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Sell On Amazon: A guide to select top selling and
high margin product
Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................... 6
Market Research on Amazon ............................................ 8
Step 1: Prepare – What’s a Good Product? ............................................................................................... 9
Step 2: Research – How to Find Good Products ..................................................................................... 11
Step 3: Buy – How to Find and Test Suppliers ....................................................................................... 12
Step 4: Sell – How to Sell Your Product ................................................................................................ 14
Step 5: Grow – How to Move Forward ................................................................................................... 15
Importing From China Using Alibaba ............................ 16
Step 1 – Review the Company Profile .................................................................................................... 17
Step 2 – Review Other Company Certifications ..................................................................................... 19
Step 3 – Review Supplier’s Product Selection/Niche ............................................................................. 20
How to Rank Your Products on Amazon ........................ 21
Introducing A9: Amazon’s Product Search Algorithm ........................................................................... 23
Core Pillars of the A9 Algorithm ............................................................................................................ 24
Conversion Rate .................................................................................................................................. 24
Relevancy ............................................................................................................................................ 24
Customer Satisfaction & Retention ..................................................................................................... 24
Top 25 Amazon Ranking Factors ........................................................................................................... 25
Conversion Rate Factors ..................................................................................................................... 25
Relevancy Factors ............................................................................................................................... 27
Customer Satisfaction & Retention Factors ........................................................................................ 28
Amazon Buy Box Feedback Ratio ...................................................................................................... 29
Key Points for Higher Ranking on Amazon: ...................................................................................... 30
Chapter 4 ......................................................................... 31
Winning the Buy Box ..................................................... 31
Importance of Buy Box ........................................................................................................................... 32
Potential of Buy Box: .............................................................................................................................. 32
Myths and Misconception about Buy Box .............................................................................................. 32
Lowest Price Point Manipulations ...................................................................................................... 32
The 2% Rotation Rule ......................................................................................................................... 32
How the Amazon Buy Box Works: ........................................................................................................ 33
Buy Box Rotations .................................................................................................................................. 33
The Variables That Affect Buy Box ....................................................................................................... 34
Fulfillment Method ............................................................................................................................. 34
Landed Price ....................................................................................................................................... 34
Seller Rating ........................................................................................................................................ 34
Shipping Time ..................................................................................................................................... 35
Order Defect Rate ............................................................................................................................... 36
Feedback Score ................................................................................................................................... 36
Delivery History .................................................................................................................................. 36
Customer Response Time ................................................................................................................... 36
Feedback Count .................................................................................................................................. 36
Inventory Depth And Sales Volume ................................................................................................... 37
Cancellation and Refund Rate ............................................................................................................. 37
Winning the Buy Box ............................................................................................................................. 38
Know Your Metrics ............................................................................................................................ 38
Sacrificing One Metric for Another .................................................................................................... 38
Improving Seller Performance ............................................................................................................ 38
Love the Brackets ............................................................................................................................... 38
Tracking the Buy Box: ........................................................................................................................ 39
Introduction
If you are selling consumer good or are looking to dive in to it, then having a presence on
Amazon is a must. This is because more than 90 million people are shopping on Amazon
Regularly and this number is growing day by day. This is all because Amazon has made easier
for individual and big sellers to easily list their items without even writing a single line. This is
how much easier Amazon has made to list your items on their platform.
In this book we are going to explain the process by which you can profit by selling
on Amazon. Having surpassed eBay in 2007/2008 holiday season, Amazon has become the
largest online selling market place.
By selling on Amazon and obeying the rules you can easily Leverage Amazon
Platform to get your brand up and running in the best possible way. Selling on Amazon is a big
business with millions of seller earning billions of Dollars annually. There are several reasons to
why sellers choose Amazon. The single biggest reason is that their product sells like nothing on
Amazon. You don’t have to put an advertising budget for selling your product as all you have to
do is list and leave rest of the work to Amazon. Other reason include safety that shoppers get
from buying online, easy payment for sellers, Fulfillment services by Amazon and several other
reasons that we are going to explore in later sections of this book.
If you are selling on Amazon or looking to start then this EBook is the best
resource you can ever wish for. In this book we are going to explain each and every thing in
order to get you started from the initial market research to listing and getting to ramp up your
sales. We are going to explain how you can become a successful seller on Amazon. Our detailed
guide will help you at each and every step on your online endeavor.
Chapter 1
Market Research on
Amazon
Step 1: Prepare – What’s a Good Product?
The first step of getting started is finding the right product to sell. For this we have to understand what a
“Product” actually is.
What is a Product?
While starting up people use to think of the ‘Big niche’. There is nothing like this ‘Big Niche’ and this
approach can make you lose money initially. The right approach is to find profitable products initially as
there is no profitable niche but many profitable products. This is what we would recommend initially.
You should be looking for a single profitable product to sell not any profitable niche to operate in. If you
are looking for any profitable niche, then you will be overwhelmed by the amount of data you will have to
analyze. This will not only eat up your time, but will also get you nowhere. In case you are looking to
create a brand and branch out. Even in this situation you should start with few products if you are new to
this online selling things. With time you will get to know what people are looking for any how you can
make profit by selling things online.
What makes a good product?
Now that you know you are looking for only one single product, you need to analyze few things about
what qualifies to be a good Product. In this section we are going to analyze few things you need to
analyze before choosing the right product.
I would suggest you to read following list a couple of time before moving to the next section. These
points can really help in finding the right product for you to sell.
Good products are…
Small, light and easy to pick up. The bigger the product, heavier it will be and higher the shipping
cost. Returns and storage cost are much higher for bigger product. Try out small and light
products.
Any particular niche products like metallic iPhone 6 cases and not like metallic cases of all the
iPhones.
In the price of $10-200. There are plenty of money that can be made with higher priced products
but they require a lot of capital as compared to low priced items. Under $10 items are mostly
regularly consumed items and most of the big importers are in it. This makes it harder for you to
compete. The optimal product you will be able to find will be the one between $10-200 initially.
After some time you can go beyond this limit.
Steady stream of buyers. You should be looking for something that has a steady stream of buyers.
Seasonal goods are great but for start you can avoid them. Look for something that can be sold in
any season.
Sold at twice or more the amount. Go for something that can be sold for twice the amount. This is
because there are several other charges which had to be included.
Bad products are…
Those which require high quality standards and warranties. Such products can be sold in later
stage if you are just starting out avoid them. In case you are in any such business then you should
think of going with them.
Sold by any BIG retailer. If you are thinking that you can compete retailers like Wal-Mart or Best
Buy, then you are missing the point here. You need to find deep niche item with consistent
demand, lower competition and higher returns.
Fragile and requires perfect shipping condition.
Having multiple seller or Powersellers in case of Ebay. You don’t want to compete with they are
selling thousands of product each day.
Counterfeit product which can get you sued
These are only recommendation that we are giving you on the basis of years of experience. We are sure
that a lot of money can be made by breaking these rules, but these are only recommendations. You can
always try to think of the box.
You can also Eglim for the purpose of initial Market research. It is a market research tool that can help you
in finding profitable goods with low competition.
Step 2: Research – How to Find Good Products
Now that you know what is a good product, so now let’s start with how to find a product.
Tools you’ll need
Amazon – Amazon is a great tool for finding great products (if used in the proper way). On Amazon the
process of Market Research is complex and for this purpose we are going to use
Eglim Market Research Tool -- This tool has several features that we are going to discuss which help in
finding hot product. Some of the features include
Top 100 Analyzer: This feature helps in analyzing top 100 selling products on Amazon in any of the
category. This is the major features which can help in finding the kind of product you are looking for.
Tracking: Tracking takes some time but the stats it highlights are quite useful indeed.
Alibaba – This is a great website for finding products overseas. Analyze price of products to get to know
which one can be sold at a much higher price on Amazon.
EBay –This is the best place that can give the idea of the price on which the product is selling. With eBay
you can easily find the volume of sales and the price at which it is sold.
Etsy – It is also a great tool for finding products that are selling. You can also get to know total sales of
any store and other sales related data.
What you’re looking for – You are looking for products that can give a markup of at least 100%. Don’t
forget the points in the step 1 that we have discussed earlier. If you find any such product add this product
into the review list.
Start searching…
Searching for what to sell online is a loose process and it might take some time. You should start
analyzing top 100 products with Eglim. Here you will start to get some ideas on which products might
give you the kind of profit you are looking for.
Following are few ways of starting to find new products
Try to analyze random objects around yourself like belt buckles, instruments, guitar picks. Things which
has been trending in recent years. This is a hit and trail method and with time you will be able to find few
things which might become a great product for you.
If you are still having any difficulty in finding the right product then head up to – Amazon best sellers,
Amazon Movers and Shakers, Eglim Historical data on top products.
After some time you will be able to get some products in your excel spreadsheet. Now here at this point
start comparing them against each other. Question yourself following things
Will it be expensive to ship? Is this product safe to ship or requires protection? Can this product have
higher refund rate? Does people expect it to be flawless?
These all things needs to be avoided. You need to double check them as you don’t want any bad product
in your list. Once you have found the right product move on to the next step which is finding suppliers.
Step 3: Buy – How to Find and Test Suppliers
After finding which thing you need to sell on Amazon the next step is finding good suppliers for each
product. Many people are intimidated with this process which is rather quite simple.
Now we are going to search for 3-10 good suppliers for each of our products.
Finding & Contacting Suppliers
Here we are using “Stainless steel serrated steak Knife” as an example
Search for this products with filter of Gold Supplier, Onsite check and escrow services. Here you should
find expert suppliers with related experience in steel knife. Narrow down 8 to 10 suppliers for your
product with the correct filters applied. See which supplier is giving the best price. Now send each
supplier a generic message. One example of such message is given below.
Hello,
I am starting a company and may be needing a large supply of Stainless Steel Serrated Steak Knives.
Could you send me your price list for these Stainless Steel Serrated Steak Knives, along with any
shipping and payment information you can give me. Also, could we work something out regarding a
sample being sent to me? Products will be going to Florida, USA. And what would the MOQ be after the
samples?
Thanks,
Will
Send the above generic message or something like this to suppliers. Just copy and paste your message to
8-10 suppliers. After few hours you will start to get response. After 24 hours you will be able to decide
which supplier you would be working with. The ones with quick response time will be better. Your initial
communication with the suppliers will consist of price list, product specs. As you are getting in touch
with 8 to 10 supplier = you will be able to get idea of price. After sometime you will be able to get down
to 2 to 3 sellers. Here at this point you can ask for samples.
Buy Samples- Always try to ask for minimum samples from your suppliers. You can negotiate with
them to get lowest amount of order. 2-3 product from each supplier would be optimal as it would be
enough to test your product by listing it. The shipping might cost around $25-45 through any famous
worldwide delivery service like DHL. Pay through escrow services or PayPal.
Another option you can use is Aliexpress.com. This site is made for smaller items. You can get better
prices on Alibaba if you are willing to put in the required effort. Still Aliexpress.com is an option for you
to try.
When comparing items on sites is it important to find the same brand? Does it needs to be the same
manufacturer? Can you sell a comparable product?
It mostly depends on the type of product. It would be great if you can find similar product. In such case
you can list the product directly against the product listing on Amazon. If you can’t find it then you can
always set up your listing and can work on improving it( we will deal with how to improve your listing in
coming sections).
Is there a way to know the exact current volume of sales before choosing a product to sell?
On eBay you can calculate the amount of product sold over a period of 3 months. On Amazon however
you can get to know whether a product is being sold or not with the help of the total no of reviews. This is
however an estimate. On Etsy you can get to know total sales of any store.
How should I negotiate with my supplier? How did you?
It depends on the kind of relationship you have with your supplier. Most of the time you will be talking
with only one person. After few transactions you will be able to ask for discounts.
How does escrow work?
The Alibaba escrow services consist of you sending your payment to a third party who will hold your
payment until you have received your items. If you are not satisfied with the items you have received,
then you can basically dispute and you may even get a refund.
Step 4: Sell – How to Sell Your Product
Once you have your samples, examine them properly. Is the quality up to your expectations? Does the
product look cheap? Is there anything missing? Does it look durable? Is there anything which can make
the customers unhappy if they have ordered it?
Ask these things to yourself. This will help you decide if these things will be enough to maintain good
customer experience. After this analysis you can make the decision of buying this in bulk.
How to sell your samples?
This part is simple. List your product on Amazon, eBay and etsy.com. On Amazon listing your product is
quite simple. If the product is already listed then all you have to do is add your price and quantity. This is
how simple it gets for listing on Amazon. For eBay and etsy you will have to write your own product
copy. After listing your samples you might probably get one or two sales per day. If you are not getting
any sales then compare similar products and their strategy. (We will be dealing this in later sections).
Ship out orders – In case you get orders then you will have to send out orders. All you have to do is take
your product to post office and post it.
Wait and evaluate – Soon enough you will start to get orders. If the feedback is good, then ask your
supplier for new inventory. In case the feedback is bad or with higher refunds drop that particular product
and try to find something else. This is hit and trail and with time you will be able to know what is selling
better and what is not.
How do you handle returns and warranty?
Unfortunately you will have to bear the cost of any returns at this point. It would be an ideal case if you
will be able to find something that would not have huge return rate. If you can find any such product then
the refund rate will be around 1-2%.
Step 5: Grow – How to Move Forward
At this point you will be able to know whether you have to move forward with the products you are
selling or not. You should be able to know how much profits you will be making with your products, how
much time will be required to manage it, which supplier is best for you, and when and how much bulk
order should be made at this point.
At this point growing is up to you. There is no limit to how much you can earn from selling online.
Following are few things which can help you grow your importing business.
Listing your Product on different channels- Make sure you have listed on famous platforms like Amazon,
Ebay, Etsy or any other sales channels.
Your Own Channels – These days you can easily create your online store. This is helpful if you are
looking to create your own brand in the long term. Even if you are not looking to build your brand, even
then you can list product on your own website and can promote it through Bing or Google Ads. (For
online store get in touch with www.vaival.com, they charge around $500 for online store).
Advertising on existing sales channels – Amazon, Ebay and Etsy have their own Advertising program
which are quite effective indeed.
Take on new products – When you will start selling you will have plenty of cash to acquire more products
in order to sell online.
Brand yourself – Branding your products is a complex process and requires a lot of effort and strategic
planning for this purpose. In this book we won’t get into branding.
Recurring revenue – A good business is one which has recurring revenue. You can start earning on a
regular basis with the help of an email newsletter, monthly subscriptions, promotional material and other
techniques.
Getting better prices from your supplier – When you get to the point of selling in large quantity, you can
ask for discount on higher level of import.
Outsourcing parts of the process – Upon getting 10-15 order per day it will become quite difficult to
manage shipping process. At this point you can think of outsourcing the shipping process. This can be
done with the help of any friend or by hiring any employee for this purpose.
Here are things that probably won’t work –
PPC Advertising – Try this technique but it will be quite difficult to tap anything out of it. For branding
purpose this might work, but as far as sales are concerned it wont help you that much.
Social Media – If you are into selling on Amazon or Ebay, then social media won’t help that much unless
you are looking to brand yourself.
Chapter 2
Importing From China
Using Alibaba
If you’ve been taking action on the previous section, you already know that Alibaba is the world’s biggest
B2B marketplace. In fact, it may be a little too big…
There are millions of suppliers listing millions of products on Alibaba. Finding suppliers is easy, the hard
part is selecting the right one.
The most dangerous obstacle in your path to the perfect supplier are the ocean of scammers and middle-
men.
Luckily, it’s not too difficult to avoid these low lives.
Below, you’ll find a step-by-step guide on avoiding scams, middle-men, and fraud on Alibaba.
Step 1 – Review the Company Profile
Company Profile
Any particular company profile on Alibaba consist of all the information about the company including
whether it is verified or not. For a new person this information might not be relevant but this information
can make or break your business in the initial stages. Following are few things to judge if the company is
worthy of working with or not.
Company name
(Note – Applies to companies registered in Mainland China only)
City: Small and medium-sized companies have city they are located in as part of their company name. For
example, “Ningbo Everbright Trading Co., Limited”.
Province: Larger companies can be named after the province where they are located. For example
“Zhejiang Everbright Trading Co., Limited”.
Business Type
Manufacturer: This indicates that the supplier is selling its own products. A manufacturer is highly
specialized in selling their field of products.
Trading Company: Some trading companies are independent of any manufacturing company while other
are owned by manufacturing companies. It is important that you choose the right company but most of the
manufacturing companies don’t have the knowledge to set up any online business, hence they have
acquired help of trading companies for this purpose.
Manufacturer & Trading Company: Many manufacturing companies has expanded their operation and
have acquired their own marketing department where they sell what they are producing. Such companies
over time also acquire products from other manufacturing units.
Management Certification: Quality is where you online selling experience can be compromised. Quality
issues can never we eliminated however you can find supplier which follow Quality management systems
like ISO9001.
Even big multinational companies have quality issues. However it is important they manage their quality
while production. This is done through continuous monitoring. If any Chinese company claim that they
give guarantee of being without any defect then you should just walk away. A routine check is required
during the process of manufacturing by the manufacturer. Some sensitive products require even more
strict checks as there are more chances of it being damaged even before it is shipped.
City, Province
Many cities in China have specialized in one or more industries. If you have consumer electronics then
you will notice that Shenzhen and Guangdong are quite dominant. Any manufacturing company depends
on its surrounding for supplies and logistical help. A lot of companies with similar nature nearby can give
competitive edge as compared to any single company present in any area.
Legal Representative
Legal representative of any company is the employee which can sign any agreement on behalf of the
manufacturing company. Make sure their sign and stamp is present on any of the sales agreement or
Invoice that you receive.
Indication of company size
Company of less than $80,000 should be avoided as this is a strong indicator of how the company will be
dealing with any defective or damaged product. If they have resources then they would do whatever it
takes to amend it (in case of a big company) as they would look to have positive reviews. Companies
having low resources won’t give any importance to customer services.
Foreign Currency Capital
It indicates that company has any kind of foreign investment. The currency can show where the
investment is coming from.
Step 2 – Review Company Certifications
Why this important?
Some of the product you might be importing has to be compliant with the market standard. Different
standards are there for different products. It is your responsibility to check whether product certifications
are there to fulfill the requirements. In case of buying in bulk do some research about it.
On Alibaba, seller certification are not mandatory and many of the suppliers don’t have any certification
at all.
Key Facts
Compliance don’t always mean testing of product. The product needs to be made with the specific
materials. If you haven’t specified about the product being compliant then product will not be compliant.
Many of the suppliers don’t have the capability to manufacture products that are compliant with European
or North American product standard.
If you having difficulty in finding supplier with the right kind of compliance, then ask supplier for the
particular certification. In many cases companies don’t update company profiles for a long period of time.
An easy way to find compliant products is to type in the Product name and the certification standard in
the Alibaba product search. [E.G. Mp4 player + CE]
Action List
Research which product standard is required for your product in your country and/or market.
Review the “Other Certification” page.
Are any of the product standards listed?
– If not, review the product description and the company introduction. Some suppliers that have test
reports available upload them to the “Other Certification Page”.
Step 3 – Review Supplier’s Product Selection/Niche
The most important thing you must be looking for is the product the manufacturing or trading company is
offering. A product catalogue can be an important factor while choosing any certain product. This is what
helps in determining whether the supplier is specialized in that particular product or not. This can have a
big impact on your business.
Checklist
Does the company name has the product name mentioned?
This is an indicator that the company was registered for the sole of purpose of selling that particular item
on Alibaba. For instance [E.G. Shenzhen Golden Watch Factory Co., Ltd].
Is your product making up the majority of the supplier’s product catalog on Alibaba.com?
If the supplier does have a lot of similar items as per your needs then is a strong indication that they are
highly specialized in building the products you are looking for. A highly specialized supplier means that
they can manage quality standards, can provide customization options, can also affect pricing because
they are buying everything in bulk quantity.
Is the supplier listing products that are completely different from the type you’re looking for? [e.g. Wrist
Watches and iPhone cases]
In real world factories can’t produce some good which are totally unrelated to each other like tires and 3D
printers. This is not possible. Try to choose supplier who has specialized in supplying related product. All
those opportunistic supplier can be very dangerous for your business as there are chances that they would
drop any product. This can be a big setback if you are a retailer for any particular product.
How to use Alibaba supplier search to identify specialized suppliers
On Alibaba finding specialized suppliers is an easy work. The search results against any keywords shows
product and also suppliers. The supplier’s catalogue are searched in order to rank suppliers. With this
search specialized suppliers can be found easily. Following is how it is done
Go to Alibaba.com
Change the search box from “Products” to Suppliers
Enter the product name and search
Now you will get a long list of all suppliers selling product you just searched for. This can save time
when sourcing suppliers since you can skip the manual review of the product catalog.
Chapter 3
How to Rank Your
Products on Amazon
In the above section of this book we dealt with how to find profitable products online, the whole process
from initial market research to getting your products and listing them for trial run. This chapter is the
continuation of the above process. In this chapter we are going to deal with how Amazon rank product in
their search result. We will analyze their Algorithm in detail to reveal insights that will help you get rank
up like never before.
For successful business on Amazon you need to understand how Amazon’ search Algorithm works.
Sound obvious but most sellers are unaware of how Amazon search works and ranks product on the basis
of it.
Are you ready for a shocking fact?
THREE TIMES as many buyers search for products to buy on Amazon, rather than Google.
Think about it…
Where do you go when you need to know if a product is worth buying?
What about when you want the best deal on anything from a book to a refrigerator?
Amazon…
Yet, you probably don’t pay attention to its search engine – much less consider it as a marketing channel
worth optimizing for. Even most ‘Amazon Marketers’ are still spending their days trying to optimize their
Amazon Listings for Google…
But, what if you knew how to rank in Amazon instead?
You’d have THREE TIMES more ready-to-buy customers than you’d EVER get in Google – and you’d
do it in a fraction of the time!
You’re about to read The Ultimate Guide to Ranking Your Products on Amazon…
Introducing A9: Amazon’s Product Search Algorithm
A9 is the algorithm with which amazon rank its products. Since we are dealing with ranking products on
Amazon hence we need to see what Amazon says about this algorithm
‘‘Our work starts long before a customer types a query. We’ve been analyzing data, observing past traffic
patterns, and indexing the text describing every product in our catalog before the customer has even
decided to search.’’
As described by Amazon, much of the work is done even before any customer type anything. Once the
user enter any query the algorithm deliver result in two step process:
First the algorithm pulls all the relevant results from the massive catalogue of product listings.
Then secondly, the results are shown to the user on the basis of relevancy.
Just like Google, Amazon search results contain the most relevant results. Both the systems are same but
Amazon ranks on the basis of conversion data for any particular keyword. Following is what Amazon
thinks about being relevant to the user query
One of A9’s tenets is that relevance is in the eye of the customer and we strive to get the best results for
our users. […] We continuously evaluate [our algorithms] using human judgments, programmatic
analysis, key business metrics and performance metrics.
There are few rules which you always need to remember about Amazon. Make sure you read them twice
The top goal of Amazon is to Maximize revenue per customer
Amazon tracks everything even the mouse hovers on the page.
The A9 algorithm connects the above both goals.
Core Pillars of the A9 Algorithm
From the information that Amazon have provided us to the experience we have in this field, we can group
the most important factors for ranking on Amazon into following three categories
Conversion Rate – This is the most important factor which Amazon considers. Those things which
effect conversion rate include customer reviews, quality of images and pricing.
Relevancy – To get users to click is the most important things. The keywords used in the title and
description is what makes the product relevant to any query.
Customer Satisfaction & Retention – It is one of the most important factor for ranking on
Amazon. If your customers are happy and satisfied then they would come back for purchasing another
item. In case your customers are not satisfied with your product, then there are little chances that amazon
will rank you in its search result.
Okay! We’re finally ready to start talking about how to rank product listings in Amazon. What you’ll find
below are 25 Amazon ranking factors that either Amazon themselves or independent marketers have
confirmed the A9 algorithm to use.
Top 25 Amazon Ranking Factors
Amazon is not Google where they hide their ranking factors to a great lengths. Amazon is quite clear
about things which effects ranking and all the other factors. You can get information on ranking on
Amazon on UK seller support blog.
Conversion Rate Factors
Sales Rank
Sales rank on Amazon is a rank calculated on the basis of no of sales that a product generates as
compared to other related products. It is one of the most important factor which is directly related to the
no of sales. Higher the no of sales, lower the sales rank is. For new sellers it would not be easy to get a
higher sales rank but there are other techniques which can be used to compensate it in order to rank up.
Customer Reviews
Customer reviews are also one of the most important factors for ranking on Amazon. More positive
reviews any product get, higher the chances that the product will rank in comparison to their competition.
Answered Questions This is one metric which Amazon says they don’t track. As answered questions are listed on the top of the
product page hence it is important for conversions. It help people in case of any confusion.
Image Size & Quality The image size policy has become quite important for Amazon as it has been witnessed that higher the
resolution of picture higher is the conversion rate. In some categories image should have at least
1000x1000 pixels or larger. In case it is not present, then listing is not shown and is known as suppressed
listings.
Higher pixel image means that the customer can use hover and zoom feature to see detail features of any
image. This increases the conversion rate dramatically.
Image quality vs. Size
Image quality is not that much important but is helpful. On the other hand size of the image is quite
important. A small size image won’t rank among product with large image size.
That means it is always better to have a single large resolution image instead of multiple small size
images.
Price
Amazon use two kinds of conversion rate .i.e. real conversion rates and predicted conversion. One of the
biggest factors behind predicted conversion rate is the price. The A9 algorithm knows that people are
looking for lower prices and bargains. The seller in the buy box is selected on the basis of price. This is
however not the only reason behind it is. There are several other factors behind getting the buy box. We
will deal with this part in the next chapter in detail.
Parent-Child Products
Sellers on Amazon sometime create multiple listings against any one particular product. This is
suboptimal. Amazon gives the functionality of adding multiple condition through parent child
functionality to direct customers to single page.
This has several benefits:
Through this features your customer reviews are maximized because Amazon will consider it a single
primary product. On the other hand it is better from the UX standpoint of view as all the variations will be
present on same page increasing your chances of getting the customer. With this your chances of beating
competition increases.
Time on Page & Bounce Rate
Amazon measures each and everything about how customers interact with their webpages. They have all
the information from bounce rate stats to the time on page. These two statistics are calculated by amazon
through the below given way.
Time on Page: According to Amazon, the more time the visitor spends on your listing pages higher are
the chances that it would convert. User that reads the description, see the reviews and spends time on
product images and in analyzing Question and answer finds the product to be useful. Higher the time
higher chances that they customer would buy it. It is hence important that you have an attractive page for
higher conversions.
Bounce Rate:
Bounce rate is the amount of time customers by visiting on your page bounce to another related product
without giving attention to your page. Amazon has exact time on these statistics in comparison to Google.
Higher the bounce lower sales and rank your will get on Amazon.
Product Listing Completeness
Product listing completeness is another important measure for ranking on Amazon. Completeness is
mostly related to relevancy which effect conversion rate. More your listing is complete the higher the
chances of appearing on the top.
Relevancy Factors
Title
Title is an important factor for any search engine. On Amazon, title is even more important.
However keywords are the most important part of any title. More keywords you have in your titles more
relevant it will be and greater chances it will rank higher.
Features / Bullet Points
Feature or bullet points are also an important factor behind ranking on Amazon. Feature points are so
important for Amazon that they don’t allow products to be featured in the Buy Box without features
bullets.
Product Description
Product description is an important part of listed product that you can control. This is the part of listing on
which you have most of the control. An engaging product description is what can engage customer into
purchasing your product. For Amazon product description, keyword density is not an important factor.
All you have to do is keep things natural and don’t worry about keywords in the description. Using
keyword once would be enough.
Brand & Manufacturer Name #
It is important to list brand name and manufacture number in the title’s first part. This is because many of
the product owners are searching for branded product. By using brand name in the title you can rank up
for branded searches.
Specifications
Specification is the part of product page where you can list technical and physical details of your product.
This is where you can write technical description. The more elaborative your specification will be, higher
chances you will rank higher.
Category & Sub-Category
Any typical search on Amazon works in several ways and one of them is searching by selecting category.
In such scenario only those products are shown which are included in that particular category. It is thus
important to select the most relevant category and sub categories for your product in order to get the
position in the category search.
Source Keyword
This is one of the biggest hidden ways through which Amazon determines listing’s relevance to a given
product search. This is also yet another example of how Amazon tracks every single customer’s activity
on their website. Take a look at this URL that links to a listing for a Black & Decker electric drill, and
see if you can tell me what search term I used to find it:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-LDX172C-7-2-Volt-Lithium-
Ion/dp/B005LTNLDI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416351135&sr=8-1&keywords=electric+drill
You can see the source keyword right at the end of the URL – &keywords=electric+drill – that tells
Amazon that the source keyword was “electric drill”.
Therefore, if I were to buy this drill, Amazon would know that this listing is highly relevant for the term
“electric drill”. The next time a customer searches for that term, this listing would be more likely to show
at the top.
Here’s a neat little Amazon ranking hack you can do to take advantage of this factor:
Construct a URL for your product listing using the keyword and your product URL with the help of
Eglim Amazon SEO tool. You will get a URL which you can promote to Drive traffic to the link.
Now anytime you make a sale from one of these shortened keyword links, you’re basically tricking
Amazon into thinking that these visitors performed a product search for your target keyword. This can
hugely improve organic rank of your product.
Customer Satisfaction & Retention Factors
Negative Seller Feedback
Amazon claims that they don’t track positive seller rating but they do track negative rating. The most
important factor here will be the frequency with which seller is getting negative ratings over a period of
some time. In order to win buy box it is important that you have a positive rating. This will surely help
you in winning the buy box.
Amazon Buy Box Feedback Ratio
Order Processing Speed
Order processing speed is an important variable for Amazon. This is because they know that customers
are happy when they get their shipment in shortest period of time. Those venders with fast shipping get
higher rank as compared to others.
In-Stock Rate
Customers don’t like it when they want any product and then they can’t have it. This happens when
product become out of stock or the seller is not keeping track of their inventory. In order to win the buy
box and maintain higher ranking it is important that you maintain your inventory level.
Percentage of orders refunded and pre-fulfilment cancellations are the two big customer satisfaction
metrics. Lower the percentage, higher chances you will rank at a good position.
Perfect Order Percentage (POP)
Perfect order percentage is the ratio of how many orders have gone smoothly from customer’s click on
Add to Cart to when item is delivered. Higher the amount of orders delivered perfectly, highly ranked the
seller will be.
Order Defect Rate (ODR)
Order defect is opposite to perfect order percentage. This is the rate at which customer claims for payment
due to not being satisfied from quality.
Here are some of the ways an order can defect:
Negative buyer feedback
A-to-Z Guarantee claim
Any kind of shipment problem
Credit card chargeback
Each of the above ways count towards order defect rate. According to Amazon customers should aim for
under 1% Order defect rate.
Exit Rate:
Exit rate is calculated on the basis of how many times a customer exits Amazon after visiting your listing.
If your exits rate is higher than average, then Amazon thinks your listing is of low quality.
Packaging Options
Amazon didn’t considered packaging options until recently. Packaging options are now considered a
ranking factor. Higher packaging options higher chances you will rank against your competitors.
Key Points for Higher Ranking on Amazon:
Revenue per Customer is Amazon’s Top Goal
Amazon Algorithm uses relevance, conversion rate, and customer satisfaction in order to rank products
Product listing with complete information is important for ranking at higher position.
Fulfillment by Amazon improves your chances of winning the Buy Box
Find ways to get reviews
More sale=Higher rankings=More sales
Now you have all information to rank higher in Amazon. You can also use Eglim Market Research Tool
to get higher rankings on Amazon. See here for more information www.Eglim.com.
Chapter 4
Winning the Buy Box
There are two kinds of sellers present of Amazon. Amazon itself and other third party sellers who are
using Amazon platform to generate sales. There is no limit to how many products a seller can list on
Amazon. The selling platform of Amazon is quite different from Ebay. On Amazon, sellers can list
against already listed product page or can start a new product page as on Ebay. When listing against
product, there are several other competitors which are competing against each other.
When a customer clicks “Add to cart” button, the sale goes to the seller in the Buy Box. This seller is
called “winner” of the Buy Box and will make far more sales than any other seller for that product.
How to get Buy Box on Amazon is the major purpose and reason behind this chapter which we are going
to discuss in detail.
Importance of Buy Box When Amazon started in 1995, no one imagined that it could become a HUGE ecommerce platform.
Having a revenue of $74.5 billion in 2013 it has grown in recent years like never before. Out of $74.5
billion $60 billion of the revenue was earned through the Buy Box. Around $30 Billion was earned by
third party sellers.
Potential of Buy Box: With sales of third party seller set to grow up to $41 billion in 2015, Buy Box has become a big
opportunity for sellers. This is because 80% of the total sales goes through Buy Box. It is thus important
for seller to understand which variable has positive and negative effect on the Buy Box. We will be
dealing with how Buy Box works and what techniques can help you win the Buy Box.
Myths and Misconception about Buy Box Before we take a look at what is Buy Box and how it works, we need to analyze several rumors and myths
on How to win the Buy Box. Most of these techniques are just plain wrong. Below we have discussed
some of them.
Lowest Price Point Manipulations This theory emerged in 2012. According to this claim a Seller can win the Buy Box if lowest price offer is
reduced to a certain percentage and a penny is taken off it. After testing this theory with the help of Eglim
Buy Box tracker we were able to analyze the following result
‘There is no fixed ratio or percentage that can work in order for you to win the Buy Box. However by
doing this the sellers can get into price wars hence lowering the profit margins’
The 2% Rotation Rule Another assumption is that the Seller can win the Buy Box if the price is within 2% of the current Buy
Box winner price. This works sometime but it cannot be proved that this is due to this factor as Buy Box
rotates between sellers, hence it is difficult to tell whether this is because of this reason.
How Amazon Buy Box Works:
The main goal of Amazon is to provide customer best possible experience while shopping on Amazon
platform. For this purpose Amazon has devised a system (known as Buy Box) which works in the
following way.
The Buy Box algorithm first analyzes each offer by all the sellers and evaluates each offer on the basis of
Past history of seller, prices and many other variable which will be discussed in later section. After
analysis, buy box present the best option to the users. The sellers are rotated in order to know which seller
is giving best services for that particular product.
Buy Box Rotations
Amazon in recent years have abandoned the idea to give buy box to only one seller. Instead they now
have the facility of sharing the Buy Box. There are several variables through which seller who will get the
Buy Box is determined.
For instance if 10 sellers are providing same product then it is possible that they would get 10% share of
the Buy Box over a period of 24 hours. In other cases a high performing seller could get 80 % of the share
whereas other 20% could be distributed between the other sellers.
Buy Box rotation don’t always take place. When it take place, it depends on product, competition and
time of the day. These rotations are hidden from the customer and visitors can only see one Buy Box
winner per hour. This is because Amazon uses Cookies to ensure each customer to see one Buy box
winner per hour.
In case where buy box winner’s metrics changes like price of the product, or availability of product then it
is possible that Amazon might rotate the seller even before one hour. Is it possible to beat Amazon? This
is a common question asked by many seller. Yes in case your buy box metrics are better as compared to
Amazon, then you can win the Buy Box. For this you should have high seller’s rating and a very
competitive price. Notice one thing here that Amazon gives itself 100% sellers rating.
Cases when no Seller get to win the Buy Box:
There are two instances when no seller is able to win the buy box.
1. When no seller is able to meet the standard seller metrics (means they have substandard seller’s
metrics)
2. In case the price is higher than the industry price.
In above two cases all buying options are shown. Visitors can see all the buying option in order to see
which option is better.
The Variables That Affect Buy Box
Once eligibility has been determined, in the next steps Amazon compares multiple variables to determine
which offer will be best for customer. It is important to note that all the variables measured here are
considered on relative basis. For example a seller with a rating of 92% will have a negative impact if it is
competing with a seller having a rating of 96 %.
The variables considered by the Buy Box algorithm are as follows:
Fulfillment Method
Buy Box impact: Very High
The most important factor which Amazon consider is fulfilment method. Fulfilment can be done in two
ways either through FBA (fulfilment by Amazon) or FBM (Fulfilment by Merchant). Amazon gives FBA
a perfect score for multiple variable including shipping method, on time delivery, Inventory depth. This
make highly unlikely for Merchants to beat sellers with FBA. There are cases when FBM seller can beat
seller with FBA. For this the seller’s feedback score should be high and prices should be competitive.
Fulfilment by Amazon for this reason is easiest and quickest way to improve your chances of winning the
buy box. This decision has to be a strategic one as it can eat up significant part of your revenue. Hence, it
is important to proper plan it before making any decision.
Landed Price
Buy Box impact: High
Landed price is the total price for which the product is sold for on Amazon. This includes shipping
charges and VAT. A lower price increases the chances of winning the Buy box. This is probably the
easiest way to increase your chances of winning the Buy Box. By dropping price your chances of winning
the Buy Box increases. Conversely, higher seller metrics in relation to competing sellers can lead toward
winning the buy box.
Seller Rating
Buy Box impact: High
Seller rating is the score given by the customer to the seller.
For every order that is fulfilled without any kind of problem seller gets 100 point. In case Amazon
considers it to be a perfect order it then awards the seller 10 extra point. 110 points is the maximum what
the seller can get. However if any issue like delayed shipping, cancellation of order or buyer leaving
negative feedback arises, then seller get negative point. In case of late shipment seller gets zero points.
While orders with moderate problems like late shipping receive -100 points. Negative feedback give
seller -500 points.
The average of all score given to the seller is defined in percentage form which is known as seller rating.
Only orders within 365 days are considered for this rating. Whereas the last 90 day’s weightage is higher
as compared to the previous time period.
While comparing sellers, Amazon group sellers on the basis of following rating brackets.
The Buy Box groups are:
• 100-98%
• 97-95%
• 94-90%
• 89-80%
• 79-70%
• Less than 70%
Any improvement in the seller rating will have a positive impact, however jumping from one bracket to
another improves the chances of winning the buy box significantly. For instance improving seller rating
from 94% to 96% will have a greater impact as compared to when the seller moves from 95% to 96%.
Shipping Time Buy Box impact: High
The amount of time seller requires to ship required item is known as the shipping time. For certain
products like birthday cards and perishable items this has high impact on winning the buy box.
Shipping Time is arranged into several brackets. These are:
• 0-2 days
• 3-7 days
• 8-13 days
• 14 or more days
The days in the above brackets refer to just the working days and does not include Saturdays and
Sundays.
Order Defect Rate Buy Box impact: Medium
Order defect rate comprises of following three different metrics
Negative feedback rating
A-Z Guarantee claim rate
Service chargeback rate
Amazon add these rates in order to find the no of order which were defective. The ODR should be below
1 % according to Amazon. Seller with higher ODR are penalized in long and short term.
Feedback Score Buy Box impact: Medium
Feedback score is the culmination of all feedback score the seller has received over a period of last 30
days, 90 days and 365 Days. The most recent feedback has the largest impact.
Delivery History Buy Box impact: Medium
Three different elements of the delivery are considered. Each one is considered on the basis of last 7, 30,
and 90 days. The three elements include on time delivery, late shipment delivery, and Tracked delivery
rate. On time delivery is the percentage of order buyers received within the estimated delivery date. Late
shipment delivery is the rate of order being shipped after 3 or more days.
Customer Response Time Buy Box impact: Medium
It was initially believed that this metrics has little or no effect at all. Now it is evident that a quick
customer response has a positive impact. Amazon check responses for the last 7, 30 and 90 days and
compare them for all the competing sellers. Messages replied after 24 hours or never replied to can have
an adverse effect on the ratings. With mark as no response needed the seller can save themselves from
any negative points. However replying within 12 hours increases your chances of winning the buy box.
Feedback Count Buy Box impact: Medium
Feedback count is the no of buyers who have given seller feedback. Until recently it was not given any
important. But now feedback count has become a key metric in itself. Higher feedback count can lead
towards winning the buy box.
Inventory Depth and Sales Volume Buy Box impact: Low
Amazon prefers those sellers who have enough inventory to cater the demand which the Buy Box can
create. For this very reason, sellers with large inventory, consistent sales, and good stock history may be
granted a higher buy box share.
These metrics are not much important and may not have a great impact on the buy box. However if two
similar sellers are competing against each other than this might have an impact.
Cancellation and Refund Rate Buy Box impact: Low
No of order cancelled before being shipped by the seller or after being shipped by the buyer make up the
cancellation and refund rate. A rate higher than 2.5 % can effect Buy box winning.
Winning the Buy Box
In order to win buy box, seller needs to improve their metrics without forfeiting performance in other
areas. In reality it is not always easy to find a perfect balance between customer support, price and several
other factors.
Strategies in the below section will help you to work efficiently in order to improve Buy Box share.
Know Your Metrics The same way a seller needs to keep account of their profits and losses, in the similar way seller should be
aware of their seller metrics in Amazon seller central.
Sacrificing One Metric for Another
One strategy a seller can employ is to focus on metrics which is important and forge any other metric with
low impact on the Buy Box. For instance the seller might decide to reply the customer within 24 hours as
compared to within 12 hours response. While giving more time in removing the bad reviews.
Improving Seller Performance Although all metrics are important and seller should focus on each one of them. However, the important
ones we have highlighted in the above section should not never be ignored.
Love the Brackets Understanding the brackets is a great way to get yourself to win the buy box. For instance if a seller has a
response period of under 14 hours and shipping time of 7 days. The seller can reduce response time to 12
hours which will have a great impact. Whereas if the seller aims for 2 days shipping time, then it would
require a lot more investment.
In order to see which thing needs to be improved seller central is your home. You will be able to find out
what needs to be improved to increase chances of winning the buy box.
Tracking the Buy Box: Now you know the importance of buy box and factors that affect it. The next question is how to know
which seller is winning the buy box. If you are able to know which seller is winning the buy box, then
you can analyze factors which affect the percentage of their winning the buy box. Eglim is the tool which
can give you insight into which seller is winning the buy box. This information is vital because then you
will be able to know which factors are affecting the buy box. You can find out
The particular seller who is winning the buy box with time and winning percentage
Reverse engineer their strategy
Price the winner is offering
The exact percentage of each buyer winning the buy box
Your percentage of winning the buy box
With this tool you will be able to get all the information of how you will be able to win the buy box. You
can now plan and strategize accordingly in order to win the buy box every time. Visit www.Eglim.com.
