The current Amazon buy box is something every Amazon seller has become accustomed to. The Buy Box refers to the white box on the right side of the Amazon product detail page, where customers can add items for purchase to their cart. Not all sellers are eligible to win the Buy Box. Thanks to stiff competition and Amazon’s customer-obsessed approach, only businesses with excellent seller metrics stand a chance to win a share of this valuable real estate. However, this buy box will be replaced with a ‘featured offer’ space. So what does this mean for Amazon sellers and resellers? Let’s take a look.
What is the Featured Offer?
The offer display is the area on an Amazon product detail page where customers can find the featured offer (also known as the Buy Box), and begin the purchasing process by adding products to their shopping carts. A key feature of the Amazon website is that multiple sellers, including Amazon, vendors and third-party sellers, can offer the same product. If more than one eligible seller offers a product, each offer may become the featured offer for that product. Featured offers are frequently updated by Amazon’s system, based on price, delivery speed, and other factors.
How do you become a Featured Offer?
Price is a key factor in determining which offer becomes the featured offer, so ensure that your price is attractive enough for customers. When they have cost recommendations, you will see boxes for Lost featured offer and Blocked existing offers appear on the home page. In addition to price, your ability to fulfil orders in a timely manner and customer service are also taken into account. Often, a featured offer may be missing if Amazon has no available stock for customers to buy. Go to Items > Catalogue to update the availability of the products you can supply.
A featured offer will only show when there is an offer that can provide a great customer experience. To guard against abuse, they remove eligibility based on account performance and other risk factors. The system may remove a product listing if it is missing compliance, mandatory, or key information, or if the attributes for the product contain errors or unauthorised claims. To help an offer be reinstated, go to Items > Catalogue and review our recommendation for corrective action under Fix products.
Amazon may also remove a product listing if the product requires compliance documents that are missing. To provide compliance documents, go to Items > Product certificates.
If Amazon has not placed a purchase order with you, and if you own the brand for a product, you may be able to request orders for that product through Born to Run (BR). To request an order, you need to submit a quantity you think will sell for 10 weeks. Amazon will review your request, and if approved, will buy the submitted quantity from you. Born to Run excludes Direct Import and Direct Fulfilment. To check if your business is enabled for BTR, go to Orders > Vendor Initiated Orders, and select Born to Run.
Even if there is only one offer on a listing, that offer will not automatically be featured. There is no guarantee that there will be a featured offer on an ASIN.
A quick breakdown: To become a Featured Offer
- Ensure price is attractive
- Optimise order fulfilment time
- Optimise your customer service
- Replenish Stock
- Provide correct documentation and key information