Ongoing Buy Box / Featured Offer Issue in Canada — Severely Impacting Book Sellers
Hi Amazon Team and fellow sellers, I’m writing to bring continued attention to a serious and ongoing issue with how the Buy Box (now known as the Featured Offer) is functioning on Amazon Canada. Historically, and across many categories, the Buy Box has consistently favored FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) offers—which makes sense given the higher fees and the value-added service FBA provides to both customers and Amazon. This has long been a core part of our business strategy and operations, especially for sellers of used books and other media, where margins are already tight.
However, a major change was implemented not long ago in both the U.S. and Canadian markets, where the Buy Box began favoring merchant-fulfilled (FBM) offers—even when FBA offers were priced competitively. This shift caused a massive disruption for many sellers, especially those operating on thin margins or who rely on volume through FBA to stay afloat.
The good news: this issue has been corrected in the U.S., and the Buy Box behavior has returned to more expected logic. Unfortunately, it has not been corrected in Canada. In Canada: Merchant-fulfilled offers continue to dominate the Buy Box. In some cases, the Featured Offer is being awarded to sellers located outside of Canada, leading to increased shipping times and customer confusion. In Canada, high domestic shipping costs make FBM an unviable option for many Canadian sellers—especially in the used books/media space, where product value often doesn’t justify the logistics cost. This creates a critical disadvantage for Canadian FBA sellers and has pushed many of us to the brink.
The system as it currently stands makes it almost impossible to compete or even sustain a basic level of sales. Without visibility via the Featured Offer, even competitively priced FBA inventory is sitting stagnant. We continue to receive generic responses like “everything is working as intended” or “we’re looking into it,” but nothing has changed.
***Amazon Canada should align with the U.S. marketplace, especially given that the U.S. sets the precedent for many best practices and is by far the largest and most established Amazon market. The inconsistency between marketplaces is confusing, damaging, and potentially business-ending for many of us.
We’re urgently asking for: A formal investigation into the current Buy Box behaviour on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com for used media (and how they differ). - A timeline or update on when alignment with the U.S. buy box logic might be expected.
This issue is not just frustrating—it’s devastating. Please take this seriously and help us continue to run sustainable businesses on the Amazon.ca platform
@Josh_Amazon @Christine_Amazon @Glenn_Amazon
Ongoing Buy Box / Featured Offer Issue in Canada — Severely Impacting Book Sellers
Hi Amazon Team and fellow sellers, I’m writing to bring continued attention to a serious and ongoing issue with how the Buy Box (now known as the Featured Offer) is functioning on Amazon Canada. Historically, and across many categories, the Buy Box has consistently favored FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) offers—which makes sense given the higher fees and the value-added service FBA provides to both customers and Amazon. This has long been a core part of our business strategy and operations, especially for sellers of used books and other media, where margins are already tight.
However, a major change was implemented not long ago in both the U.S. and Canadian markets, where the Buy Box began favoring merchant-fulfilled (FBM) offers—even when FBA offers were priced competitively. This shift caused a massive disruption for many sellers, especially those operating on thin margins or who rely on volume through FBA to stay afloat.
The good news: this issue has been corrected in the U.S., and the Buy Box behavior has returned to more expected logic. Unfortunately, it has not been corrected in Canada. In Canada: Merchant-fulfilled offers continue to dominate the Buy Box. In some cases, the Featured Offer is being awarded to sellers located outside of Canada, leading to increased shipping times and customer confusion. In Canada, high domestic shipping costs make FBM an unviable option for many Canadian sellers—especially in the used books/media space, where product value often doesn’t justify the logistics cost. This creates a critical disadvantage for Canadian FBA sellers and has pushed many of us to the brink.
The system as it currently stands makes it almost impossible to compete or even sustain a basic level of sales. Without visibility via the Featured Offer, even competitively priced FBA inventory is sitting stagnant. We continue to receive generic responses like “everything is working as intended” or “we’re looking into it,” but nothing has changed.
***Amazon Canada should align with the U.S. marketplace, especially given that the U.S. sets the precedent for many best practices and is by far the largest and most established Amazon market. The inconsistency between marketplaces is confusing, damaging, and potentially business-ending for many of us.
We’re urgently asking for: A formal investigation into the current Buy Box behaviour on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com for used media (and how they differ). - A timeline or update on when alignment with the U.S. buy box logic might be expected.
This issue is not just frustrating—it’s devastating. Please take this seriously and help us continue to run sustainable businesses on the Amazon.ca platform
@Josh_Amazon @Christine_Amazon @Glenn_Amazon
0 replies
Seller_RT1hgyJYoTv3H
@Christine_Amazon@JiAlex_Amazon@Josh_Amazon@Nano_Amazon
Please refer to the mega-thread I created as more proof that this is a serious ongoing issue that should not be taken lightly or thrown under the rug. We in Canada matter. We fight for what is right. We demand equality. Make the featured offer logic the same as it is in the USA. This has been fixed after their mega-glitch. Canada is still not 100% fixed. There is no reason for more expensive international and USA based merchant fulfilled sellers to dominate the buy boxes with more expensive prices and 1 month shipping.
Canadian customers pay for the PRIME FBA experience and they are not easily getting it. They have to dig for our used media offers, which are usually even cheaper and DEFINITELY faster shipping as the items are located IN Canada, not in Germany.
I repeat, this issue plagued the USA marketplace and it since has been resolved. Enough with the testing on Canadians. Let's stop with the "aLgoRiThM tEsTs" and get the marketplace back in working order.
Read the forums. We are enraged.
Christine_Amazon
Hello @Seller_6pPATney7fU5a
Christine here.
I want to clarify, this situation was escalated to the highest point of escalation, and they have confirmed this is working as intended.
As mention in other threads, Sellers with active offers in multiple countries may notice differences in Featured Offer behavior from time to time.
Although we cannot disclose the specifics of ongoing changes, please rest assured that we carefully consider each change to ensure that we do what's best for customers and treat sellers fairly and equally.
Also, please know, that creating multiple threads for the same question causes confusion and interruptions in the forums, which may take longer to get the answer you're looking for.
You can continue the discussion at the link posted below.
Buy Box Favoring Non-Canadian Sellers Despite Prime-Eligible Inventory in Amazon Canada Warehouse
Christine.
