What Is the Buy Box?

The short answer to the question "what is the Buy Box?": when several sellers offer the same product, it is the seller that the "Add to Cart" ("Sepete Ekle") button on the product page is tied to, in other words the featured seller. Because most customers press this button without looking at the other sellers, the seller who wins the Buy Box gets most of the sales for that product.

What is the Buy Box, and how does it work?

On marketplaces such as Trendyol, Hepsiburada and Amazon, each seller does not open a separate page for the same product; the product is consolidated on a single page, and sellers submit offers on that page with their own prices and stock. The marketplace selects one of these offers and displays it in the main purchase area of the product page. The other sellers are usually listed in a separate section of the page, under a heading such as "other sellers."

The barcode plays an important role in matching identical products. For example, on Amazon you do not need a GTIN when adding an offer to an existing product page, but you do need one in most categories when creating a new product page. We explained what a barcode is and how to get one in our article what is a barcode.

The Buy Box on Trendyol, Hepsiburada and Amazon

None of the marketplaces fully disclose the formula they use to determine the Buy Box. The formula can change over time and may work differently by category. So read the factors below not as hard rules, but as general trends indicated by the marketplaces and by seller experience.

General factors that determine the Buy Box

• Price: An important factor, but not decisive on its own. The seller with the lowest price may not win the Buy Box if they fall behind on other criteria.
• Shipping and delivery time: Sellers who hand orders over to the carrier quickly and deliver within the promised time usually come out ahead. Free or fast delivery options can give you an advantage.
• Seller rating and performance: Store rating, customer reviews, and cancellation and return rates are taken into account. The Amazon.com.tr selling guide, for example, targets keeping the order defect rate below 1%, the pre-fulfillment cancel rate below 2.5% and the late shipment rate below 4%; these targets may be updated over time.
• Stock: A seller who runs out of stock or has incorrect stock information loses the Buy Box. Selling an out-of-stock product and then canceling the order hurts both your Buy Box chances and your seller rating.

What can a seller do to win the Buy Box?

Even though the formula is unknown, there are clear steps a seller can directly control:

1. Keep your stock accurate. If you sell on multiple marketplaces, a sale on one channel must be deducted immediately from your stock on the other channels. Otherwise, an out-of-stock product gets sold, the order is canceled and your performance drops. We covered this topic in our article what is inventory synchronization.
2. Shorten your handover-to-carrier time. Set the time you commit to realistically and stick to it.
3. Reduce cancellations and returns. Accurate product information, accurate images and correct variant matching reduce "not what I expected" returns.
4. Set sustainable prices. Constantly cutting prices for the Buy Box erodes your profit margin. Know your floor price by factoring in commission, shipping and withholding tax (stopaj) deductions.