Online Marketplace is a never-ending relay race with Buy Box as a baton but the difference is that this race comprises of different sellers not united in a team. The baton moves from one seller to another during the course of time even if one doesn’t want to lose it.
Lightning tools that route sellers to get hold of buy box:
The Buy Box is the box on a product detail page where customers can begin the purchasing process by adding items to their shopping carts. A key feature of the online platform is that multiple sellers can offer the same product. If more than one eligible seller offers a product, they may compete for the Buy Box for that product. A seller is eligible to win the Buy Box if he comes under specific seller performance criteria. The requirement to meet high competitive standards, and excelling in the qualifying criteria is a major booster for becoming an eligible seller. If one is an eligible seller, he can increase his chances of winning the Buy Box by thinking upon these factors :
Pricing: This factor is at utmost priority as a customer will select a particular seller by looking at the price of a product (price+standard delivery charge). A seller has to make sure to price his products in a competitive manner, also considering delivery rates into account. Lowest price of a product doesn’t guarantee to be the first to win the Buy Box, as pricing is just one factor in the queue. Pricing needs to be done in a smart way. Neither too very low from achieving break-even point nor too high accounting to be more profitable as well. It should be in between to meet competitive rates such that Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) should not be violated.
Closer inspection of listings reveals that these might lay effect of the cheaper option at the back of buyer’s mind but in actuality, these are more expensive once take shipping charges are taken into account. Amazon, a leading online player in E-Commerce race lists products on a page in order of Price + Shipping, and that carries into the Buy Box.
Availability of Inventory : Can you quickly and consistently fulfil orders? For this a seller always has to keep its sufficient stock available with him. If a seller has no current stock for a product, he cannot win the Buy Box. A seller has to use inventory planning best practices to keep his popular products in stock. To ensure that buyers cannot place orders for out-of-stock items, a seller must keep the inventory up to date.
Customer Feedback: ODR (Order Defect Rate) is based on customer feedback. Positive ratings of a seller along with Positive reviews may help him to reach top of the ladder. Positive reviews and high ratings not only enhances your visibility but also provides an edge for grasping buy box.
Another factor that customer focus on is the Expected delivery time (2-4 business days). Seller must keep lowest possible delivery time so as to attract customers.
Delivery experience: Delivery experience includes speed of delivery and lead-time-to-ship. Lead time plays a vital role on the online platform. In the case of Amazon, it puts priority on fast and hassle-free shipping for their customers. That’s why Amazon encourage sellers to use their Fulfilled by Amazon program. A number of individual metrics are considered Shipping Performance: Order Defect Rate (ODR) and Perfect Order Percentage (POP) are the major ones.
Featured Merchant Status: How trustworthy a seller is based on past account history. A seller must have a low refund rate and a low negative feedback. To grow your business in Indian e-commerce, the genuineness of a seller pays a lot, creating trustworthy relations with the customers is important. If your customer loses the trust on your brand, your business will collapse in no time.
The Combination of 2-3 items can get hold of a buy box to a seller as this comes under bundling Policy to Create Unique Items. Combo offers gather customer attention easily and oven strikes their mindset to buy the product after a glimpse of it. This is sometime referred to as Impulse based purchase.
