Coaching Session 19 – Buy Box

Video Lessons

Practical Video

Lesson Notes

• How to Exploit Various Sales Strategies via Amazon thereby winning the Buy Box and also learn about building the perfect product catalogue?.
• Winning the Buy Box: Positioning the Product to stand out and grab all sales
• Understanding the Buy Box Rotations
• Sending the Products to Amazon FBA Warehouse
• Listing the Products in Amazon
• Monitoring Buy Box to Optimize Seller Pricing S
• How to Get the Buy Box on Amazon? – Secrets Sellers Should Know (ecomengine.com)

What is the Amazon Buy Box?

• Both the “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons are, technically speaking, the “Buy Box.”
• The Buy Box is also sometimes referred to as the “Featured Offer.”
• The buy box are the sellers who are displayed on a listing with the ‘add to basket’ next to their name.

Where is the Amazon Buy Box Located?

Two (2) Types of  Buy Boxes Displayed on a Listing

• Primary Buy Box, circled in red, which is displayed on the image above and is held by Amazon.
• Secondary Buy Boxes are also circled in red and are held by Bargain Warehouse, GiftlocalUK and FancyDressForAll.

Why Winning the Buy Box Is So Important?

Most customers can’t be bothered to scroll down and check the complete list of sellers on a listing. Instead, they just go with the buy box recommendations (especially as the buy box often tends to feature the lowest priced sellers) and make their purchases.

Becoming Buy Box Eligible

Before you can ever get your first Buy Box, you must become Buy Box eligible. New offers from FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) sellers are automatically eligible for the Buy Box.

Sellers who are not FBA must meet three specific eligibility criteria:

• have a professional selling account
• maintain excellent metrics
• have “sufficient” order volume

Who Qualifies for the Amazon Buy Box?

Amazon has an algorithm to determine which seller of a particular product gets represented in the buy box. A handful of sellers with exceptional reputations and outstanding customer reviews stand a chance.

How to Win an Amazon Buy Box?

1. Set Prices Competitively

• • Sellers must have outstanding performance metrics and reviews
  • Your price points should be in-line with competitors’
  • If your other performance metrics are low, you’ll need to reduce prices to compete for the Buy Box.
  • Only trustworthy merchants who consistently provide positive customer experiences and offer low prices get the Buy Box. Set prices competitively

2. Ship as Quickly as possible

Late shipment rate is the number of orders shipped later than the expected ship date. A late shipment rate below 4% will aid your chances of winning a share of the Buy Box.

3. Offer Tracking Information

Valid Tracking Rate is a recently introduced metric for all merchants. This represents the percentage of your deliveries offering full tracking information. Shipping software tools like ShipWorks or ShipStation can help with this

4. Put Customer Happiness First

To reduce returns and negative reviews, make sure your product listings are accurate

5. Respond to Queries Quickly

If you take too long to reply to queries, your customers and Amazon won’t be impressed. Responding within 12 hours is brilliant. But any longer than 24 hours violates Amazon policy.

6. Stay Stocked Up

Recently, back-ordered items have begun to feature in the Amazon Buy Box. But having products consistently and currently in stock is looked upon more favourably by the Amazon Buy Box algorithm.

7. Request Reviews

The Amazon Buy Box algorithm not only takes positive and negative reviews into account, but it also looks at the number of reviews received. Follow up with customers to request reviews, using a feedback tool to automate the process.

8. Keep an Eye on your Account Metrics

Amazon Seller Central provides a wealth of knowledge on your performance across all areas. Frequently check in on your metrics to identify and address issues as soon as possible.

9. Be Careful with New Metrics

Amazon recently introduced two new metrics to improve their data around customer experience.

• Return Dissatisfaction Rate
• Customer Service Dissatisfaction Rate

10. Feedback Rating

Feedback rating is the culmination of all feedback scores the seller has received over the last 30 days, 90 days and 365 days, with the most recent feedback having the greatest impact.

Factors Influencing You Winning the Buy Box

The exact algorithm that is used to determine who wins the buy box is a closely guarded secret by Amazon so as to avoid seller exploitation. However, known factors that you as the seller can influence to win the buy box include:

• The Price of your Product – You need to be vigilant and monitor the marketplace for any price changes and then adjust your prices accordingly.

Try and ensure that your price is always less than or equal to the buy box price which seller central kindly displays for you in the pricing menu per the image above;

• Your Fulfilment Method – Are you FBA or Merchant Fulfilled – Amazon tends to favour FBA sellers over merchant fulfilled sellers selling at the same price;
• Your Seller Feedback Rating Score – Amazon is all about putting the customer first. The more customers buy on Amazon, the more money Amazon makes.

Amazon Buy Box Myths

• Amazon doesn’t share the Buy Box – Although Amazon often wins the Buy Box on listings that it sells on, third-party sellers can win a share of it.
• The lowest price always wins the Amazon Buy Box – Price is a major factor in the Buy Box algorithm but not the only one, e.g. fulfillment method.
• You can keep the Buy Box to yourself – No one is guaranteed exclusive access to Amazon’s Buy Box. Other merchants can appear at any time.
• You need to turn Buy Box eligibility on – Amazon decides if you’re eligible for the Buy Box, not you. 

 

KEEPING THE BUY BOX

• Provide Excellent Customer Service – you need to consistently show Amazon that you are up to the task of keeping shoppers happy.
• Develop a Buy Box Pricing Strategy – you must be prepared to reprice products based on other offers and Amazon’s pricing recommendations.
• Maintain Amazon Account Health – Amazon metrics such as Order Defect Rate, Cancellation Rate and Late Shipment Rate play a role in determining who is winning the Buy Box. These numbers tell Amazon how well you are meeting buyer expectations. Keep your account healthy and in good standing.

Portfolio

1. How to Win an Amazon Buy Box?
2. What are the Factors Influencing in Winning the Buy Box?
3. How to Keep the Buy Box?
4. What is an Amazon Buy Box?

Email Subject: C19 -Batch #

 

Note: You can start watching the lessons in advance, but the submission of portfolios can only be done after joining the LIVE sessions/Orientation and during your scheduled batch only.

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