Help with Amazon Buy Box and Advertising..

[tiredguy]

Why can't i ever win the Buy Box?

Established accounts. 2 yrs+4yrs
positive feedback.
Sold items/ so has history.
Performance is 100% Perfect.

Attempting to advertise but that doesn't work even if the listing is a new item. From what I've read you need to win the buy box first.

Listing items has reviews, established. Different items, different prices, Category is software. still no buy box.

I know If i transfer it to FBA i'd get the buy box, but that i refuse and will continue FBM. For no particular reasons, and even though it's been several years I refuse to accept defeat.


Any insight would be appreciated.

[Papyrusman]

For FBM vs. FBA, you have to be much more price aggressive.
I can get like $20 more per unit if I sell FBA than when I do FBM.

[quantum]

FBM buy box is a flawed system. Best if you try and figure out what categories you have buy box in and milk those categories. There are some categories that are virtually impossible to get buy box for no matter how old and good your account health is.

[tiredguy]

For FBM..

Yes quantum, that's the only thing I haven't tried and was thinking about.. there is a way to manipulate the category and which over to category to intended, so I'll try that and see how it goes..��

[rsot]

Originally Posted by tiredguy

For FBM..

Yes quantum, that's the only thing I haven't tried and was thinking about.. there is a way to manipulate the category and which over to category to intended, so I'll try that and see how it goes..��

Sounds interesting - best of luck on the manipulation

[Papyrusman]

how would you go about "manipulating" the categories of a listing that you're on? Would it even be worth it?

[aria7]

Software is a known category for Buy Box issues. Even FBA sellers won't always get it.


I'm in a different category and exclusively FBA and on, say, 2 out of 250 ASINs I haven't got the buy box.


One thing I would say is that if Amazon suspected you were manipulating the category they could hit you with an account violation. Not a game I'd be willing to play with my account.


Not what you want to probably want to hear but either live with it or trial FBA, you might be pleasantly surprised at how many more sales you make and what prices you can get.

[Papyrusman]

I totally agree with aria.
I get significantly higher prices with FBA than I do FBM. I use FBM to keep me active when and if my FBA goes out of stock.
If you do go FBA, plan on several week lead times getting things checked into Amazon.

[tiredguy]

Several weeks seems a mission..
I do recall couple my accounts a while back getting the buy box but that's when I used to play around with the categories.. I'd list in electronic, or hardware etc, get the item listed.. then edit listing and change category. Haven't done that in a while..ill do so again in a few day..

But strange thing I just saw, there's a couple new sellers obviously doing some dodgy stuff.. listed all new item FBM, 0 feedback and they've got the buy box in software.

1 of them looks like he got his account to have a branded company. even though the item listed isn't his. Other guy, same person or partner doesn't have a brand

I see that they activated the 0 installments on their listings.. I attempted that, went live today.. still no buy box though.

Going to check his other id to see if he's got a brand, perhaps that's the trick.

[tiredguy]

Aria thx for input.

How about the following, do you guys put anything in the following fields.

Let's say the item is for $100, if so, what would you put.

There's
1.minimum advertised price (empty)
2.your price ($100)
3.sale price (which I play about with)
4.List price (greater value and or empty)

[tiredguy]

Looks like his second account, if somehow using the brand from his first account.. so that could be the trick.. having a brand registered gives you automatic buy box feature, even for new accounts. I'll attempt that next..

[rsot]

Originally Posted by tiredguy

Looks like his second account, if somehow using the brand from his first account.. so that could be the trick.. having a brand registered gives you automatic buy box feature, even for new accounts. I'll attempt that next..

second account linked to first? Difficult to follow the reasoning

[tiredguy]

Well I guess all along it was simply the category..

Listed a software, place it in different category.. waited 15 minutes and switched category to software and instantly have buy box.

Certain categories are blocked for FBM .. thx for everyone's else..

[Apexpursuit]

I mainly sell FBM. Something has changed recently with our account. We use to win the buybox against FBA seller by just pricing $1 less than them. Now we cant even win it with $5 less than them. We have super aggressive pricing. It seems amazon is pushing FBA more than ever.

Not to mention I have many items that show im in the buybox when viewing amazon.com. But when I view the listing from someone elses amazon account, its FBA or amazon in the buybox. Its disgusting and has caused our sales to decline 1/2 over the past 6 months.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by tiredguy

Well I guess all along it was simply the category..

Listed a software, place it in different category.. waited 15 minutes and switched category to software and instantly have buy box.

Certain categories are blocked for FBM .. thx for everyone's else..

Congrats - hope the listing holds with the bypass

[quantum]

Something to note though.. brand new accounts that I purchased in the past had buy box for every category. Not sure what it was, but these fresh accounts that I bought were registered in a way that Amazon liked and gave these accounts buy box eligibility for everything. They were gold if they lasted more than 6 months assuming velocity limits were bypassed.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by quantum

Something to note though.. brand new accounts that I purchased in the past had buy box for every category. Not sure what it was, but these fresh accounts that I bought were registered in a way that Amazon liked and gave these accounts buy box eligibility for everything. They were gold if they lasted more than 6 months assuming velocity limits were bypassed.

Bought outside the forum?

[quantum]

from beautiful..

[SaiJin]

Originally Posted by quantum

from beautiful..

That's the thing about amazon, They are volatile....
You really have to know what you're doing, they aren't like eBay.

Even good accounts can be nuked at their whims

[tiredguy]

Yeah, accounts good.. I have buy boxes.. in regards to that 1 dude fighting over buy box or someone just hijacking the listing, I bypass all this with generic.. so one will be able to list under it, just you.. and people aren't that smart to question it, that includes amazon as I've done it for 20 years.. only draw back is it might be not visible on first page if it's a popular search (I only sell items no one else is selling) regardless, create ur listing, advertise it, and it'll move up to first page in a week.

[Papyrusman]

Tired. Just clarifying if I want to try something myself. Instead of competing on an existing listing like, Charmin Toilet Paper, you are creating your own "Charmin Toilet Paper" listing with a "Generic" Brand?

How are you keeping other sellers off of this listing?

[rsot]

Originally Posted by Papyrusman

Tired. Just clarifying if I want to try something myself. Instead of competing on an existing listing like, Charmin Toilet Paper, you are creating your own "Charmin Toilet Paper" listing with a "Generic" Brand?

How are you keeping other sellers off of this listing?

Seems difficult to keep other sellers off of this listing...