Nearly every Amazon sale goes through the featured offer, better known as the Buy Box. Losing it looks like nothing from inside your own account: the listing is live, the stock is there, your price has not moved, and sales simply stop. The Buy Box screen shows who holds the featured offer on each of your ASINs, and the gap between your price and the winning price.
It reports what Amazon says and nothing more. SeroBooks never changes a price; any move is yours to make in Seller Central.
How to open it
Amazon ▸ Buy Box.
Which view you see
The screen can show one of two measurements, depending on what Amazon allows your connection to read:
- The live view: who holds the featured offer on each ASIN right now, and at what price. It is taken from Amazon's pricing data in a nightly sweep.
- The share view: the share of each period your offer was featured, from Amazon's sales and traffic data. SeroBooks shows this while Amazon has not yet granted the pricing permission. It is a different measurement, and the screen says which one it is showing.
If neither is available yet, a card explains why. When Amazon has refused the pricing permission the card is amber with a padlock, and the matching item is open on Issues; that will not fix itself by waiting. Otherwise it says no snapshot has been taken yet.
The live view
Tiles
| Tile | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Winning | ASINs where you hold the featured offer, of all ASINs checked. |
| Losing | ASINs where another seller holds it (red), or none lost. |
| No featured offer | ASINs where Amazon showed no featured offer at all. Nobody holds it, so it is not a loss. |
| Checked | Date of the latest sweep (swept nightly). |
When you are losing any, an amber banner explains that another seller holds the featured offer, that this is usually why a listing goes quiet while everything else looks healthy, and that the price gap is in the table.
Filters
Losing (the default), Winning, No featured offer and Everything.
Columns
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ASIN / SKU | Amazon's ASIN with your SKU beneath. |
| Status | You hold it, Lost to another or No featured offer. |
| Featured | The featured offer's price. |
| Your price | Your offer's price. |
| Gap | How much higher your price is than the featured price, when you are not the winner (red when you are dearer). |
| Lowest | The lowest offer on the listing. |
| Offers | How many offers the listing has. |
The list starts with the biggest price gap. Sorting by Status puts losing first.
The share view
| Tile | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Featured share | Share of sessions, across all your listings, in which your offer was featured. |
| Sessions lost | Visits in which you were not featured (red when above zero). |
| Below 100% | Listings not featured for the whole period, of all listings. |
| Period | The dates covered, from sales and traffic data. |
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ASIN / SKU | The listing. |
| Featured share | Green at 90% or more, amber below 90%, red below 50%. |
| Sessions | Visits to the listing. |
| Sessions lost | Visits where you were not featured. |
| Units | Units ordered. |
Checking the Buy Box, step by step
- Open Amazon ▸ Buy Box. The list opens on Losing, sorted by the biggest price gap.
- Read the Checked tile to see which night's sweep you are looking at.
- For each lost listing, compare Your price with Featured and Lowest, and read the Gap.
- Decide in Seller Central whether to change the price. SeroBooks does not change prices.
- Choose No featured offer to see listings where Amazon shows no Buy Box at all; there is no competitor to beat on those.
Using the list
- Double-click a row to open the item's sales history, or to be told the SKU needs mapping on Products.
- Search, sort and export (CSV, Excel or PDF) as on any list.
- To see whether a lost Buy Box is costing you sales, compare the listing on Traffic: steady sessions with falling conversion point at the listing, including the Buy Box.
What to do when you have lost it
Check the Gap. If another seller is cheaper, decide in Seller Central whether to change your price. If your price is already the lowest, look in Seller Central for the reason Amazon gives.
Common problems
Every ASIN shows "No featured offer". Amazon is showing no Buy Box on those listings; there is no competitor to beat.
The screen shows featured share instead of prices. Amazon has not granted your connection permission to read pricing. The open item on Issues says what to do; when a new permission has been granted, Reconnect Amazon under Settings picks it up.