How the Buy Box works and Not winning the buy box despite being only seller and eligible

(I started this post originally in 2017 on another thread - updates listed at the bottom)

… I decided to just split this out as a separate thread since there are still so many threads started asking.

I am not an expert or pretend to be but here’s my thoughts, for what they’re worth, to date :

Anyone interested in learning more should start with reading over :

• How the Buy Box Works - (Amazon Help Page)

• Become Buy Box eligible … Disregard the statement “If you’re a Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) seller, you are automatically eligible.” It is no longer true from what we are seeing

• Buy Box product placement - (Amazon Help Page)

• Winning the Buy Box - (Amazon Help Page)

Total Lack of a Buy Box on the Product Page … possible issues

• Offers are higher than the Amazon entered MSRP
• No Buy Box eligible sellers or none within an acceptable price range
• Lower prices found by Amazon on other sites. YES this is considered by Amazon.
  UPDATE - April 5, 2019 … Amazon just updated it’s MWS API’s to provide this data for your consideration.
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  CompetitivePriceThreshold Post by MWS

Summary

This was just released by Amazon April 5th 2019 …

The AnyOfferChanged notification now includes the optional CompetitivePriceThreshold element, which is available for some items sold on and off Amazon. The CompetitivePriceThreshold element provides the lowest price for an item from sellers not selling on Amazon. This does not consider prices from other Amazon sellers. The seller’s offer might be ineligible for the Buy Box if their landed price is greater than this price.

Buy Box Eligible Status (slightly edited by me) … which is either Yes or No

If you’re a Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) seller, you’re automatically eligible to win the Buy Box, or at least when this was written you were. If you’re not FBA , you must meet all of the conditions listed below. Amazon does not guarantee placement in the Buy Box.

1. Type of selling account: You must have a professional account. Here’s how you can upgrade.
2. Metrics: Your Order Defect Rate (ODR), Cancellation Rate (Apparently Amazon is using a 30 day rate equal to the 7 day target here), and Late Shipment Rate are metrics that determine eligibility— exceed the %'s and you lose eligibility — the better you perform, the higher your chances are of becoming/staying Buy Box eligible. You can see how you’re doing on the Account Health Dashboard.
3. Order volume: So that Amazon can accurately assess your performance, we require that you have sufficient order volume (which varies among categories).

This next part is based on data I’ve gathered … but Amazon is always changing the BB Algorithm … so it’s hard to be precise.

The main considerations I’d say are :

• Fulfillment
• Pricing
• Metrics
• Shipping Times
• Shipping Rates
• Sometimes it helps if you enter an MSRP (comment by redacted)

Fulfillment

FBA usually gets in first and is good for sellers not otherwise eligible. Lately, at least in Books, using FBA has not been automatic in winning the BB

Pricing

Amazon uses your Landed (product price + shipping charge)

Metrics - The Buy Box and Performance-Based Requirements

Performance-Based Requirements relates basically to Performance Metrics … or your Customer Service Performance (ODR) … and I believe also goes down into Shipping Performance and likely even Product Policy Compliance sometimes

ODR refers to a perfect buyer experience, one without any issues and under 1%. This takes into account several areas :

• Negative feedback (as compared to the total number of orders, not feedback left)
• A-to-Z Guarantee Claim
• Chargeback
  Shipping Performance
• Late Shipment Rate
• Pre-fulfillment Cancel Rate
• Valid Tracking Rate
• On-Time Delivery Rate
  Buyer-Seller Contact Metrics
• Buyer-Initiated Message
  Amazon divides the number of perfect orders you have from the past 90 days by the total number of orders from that same time frame.

Shipping

1. Shipping Options Offered

NOTE : Changing your shipping settings (can and does impact Buy Box).

Sellers who offer faster shipping options (such as Expedited delivery or Prime Shipping) are more likely to win the Buy Box and are given preference. You can look up your available options in Shipping Settings.

Note: Only items that can be shipped to the customer's shipping address are eligible to win the Buy Box.

2. Handling Times

Extended Handling Times can cause you to lose the Buy Box. Some experience it at 4 days, but I think for most it's 5 or higher.

3. From (Latest change to who wins the Buy Box)

Where you ship from appears also to impact who is displayed. A seller closer to the buyer could then have a faster shipping time and be displayed to the buyer. This can make it harder to really know who is in the Buy Box.

Shipping Rates

Shipping rates that exceed standard carrier rates by more than 20% will be considered unfair. Excessive shipping rates harm customer trust, and Amazon will remove the Buy Box, suppress listings, or in serious or repeated cases, suspend or terminate your selling privileges.

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(Updated the links March 2018 after Amazon Help Page revamping)
(Updated the contents March 2019)
(Updated the contents May 2019)