In the world of e-commerce, there is perhaps no piece of digital real estate more valuable to vendors and sellers on Amazon than the Buy Box – the info box on product listings containing a one-click “add to cart” or “buy now” button.
What is Amazon Buy Box Suppression?
As covered extensively in previous GreyScout blogs, “winning” the Buy Box is paramount to success in the world’s largest e-commerce marketplace and it takes a great deal of work to get there.
To win the Buy Box, Amazon sellers must ensure they stay on top of a wide range of factors, which Amazon’s complex algorithm considers when deciding which seller to award the Buy Box to for a particular product. To hold the Buy Box, sellers must ensure their products are competitively priced, have high fulfilment rates, and are well-reviewed by customers, among other things. Simply put, providing a stellar customer experience is of great importance to Amazon and the platform awards the Buy Box to sellers that keep customers happy and returning to the marketplace.
While building a strong brand and winning the Buy Box by offering a great product and stellar customer service takes a great deal of work, it takes just as much effort to keep winning it.
If Amazon’s algorithm finds that it can’t compete on price or performance for a product listing, it may remove the “Add to Basket” and “Buy Now” button and replace it with the “See All Buying Options” button. In a nutshell, no seller wins the Buy Box.
This is known as “Amazon Buy Box Suppression”.
Why does Amazon Buy Box suppression happen?
Competition for the Amazon Buy Box is fierce. For sellers, having products listed in the Buy Box means they have a better chance of securing a sale. Although, after once winning the Buy Box, it can be taken away, or “suppressed” at any time.
So, what causes the Buy Box to disappear from a listing? Amazon’s algorithm considers several factors when suppressing a Buy Box:
- Amazon Prime Eligibility: Amazon wants to provide their Prime customers with the best possible experience, so they’re more likely to give the Buy Box to Prime-eligible products. If a product loses its Amazon Prime status, the Buy Box could be suppressed.
- Seller History: Selling on Amazon is competitive, and being new to the platform can make it more difficult to win the Buy Box. Amazon likes to see a seller’s history and credibility on its platform, so they give preference to more established sellers.
- Sales Volume: If a vendor sees low sales volume, it can make it more difficult to keep the Buy Box.
- Listing Information: Having a complete listing is essential for maintaining the Buy Box. Product images should be accurate with products being listed in the correct category.
- Customer Interaction: Maintaining strong seller metrics is a critical component of winning the Buy Box. Metrics include shipping time, order cancellations, chargebacks, customer inquiries, and customer reviews. Amazon uses these metrics as an indicator of how well a seller serves its customers, so maintaining positive metrics is essential.
- Price Wars and Profitability: Amazon’s algorithms scan other e-commerce marketplaces such as eBay, Walmart, Google Shopping, Alibaba, Etsy, and others to be more competitive. If the algorithms determine Amazon can’t compete on the prices its competitors are providing, Amazon could suppress the Buy Box.
Amazon’s Fair Pricing Policy has become a major point of contention amongst sellers and consumers using the marketplace. Some users have brought legal action against Amazon, claiming its algorithms unfairly penalise third-party sellers for not using its shipping, logistics, and fulfilment services.
Nevertheless, adhering to Amazon’s Fair Pricing Policy plays an ever-so-important role in maintaining the Buy Box.
According to Amazon themselves: “Amazon regularly monitors the prices of items in our marketplaces, including shipping costs, and compares them with other prices available to our customers. If we see pricing practices on a marketplace offer that harms customer trust, Amazon may take action, such as removing Buy Box, removing the offer, or in serious or repeated cases, suspending or terminating selling privileges.”
The Bottom Line
While being challenged in courts throughout the world, Amazon’s Fair Pricing Policy allows the marketplace to penalise sellers by taking away the Buy Box if a product is offered at a lower price on other e-commerce marketplaces. This result means, there is an added need for vendors to have a cross-channel brand protection monitoring strategy.
Hence, brands selling on Amazon must utilize brand protection tools like GreyScout to perform their own unauthorized 3P sellers and grey market product listing detection, monitoring and enforcement where necessary on non-Amazon marketplaces to ensure that Amazon doesn’t suppress the Buy Box on their ASINs when it finds a highly competitive grey market product listed on competing marketplaces.
