Huge change in buy box for used books
About 7 months ago, the used buy box for books suddenly began going to the lowest price, generally merchant fulfilled. This appears to be happening again. I noticed low sales for the day, so checked several detail pages and sure enough, nearly every books used buy box is going to merchant fulfilled at the lowest price.
Has there been any announcement from Amazon regarding this, or is it just another sudden huge, unannounced change?
Hopefully it will resolve itself, but last time this happened it took a good amount of time and had a large impact on sales.
Huge change in buy box for used books
About 7 months ago, the used buy box for books suddenly began going to the lowest price, generally merchant fulfilled. This appears to be happening again. I noticed low sales for the day, so checked several detail pages and sure enough, nearly every books used buy box is going to merchant fulfilled at the lowest price.
Has there been any announcement from Amazon regarding this, or is it just another sudden huge, unannounced change?
Hopefully it will resolve itself, but last time this happened it took a good amount of time and had a large impact on sales.
225 replies
Seller_isfUwyrhbyGPr
Yes. Also seeing this. Even when the seller with the merchant-fulfilled offer has terrible feedback. With a few exceptions.
It just feels more and more impossible to predict who the featured offer might go to.
Why try to understand anything today if none of the rules apply tomorrow?
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
Usually, the BB will favor FBA offers; but when Amazon is backed-up with orders or otherwise busy (this is the busiest time of year for shipments to FBA), they will start awarding the BB to FBM to relieve the pressure. This has happened several times in the past, and other than a period during lockdown, never lasted for very long. It will likely go back to favoring FBA soon.
This is not really an unannounced change; as it has never been official that FBA always gets the BB; just that it is "favored" in being awarded the BB.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
First of all, NOTHING on Amazon is "consistent". And the factors for determining this would include things like which FC that particular book is in, as well as where the customer might be. And they don't have to go all-in to make a difference.
But it does seem that every time this issue comes up, there are also numerous threads about FCs taking very long times to receive shipments.
ETA: I have to admit, though, that I'm a bit jealous that you can see enough of a change in one day's sales to catch this! ;-)
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
I've not noticed it on my listings (haven't bothered to look at more than a few), but did notice this same thing on multiple books that I looked at to list. Amazon is definitely mucking around.
That's certainly a valid concern; although I don't have AHT, and still seeing some BBs on at least a few listings. Of course, Amazon will never let on what they are doing....
Hope you enjoy the camping!
Seller_3Qs3rgPXjHzk7
Thanks for the heads up!
We are seeing it impact our sales, odd thing is across 100s of book listings, all still showing buy box as before.
Seller_bLpzUne3tRjkG
I don't exactly know how the stupid "buy box" thing works (it has always felt like a scam), but it can't be as simple as lowest price FBM. That would have been me for almost all of my books (until I deleted my inventory and moved them to Ebay last month) and I never once got "the box." LOL.
Seller_ckQaAsA5dAmZT
The Buy Box is having issues like last March, Merchant Fulfillment sellers are taking it and in some cases their prices are over FBA ones. We our hero one more time @Manny_Amazon. You helped us last time.
Tagging more moderators @Glenn_Amazon@Danny_Amazon@Glenn_Amazon@Michelle_Amazon@Jameson_Amazon @KJ_Amazon
Seller_KoqAFvxBwjdZB
update - Amazon FBA have completely lost control of inventory management for fba books AND they know it. Don't expect any interaction from the mods
@Glenn_Amazon
@Manny_Amazon
@Cooper_Amazon
@Joey_Amazon
"Dear leader company" isn't allowed to admit it's wearing and out of control.
The entire used FBA book niche is freight with duplicate orders for inventory FBA doesn't have in stock. Hundreds of thousands of customer orders are being cancelled due to incorrect inventory numbers at FBA - they've completely destroyed the consumer confidence of the space. Their knee jerk answer? Turn off the used buybox algorithm that has led to this gross oversight error.
Do they tell their 3P sellers? No - good communication and engagement with 'business partners' is only what moral companies do. It's not the Amazon way.
Just look at your cancelled order in the past 7 days... It's going to be 50x higher than normal, and it's only going to get worse.
If you track your monthly LTSF on the dashboard, do you wonder why it suddenly stopped tracking back on Sept 14 and hasn't updated in 8 days? It's because they've lost complete institutional control. But don't worry, sellers will STILL be charged storage fees on inventory they don't have and can't account for.
Just don't ask questions and roll over and take it - that's how Amazon treats 3P sellers
@mods.... You're job is community engagement and communication. The silence is deafening at this point - do your jobs
Michelle_Amazon
Hello @Seller_786ff6hh36h4T,
Thank you for bringing your concerns about the Books category Featured Offer to our attention. I understand this situation is frustrating, and I appreciate your patience while we looked into this matter.
While our investigation confirms the Featured Offer system is functioning as designed, I've escalated your specific concerns to our internal teams for review. Due to the proprietary nature of the Featured Offer program, I'm limited in what specific details I can share. However, I encourage you to review the publicly available information about Featured Offers in @Cooper_Amazon's discussion thread.
Regards,
Michelle
