The winner takes it all: Why owning the Amazon Buy Box matters

[Executive Summary]

• Amazon added roughly 1,824 new sellers daily in 2021, increasing competition for the Buy Box, which contributes to 83% of all purchases​.
• Winning the Buy Box depends on positive reviews, Prime status, fast shipping, stock availability, new items, and competitive pricing.​​
• 60% of high-profit sellers use repricing tools. 80% of retailers using the price intelligence tool Netrivals win the Buy Box within a month​.

As an Amazon shopper, you most likely buy products that own the Buy Box without knowing what it actually is. As a seller on Amazon, however, this term stands for whether or not your products actually sell. It is estimated that around 83% of all purchases made on this marketplace happen through the Buy Box, which is visible on the right side of a product page with the options Add to Basket and Buy now, as seen in the image below.

Since customers can easily buy their chosen product with this section, owning it for your products as a seller means having a competitive advantage: your revenue increases as well as your market share, and you are able to activate PPC ads to reach a larger audience. Unfortunately, not all brands and retailers can get this section on their products, as only one per product becomes the lucky winner. 

To gain access to this special feature, sellers rely on Amazon’s algorithm which determines who has been having an overall excellent sales performance.

The fact that Amazon is a dynamic marketplace and both competition and customers change constantly means that even if you don’t own the Buy Box now, you can get it eventually if you meet all the following criteria:

• Positive ratings and reviews: The higher the positive feedback the better. Here, the algorithm focuses on the seller rather than the specific product sold. 

• Prime: If you are a Prime seller you get priority, as it is an extra service for which you and your clients pay. Only if you choose Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or Seller-Fulfilled Prime (SFP) can you be eligible for the Prime option. Both fulfillment services guarantee your clients fast and reliable deliveries.

• Fast shipping: Even if you are not a Prime seller, you could still own the Buy Box if your shipping times are remarkably fast and successful. 

• Stock availability: You need to have control over your stock availability if you want to sell more than your competitors and be ranked high by the algorithm.

• New items: Amazon also has a preference for new items instead of older ones, so you might want to center your efforts on those newly launched items.

• Competitive pricing: The product price is one of the main variables, if not the most important one when it comes to earning the Buy Box. Part of Amazon’s objectives is to offer low prices to everyone, which is why the winners usually have lower prices than their competitors, but not necessarily the cheapest. In addition, sellers have to consider both the actual product price and the landed price, which consists of shipping, local tax, and product.

Overall, it is the balance between all these factors that generates Amazon Buy Box eligibility. The frequent changes in the online platform also create instability for the merchants, as they can lose the section to their competition. For this reason, many Amazon sellers use repricing tools like the one powered by Netrivals to maintain their competitiveness and therefore the Amazon Buy Box. 

Gaining control over your market’s prices and winning Amazon Buy Box go hand-in-hand. Sellers on such a big online retailer like Amazon normally have multiple products for sale and adjusting their prices one by one could be very time-consuming and cost businesses a lot of money, they could be investing more wisely. The same goes for monitoring the prices of the competition.

Before actually repricing on Amazon, first, retailers should use a competitor price monitoring software to know which prices other merchants are setting for their products. After having this overview, merchants can then consult a dynamic pricing solution, which suggests the best prices for the selected goods, following strict pricing rules that the seller previously agreed on and respecting the profit margin of each item, in order to make sure that profit is generated. To save sellers more time and become more efficient on Amazon they should also integrate a repricing tool so that prices are adjusted automatically. According to study, 60% of high-profit Amazon sellers (those with sales between $3 and $10 million) consistently use a reliable repricer tool.

Learn more about how you can win the Amazon Buy Box thanks to our price intelligence offer here.