The Buy Box is a much-discussed topic among Amazon sellers, but it also plays important roles for brands and consumers.
For consumers, the Buy Box represents convenience. In a standard listing, the Buy Box contains the seller’s name, the fulfillment method, price, and the “Add to Cart” button. Shoppers can learn everything they need about their potential order in a glance, and they can even make an immediate purchase through the “Buy Now” button.
For brand owners, the Buy Box represents information about their channel and sellers. While many articles explore potential causes for a suppressed Buy Box and solutions, we’re instead considering what insights a fully operational Buy Box can provide.
In short, brands can use the Buy Box to quickly gauge which sellers offer the best customer experience, logistical infrastructure, marketing, and of course, whether or not they abide by the brand’s pricing policies.
Brands can use the Buy Box to quickly gauge which sellers offer the best customer experience, logistical infrastructure, marketing, and of course, whether or not they abide by the brand’s pricing policies.
Are Sellers Upholding Your Brand’s Standards?
Amazon defines itself as a customer-centric company, and the Buy Box is designed to support that mission. While Amazon keeps a tight lid on the Buy Box algorithm, many theories have identified the same group of variables as key factors for how the algorithm determines the winner of the Buy Box, including:
- Fulfillment method
- Price
- Shipping time
- Shipment Tracking
- Quality control
- Seller feedback number and rating
- Customer response time
- Frequency of out of stock issues
- Cancellation rates
- Refund rates
These factors all have one thing in common: They affect the customer experience. In Amazon’s eyes, the more factors a seller can check off, the more likely they are to provide a positive customer experience.
Thanks to this design, brands can use the Buy Box to assess which sellers are best serving their brand. Whoever spends the most time in the Buy Box is likely the most well-rounded seller, presuming that they aren’t slashing prices to forcefully win the Buy Box.
If you take that group of well-rounded sellers and then assess each of their marketing capabilities, you can identify which of your sellers you should continue working with and which are weighing you down.
If you want to partner with a seller who excels in every metric and offers industry-leading marketing, reach out to Kaspien.
Working with Multiple Sellers VS an Exclusive Seller
So, what happens if you perform the above test and find that you have multiple sellers performing well in the Buy Box? Doesn’t it make sense to work with all of them?
It’s a fair question, especially from a brand’s perspective, where more sellers translates to more purchase orders. However, the inner workings of the Buy Box show us that working with multiple sellers can actually hinder a brand’s marketing efforts, slowing online sales and in turn, slowing your cash flow.
The inner workings of the Buy Box show us that working with multiple sellers can actually hinder a brand’s marketing efforts, slowing online sales and in turn, slowing your cash flow.
How?
The Buy Box algorithm is designed so that Sponsored Product ads run only for the seller who is in the Buy Box. When you have multiple sellers in the Buy Box, their ads are competing against your competitors AND against each other. As a result, the marketing running for your product works against itself, making it far weaker than it could be.
With an exclusive seller, your marketing efforts are unified and the traction you build aggregates in a single campaign, accelerating velocity and increasing marketing ROI faster than you could with multiple sellers.
The following chart breaks down the effects of four different Buy Box scenarios:
Partner with the Most Competitive Seller
The Buy Box shows us that Amazon is designed with a holistic philosophy. To truly master the marketplace and outperform the competition, you need a partner who can address all elements of Amazon and its mission to perfect the customer experience. Kaspien does that.
