Lost Buy Box

A Lost Buy Box can be a nightmare for many sellers as it takes the most prominent “Add to Cart” button away from your products. Platforms like Amazon take this decision based on multiple factors such as price, ratings, availability, and more. Missing a buy box makes it difficult for you to get sales. 

For example, if you are selling a bag that is missing the “buy now” option then the viewer might find it absurd and they’ll end up exploring different competing products and make their way to some other seller’s product which hurts your conversions.

Causes of missing Buy Box

1. You’re a new third-party seller(3P)

After becoming a seller on Amazon, you might experience a missing Buy Box for the first 30 days. This is because the first 30 days are used as a trial period by amazon to verify your ability to consistently handle all requirements including shipping, confirmation, order cancellation, etc.

For example, your product is likely to have a missing buy box if it has not made enough sales to show it can meet the standards listed by Amazon.

2. Your product is less expensive on a third-party site

E-commerce platforms like Amazon focus on the best pricing for their users. If the Amazon server finds an identical product on some other website at a price lower than what you have listed then your buy box will be removed. For example, if you’re selling headphones for $20 and that identical product is available on some other site at $15, then you will lose your buy box.

3. Your product’s price is higher than the MSRP

MSRP here stands for the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. So, if the price listed by the manufacturer is around 5%  higher than the one listed in Amazon’s catalog, then your Buy Box is likely to be suppressed. For example, the price listed by you for a detergent bottle stands at 15$ whereas the maximum pricing listed for it by Amazon stands at $9, then you will lose your buy box eligibility.

4. Seller rating has dropped

Sellers tend to lose their Buy box eligibility if the trailing 30-day seller ratings drop below 90%.

How to Resolve:

• The best way to win buy box if you are a new seller is to make your products prime eligible
• Make sure that your product is selling at a decent rate.
• As tempting as it may be, you should not raise the price of your product when the inventory is low.
• Make sure that you have legitimate seller ratings and you can focus on the removal of any bad ratings if possible.
• You can file a seller support ticket if your newly listed product has not been activated for buying box eligibility due to some glitch.