The Mystery of the Amazon Buy Box — What You Need To Know
When I was new to selling on Amazon, I kept hearing that you need to get the Buy Box. Now I had been buying on Amazon for years and even had Amazon Prime, but I was not familiar with this mysterious thing called the Buy Box. Well, the Amazon Buy Box is the in the top right corner of an Amazon product page. This is where you can easily buy something now or add something to your cart.
As an Amazon FBA seller, you need to know all about the buy box including how you can get this coveted position. “6 Things You Need To Know About The Amazon Buy Box” by Stephen Smotherman states the following:
- 70–80% of Amazon sales come from the buy box.
- The buy box rotates
- Having the lowest price does not guarantee the buy box
- The buy box is geographic
- The buy box is for items in new condition only
- Sometimes Amazon as a seller shares the buy box with third party sellers, buy usually not
So, it makes sense that the Amazon buy box would rotate among the sellers. If everyone is selling at about the same price and the seller metrics are about the same, then this is fair. It also makes sense that the buy box would be geographic. If I live on the East Coast and you live on the West Coast, the person in the buy box should be the person who has the product in the warehouse closest to me especially if they have prime. Is it much easier to ship something to me to arrive in 2 days that is in a warehouse on the same coast where I live as opposed to the other side of the country.
I learned about #6 the hard way on several occasions. I had a product that I purchased and sent FBA that later Amazon got on the listing. Amazon was not sharing the buy box. I even lowered my price, but Amazon still would not share the buy box. I eventually created a removal order and decided to sell the product on another platform.
I also had another case where Amazon came onto the listing and their price was so low that I could not compete with them without losing money. Fortunately, this was a good product and when Amazon sold out, all of us third party sellers were able to sell our product.
I know a lot of people will say they have no problem competing with Amazon, but I have had a different experience. I would not intentionally get on a listing with Amazon except under one circumstance. I will analyze the Keepa chart first before deciding whether to buy an item. The Keepa chart displays sales price and sales rank history. The good thing is that Keepa is free but there is training available on this valuable tool. If Amazon is going in and out of stock on a regular basis, then I might entertain the thought of buying the product.
Now that the mystery of the Amazon Buy box has been uncovered, the next question is how do I know how often I get the buy box? There is a report in Amazon called the Detail Page Sales and Traffic By Date that shows you the number of sessions, page views as well as your buy box percentage for every product. To find this report, go to your Main Dashboard and select Reports then Business Reports.
Understanding how the Amazon buy box works and all its intricacies is essential to becoming a successful Amazon FBA seller.
Adrienne Dupree sells on both Amazon and eBay. She also teaches people how to start an Amazon FBA Business. You can find out more about her at How To Get Started With FBA.
Originally published at howtogetstartedwithfba.com on February 20, 2018.
