Why is the Buy Box so Important?
Simply put, the Buy Box is the point-of-sale on Amazon. There is no limit to the number of legitimate sellers for any particular item but only a single seller will own the Buy Box at any one time. Sellers will also compete with Amazon for the same Buy Box so having a strategy to control competition, pricing and availability is imperative. You can create the best detail page content and build the most relevant marketing strategy but you will under-perform on revenue if you do not own the Buy Box. To understand how important is it to delivering revenue, consider this:

More than 80% of purchases are made via the Buy Box with purchases via mobile devices even higher.

Amazon apply an algorithm to ascertain which seller has the Buy Box at any one time. Understanding which hygiene and performance variables impact Buy Box ownership will enable a seller to increase the chances of being the one to secure the shopper order.

Buy Box has Broader Implications
Amazon Advertising and Marketing – if you do not own the Buy Box for a particular product your marketing efforts will be in vain or worse still drive sales for competitors. Amazon will automatically pause Sponsored Products campaigns for ASINs that are not in Buy Box, however this is not necessarily the case for Sponsored Brands, Amazon DSP (Demand Side Platform) or for wider marketing initiatives.

Product Detail Pages – you can invest time and resource to create the most compelling content to convert shoppers but the Detail Page is essentially a shared digital shelf. If a competitor seller has the product to sell they can simply append the Detail Page ASIN and compete for the sale.

The rise of mobile – Amazon configures mobile optimised Detail Pages which places even more importance on the Buy Box. Just over 84% of shoppers browse and purchase via mobile devices and at increased frequencies vs desktop. Unlike desktop that has ‘Other Sellers on Amazon’ displayed in the Buy Box, for shoppers browsing on mobile devices only the Buy Box winner is displayed.

Acorn-i Buy Box Score
The decision to create a metric to better understand Buy Box health was driven by our overriding desire to deliver better results for clients. Tracking only a yes/no current status of owning the Buy Box isn’t sophisticated enough to inform optimal actions, particularly as the Buy Box can rotate between sellers during a day. We have developed a proprietary algorithm to ascertain a Buy Box Score per product for your selected date range enabling clients to:

Improve returns on marketing spend by ensuring budget is not wasted on low scoring products,

Easily identify which product to focus on to improve key Buy Box metric health, therefore increasing your share of sales,

Quickly identify products with high Buy Box Scores that are not being advertised or are receiving insufficient share of ad spend,

Identify high revenue generating products that could drive strong incremental sales via an improved Buy Box Score,

Establish Buy Box ownership benchmarks to optimise Amazon Seller Central listings strategies to drive success at scale.

Below: image from Ignite client reporting user-interface.

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Key Metrics and Actions to Take to Improve Performance
We have identified up to thirteen metrics that will impact which Seller owns the Amazon Buy Box. Addressing these will increase overall Buy Box Score and in turn generate more sales. The leading metrics making the greatest impact are:

Fulfilment – shoppers love Amazon as they can receive products to their door and quickly. Amazon will prioritise Sellers that can deliver quickly and consistently. Using Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) or Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) are surefire ways to be regarded as a safe supplier by Amazon.

Delivered Price – Jeff Bezo’s said ‘it’s impossible to imagine a future where customers ask for higher prices’. A fundamental of Amazon’s customer obsession principle is lowest price and this is true of the Buy Box should all other metrics be equal.

Shipping – the time it takes to ship an item to a consumer will impact Buy Box ownership. If you are selling a competitive item, shoppers will often choose the option that will result in them receiving the item sooner. Ideally, shipping settings will be to ship within two days.

Order Defect Rate (ODR) – Amazon provides ongoing status as to a Sellers’ ODR. If a Seller receives negative feedback, high Chargeback Rate, A-to-Z Claims this will impact overall Seller health resulting in Amazon’s algorithm deeming you a less reliable option.

Your Acorn-i Buy Box Score will enable you to identify where to focus attention and what actions to take resulting in more sales.

To find out what Buy Box Score your products currently have, and how to increase sales, connect with the team here at Acorn-i.