The Amazon Buy Box, now called the Featured Offer, appears on the right-hand side of an Amazon product page, prompting shoppers to add a product to cart or checkout immediately.
Sellers try to win the Amazon Buy Box because most customers buy the Featured Offer.
That’s why Amazon awards the Buy Box to the seller who offers the best shopping experience. Therefore, you must score high on metrics like price, product availability, customer feedback, and delivery time to become the Featured Offer.
Learn more about the Amazon Buy Box algorithm, how to win it, and everything else below.
Key Takeaways
- 90% of Amazon purchases are made via the Buy Box.
- Amazon awards the Buy Box to the seller who offers the best shopping experience.
- The Amazon Buy Box and Featured Offer are the same thing.
How to Become Eligible to Win the Amazon Buy Box?
Not all Amazon sellers can be featured in the Buy Box. Here are five things to do to ensure your products are eligible to win the Buy Box.
Have a Professional Amazon Seller Account
Only Professional Amazon seller accounts are eligible to have their products compete for the Buy Box.
The Professional seller account costs $39.99 monthly and offers several extra benefits aside from competing for Featured Offers.
Luckily, you can easily switch to a Professional account (from an Individual Seller account) inside Amazon Seller Central.
Sell Eligible and New Products
Not all products can win the Buy Box. For instance, books and media products can’t compete to become Featured Offer. Also, your products must be new or like-new.
You can check which products are eligible for the Amazon Buy Box in your Seller Central account. Here’s how:
- Log in to your Amazon Seller Central account.
- Open the menu.
- Click Inventory > Manage All Inventory.
- Click “Preferences.”
- Select “Featured Offer eligible.”
- Click “Save Changes.”
All your products will be listed with their Buy Box eligibility status.
Stock Your Inventory
You must have a reasonable volume of products in stock to become the Featured Offer.
If you’re low on stock, Amazon will think that you may not be able to meet sales demands if you win the box.
Score High on Seller Performance Metrics
It would help if you also maintain stellar ratings on seller metrics such as
- Seller Feedback Score: a higher score is preferred.
- Order Defect Rate (ODR): must be very low to show that your products are high-quality and that customers are typically satisfied with their purchases.
- On-time Delivery Rate: should be above 97% to show that most products are delivered on time.
- Pre-fulfillment Cancel Rate: the number of orders canceled by the seller, not the buyer, should be less than 2.5%.
- Late Shipment Rate: should be very low to compete for the Buy Box.
How to Win the Amazon Buy Box for Your Products?
You can win the Amazon Buy Box by scoring high on seller performance metrics and pricing your products competitively.
Amazon doesn’t share the exact Buy Box formula it uses to choose the Featured Offer.
Luckily, you can increase your chances of winning the Buy Box by following the recommendations below.
Price Your Products Competitively
Product price is a major factor that determines which product gets featured.
Typically, the lowest and equally-priced products win the Buy Box since customers appreciate low prices.
However, you should not price your products so low that you can’t make a profit.
Some of the strategies I recommend for winning the Buy Box based on pricing without making a loss are
- Using an automatic repricing tool that dynamically sets prices based on inventory levels and competitors’ prices. I recommend SellerSnap.
- Getting your products from reliable suppliers offering low prices. Hence, you can pass such low prices to your customers.
- Ordering inventory in bulk once you’re sure you have the market for it. That way, you can get discounts and pass those savings on to buyers.
Use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
FBA sellers have a higher chance of winning the Buy Box than FBM merchants, for a good reason.
FBA products are shipped by Amazon, which ensures your products get to the customers as fast as possible. This ties into the good seller performance mentioned above.
Also, FBA sellers can deliver to Amazon Prime buyers who require fast shipping.
Maintain High Inventory
You cannot win the Buy Box if you have low inventory unless other sellers who offer the same product are also low on stock.
After all, Amazon needs to ensure that the Featured Offer seller has enough products in stock to fulfill product orders.
Optimize Store and Product Listings
Write creative, accurate, optimized product listings using the right keywords for Amazon SEO. Also, optimize your store page to rank.
Making frequent updates to your store signals to Amazon that you’re a seller who’s up to date with customer demands.
Not sure how to start? Explore how Helium 10’s keyword research tools can help.
The tool also has a Listing Builder tool that’ll help you optimize all your listings from one backend.
Can a Seller Lose the Buy Box After Winning It?
Yes, a seller can lose the Buy Box after winning it for several reasons:
- Low inventory levels: Regularly restock your best selling products. You can even use inventory management software to get alerts when you need to restock.
- Drastic price changes: If you suddenly increase or decrease your price by a relatively high margin, Amazon may remove your product from the Buy Box.
- Increased ODR: You may lose the Buy Box if your Order Defect Rate rises above 1%. Amazon wants to ensure that only sellers who ship out high-quality products are featured in the Buy Box.
- Hijacked listing: Sometimes, another seller hijacks your product listing and starts selling the same product, causing you to lose the Buy Box. That’s why you need tools like the Helium 10 Alerts to let you know once that happens so you can take quick action.
Amazon Seller Tools to Track Your Buy Box Presence
It can become tedious to regularly check the Buy Box status of all your Amazon products.
Luckily, some tools send you automated alerts when your products win or lose the Buy Box.
Helium 10 Alerts
Helium 10 has a comprehensive Alerts feature that notifies you when the product featured in the Buy Box changes. In addition, it lets you know when your listing has a hijacker.
Moreover, you can customize the Helium 10 alerts to be sent daily or once every week.
Jungle Scout Alerts
Jungle Scout has an Alerts feature that notifies you via email when selected changes occur. Once you log in to your Jungle Scout account, you can change your Alerts preferences from Settings and choose to be notified whenever the Buy Box owner changes.
FAQs
Can New Sellers Win the Amazon Buy Box?
New Amazon sellers can win the Buy Box once they prove reliable with a low ODR. However, these new sellers must have a Professional Amazon Sellers account to even qualify to compete for the Buy Box.
Finally, new sellers are advised to be patient and offer a fast and seamless customer experience to have a shot at the Buy Box.
Can the Amazon Buy Box Be Regained After Losing It?
The Amazon Buy Box can be regained after losing it, returning your product(s) to the Featured Offer status for better sales performance. However, regaining the Buy Box would mean optimizing your product’s pricing better, improving key metrics like buyer satisfaction and order defect rates, and retaining your Professional Amazon Seller account.
Win the Buy Box and Become the Featured Offer!
Amazon typically rotates the Buy Box amongst eligible sellers. However, you’ll not get a chance to join those sellers if you don’t meet the basic requirements.
So, keep optimizing your product listings, lowering the ODR, and maintaining high inventory levels to win the Buy Box. Also, sign up for Amazon seller tools like Helium 10 or Jungle Scout to automatically monitor the Buy Box, get help with product listings, and stay updated on other aspects of your Amazon selling business.
