Buy Box and Competition: Who's Really Selling Your Brand?

Every day, thousands of brands lose space and revenue within marketplaces without even realizing it. The competition is not just between different companies, it takes place within the Buy Box.

The “Add to Cart” button may be directing sales to a Parallel reseller, um Unauthorized Distributor Or, even worse, a Counterfeiter. And the consumer, without knowing this, believes they are buying directly from you.

This article is a warning for those who believe Have control of your own operation on the marketplaces. Let's show why the Buy Box dispute redefines power within e-commerce and how to protect your brand!

What is Buy Box and why does it matter so much?

The Buy Box is the board that usually appears To the right of the main product image on the marketplaces pages, with the “Add to cart” and “Buy now” buttons, in addition to information such as price, delivery time, responsible seller, and shipping options.

As in marketplaces there are several sellers offering the same product, the system must choose which of them will be displayed in this prominent area. To do this, the marketplace algorithm takes into account a series of performance and reliability criteria.

How does the Buy Box dispute work?

The Buy Box dispute works like a competition between sellers who offer the same product within a marketplace. The platform's algorithm analyzes several criteria to decide who will appear on the main board of the page.

Among the factors considered are the total offer price (including shipping), or Shipping time, to Seller Reputation, to Returns rate And the Level of customer service.

In the image below, we can see A real Buy Box example on the Mercado Livre page. In this case, the winner of the Buy Box contest was the official Lizze store, indicated by the “Official Store” seal just below the price.

The purpose of the Buy Box is to highlight the seller who, in theory, offers the best combination of cost, efficiency, and trust.

Despite this, in many cases, official brands end up losing visibility to Parallel Distributors Or even Counterfeiters, who manipulate prices or delivery conditions to conquer the Buy Box.

What are the risks of losing the Buy Box dispute?

Whenever the original brand loses space in the Buy Box, unauthorized sellers start to define the price, delivery time, and customer experience.

In the list below, the main Risks of not occupying the Buy Box:

Loss of sales and visibility

Most purchases take place through the Buy Box. When a competitor occupies the space, the official product loses exposure and the sales volume drops immediately, since the consumer rarely seeks other sellers.

Price Erosion and Discount War

The constant dispute encourages aggressive price reduction. Each seller tries to win by cutting values, which creates a Race for the Lowest Price and destroys the brand's profit margins.

Damage to the consumer experience

If the highlight is left with a Side seller, the customer may receive a counterfeit, late, or poorly packaged product. Even without direct fault, the official brand is blamed for the poor experience.

What characterizes an unauthorized seller and how do you identify irregular advertisements?

An unauthorized seller is one that sells products from a brand without having any commercial relationship or official permission For that. It could be a side retailer, an uncontracted distributor, or even someone selling counterfeit, unknown in origin, or irregularly purchased items.

These profiles often take advantage of the visibility of well-known brands to create their own ads, using images, descriptions, and even official logos without consent.

Os Irregular ads are easy to identify by a few signs:

• Prices well below the market average;
• Absence of an “Official Store” seal;
• Errors in the description or exaggerated titles (such as “guaranteed original”, “last units”, and “imported premium”).
• In some cases, the product is not even authentic (it is counterfeit, refurbished, or imported in parallel).

Monitoring these ads is one way to protect the Brand Equity and customer trust. Tools of Online brand protection Help automatically track undue mentions of the brand name and alert when an unauthorized seller tries to impersonate an official one.

Remember: the Buy Box is the most popular e-commerce space, and when your brand isn't there, someone is making a profit in your place.

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