In the ecommerce arena, Amazon receives its fair share of attention from online shoppers across India. But, likewise, for many businesses, success in ecommerce means success on Amazon.

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Most of the time, growth and success on Amazon severely depend on the Amazon Buy Box— a white box on the right-hand side of the Amazon product detail page that enables customers to buy a product instantly.

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According to research, more than 82% of all sales convert because of the Buy Box. That's why Amazon sellers are obsessed with the Buy Box.

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However, the chances of winning the Buy Box in a crowded Amazon landscape are slim to none. Fortunately, becoming eligible for it can be easy with strategic planning and skilful implementation. So, if you want to win the Amazon Buy Box, you've come to the right place.

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In this blog, you'll learn what is an Amazon Buy Box, how it works, its eligibility, and how to win the Amazon Buy Box.

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What is an Amazon Buy Box?

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There are two types of sellers on Amazon— Amazon itself and third-party sellers.

For most items, there will be many buying options for the buyer. When a customer clicks on “Add to Cart”, the seller who has the Buy Box at that moment gets that sale.

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In simple terms, an Amazon Buy Box allows customers to make a quick purchase without considering who they are buying from—if it's Amazon or a third-party seller.

However, not all sellers are eligible to win the Buy Box. Due to cut-throat competition and Amazon's customer-centric approach, only businesses with excellent seller metrics stand a chance to win an Amazon Buy Box.

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You must be wondering why winning an Amazon Buy Box is so important.

Well, let's see what the stats say:

• Nearly 80% of all Amazon sales are through the Buy Box.
• Amazon's net revenue sales reached over $469 billion in 2021, with over $389 billion worth of sales coming through the Buy Box.

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In a nutshell, winning the Amazon Buy Box is guaranteed to boost your Amazon sales.

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Amazon Buy Box eligibility: Who can win the Buy Box?

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Amazon sellers are evaluated based on factors chosen by Amazon to deliver the best shopping experience for the customers.

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1. Performance metrics

To ensure customers have a great experience, Amazon came up with certain metrics for sellers. These performance metrics determine eligibility for winning the Buy Box. The better you perform, the higher your chances are of becoming eligible for the Buy Box. These metrics include:

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• Order Defect Rate

Order Defect Rate (ODR) represents the percentage of orders with one or more indicators of poor customer service during a given 60-day time period. Amazon requires sellers to maintain an order defect rate under 1%.

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• ‍Cancellation Rate

Cancellation Rate includes all order cancellations initiated by the seller or when an order is cancelled automatically by Amazon because the seller has not shipped and ship-confirmed the order.  Amazon sellers are recommended to keep the cancellation rate under 2%.

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• Late Shipment Rate

The Late Shipment Rate (LSR) includes all orders with a ship confirmation that is completed after the expected ship date. LSR is represented as a percentage of total orders over both, a 10-day or 30-day period. Amazon recommends that sellers maintain an LSR under 2%.

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• ‍Valid Tracking Rate

The Valid Tracking Rate (VTR) includes all shipments with a valid tracking number represented as a percentage of total shipments during a given 30-day time period. Amazon recommends that sellers maintain a VTR greater than 95%.

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• On-Time Delivery Rate

The On-Time Delivery Rate (OTDR) includes all shipments delivered by their estimated delivery date, representing a percentage of total tracked shipments. Amazon recommends that sellers maintain an OTDR greater than 97%.

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2. Quality of products

Amazon wants to ensure customers receive high-quality products. That's why Amazon determines the quality of the products sold to customers based on two metrics. These include:

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• Seller Controllable Return Rate

Seller controllable returns refer to orders that were returned or refunded by the customer due to product-related issues such as:

• Customer receiving a defective/damaged product
• Customer faced size and fitting issues
• Quality of the product is not as per customer's expectation
• Inaccurate and incomplete information is provided on the product detail page

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• Product Rating given by customers

Customer feedback and ratings are important to Amazon. That's why Amazon takes negative feedback and ratings as an indicator of low performance. Amazon sellers should try to determine the cause of the problem and work with the customer to improve their experience.

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3. Order volume

Low order volume doesn't qualify for Amazon Buy Box as it makes it hard to evaluate your performance. That's why it requires that sellers must have sufficient order volume to ensure that Amazon can accurately assess your performance.

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You can see how you are performing on the Account Health page.

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Note: An Amazon seller's eligibility to win the Buy Box changes over time based on the seller's performance against the eligibility criteria mentioned above as the criteria is subject to change.

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How to check if your product listings are eligible to win Amazon Buy Box?

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You can find out if any of your product listings are eligible to win Buy Bux in the following way:

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Step 1: In Seller Central, go to your Manage Inventory page and then click Preferences.

Step 2: Select Buy Box Eligible and click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

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Now, the Buy Box Eligible column will display the status for each of your product listings.

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How to win the Amazon Buy Box?

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1. Sell high-quality products on Amazon

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The quality of your products affects your chances of winning Buy Box. A genuine and high-quality product will help you delight your customers, reduce return requests, curb defects and enhance customer ratings.

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2. List your products accurately on Amazon

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As an Amazon seller, your product page is your storefront and to win Buy Box, you must create product pages accurately. You can start by creating a title and description with relevant keywords. Then add bullet points with product features and include multiple high-quality images. Lastly, categorise your products  and their conditions to avoid customer confusion. You can also follow Amazon's style guide to create great product pages.

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3. Offer competitive pricing on Amazon

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For Amazon, affordable prices are equal to happy customers. According to Amazon, you can automatically increase your chances of winning the Buy Box by listing your product within 5% of the current Buy Box price. However, selling products at a very low price affect your profit margins. So it's important to maintain a profitable balance between the two.

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4. Maintain superior fulfilment for your Amazon orders

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You must build reliable fulfilment and shipping procedures to maintain seamless Amazon fulfilment and win Buy Box.

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Ensure high order accuracy: Customers might leave negative feedback if they receive the wrong item. So it is important to deliver the right products in the right condition. For that, you must ensure order accuracy and secure packaging to prevent in-transit damage to orders.

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Ship and deliver orders on time: Amazon customers expect to receive their orders by the estimated delivery dates. For that, you need to ship on time and then confirm shipment to Amazon to avoid unnecessary cancelled orders. If you are not going to make the estimated delivery date, you must notify your customer straight away, even for issues outside of your control, i.e. a natural disaster or carrier issue.

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Eshopbox enables Amazon sellers to ensure efficient and affordable Amazon fulfilment. Eshopbox's streamlined pick and pack process, helps Amazon sellers to maintain high order accuracy with 99.75% accuracy rate. With Eshopbox's SLA- driven order processing, Amazon sellers can ship their orders on time, every time—without a miss.

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5. Notify customers

Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than not knowing the status of their order. That's why you should provide order tracking and send order updates throughout the fulfilment process–when order is confirmed, shipped, out for delivery and more. The right communication at the right time can help build trust between you and the customer.

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Eshopbox enables Amazon sellers to provide real-time order tracking, notify customers about the order status via email and SMS proactively.

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6. Provide excellent customer service

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Amazon always strives for high customer satisfaction level. For that, you can provide post-transaction support like refunds, returns, and exchanges on Amazon. 92% of customers say they will buy again from a brand if the returns process is easy. That's exactly what you need to focus on by offering hassle-free returns and exchanges, i.e. a positive return experience.

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Eshopbox helps Amazon sellers to offer hassle-free returns, refunds and exchanges to their customers while maintaining profitability. For instance, Eshopbox aligns the return pickup with an upcoming scheduled delivery in the same or nearby location to save on return shipping. Eshopbox also conducts quality checks to find out if there is any defect or damage in the returned product. Based on that, Eshopbox restocks the returned product in available inventory to make it resellable.

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Bottom line

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Winning the buy box determines the difference between making a sale and sitting on the sidelines while other Amazon sellers. There is no one trick to win the Amazon Buy Box, but rather a complex set of metrics that should be monitored and improved. You can easily win the Buy Box with a tech-enabled fulfilment partner like Eshopbox. You can also put your ecommerce business on hyper-growth with Eshopbox Plus, the first ecommerce acceleration platform. It will help you grow on ecommerce marketplaces, D2C, and other digital channels while taking care of the Amazon Prime badge and Buy Box as well as enabling you to become an Amazon premium seller.