How to Win the Amazon Buy Box in 2022 [10 Tactics]

Imagine doing a ton of research on products and listing them on Amazon only to get no sales. Fortunately, you can avoid this fate if you know how to get the Buy Box in Amazon listings.

Then, you can watch as the sales roll in, and you won't have to rely on buyers looking at other sellers on a listing. But you should understand how the Buy Box works and what you should do to increase your chances of getting it.

Read on to learn what you need to know.

What Is the Amazon Buy Box?

You can find the Amazon Buy Box on the right side of your screen on a desktop. It sits on the opposite side of the screen from the product photos, and it's the easiest way for someone to buy a product.

The Buy Box only applies to one seller of the given item, so you may see more purchase options below. However, the Buy Box is convenient and easy to find.

It's also the only option if you're shopping on Amazon using a mobile device. The box may have an "Add to Cart" or a "Buy Now" option, both of which will link to one seller of that listing.

Amazon considers a lot of factors when choosing which seller wins the Buy Box, and winning it once doesn't mean you'll always have it. Fortunately, you can learn how to get the Buy Box in Amazon and take advantage of alerts to maintain the box.

Buy Box Eligibility Requirements

Even if you know how to win the Buy Box, that doesn't mean you'll get it. Amazon has a few requirements that sellers must follow to qualify for a chance at the box.

Fulfilling these requirements won't guarantee a win because you still have to compete with other sellers. However, it can help you increase your odds of winning the Buy Box.

Professional Seller Account

First, you need to have a Professional Seller account. While it does have a monthly fee, the Professional Seller account has plenty of benefits you won't get with an Individual Seller account.

The most significant benefit is a chance at winning the Buy Box for your products. As long as the separate products fit Amazon's requirements, you may be able to win the Buy Box for all of them.

Upgrading to the Professional Seller account may help you save money if you sell enough inventory. You'll have the monthly fee but not the per-product fee.

So if you do win the Buy Box, you may get enough sales so that the upgrade saves you money. And even if it doesn't save you money immediately, it's worth the investment overall.

Eligible Status

Even with a Professional Seller account, you may want to check the status of your individual products. Go to your Seller Central account and click on "Inventory," then "Manage Inventory."

You will see a list of your products, and there's a column near the right that says "Buy Box Eligible." Each product will have a yes or no under that column, so you can learn which products qualify for the Buy Box.

If you have a lot of products, you can search for their eligibility using the ASIN or SKU. Search for "Buy Box" in the search bar to bring up a help box that will let you search for eligibility.

That can be nice if you want to verify one or two products. You won't have to go through your entire catalog and risk missing the product.

Available Inventory

If one of your products is out of stock, it won't be eligible for the Buy Box. When a product goes out of stock, the Buy Box will go to another seller on the same listing.

Even if you restock the item, you may have to wait to win the Buy Box back. It can be hard to track how much stock you'll need, so keep track of your sales on each item to get an idea of how much to order at a time and sign up to Bindwise to get automatic alerts about it.

Then, you'll be able to keep from going completely out of stock. While it's okay to run out of stock occasionally, letting that happen too often may keep you from winning back the Buy Box.

New Products

Amazon allows you to sell new and used products, but used products don't qualify for the Buy Box. When adding a product to Amazon, you can select the product condition.

Make sure you don't lie and say that a used product is new. While that may get you the Buy Box now, it can potentially lead to negative reviews which may make you lose the box.

As you source products, stick to new items to increase your chances of getting the Buy Box. Selling new products also means you can charge more than for a used item, so you can make more money.

Why Does Winning the Amazon Buy Box Matter?

Winning the Amazon Buy Box is important for a few reasons. Overall, it can help make your Amazon selling business more successful, so you can continue to do what you're doing.

You'll have more profits to either pay yourself more or invest back into your business. Then, you'll be able to win the Buy Box for even more of your products.

Consider some more specific reasons why you want to win the Amazon Buy Box.

More Sales

Knowing how to get the Buy Box in Amazon may help you increase your sales. Because the box is clear and easy to find, more customers are likely to click on it.

If that box connects to your product, you'll get that sale. You don't have to worry about people scrolling down and looking at other sellers of the same item to have a chance of earning money.

Sure, you may have loyal customers who have bought from you and are willing to find you in a list of sellers. However, if you want to attract new customers, you need to make buying as effortless as possible with the Buy Box.

Attract Mobile Users

Winning the Buy Box is especially vital if you want to get sales from mobile users. More and more people are using their mobile devices to browse and shop online.

If you want to take advantage of that increase in mobile traffic, you need the Buy Box. Amazon doesn't show the different sellers on a mobile view, so someone would need to use the desktop version to find them.

Consider if you get a lot of mobile traffic to your listings but not many sales. You may want to change your strategy to win the Buy Box so that you can capture those customers.

Create Amazon PPC Ads

The seller who has the Amazon Buy Box has the option to create PPC ads for that product. You can determine your budget for the cost per click and choose the right keywords, so you can get your listing in front of more buyers.

If you create an ad, your listing will show up before the top organic results. While you shouldn't ignore organic search optimization on Amazon, it can take a while for your product to show up.

Using ads may help you get more clicks and sales in less time. Sadly, you can't create ads for your products that don't have the Buy Box, so you'd have to rely on the seller with the Buy Box to promote the listing. They may still get all of the extra sales.

What If You Don't Win the Buy Box?

Now, winning the Buy Box isn't necessary to make some sales, though it will make getting sales easier. As you work on winning the Buy Box, you should understand the other ways to make sales.

Knowing this will also come in handy when you do win the Buy Box. Unless you sell your own products or other unique items, odds are you won't be the only seller on a listing.

Consider other ways to make sales when you don't have the Buy Box. That way, you can start making sales now, and you can prepare for your competition when you win the top spot.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Underneath the Buy Box, you can find a list of all buying options for that product. On the main product page, you may see a list of Other Sellers on Amazon if others are selling the same thing.

Not every product will have this, but it's pretty common. If a buyer wants to purchase from a specific seller or compare prices, they may scroll and look at the list of sellers.

You may be able to get sales this way if people trust you as a seller. Even when you don't win the Buy Box, showing up in this list might help you increase your sales.

However, you have to meet the same requirements as the seller with the Buy Box. That means your product has to be new, in stock, and you need a Professional Seller account.

Offer Listing Page

The offer listing page requires an extra click from the main product page. It shows all of the available options, including those that aren't eligible for the Buy Box.

If your product only shows up on this page, you have the lowest chance of making a sale. However, it can be worth using if you want to sell a used item, for example.

You may also want to review this page when you have the Buy Box. That way, you can report any fraudulent listings to Amazon to keep your product free of competitors who may price below you.

10 Tips for How to Get the Buy Box in Amazon

Knowing how the Amazon Buy Box works is great, but you should know what to do to increase your chances of winning it. You can use these tips to win the box for the first time or to get the box back if you've lost it.

Either way, a lot of factors are within your control, so you don't have to rely too much on Amazon. Consider the following things that may help you win the Buy Box and get a Bindwise account which helps you track your eligibility for Buy Box wins without any hassle and alerts you when you need to take action.

1. Use Amazon FBA

Amazon's Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is an excellent program to help you win the Buy Box. Using FBA won't guarantee you'll win the Buy Box, especially if another seller uses the program for the same product.

However, your fulfillment method may have a massive impact on your ability to get the Buy Box. Amazon may give a listing that uses FBA the Buy Box.

FBA is also easy for you as the seller. You can send your bulk orders to an Amazon warehouse, and they'll take care of the rest, so you have more time to focus on sourcing items and making sales.

If you don't want to use FBA, you can fulfill orders yourself, and that may also help you win the Buy Box. Just make sure you have time to fulfill orders.

2. Focus on Fast Shipping

If you choose to fulfill orders yourself, try to use faster shipping methods. The sooner you ship the items and the faster they ship, the sooner they'll get to the customer.

Sellers with shipping times of two days or less have the best chance at winning the Buy Box. But shipping that takes a week or two may still help you win the Buy Box depending on the other factors.

Fast shipping is a specific reason why using FBA can help you get the Buy Box. You don't have to worry about going to the post office and getting products out quickly to keep up with your shipping times.

3. Provide Tracking Information

Another thing to do if you ship items yourself is to provide tracking information with each shipment. Sharing this information with every order will give you the best chances of winning the Buy Box.

If you miss one in 20 orders, that may be okay, but you don't want to omit tracking information for more than that. When you don't provide tracking information, Amazon and your customer won't know the status.

Amazon may not want to give you the Buy Box if another seller on the same listing does provide tracking details. Make sure you get a tracking number when you ship each order, and give that number to Amazon when you can.

4. Keep Your Prices Competitive

Another option for how to get the Buy Box in Amazon listings is to choose the right price. If two products on the same listing are the same except for the price, the lower price will win the Buy Box.

However, you don't want to price your products too low for a couple of reasons. First, you need to make a profit, so your prices should account for that.

You also don't want to price your products too low because Amazon may wonder if it's a knockoff. Do some research on the price of that product so that you can stay near the average price, but you can price a bit lower than the competition.

If you want to maintain the Buy Box, you can use Amazon's Automate Pricing tool to create rules. As other products change prices, yours can change accordingly without you having to change the price manually.

5. Sell Items Through Prime

Selling items that are eligible for Amazon Prime is another great way to increase your chances of winning the coveted Buy Box. Items that don't qualify for Prime may still win the box, but it can be harder.

For one, Prime-eligible items qualify for faster shipping, which also helps you win the box. Prime-eligible items may also look better, so more customers might be willing to buy from you.

You may even be able to use Prime-eligible status to get sales if you lose the Buy Box. If the item with the Buy Box doesn't qualify, buyers might be more willing to look at the other sellers and buy from you.

6. Offer Unique Items

You might also choose to focus on selling items that you can't find elsewhere on Amazon. If you have a business making a unique product, that's a good choice, or you can source items that other Amazon sellers don't.

Selling unique items means you'll be the only seller on the listing, so you have a 100% chance of getting the Buy Box. You won't have to worry about losing the box to other sellers who price their products lower.

Offering unique items can also help you avoid Amazon listing hijacking by sellers of counterfeit items. Figure out if there are any gaps in the market on Amazon, and choose products to fill that need while winning the Buy Box.

You can also set yourself apart by bundling similar items, such as a phone cable and wall adapter. Then, other sellers will need the same bundle to get on that listing.

7. Update Your Listings When Necessary

The next great tip for how to win the Buy Box is to update your listings regularly. You should go through your listings every month or quarter to make sure the descriptions and products are accurate and up-to-date.

Change anything that you need to change so that the listing reflects the current state of your product. Having accurate photos and descriptions can increase the chance of customer satisfaction after a purchase.

Happy customers play a small role in which seller wins the Buy Box for a listing. If your product description is incorrect, you may get an influx of bad reviews, which can tell Amazon not to give you the Buy Box.

8. Act Quickly

Being an active Amazon seller and providing good customer service can help you win or maintain the Buy Box. You should act quickly if you receive a message from a customer about their order.

Try to respond to messages within 12 to 24 hours for the best chance of winning the Buy Box. If you take too long to respond, Amazon may see that you aren't super active, and they can penalize you.

When fulfilling your own orders, you should also ship the items as quickly as you can. Be sure to use shipping methods that will get your product to the customer on time.

Late deliveries and long response times may keep you from getting the Buy Box. Those factors aren't the most important, but everything adds up.

9. Maintain Good Feedback

Customer feedback is somewhat out of your control, but it's essential. Luckily, as long as you implement the other tips to get the Buy Box, good feedback should follow.

Make sure you select products of good quality and that you choose the best price for them. When fulfilling items, ship them quickly so that they don't arrive late to the customer.

Doing all of that can help you get better reviews on individual products and your seller page. Having good reviews will then show Amazon that you're a trustworthy seller and are worthy of the Buy Box.

10. Monitor Your Stock

You may know how to win the Buy Box, but you should consider how to keep it. Maintaining your stock is an easy way to keep another seller from taking the box from you.

At first, you may not know how much stock to order, so you may want to overestimate. After a while, you can figure out how much of one item you can expect to sell in a given period.

When listing items, don't lie about how many units you have. You may win the Buy Box now, but you don't want to get more orders than you can handle because you don't want to delay the shipping and get a bad review.

Keep track of your inventory in and out of Amazon so that you have a good record of everything. Then, you'll know when you need to order more of something.

Will You Win the Buy Box?

Knowing how to get the Buy Box in Amazon is crucial if you want to increase sales and grow your business. You should understand if you're eligible for the box and what Amazon considers when choosing which seller will get the box.

Then, you can choose products and update your listings to give yourself the best chance of winning the box on each product. Soon enough, you won't have to worry about competitors beating you and taking your sales.

Do you need help monitoring the Amazon Buy Box wins? Register for an account and get started today!