Your average Amazon marketplace customer will never think about the Buy Box one way or another, and may never even hear the term in their life. But seasoned Amazon marketplace sellers know all about how powerful the Buy Box is. eCommerce experts believe the Buy Box accounts for a significant percentage of all Amazon sales—likely over 75%.

If you’re a relatively new Amazon vendor, one of the first things you need to figure out is how to become Buy Box eligible.

Why the Buy Box is So Important

Every product listing on the Amazon marketplace has a box on the right side of the screen that includes:

Pricing information
Prime eligibility
Shipping information
Product availability
“Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons
And in small letters under all that, who the seller is

If you sell any products that other vendors on the platform also sell, all of you will be competing to be the seller in that Buy Box each time a customer clicks on the product.

Most consumers won’t notice the seller information toward the bottom of the box. As far as they’re concerned, any time they click on the same product listing, it might as well be the same seller. They’re not making a decision based on your specific reputation. They simply decide if they want the product, and like the price and shipping options they see show up in the box.

Since you have no real way to differentiate yourself in their eyes, making a sale on the Amazon marketplace usually requires being the offer that shows up in that Buy Box.

While there are other factors that influence whether you’ll win the box or not, the first step to even having a chance is making sure you’re eligible.

What Makes a Seller Eligible for the Buy Box?

Any Amazon seller that opts for Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) for their products will automatically be eligible for the Buy Box. And in fact, FBA products are believed to win the Buy Box at much higher rates than any others.

For vendors that prefer not to go the FBA route, eligibility is still possible. There are three main criteria you must meet.

1. The Right Selling Account

Specifically, you need to have a professional seller account.

Selling items as an individual on Amazon can make sense for small players who are just out to make a few extra bucks with items they have lying around. But for anyone who wants to treat it as a genuine business, upgrading to the professional level is well worth the monthly fee it costs. And it’s required if you ever want to claim the Buy Box for your products.

2. Maintain Order Volume

Amazon wants to know that whoever wins the Buy Box will deliver an experience to the customer on par with the reputation they seek to uphold. In order to evaluate whether you’re capable of providing the level of service they require, you need to have completed enough orders for them to see how well you do.

The catch here is that they don’t outright say what a high order volume is, but do say that it varies across different categories of products. If you’re a fairly new seller or even a long-term one who hasn’t sold many products, this requirement could keep you from becoming eligible.

3. The Right Performance Metrics

The reason a high order volume matters is directly related to this requirement. When deciding who’s worthy of the Buy Box, Amazon looks at data on how well you’ve performed on past purchases. For eligibility, they consider:

Your order defect rate
Cancellation rate
Late shipment rate

These all need to be as close to zero as absolutely possible if you want any chance of success on the Amazon marketplace, and they directly affect your eligibility for the Buy Box.

How to Make Sure Your Amazon Products are Buy Box Eligible

While that covers your seller account, you also want to make sure your products are eligible for the Buy Box. This part’s easier:

When logged into your Seller Central account, go to the Manage Inventory page and select Preferences.
Select Buy Box eligible, and click Save.

Beyond Becoming Eligible for the Buy Box, You Want to Win It

Eligibility is step one, but winning the Buy Box is something you have to do over and over again, day after day. And it’s tricky because everyone competing against you wants it too.

While Amazon doesn’t provide specifics on how they decide whom to feature in the Buy Box, most Amazon specialists are in agreement about the main factors they weigh:

Price - They want to feature the lowest price for a product at any given time, so it pays to track your competitor’s prices constantly and adjust yours as needed.
Feedback - The customer experience matters, so if you’re getting negative reviews and ratings, it will hurt you here.
Inventory levels - Will your product be available to ship out right away? You’re more likely to win the Buy Box if you have enough stock to fulfill the order immediately.

Whether you see it as fair or not, the Buy Box will determine how successful you are on the platform. Take steps right away to assure your eligibility, then get to work on the other factors that will make you more consistently competitive.

One thing that will help is consistently monitoring your ASINs for Buy Box changes. With eComEngine's Buy Box alerts, you'll be instantly notified when you win the Buy Box, lose it, or face Buy Box suppression by Amazon.

By understanding the factors that contribute to your Buy Box status changes, you can learn how to keep your products visible to the millions of potential customers on Amazon. Give it a try today!