New study: Does Amazon prefer itself in the Buy Box?
The accusation: Amazon prefers itself in the awarding of the Buy Box. The rumors have existed for years. Especially in the community of Amazon sellers, the accusation seems to have already established itself as truth. There is currently no solid evidence for circumventing competition rules, but at least the antitrust authorities are also investigating the corporation.
Because the dual role that Amazon takes on is particularly problematic: The company is both the owner of the platform and a seller on that platform. Although Amazon does not have a monopoly, it does have a very high market share in German online retail.
Now the ARD business magazine Plusminus has also dealt with Amazon and the rumors surrounding the Buy Box. In collaboration with a price analysis company, several tens of thousands of products were observed and evaluated. The results are quite surprising – but different from what most marketplace sellers would probably assume.
Why is the Buy Box so crucial?
PlusminusはAmazon Buy Boxに焦点を当てました。製品をショッピングカートに追加することを可能にする黄色いボタンは、小売プラットフォームのすべての顧客に知られています。そして、特に小売商品を扱う販売者にとって、ショッピングカートのフィールドは重要な役割を果たします。
Because instead of creating a separate product page for each offer (as eBay does, for example), Amazon consolidates all offers of the same product on a detail page. To decide which seller receives an incoming order and thus has sold the product from their inventory, the Amazon algorithm considers various parameters, including price, shipping method, shipping speed, and any customer reviews.
Now, the fact is that the vast majority of customers order directly through the yellow button and do not bother to look at the other offers for the product. Therefore, whoever wins the Buy Box receives about 90% of the sales. Those who do not win the Buy Buy Box practically walk away empty-handed. Thus, the competition for the shopping cart field is crucial, and the awarding criteria are antitrust-relevant. If Amazon were to prefer itself here, it might be abusing its market power.
Does Amazon prefer itself and its own offerings? – Study results
For the Amazon study, Plusminus examined 64,000 products on the marketplace of the online giant. Both price and delivery speed were considered in the analysis, but no other criteria such as the reliability or customer rating of a seller were included. All products included in the study were offered by multiple sellers as well as by Amazon itself.
» Plusminusによると、64,000製品のうち20,000製品で、AmazonがBuy Boxを保持していました。これはちょうど31%を超えています。
» 約8,000製品（12.5%）について、Amazonは他の販売者がより低価格を提供しているにもかかわらず、Buy Boxを保持していました。ここでは、Amazonは平均して1.83ユーロ高かったですが、通常は最も早い配達時間を持つ販売者でもありました。
» しかし、156製品については、Amazonはより高い価格でBuy Boxを保持しているだけでなく、Amazonと同じくらい早く配達できる他の販売者が少なくとも1人いました。これは調査された製品のわずか0.25%に相当します。
For each of the 156 sellers, it could potentially be a significant loss if Amazon were to actually prefer itself here and disregard competition rules. However, regarding the overall study, the result is different from what many marketplace sellers would have likely assumed beforehand. 156 out of 64,000 products is an insignificantly small share.
さらに、Plusminusの研究は、AmazonのBuy Boxを価格と配達速度の2つの授与基準のみに基づいて考慮しています。これらの両方の側面は間違いなく非常に重要ですが、決定的な要因はそれだけではありません。少なくとも他の11のBuy Box基準が特定でき、ショッピングカートフィールドの授与にも影響を与えます。これらを無視すると、現実の歪んだ像しか得られません。
How marketplace sellers win the Buy Box with the highest possible price
最も低い価格ではなく、むしろ高い価格でBuy Boxを保持することは、実際には小売商品の販売者の大多数にとって可能です。しかし、manual的に価格を調整することは絶望的な試みです – あまりにも多くの基準と競合他社を考慮する必要があります。適切な価格調整ツールを使用すれば、これをかなり信頼性高く管理できます。これがまさにSELLERLOGICが顧客のために何年も行っていることです。Buy Boxのシェアが95%であることは珍しくありません。
Annemarie Raluca Schuster
“最終的に、企業はソフトウェアを使用してのみ成功した価格戦略を実施でき、manual的に行うことは不可能です。SELLERLOGIC Repricerを使用することで、私のBuy Boxシェアを95%に増やすことができました！”
In contrast to the Amazon study conducted by Plusminus, the Repricer inherently takes into account the important Buy Box criteria. As a result, it wins the Buy Box not with the lowest, but with the highest possible price depending on the current status of the other metrics of the offering seller.
あなたもほぼ100%のBuy Boxシェアを達成したいですか？それなら、今すぐSELLERLOGIC Repricerを14日間無料で試してみてください！
Conclusion: Plusminus study on the Amazon Buy Box
Amazon’s dual role in connection with the high market share that the company has in e-commerce is certainly problematic, even if there is no classic monopoly in online retail. However, the result of this large-scale study of nearly 64,000 products also shows why it is so important not to focus solely on price or delivery speed as the decisive metrics.
In addition, there are many other customer-relevant criteria that influence the price with which a seller can win the Buy Box for their offer. Only with intelligent software is pricing for Amazon sellers still meaningful and, above all, economically feasible today. It is important to choose a dynamic Repricer that not only keeps an eye on the price but also on other important metrics and competitors.
Image credit: © Nuthawut – stock.adobe.com
