Amazon Buy Box: The Internet’s $80 Billion Sales Button

by Darryl K. Taft

The Amazon Buy Box is the little orange or white button with the words “Add to Cart” on the right-hand side of every product page on Amazon. When clicking this button, you agree to buy an item from Amazon, and Amazon then decides which of its many third-party retailers to give that sale to.

Amazon really is out to help the customer every step of the way, therefore it gives the “Buy Box win,” essentially the sale, to the seller it believes offers the best balance of cheap prices and great performance. To do this, Amazon looks at many different factors to determine which seller will offer the customer the best possible value for money.

Although Amazon takes many things into account when deciding who wins the Buy Box, the four most important factors are fulfillment method, price, shipping time and seller rating. The faster your shipping time, higher your seller rating, better your fulfillment method and lower your price, the more likely you are to win that one coveted spot.

So what can you do to improve your chances of winning the Buy Box? There are a number of essential and easily controllable things online merchants can do today to increase their chances of winning the Buy Box over the upcoming holiday period. We’ll cover these in the next few slides.

One way to respect your customers is to focus on feedback. Any negative feedback can have a massive impact on your Buy Box. Contacting customers who have given you negative comments in the last 365 days and solving their issues will have a positive impact on your bottom line.

Another way to respect your customers is to ship on time. According to Amazon’s scoring system, a late delivery is nearly as bad as no delivery at all. If you promised to ship within two business days, set yourself a mental deadline of one to ensure there is no risk of you breaking your promise.

Yet another way to respect your customers is to respond quickly. Amazon doesn’t know what your customers are asking you, but it does know how long it takes you to reply. You need to reply to even small queries and comments within 6 to 12 hours for Amazon to know that you prioritize your customers and have their best interests at heart.

Lowering your price will usually help you win the Buy Box, but it will severely eat into your profit margins. Understanding your competitors for each and every product you sell and pricing your items to match your performance as a merchant is absolutely critical to both ensure sales and maintain a healthy profit margin. With prices on Amazon changing hundreds of times a day, many retailers are using repricing tools to help them do this automatically. If you choose to go this route, choose one that helps you balance your price and performance to win the Buy Box at a profit, instead of just lowering your price to make the sale.

The theory behind winning the greatest share of the Buy Box is simple. The goal is to always improve on one or more of your performance metrics without forfeiting performance in other areas. The best way to take advantage of the Buy Box is to work with it, not against it. By focusing on your seller performance and getting your pricing right, you are guaranteed more sales, a higher profit margin and, most importantly, very happy customers.