Who doesn’t want to win the Buy BoxThis refers to the situation where a sel... More?
Keep reading to find out if you have what it takes.
Winning the Amazon Buy Box
According to Amazon’s guidelines, it shouldn’t be that hard:
- You have to be a pro merchant.
- You must maintain good ODR and seller performanceA measure of how well Amazon sellers are... More.
- You must ensure the speed of delivery, offer great 24/7 customer support and good shipping options.
- You must provide a competitive price.
- FBA sellers are more likely to be given the Buy Box ahead of the rest.
Sound like a piece of cake? Wrong, think again!
Things Get Complicated
As we take a closer look at the reality of winning the Buy Box on Amazon, things start to get more complicated.
Our research has shown that time and experience as a seller on the Amazon marketplace is a big plus, no matter if you’re aiming at the Buy Box for used or for new items.
Maintaining a low ODR high performance rankings involves a great deal of work, especially during the busier times of year. It requires thinking ahead and making the right call at the right time, to predict and prevent any hiccups in your business that might affect your customers’ experiences.
Good seller performance is built on solid listings, with everything they involve – keeping stock availability up-to-date and ensuring accurate item descriptions. Plus you must be able to answer customer questions, emails from Amazon and A-to-z claims, all without missing a beat.
This all becomes easier with experience and a solid foundation for your business.
Next, let’s consider delivery speed and shipping options. You must have reliable fulfillment and shipping procedures for your products. Of course, if you choose to use FBA, this becomes much easier.
When it comes to customer support, you must put the buyer first 100% of the time. That’s what Amazon does and that’s what they demand of you. Your customers’ satisfaction should be your top priority.
The Trickiest Part
And now we’re at the hardest part of the equation: pricing your items. Repricing your items manually can be like walking through a minefield: stressful, dangerous and likely to end poorly.
If you’re not using repricing software, like Sellery, to automate the process, you’re going to find the process daunting.
First, you’ll need to decide which items you want to compete for the Buy Box on.
Our advice is to pick the most popular items in your inventory, those with high chances of selling quickly, and for which you have a profit good margin to work with.
Once you’ve made your decisions, make sure you know the price of the offer that currently has the Buy Box.
One of the most common mistakes we see sellers make is not considering total price plus shipping, so pay attention to what you’re competing against. For non-media listings, most sellers can set customized shipping costs, which can lead to great discrepancies from one seller’s to another seller’s Total Price+Shipping.
Next, review your competitors’ performance and shipping options as well. If you believe you have a better performance rating, etc., consider starting by matching or slightly undercut your competitor’s price.
Of course, make sure that you have room in your margin so that you don’t lose money (this is when Sellery with it’s dynamic minimum price really shines). You’ll hopefully win the Buy Box or at least to get in the “other sellers on Amazon” box, which shows offers from merchants that are very close to the merchant that is currently winning the Buy Box. If you’re in this box, you know that you might be able to get into the Buy Box with a few more adjustments.
The Truth of the Matter
While you can definitely win the Buy Box by repricing manually, the bad news is that making manual adjustments can take a lot of your time. Ideally, you would adjust your price every time the competition makes a change, and you’d try to avoid competitors who are using repricing software, since they’d have a huge edge on you.
Even worse, the more time you spend repricing manually, the less time you have left to focus on customer service, shipping and listing, the other factors that go into determining who wins the Buy Box.
