Why Losing the Buy Box Hurts Your Retail Partners

Losing the Buy Box on Amazon can frustrate your ecommerce goals, but did you know this loss has a huge impact on your overall business and profitability? Losing the Buy Box doesn’t just affect your Amazon sales, it affects your retail partners, too.

Losing the Buy Box Means Unauthorized Sellers

When you, an Amazon Seller, stop showing up in the Buy Box, it’s often because another seller has lowered the price and taken the Buy Box for themselves. Whether it’s an unauthorized seller gaming Amazon’s algorithm with price, or Amazon itself creating a competitive price as your 1P partner, another seller is stealing Amazon sales from you—on your listing! Regardless of who, when another seller lowers the price to steal the Buy Box, they create channel conflict that escalates the problem to your retail partners. With one price in-store and a different price online, your customers receive conflicting messages about your product’s value and the best place to shop.

Unauthorized Sellers Steal Your Sales And Your Retail Partners’ Sales

Even when shopping in-store, customers usually check online prices before purchase, and they will almost always choose the lower price. This means if you have channel conflict, then your retail partner will lose the sale to lower online prices. When this quandary continues, the lost sales add up fast. As retail partners painfully lose sale after sale to ecommerce, they become unhappy with your brand. Without sales, retailers can’t make a profit on your products, and they may opt to give your product less desirable shelf space, limit how much inventory they purchase in the future, or stop the relationship altogether. All because you lost the Buy Box on Amazon. One solution to help retailers is to cover the cost of price-matching. Then, retail partners can match the lower online price while your brand pays the difference. Although this may keep your relationships afloat, it’s essentially an expensive band aid. Without addressing the root of the problem, your brand will eternally cover price matching, deteriorating your long-term profits.

How Control Stops Unauthorized Sellers From Taking the Buy Box

To stop unauthorized sellers and channel conflict, you need to have omnichannel control of your brand. This comes from narrowing your distribution for ecommerce sales and creating and enforcing pricing policies to take down unauthorized sellers. With wide distribution, or providing products to a large number of resellers, it’s easy to lose track of where every item ended up. This is a goldmine for shady actors who want to buy up excess inventory and turn it for a quick profit. When you narrow your distribution, you limit the number of ways unauthorized sellers can get your products. Without access to products, it’s more difficult for unauthorized sellers to lower price and commandeer the Buy Box. When your distribution strategy is solved, you can focus on removing the remaining violators. By creating and enforcing pricing policies like MAP, you have the leverage to shut down unauthorized sellers and maintain the Buy Box at the price you determine.

How Pattern Helps You Win the Buy Box

At Pattern, we understand successful omnichannel strategies—and happy retail relationships—begin with control. When you partner with us, we work as your sole Amazon distributor, blocking leaks in the supply chain. To combat unauthorized sellers, we provide our proprietary technology and work with an eControl law firm to identify and remove unauthorized sellers. We help you stabilize pricing and support your sales partnerships. Ready to protect your retail relationships? Get in touch today.‍