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Case Study

Controlling the Price between Amazon & Walmart.com​

February 12, 2020

Metrics

39%

Month-Over-Month Growth

REGAINED BUY BOX​

On All Products

Context

Owning the buy box on Amazon can be a huge battle for sellers who are fighting off multiple sellers on their listings.

However, many Brands fail to recognize that they can lose the buy box due to lower pricing on channels outside of Amazon and so they fail to take the proper precautions to prevent this from happening. Amazon’s algorithm will search other marketplaces such as Walmart and Target to ensure the lowest price is listed on Amazon and if it doesn’t have the lowest price it will suppress the buy box accordingly.

When the buy box becomes suppressed the customer is forced to take the extra step of pressing “See All Buying Options” and must select from a list of sellers in order to add to cart. Not only do these few extra clicks cause conversions to go down, but the listing itself is not eligible for advertising. These two factors combined can cause a severe decline in sales.

Our brand partner was faced with this challenge because Walmart had unexpectedly reduced pricing for 40% of their products, and therefore Amazon suppressed the buybox for all products. At the same time, our partner had no ability to lower the Amazon price to match Walmart’s pricing to regain the buy box because their items were selling via a direct relationship with Amazon, namely Vendor Central or 1P, so therefore Amazon set the pricing and typically matches the lowest price both on and off Amazon. Time was of the essence because the partner was transitioning to the third party platform or Seller Central (SC) from Vendor Central (VC) and needed to deplete the VC inventory as quickly as possible as inventory was shipping into SC.

TACTICS

  • Vendo’s Amazon team worked synergistically with Vendo’s Walmart team to work on resolving the issue.
  • The brand partner’s past Walmart buyer contact was no longer in charge of the category. Through strong Walmart buyer relationships, Vendo’s Walmart team was able to identify the correct Walmart category buyer and arrange for a meeting to discuss solutions.
  • After building the correct relationship, our team worked with the buyer to determine the amount of in stock units and negotiate options to solve the pricing issue.

    • Note: Correct Walmart inventory information is practically impossible to obtain without working through a buyer because Walmart’s system provides outdated numbers.

    RESULTS

    • 39% Month-Over-Month Growth
    • Regained Buy Box on All Products
    • The buyer offered solutions and our brand partner decided the quickest and most effective option for the situation was to initiate a buy back at cost for the remaining stock so there would no longer be any Walmart listings to compete with the Amazon listings.
    • The opportunity to work with Walmart again when the timing is right has been left open due to the positive interaction and relationship established with the buyer.
    • Regained the Amazon buy box on all products.