All You Need to Know About the Amazon Buy Box

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What is the Amazon Buy Box?

Amazon enables the public to sell items through their platform. Most of these products are items already on their database and are sometimes stocked by the big AMZ too. These individuals have the ability to sell new and used items, and price them as they see fit.

The Amazon Buy Box is the customer-facing product page presented when an item is in stock, and the user is able to buy directly from it by clicking ‘Add to Basket’. A product listing without a Buy Box often requires the potential customer to click to ‘See All Buying Options’, if it is in stock.

If there are multiple ‘offers' (other people selling the same product) the Buy Box listing will receive the most purchases. This is why it's so vital to achieve this. The more competitors you have, this more important it is to earn the Buy Box, and make a sale.

How Can I Make My Items Buy Box Eligible?

The main core factors that make a product Buy Box eligible are that the item is new and priced reasonably (fitting in relatively close to previous orders). This means that if you find that you’re the only person on a listing and decide to list it at double the RRP, Amazon may not give you the Buy Box. It’s also important to note that if an item is offered for sale via their Fulfilled by Amazon system, they will get preferential treatment over others.

Does Someone Always Have the Buy Box?

Sometimes, even when there are lots of products in stock, no one will have the Buy Box. This is often because all of the buying options are from merchant sellers. As stated previously, it could just be because Amazon feels that the price of even the cheapest product has been inflated. Amazon then force customers to consciously check through. It prevents impulse, spur-of-the-moment purchases, which are known to lead to returns.

What Happens If I Don't Get the Buy Box?

A single product could have 50 sellers. Each may have a slightly different price. The ones likely to sell first are the ones that are Prime-eligible and the ones priced the lowest. These will end up in the Buy Box first. If they don't, savvy shoppers will navigate to them first.

If you don't get the Buy Box, it may take significantly longer to sell your item. If you refuse to budge on price, you may have to wait months to turnover your stock. This is why Marketplace sellers are increasing moving over to FBA. Slow sellers can hurt growth.

How Do I Get the Buy Box More Often?

The listing that holds the Buy Box may change frequently, depending on how popular the item is, how many other sellers there are, current vs historic price, seasonality, and various other factors.

Various tests and trials have proven that an FBA seller increase the price of their item – compared to a Merchant-fulfilled seller – and retain the Buy Box, even if they increase their listing by 10-15%.

Much of it comes down to what you sell. Those that sell in highly competitive categories will find themselves tussling for the Buy Box more often than those that find quiet pockets of the website. Amazon is a department store, so there are so many places for people to make big money, if they just find a few profitable, under-tapped sub-categories or product ranges.

These are the main things to improve your likelihood of getting the Buy Box: