Overview

Amazon's Buy Box — now officially called the "Featured Offer" — remains the most important placement on the marketplace, responsible for an estimated 82% of all sales. For sellers competing on shared listings, understanding the factors that determine which merchant wins this placement is essential to maintaining visibility and revenue.

What's Changed With the Featured Offer

• Official Rebrand — Amazon has formally renamed the Buy Box to "Featured Offer," though the underlying competitive mechanics remain largely the same for sellers.
• Rotation Windows — The winning seller rotates on intervals ranging from 15 minutes to one hour, preventing any single merchant from monopolizing the placement. Strong performers can still hold it for up to 70% of the day.
• Multi-Factor Selection — The algorithm now evaluates a weighted combination of fulfillment method, performance metrics, pricing, inventory health, and seller reputation — not just price.
• Real-Time Evaluation — Rather than running periodic checks, the algorithm continuously reassesses seller performance, meaning your metrics at any given moment directly affect eligibility.

FBA vs. FBM: A Structural Advantage

Before performance metrics even come into play, sellers must clear baseline eligibility requirements — and the bar is significantly different depending on fulfillment method.

FBA sellers gain automatic eligibility by using Amazon's fulfillment network. Because Amazon controls Prime eligibility, delivery speed, tracking, and shipping reliability, FBA sellers bypass the most significant barriers from day one. Amazon's fulfillment infrastructure maintains an on-time delivery rate of roughly 98.9%, a benchmark that merchant-fulfilled sellers find difficult to match consistently.

FBM sellers face a steeper path. A Professional seller account is mandatory, as Individual accounts cannot compete for the Featured Offer regardless of performance. Account health must show consistently low rates for order defects, late shipments, and pre-fulfillment cancellations. There is also a minimum order volume threshold that varies by category, and Amazon does not publicly disclose exact numbers — an additional hurdle for newer FBM operations.