace):

• ensuring 93% of orders are delivered on time, 
• limiting order cancellations to 2%, 
• including track-and-trace for all shipments, 
• being available by phone during business hours,
• reducing customer queries by providing clear product information,
• achieving a seller rating of 8 or higher,
• minimizing returns,
• and responding to 90% of customer inquiries within 8 business hours.

Bol.com offers a transparent, weekly performance overview through the sales account, allowing sellers to monitor and improve their standings.

Kaufland

The Buy Box model at Kaufland is built on clear principles and transparency, prioritizing aspects such as pricing inclusivity of shipping costs, delivery efficiency, and the nimbleness of handling orders. Offers that present competitive pricing, particularly when shipping is factored into the total cost, tend to have an edge. Speed in delivery and adeptness in order management further bolster a seller’s position. Additionally, the marketplace scrutinizes seller conduct, like how promptly customer queries are addressed and the frequency of order delays. A distinctive aspect of this platform is its use of a dynamic minimum price strategy, which directly influences a seller’s visibility across external marketing channels such as Google Shopping or idealo, making it a critical factor for those aiming to optimize their presence and performance on Kaufland Global Marketplace.

FNAC

FNAC‘s sales approach includes a unique Buy Box feature for products sold directly by FNAC, highlighted in the brand’s colors. Other sellers compete for a secondary Buy Box, which requires a rating of over 4 out of 5 and a claim rate below 5%. Among these competitors, the platform prioritizes the seller offering the best price, ensuring customers always find the most competitive deals.

Tips und tricks to win the Buy Box

Discover the transformative strategies Lengow offers to help retailers secure the coveted Buy Box on various marketplaces:

Enhanced visibility and categorization: Leverage Lengow’s sophisticated tools for category and attribute matching to ensure your products stand out.

Content optimization: Elevate your listings with enriched content using Lengow’s comprehensive resources and intelligent rule-based enhancements. Specifically, Lengow’s automated guidelines allow for seamless adaptation of your product titles to align with Amazon’s specific naming conventions.

Effective stock management: Utilize Lengow’s order management functionalities and stock rules to maintain optimal inventory levels. Set rules to automatically disable listings when stock falls below a minimal threshold, such as less than three units, preventing penalties from marketplaces and safeguarding your position in the Buy Box.

Using reviews and ratings: Keep a close eye on your product reviews with Lengow’s Netrivals tool. This allows you to strategically push products with higher ratings towards winning the Buy Box, by effectively segmenting products based on their ratings.

Real-time alerts: Stay ahead of the competition with Netrivals by setting up alerts that enable swift decision-making to maintain your Buy Box status. Receive timely and relevant price information, ensuring you never miss an opportunity.

Dynamic Pricing strategy: Customize your pricing approach with targeted rules that reflect your goals and market conditions. For instance, on Amazon, you can use Netrivals to position your pricing strategy either to undercut all competitors or to match the price of the current Buy Box holder. Similarly, for MediaMarkt Spain, integrating netRivals’ Dynamic Pricing data with Lengow can secure the Buy Box by implementing a strategy that adjusts prices to be slightly lower than competitors, ensuring competitiveness and appeal.

Focus: Winning the buy box with Netrivals’ Dynamic Pricing

Let’s have deep dive on strategies for Achieving Buy Box Success with Netrivals’ Dynamic Pricing as the “price” is one of the most important criteria for the buy box win on marketplaces. Here you go:

1/ Set clear goals: Utilize Netrivals’ dynamic pricing system to keep an eye on multiple marketplaces simultaneously. For attaining the Buy Box on Amazon, simply specify Amazon as your target marketplace and tailor your objectives accordingly.

2/ Curate your product selection: Identify and select the specific brands, product categories, and tags that align with your pricing strategy, focusing only on the items you intend to offer on Amazon.

3/ Craft your pricing strategy: Develop a competitive pricing strategy that considers the prices of your competitors while safeguarding your profit margin. Netrivals offers a range of pricing rules to ensure you always offer the most competitive prices.

4/ Keep tabs on competitors: Tailor your competitive landscape by including or excluding specific Amazon sellers that impact your strategy, paying close attention to both current and past holders of the Amazon Buy Box.

5/ Receive tailored pricing recommendations: Benefit from Netrivals’ sophisticated algorithm, which provides suggested pricing that adheres to your established rules and reflects market dynamics, ensuring your Amazon listings remain competitive and in line with your strategic goals.

By integrating these focused steps into your approach, Netrivals’ Dynamic Pricing tool equips you with the necessary insights and capabilities to navigate the competitive arena of Amazon’s Buy Box, enhancing your visibility and sales potential.