Amazon Buy Box: What It Is and How to Win It in 2023

Amazon has developed a number of features over the years for shoppers and sellers to use on their platform, and the Buy Box is one of them. 

The ecommerce giant pulled in more than 500 billion in net revenue last year, so it’s no doubt that the Buy Box is something that is used by online shoppers to drive more sales for Amazon FBA businesses big and small. While there is no official statistic on how many sales actually are generated from the Buy Box specifically, many professionals and businesses in the space say that it is currently above 75%. Which means that the Buy Box is a big deal.

All of this to say that as a professional seller on the platform, winning the Amazon Buy Box whenever you can will lead to a phenomenal boost in your product sales, profits, and even your brand recognition.

So, what exactly is the Amazon Buy Box and how can you win it in 2023? Keep reading to find out how to best optimize your Amazon FBA business to secure this coveted space. 

Table of Contents:

What Is the Amazon Buy Box?

Why the Buy Box Is Important for Your Business

Checking Your Amazon Buy Box Eligibility

5 Steps to Winning the Buy Box on Amazon

How to Optimize Product Listings When You Don’t Get the Buy Box

What is the Amazon Buy Box?

If you’ve ever shopped on Amazon, you’ve clicked on the Buy Box to purchase an item. The Amazon Buy Box is the stack of bright yellow and orange buttons on the right side of the product listing that’s labeled “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now.”

These two buy buttons directly link to an individual seller’s product listing on Amazon, where a customer can add the item to their shopping cart. This significantly increases how your product stands out and performs in the Amazon Marketplace. 

As a result, the Buy Box is a sought-after tool on Amazon with a lot of competition from sellers, since it leads to being a one-stop-shop for new customers.

For you Amazon veterans out there, you might remember that there was a tool known as “Featured Merchant.” In 2018, Amazon updated Featured Merchant Status to the Buy Box. And in 2023, Amazon officially refers to the Buy Box as a “Featured Offer.” 

Why the Buy Box Is Important for Your Business

As we previously mentioned, it is estimated that the amount of Amazon sales that are funneled through the Buy Box/Featured Offer is over 75%. That means that a majority of online shoppers will select products directly from the Amazon Buy Box, rather than spending some extra time shopping around for other possibilities. The Buy Box basically streamlines the buying process, securing the deal for Amazon as well as the business that won the Buy Box for that specific product.

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This is particularly true for mobile shoppers on Amazon. When a mobile shopper clicks on a product that they like, the only way to get past the Buy Box option is to scroll much further down to the “Other sellers on Amazon'' option. This makes winning the Buy Box even more favorable. And it’s worth noting that according to the latest Amazon statistics, there are over 126 million unique mobile users in the United States that visit Amazon stores every month – approximately triple that of desktop users. 

So keeping this in mind, winning the Buy Box on Amazon will really give you a (massive) uptick in sales. Not to mention that your conversion rates will be through the roof.

Furthermore, if Amazon chooses your business’s product for the Buy Box, this will build trust in your brand as an authority in the space. Getting the Buy Box show’s that you are efficient with shipping times, product quality, not to mention amazing customer service. 

While things are constantly evolving with this game-changing feature on Amazon, we’ll break down everything from checking your Buy Box eligibility, as well as 5 essential tips for making sure your FBA business is set up to get the Amazon Buy Box.

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Checking Your Amazon Buy Box Eligibility

First things first. If you want a shot at winning the Buy Box, you have to check your eligibility for it. 

It’s worth noting right off the bat that only sellers with a Professional Seller account can get a shot at winning the Amazon Buy Box in 2023. 

When it comes to Buy Box eligibility, a merchant’s product quality is becoming increasingly important for Amazon. Sellers must have a low ODR (order defect rate), which is a metric used by Amazon to measure the percentage of orders returned by your customers due to a product being defective over a 60-day period.

Next, you can check if any of your individual product listings have been listed as the Featured Offer (meaning, they won the Buy Box!). To do this, just go to your account in Amazon Seller Central and do the following:

• Once logged into your Seller Central account, head to the Manage Inventory page
• Click Preferences
• Select the option “Buy Boy Eligible”
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.
• Sellers can see their status of every product listing (ASIN) in the Buy Box Eligible column.

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5 Steps to Winning the Buy Box on Amazon

Amazon’s Seller Central page lists a few factors that help its algorithm decide which product listing to put as the Featured Offer. According to their website, this is “based on account performance and other risk factors.” The main factors are the top 5 reasons listed below, so apply these tips and you’ll be on your way to winning that Buy Box. 

1. Deliver on efficient shipping

When it comes to efficient shipping for your business, do you deliver? With Prime-level shipping times being the name of the game and the standard, offering your customers fast and efficient shipping is one of the best ways to win the Amazon Buy Box. Sellers should note that good shipping isn’t necessarily about speed. As long as the shipping time frame is respected, sellers will get good ratings and be an optimal seller for the Amazon Marketplace, because these metrics are a big factor in the Buy Box algorithm.

2. Maintain good inventory levels

‍Do you have your Amazon inventory management optimized? This Buy Box tip is also connected to your shipping performance. Having items in stock and ready to go in the warehouse is one of the best ways to make sure you offer accurate shipping times to your customers, not to mention a part in winning the Amazon Buy Box. 

While we know that keeping the right amount of stock can be a challenge, it’s important to manage your inventory so that your customers never click to buy an item that ends up being out of stock.

3. Offer competitive pricing

‍Offering the lowest price on a product compared to your competition is not a surefire way to win the Buy Box on Amazon. But it’s important to stay relevant, which means making sure your products are listed at a competitive price. This means measuring the competition and knowing the value of what you’re selling. You can either use a pricing software or set your product prices manually, depending on how big the category. 

Whatever pricing method you use, it’s important to draw customers to your listing with prices that are appropriate and up-to-date if you want to win the Buy Box on Amazon.

4. Great overall customer service

In the world of ecommerce, the term “great customer service” is constantly evolving. Despite this, the factors around amazing customer service remain pretty straightforward and all of them are key in winning the Amazon Buy Box. Here’s a breakdown:

• Have a very low ODR (less than 1% is the goal)
• Get positive product reviews
• Maintain appropriate shipping times
• Maintain a good Seller Rating

Your Personal Seller Rating on Amazon is built with a few different factors in mind if you want to win the Buy Box: customer feedback, good recent customer reviews, customer response time, order cancellations, and more. In general, good service from start to finish is the best way to get those positive Seller Ratings.

5. Keep your Amazon store optimized

Images, video, SEO, and other important aspects of a successful Amazon store are all important things to keep on top of when managing your product listings that you want a shot at winning the Buy Box. Keeping your Amazon shop optimized (make sure to check and see if you need to make any updates every month or so) will show Amazon that you deserve a shot at the Buy Box. 

As you can see, it’s still pretty basic: offer a good price to your customers, ship it in the timeline promised, respond to (and try to solve) any customer complaints, deliver products that are good quality. The more consistent you are with all of these factors will put your business in line to succeed on Amazon and win that Buy Box. 

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Amazon Buy Box Algorithm: The Inside Scoop

When talking about your potential Buy Box wins, it’s also crucial to note that Amazon’s algorithm is constantly changing. It’s no surprise that there’s a lot of moving parts involved in estimating whether a seller’s product will win that Buy Box. 

Each product listing is individually considered for the Buy Box, so you can always beat your competition with one particular product. Just make sure all of your products are optimized to win the Buy Box if they are eligible.

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How to Optimize When You Don’t Win the Buy Box

Our recommendation to you is to keep optimizing your Amazon store to make sure your overall customer experience is exceptional. 

It’s important to remember that the seller who wins the Buy Box does change regularly, so maintaining your store over time gives you a competitive advantage.

The Amazon Buy Box isn’t a magic fix to getting a huge number of new sales, but it is a critical feature that can help grow the success of your store over time.

And, don’t forget that it can’t hurt to reach out to check your status with the Amazon Buy Box. If you’ve already checked to see if your product listing is eligible for the Buy Box and you think everything is in place for your product to qualify for it, then reach out to Amazon and see what’s up. 

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Final Thoughts

Whether you win the Buy Box or not, there’s still plenty of ways for you to succeed as an Amazon FBA seller to grow your business and build your brand. Want to discover what our experts at Mayan can do to help? 

Mayan is the only PPC optimization platform in the space that’s built by MIT data scientists. Our technology was created keeping the seller’s business objectives in mind, so that it can work with your unique needs. From expert ad optimization to inventory management, we got you. Reach out to us at Mayan and schedule a demo today, and let’s chat!

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