Amazon External Competitive Pricing: Why You Lost the Buy Box

Your sales have flatlined. You check your top-selling listing and see the unthinkable: the Buy Box is gone, replaced by a tiny "See All Buying Options" link. You're the only seller on the listing, your price hasn't changed, and your account health is perfect. What's going on?

You may be a victim of one of Amazon's most powerful but least understood policies: Competitive External Pricing.

Amazon is constantly scanning the web. If they find your exact product listed for a lower price on another major retail website—even your own brand website—they may suppress your Buy Box to avoid appearing uncompetitive. This guide will break down how this policy works, how to diagnose it, and what to do to get your Buy Box back.

1. What is Amazon's Competitive External Price Policy?

Amazon's number one goal is to maintain customer trust, and a huge part of that is offering the most competitive prices. To achieve this, their algorithms automatically and continuously compare the prices of products on their platform to the prices of identical products on other major e-commerce sites.

If Amazon's bots find that a customer could buy the same item for significantly less on another website, they determine that your Amazon offer is not a good value. To protect the customer experience, they will often make your offer ineligible for the Buy Box. This removes the "Add to Cart" and "Buy Now" buttons from the main product page, which crushes conversion rates as customers must take extra clicks to make a purchase.

2. Where is Amazon Looking?

Amazon's price scanners are sophisticated and focus on major, established online retailers. This includes:

• Major National Retailers: In the UK, this would be sites like Argos, John Lewis, Currys, and major supermarket websites. In the US, it would be Walmart.com, Target.com, etc.
• Major Online Marketplaces: Large, reputable marketplaces like eBay.
• Your Own Brand Website: This is the most common culprit for brand owners. A flash sale or a lower standard price on your own Shopify or WooCommerce site is a frequent trigger for losing the Amazon Buy Box.

3. How to Diagnose the Problem

If you suspect this is happening to you, here is how to confirm it:

1. Check the "Pricing Health" Dashboard: This is your primary tool. In Seller Central, navigate to the "Pricing" tab and select "Pricing Health." This dashboard will show you any of your listings that are currently ineligible for the Buy Box and will often give the specific reason. If the issue is external pricing, it will be flagged here as a "Competitive External Price" error.
2. Manually Search for Your Product: Do a Google search for your own product's name or EAN. Check the prices that appear in the Google Shopping tab and on the first page of results. This will quickly show you if another retailer, or your own site, is undercutting your Amazon price.

4. How to Fix the Issue and Regain Your Buy Box

1. Align Your Pricing (The Direct Fix): The fastest way to resolve the issue is to eliminate the price difference. You have two options:
   
   • Lower your price on Amazon to match the lower external price.
   • Raise the price on the external website to match or exceed your Amazon price.
2. Be Careful with Your Own Website's Promotions: This is a critical point for brand owners. A "20% off" flash sale on your own DTC site will likely be detected by Amazon's bots. This can trigger a Buy Box suppression on Amazon for the duration of your sale. You must ensure your promotional calendars across all channels are aligned to avoid these conflicts.
3. Monitor Your Retail Partners: If you sell your products wholesale to other retailers, they can also cause you to lose the Buy Box. If one of your retail partners violates your Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy and undercuts you online, you will need to enforce your MAP policy with them to get their price corrected.

As a full-service agency, Sitruna helps brands develop and implement a holistic pricing and distribution strategy to maximize sales and protect Buy Box ownership across all sales channels.

Useful Resources

• Amazon Seller Central: Pricing Health (Login required)
• Amazon Seller Central: Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy

Conclusion: Competing with the Entire Internet

Maintaining your Buy Box eligibility on Amazon is about more than just competing with other sellers on your listing; it's about being competitive with the entire internet. By actively monitoring your product's price across all your sales channels and understanding Amazon's commitment to offering the best value, you can build a robust pricing strategy that keeps the Buy Box where it belongs—with you.

Need help developing a pricing and distribution strategy that wins the Buy Box? Schedule a free discovery call with the Sitruna team at www.sitruna.com/meet to ensure your brand is positioned for success.

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