Amazon

Sell on Amazon: How to Win the Buy Box

By Tinuiti Team

Jan 15 2015

$56 billion of Amazon’s $62 billion sales happen through Amazon’s buy box.

How often are you winning the Buy Box?

What’s the Buy Box?– This is the CTA which leads shoppers to purchase the item on the product page. The seller Amazon determines is the best fit for the product page is noted as the seller and items added with the main ‘add to cart’ button are purchased through this seller. ‘Winning the buy box’ or being the merchant Amazon features for the product page is a major advantage for sellers on Amazon.

Free Guidebook: How to increase your buy box ownership & drive more orders on Amazon.

Ultimate Amazon Buy Box Recipe

So what is the true recipe for Buy Box success, and how can Amazon sellers achieve the maximum share of the Buy Box for their products- on a per-product and holistic level?

Winning the Buy Box is not a battle with an end. You aren’t going to work hard, win the Buy Box and be able to relax- it’s not a race.

Winning the Buy Box is an ongoing process where sellers earn a share of the Buy Box, or rent the Buy Box for a period of time.

The elements which influence how long and how often you rent the Boy Box are the variables you can change and optimize to increase your Buy Box sessions and sales.

Recipe for Amazon Buy Box Success

Everybody loves cookies, but not every cookie recipe is the same. What ingredients you use to bake your cookies can depend on what you have in your kitchen, diet restrictions, and your baking budget. Buy Box ownership is the same.

Below are the ingredients which influence Buy Box ownership, which you can leverage to influence winning the Buy Box for your products.

Buy Box Ingredients

Recipe increase share of Buy Box ownership.

Fulfillment Method– 3 cups
Landed Price – 2 cups
Seller Rating– 2 cups
Shipping Time– 2 cups
Feedback Score– ½ cup
Order Defect Rate– ½ cup
Late Shipment Rate– ½ cup
On-Time Delivery– ½ cup
Customer Response Time– ½ cup
Tracked Delivery Rate – ½ cup
Feedback Count– 1 tbs
Refund Rate – 1 tbs
Inventory Depth– 1 tbs
Cancellation Rate– 1 tbs

Buy Box Recipe Directions:

1. Combine Fulfillment method and landed price in a large mixing bowl.
2. Add Seller Rating and shipping time- stir.
3. Stir in order defect rate, feedback score, on-time delivery, late shipment rate, tracked delivery rate, customer response time, feedback count, inventory depth, cancellation rate, and refund rate to taste.
4. Submit to Amazon’s Buy Box Algorithm.

*Note: Cups/tbs are not actual measurement for Buy Box influencing variables. This is a measurement to help you frame how important each Buy Box element is- larger amounts equating more important variables, smaller amounts correlating with less significant Buy Box influencers.

Buy Box Basic Ingredients

You’ll need all of the above ingredients to be eligible for Amazon’s Buy Box. When making cookies you need flour.

You can substitute white flour for a whole wheat version (or other substitute), but you can’t make cookies without their basic ingredients.

Buy Box Eligibility

Amazon sellers need to maintain the bare minimum for all of the Buy Box influencers, but should keep in mind how much each element impacts the overall calculation.

Below are the bare minimum requirements for Amazon Buy Box factors:

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Buy Box Substitutions

When baking you need to carefully consider the quality of your ingredients. Better quality ingredients will result in better tasting cookies. However, the impact of certain ingredients affects the recipe and taste more than others.

If you use a substitute for butter, or if you use a little too much baking soda in your recipe- you’ll taste the change in the cookies. But if you decide to use off-brand chocolate chips, the impact on the taste of your cookies is affected less.

Winning the Buy Box is heavily impacted by Fulfillment method, Landed Price, Seller Rating and Shipping time. If you are lacking in these Buy Box influencing factors, the quality of your recipe decreases, along with the percentage of Buy Box Share.

Here is a breakdown of Buy Box Ingredients by importance:

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Less heavily weighted Buy Box factors such as On-Time Delivery impact Buy Box ownership, and you need those elements in your recipe- but they are less influential than those major variables. And low impacting variables such as cancellation rate are even less substantive variables than On-Time delivery and median ingredient impact.

Ingredients in Buy Box Ingredients

Fun fact- flour is made of finely ground wheat. As an ingredient for cookies, flour is flour- but what wheat that flour is made of is important. Buy Box ingredients affect the share of the Buy Box you are likely to win, and the factors which influence those ingredients affect your Buy Box share as well.’

For example, Order Defect Rate is comprised of a sellers Negative Feedback rating, Chargeback Rate, and A-to-Z Claim Rate. Most of the variables which influence Buy Box share are aggregates of other elements, or influenced by outside variables.

Consider the following elements which impact each Buy Box variable, and how you can modify your share of the Buy Box by optimizing elements which impact Buy Box variables:

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How Can I Increase My Share of the Buy Box?

All of the components which impact an Amazon sellers share of the Buy Box should be elements of your Amazon strategy. Each of those variables should meet Amazon’s minimum requirements, at the very least (to be eligible for the Buy Box).

Optimally, Buy Box influencers would meet the following standards:

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Unless you are Amazon, the likelihood of hitting all of the above factors isn’t tangible. However, you’ll want to prioritize your existing account variables based on this scale to determine which factors are worth your time to focus on and optimize.