The Buy Box
Colin from the Repricer team here!
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing with you some tips & tricks to help you make the most of your new Repricer account.
Repricer is full of useful features and tools which you can use to help improve your repricing which you may not have had a chance to look at yet.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll give you a good overview of what Repricer has to offer you and your business. With all that said, this week we’re going to be starting with the Buy Box!
Let's Start Simple!
Yes, the Buy Box is important but just the scale of how important is staggering! With a full 83% of Amazon sales coming from sellers in the Buy Box I can give you 445 billion (dollar!) reasons why you want your products in it.
When it comes to securing the Buy Box, other than being price competitive, there are a number of factors you really need to be on top of. We’ll just give a quick overview of them below. If you’re already a Buy Box expert, feel free to jump ahead to where Repricer can help you with your Buy Box ambitions!
Fulfilment Method
Other than price the main thing which impacts you securing any of the Buy Box is your fulfilment method. A detailed investigation has shown, not surprisingly, that Amazon greatly prefers to award the Buy Box to Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) sellers. Next in line, we have sellers who ship through Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) and only then are sellers who ship themselves are considered (MFN).
Amazon regularly has multiple sellers with the Buy Box for a single product and one of the most common splits is a Prime & Non-Prime Buy Box. This does mean that there is often an FBA / SFP seller in the Prime Buy Box and an MFN seller in the non-prime Buy Box. Even so, with 150 million Prime subscribers in the US alone, you’re looking at a shrinking slice of the pie when targeting the non-Prime Buy Box.
Feedback, Feedback, Feedback, did I mention Feedback?
Next on our list is Feedback. Amazon weighs your recent feedback and overall rating very heavily when considering if you are even eligible for the Buy Box. To be blunt, if you don’t have at least 95% feedback the chances of you getting the Buy Box are extremely low, no matter how good your other metrics are.
Ensuring you’re doing everything you can to keep a great feedback score is vital when you want to be in the running for the Buy Box. We actually offer another service which can help with that, though that’s not the purpose of this email!
Some other things to consider
Let’s consider a few other Buy Box factors in this quick-fire round. These metrics impact you securing the Buy Box but not to the same degree as the other metrics covered above.
First up, Shipment and Fulfillment times. Amazon wants you to ship your product fast and deliver it just as fast. It’s no good to sit on your product and ship it in a week’s time or get it shipped the same day if it’ll take a week to arrive. Ship your product promptly and via a quick delivery service to increase your chances of getting the Buy Box are not harmed.
Next, we have two birds of a feather, refund and cancellation rates. It’s not enough to just avoid cancelling too many orders, you also need to ensure that you aren’t refunding too many orders whenever you don’t outright cancel them either. There will always be times when refunds and cancellations are needed, but do your best to keep them to a minimum.
Something Amazon is keen to ensure is a reputation for exceptional customer service which means that message response time is vitally important. If your poor response rate is hurting their reputation then you’ll quickly find yourself on Amazon’s naughty list and not getting the Buy Box. Ensure you don’t leave your buyers hanging and never leave messages unanswered.
Let’s finish up our quick-fire section with a less discussed factor. Stock quantity. Amazon likes to ensure that anyone who gets the Buy Box, particularly on high-velocity products is able to handle the orders so ensuring you have good stock availability is a must. You’ll find your chances of getting the Buy Box low on everything but niche products if you have only a few of your products available at any one time.
Price - The elephant in the room
Alright, let’s talk about that $$$ shaped elephant sitting in the corner. Price is the overriding factor which overcomes all when it comes to the Buy Box. Everything we have discussed above is great for helping you get the Buy Box but pales in comparison to being competitive.
If you’re struggling with other factors you can make up for it by being extra competitive on price, while in the inverse, if you are doing amazing everywhere else you can afford to be a little less price competitive or even price above your competition and still get the Buy Box!
This is where Repricer comes in, by letting you control your own strategies you can tailor these to what works best for you and your current situation. So, let’s take a look at a few features we offer which can help you boss the Buy Box.
Bossing the Buy Box with Repricer
Now that we’ve discussed what helps get you the Buy Box let’s get into the meat and potatoes of the matter. How can Repricer help you out with this? We have built a wide suite of features which not only aim to help you secure the Buy Box but also put you in the driver’s seat when you have it and maximize your profits throughout.
Price like you want to win!
Back to basics, let’s consider how best to compete. With Repricer you can beat, match or price above your competitors. As discussed above, if you’re doing well with other Buy Box factors you can consider pricing above your competitors, while if you’re not doing so hot ensure you are beating your competitors by a good margin. We’d recommend testing out different price points to see what secures you the most Buy Boxes. Within Repricer, on your Dashboard, our Insights allow you to keep track of how many Buy Boxes you hold each day.
Buy Box Chaser (Plus Plan Feature)
Alright, so you want to secure the Buy Box in as many scenarios as you can and don’t mind too much about fine-tuning your strategies to determine how you get there? I get you, and that’s why we have the Buy Box chaser. This Repricer Plus Plan feature has been specially designed to secure the Buy Box in as many scenarios as possible. Simply activate the Chaser within your Repricing Rules.
Using our advanced algorithms we’ll reduce your price into the best position to secure the Buy Box from your competitors. Once you have secured the Buy Box our ‘If Buy Box Winner’ settings will kick in allowing you to maximize your profits while you have it.
Learn a bit more in this Knowledge base article or simply watch our video on it here:
Speaking of If Buy Box Winner settings…
Buy Box Optimizer (& other If Buy Box Winner scenario settings)
So you’ve secured the Buy Box, good for you! Now, what do you do? Just camp out until someone takes it from you? Of course not! Holding the Buy Box is just as important as taking it, perhaps even more so as it’s easier to hold the Buy Box than take it in the first place.
Within your Repricing Rules Scenarios, Repricer offers a number of options for what you can do if you are the Buy Box winner. Let’s take a look at them now.
Do Not Reprice
Does exactly what it says on the tin, if you hold the Buy Box you will simply stop repricing. This is useful if you know the competition is very fierce for the Buy Box and you are likely to lose it easily. Don’t rock the boat as they say!
Upward
Upward means that you won’t reprice down, but you will reprice up. This allows you to basically do the same as Do Not Reprice, but if your competitors retreat to higher prices you won’t be left sitting priced too low, selling for far less than you could.
Normal
The workhorse setting here, normal basically means that it doesn’t matter if you have the Buy Box or not, your product will continue to reprice the same way regardless. A great setting to use to always remain competitive.
Optimizer (Plus Plan Feature)
And now we’re onto our champion. The Buy Box Optimizer is an Ultimate plan feature which allows you to increase your price gradually while holding the Buy Box. You must be careful with increasing prices when you have the Buy Box, if Amazon detects that your price increases sharply they will take it from you. However, if you increase your price gradually you are less likely to lose the Buy Box while making more profit on each order. Use the Optimizer to control how much you increase your price by and how often. Below is a video introducing you to the Optimizer and a knowledge base article too.
Suppressed Buy Box (Plus Plan Feature)
So, we’ve looked at what you can do if you have the Buy Box, and how to get the Buy Box, but what if there is no Buy Box? This is where the Suppressed Buy Box feature comes in. With this Plus plan feature, if Amazon doesn’t give a Buy Box you can decide what Repricer should do.
If the Buy Box is suppressed you can choose to Reprice as normal or do not reprice, just like we covered above. Alongside these, you have the option to reduce your price to your Minimum or increase it to your Maximum.
Learn a bit more with our video below or in this Knowledge base article.
Need some advice?
Repricer is more than a repricing tool, we’re a team and here to help. Get in touch and we can give your account a once over and some advice on which settings might be best for you. Fancy some extra bedtime reading on the Buy Box? Check out our free ‘How to win the Buy Box’ eBook.
And that’s all for this week, join us next week where we’ll take a look at some time-saving features available in Repricer right now!
Keep an eye on your inbox. Can’t wait for the next installment of the Repricer Masterclass? Jump straight on to our next class now!
Colin
Product Owner