The Buy Box is the place all Amazon sellers want to be. When you win the Buy Box, you make more sales- it’s as simple as that.
But too many Amazon sellers make the mistake of thinking that to win the Buy Box, they have to lower the price of their listings. While this is one tactic, it’s not the only way to win the Buy Box.
In fact, if you’re constantly focused on lowering your price, you could end up getting involved in a race to the bottom. And that won’t help your bottom line.
So how can you win the Buy Box without lowering your price?
In this guide, we look at everything you need to know to win the Buy Box and make more sales without necessarily making your product the cheapest.
TL;DR
- Winning the Buy Box is an almost guaranteed way to boost your sales and bottom line.
- But lowering your price all the time can be a race to the bottom, and there are other ways to win the Buy Box.
- You could also focus on getting more positive reviews, improving customer response time, and improving fulfillment.
- Don’t forget to focus on maximizing sales when you already have the Buy Box.
What’s the Buy Box?
First of all, it’s important to know exactly what the Buy Box is.
When you shop for something on Amazon, you’ll land on the product listing page, where you’ll see two buttons: “Buy Now” and “Add to Cart.”
This is the product that has won the Buy Box. When you add that item to your cart, you’re ignoring the other identical items being sold by other sellers.
Amazon has essentially determined that this is the best item for your purposes for various reasons that we’ll look at later.
Usually, the shopper doesn’t even realize that there are other options. They just click on the item and buy it, and the other identical items from other sellers are ignored.
This is why winning the Buy Box is so important.
If you return to Amazon the next day and look for the same product, a different seller may have the Buy Box. In this case, if you click to buy the product, you will be buying it from someone else.
It’s rare for shoppers to explore other buying options. They’re far more likely to choose the path of least resistance, and there’s a lot less friction by simply adding the item to their cart.
Why Price Plays Such an Important Role
Amazon wants to be the marketplace where people can find products for the best prices. If people know they can find the lowest prices when they shop at Amazon, they’re more likely to return and do all their shopping there.
It has a Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy because it wants customers to find products at the best prices. It will therefore reward sellers who provide the best prices.
If the same product can be found somewhere else online for a better price, it’s less likely to promote your product.
As such, when you give your product a more competitive price, Amazon is more likely to reward it by giving it more prominence—especially in the Buy Box.
Let’s say you’re selling a product that’s identical to 10 other sellers. Like you, they all have good seller reputations. If they all have lower prices than your product, you’re less likely to win the Buy Box.
So, price is clearly important. In fact, it’s one of the most important factors for Amazon sellers to take into account.
But it’s not the only factor.
Why a Lower Price Isn’t Everything
Competitive pricing is essential if you want to be successful on Amazon. We’ve covered this already, and it’s clear that price-sensitive Amazon shoppers are going to prefer paying less for the same product, all else being equal.
This is a crucial factor in winning the Buy Box, but keep in mind that it’s not everything.
For example, if you keep on reducing the price to beat your competition, you’ll end up charging too little. And that’s not going to help your business.
If you’re making a loss after you take shipping, marketing, and other costs into account, that could put your bottom line under pressure.
On top of that, there are other factors that go into selling products.
Many shoppers will choose your product over the competition if they trust you. For example, if you have lots of positive reviews, you may get the sale over other listings with fewer reviews.
There are lots of factors that go into your success on Amazon, including your reputation, the quality of the product, shipping time, trust, and overall experience.
So don’t think that it’s all down to price alone.
Other Ways to Win the Buy Box
While price is an essential factor in the Amazon Buy Box Algorithm and will have an impact on how often you win the Buy Box, don’t think that it’s the only thing that matters.
Here are several of the other important factors that you must take into consideration when you’re trying to win the Buy Box. Take these factors into account, and even if you don’t lower your price, you could still have a chance of winning it.
Get More Positive Reviews
What really matters for Amazon is that its customers enjoy a positive experience. That way, they’ll be more likely to come back and buy more again in the future.
As such, your customer reviews matter.
When you first start selling on Amazon, you won’t have any reviews. But you want to change this as quickly as possible. So work on getting as many positive reviews as you can as soon as you can.
Reviews are a powerful form of social proof. They’re more convincing for customers compared to what you tell them yourself because they’re genuine reviews from real people.
Some will be positive, while some will highlight things that could be improved, and customers will trust them more.
Customer feedback is a crucial factor in winning the Buy Box. Even if you provide a lower price, you could end up missing out on the Buy Box to a competitor with better feedback.
This means they not only get the Buy Box more frequently, but they also make more from their sales.
If you can be the seller with the most positive reviews, this could be your win instead. As a result, you could maximize profits at the same time as winning the Buy Box more frequently without having to lower your price.
Of course, getting reviews is easier said than done, but there are several ways you can do so.
Sign Up with the Vine Program
With the Vine Program, you can send out up to 30 products free of charge and get reviews in return.
Bear in mind that they’re not obliged to give you a positive review. Instead, they’ll provide an honest review.
As long as you have a good product and provide a good experience, however, this can be a great way to get your first reviews in, which you can then build on.
Request Reviews
You should also make an effort to request a review from all the people who buy your product.
Amazon provides you with a simple way to do this, but you have to do it manually after every sale. Plus, you can only send one review request per sale.
Another very efficient option is to use a third-party software to automate the process, which can be a good option if you have lots of products or start making more sales.
Set Expectations with the Listing
You should also use your product listing to set expectations. Clarify all the essential information so customers know exactly what they’re getting and don’t expect something different.
Provide them with all the information they need, and they’re more likely to be satisfied when they receive the product.
Related: The Ultimate Guide to Amazon Listing Optimization
Provide a Great Experience
Besides that, the best way to get positive feedback is to provide a great experience to your customers.
If you respond quickly to problems, answer questions, solve issues, and are always polite and professional, you stand a much better chance of getting positive feedback.
Check Your Feedback Rating
It’s a good idea to keep a close eye on your Feedback Rating, and you can do this in Amazon Seller Central.
This is a culmination of your feedback over the last month, three months, and year. Check this regularly to determine whether you should be doing more to improve your feedback.
Customer Response Time
The speed that you react to customers’ inquiries is also important.
It’s all part of providing a better service to them, and that’s what Amazon likes. As a result, it’s more likely to reward you.
Your responses are monitored for the last week, 30 days, and three months. Always try to respond quickly and definitely within 24 hours. But aim to reply even quicker if you can.
This can be a factor that helps you win the Buy Box, and there’s a good chance it can have a positive impact.
Maintain Stock Levels
One thing that’s going to have a big impact on your Buy Box chances is running out of stock.
Experienced sellers know how to manage their stock levels. You should know how to handle the demand, and you do not want people to add products that are out of stock to their baskets.
For this, you need good inventory management to keep items in stock. This is even more important for items that sell quickly.
Don’t be caught out. Items that are out of stock can negatively impact your seller metrics and hurt your chances of increasing your Buy Box percentage.
This is even more important for seasonal items where demand will be high. If you have a good history of selling items without running out of stock, there’s more chance you’ll get prioritized over your competitors.
So practice good inventory management, and you could win the Buy Box without having to lower your prices.
By winning the Buy Box, there will be more demand for your product, and you’re unlikely to win it if you don’t have enough items in stock.
Improve Fulfillment
It’s the same for fulfillment. You stand a much better chance of winning the Buy Box if you use the FBA service and let Amazon take over dispatching items.
Its service is world-class, and while being enrolled in FBA won’t guarantee winning the Buy Box, it improves your chances.
If you’re not using FBA, your fulfillment must be top-notch. That means fast dispatch, quick shipping, and excellent customer satisfaction.
But remember that you’re unlikely to beat FBA sellers. The exception is if you’re enrolled in Seller-Fulfilled Prime (SFP), but you must have good metrics and an excellent record to enroll in this.
Make Sure You’re Eligible to Win the Buy Box
These are all ways that you can improve your chances of winning the Buy Box without having to lower the price. But remember that you need to be eligible in the first place.
That means you must meet the standards Amazon has set.
You need a Professional Seller account, and you cannot win the Buy Box with an Individual or Basic account.
You must also demonstrate high performance in responsiveness, dispatch speed, product condition, canceled orders, and more.
You can check whether you’re eligible for the Buy Box in Seller Central in the Inventory tab. You may find that you’re eligible for some products but not for others.
Work on improving your metrics and providing a great experience for customers to be Buy Box eligible.
Get an Advantage with Repricing
If you’re eligible to win the Buy Box, you want to do everything you can to do so. The factors explained above are important and allow you to win the Buy Box without always having to lower your price.
But the price is a big factor, even if you’re not always lowering it. That’s why repricing is so important.
Repricing involves changing the price of your product frequently, and sometimes many times every day, to react to your competitors’ own repricing.
Let’s say a competitor drops their price, and you don’t spot this. They win the Buy Box, and you miss out on sales.
But if you see their price change soon enough, you can drop your price to just below theirs. Now your product wins the Buy Box, and you may have only dropped the price by a few cents.
Obviously, checking prices all day isn’t a productive use of your time. Not all sellers use automated repricing software, but many do. A tool like Repricer will do all the work for you, tracking what your competitors are doing and reacting quickly to price changes.
You can set rules to determine the minimum and maximum price you’re willing to sell your product for. That way, you won’t go below your break-even price, so you can still make a profit.
There are lots of different tools you can use within your repricing software. For example, you can set your software to increase the price.
When your competitor runs out of stock, you may be able to win the Buy Box even with a higher price, so you can maximize profits.
Repricing software is considered essential by many sellers. You can set up the rules, change the rules when you need to, and let it take care of helping you get more sales, boost profit margins, and win the Buy Box more frequently.
Related: The Ultimate Guide to Repricing on Amazon
When Increasing Price Can Be Beneficial
One of the really useful tools that Repricer contains is the Buy Box Optimizer. This feature actually increases the price of your listing once you have won the Buy Box.
Let’s say you win the Buy Box, and you’re now in a great position. More customers are seeing your product and buying it.
This is a great position to be in. You’re going to get more sales, and you clearly want to maximize your profits during this time. As such, you could keep your product at a lower price. Or you could see how much you can increase it while maintaining your Buy Box status.
This tool automatically increases the price by making incremental increases, so see what you can essentially get away with.
You may find that you can increase the price to a point when you’re making a lot more profit on each sale while still maintaining your position as the Buy Box winner. It’s a win-win situation.
In the end, you may increase the price too much and lose the Buy Box. But now you have a better idea of what you can charge when you win the Buy Box for future reference.
So don’t just focus on maximizing your sales at a lower price. Consider using other techniques to maximize profits. At the end of the day, that’s what really matters.
Related: How to Increase Sales When You Win the Amazon Buy Box
Conclusion
Being competitive on Amazon is important if you want to make sales. Winning the Buy Box is the primary aim of many sellers because it puts them in a much better position to make more sales and boost profits.
But don’t always assume that you must lower your prices constantly to win the Buy Box. Yes, price is a crucial factor, but it’s not a race to the bottom. You don’t want to keep on lowering your price further until you go out of business.
There are many other factors involved in winning the Buy Box, not all of which are price related.
Make sure you’re eligible to win it in the first place and keep on improving your metrics. You may find that you can win the Buy Box even if your price is higher than one of your competitors.
Most importantly of all, use repricing software. It will reduce your workload significantly while ensuring you’re always optimizing your price to win and keep the Buy Box. It all happens in the background, so you can focus on other areas of your business.
Try Repricer today with a 14-day free trial and see what a difference it can make.
