When Amazon sells a product itself, it competes with you on the same listing, and it usually wins: Amazon prices to hold the Buy Box and doesn't rotate it the way sellers do. A listing where Amazon holds the Buy Box most of the time leaves little for anyone else, however many units it sells.
What matters is how often Amazon wins
Amazon being on a listing isn't the problem. How often it holds the Buy Box is. Many listings have Amazon in and out: it sells for a few weeks, runs out of stock, and comes back. While Amazon is out, sellers like you share the Buy Box.
Read Amazon's share from the last 30 and 90 days of history, never from a single moment, and go with the higher of the two. A listing where Amazon held the Buy Box 15% of the last 90 days is a very different buy from one at 85%.
Reading Amazon on the chart
In the price box, Amazon has its own line. Where the line is drawn, Amazon had stock and an offer; where it breaks, Amazon was out. The offers box header says whether Amazon is selling today. Run the PO Assistant on the product and its chart also marks the Amazon selling spans in the strip under the price box, and the read names it as the thing to watch out for, such as "Amazon sells 40% of the time". See the marks on the chart.
Look for two patterns:
- Amazon steady: an unbroken Amazon line at or under the Buy Box. Your share is small for as long as that lasts.
- Amazon in and out: long gaps in the line. Your share is good while Amazon is out, and the order should sell inside one of those gaps or survive Amazon's return.
How much Amazon is too much
There's no single right number, but most buyers work in three bands:
- Amazon holds the Buy Box now and most days: skip it. You'd be waiting for scraps.
- Amazon wins it now and then: buy, but size for the share Amazon leaves, not the listing's full sales.
- Amazon rarely there: treat it like any other shared listing.
The PO Assistant's suggested quantity splits the listing's sales evenly between you and the sellers on it. It doesn't take Amazon's share off, so on a listing Amazon wins often, trim the suggestion yourself. Take Amazon's share off once, from the listing's sales, and don't cut the order again for the same reason.
To hide these listings before you start, the Results rules have Exclude Amazon on the listing. See What the rules test.
When Amazon leaves
Amazon running out of stock is often the best moment to buy a listing it usually wins. The Amazon line breaks, the offers box says Amazon isn't selling, and sellers share the Buy Box again. A good product you passed on for Amazon is worth checking again every few weeks. Buy what sells before Amazon is likely back: the gaps in its line over the last year tell you how long it usually stays out.
A worked example
A dish soap sells about 1,200 a month. Amazon held the Buy Box 70% of the last 90 days and 40% of the last 30. Go with 70%. Three other sellers can win it, so your share is 30% split four ways: about 7.5%, or 90 a month. For 45 days and cases of 15, that's 135 units: 9 cases.
The PO Assistant's read flags it, "Amazon sells 70% of the time", and its suggestion runs higher because it doesn't take Amazon's share off. The 9 cases is your number.
A second listing, where Amazon held the Buy Box 96% of the time, is a pass for now. Check its Amazon line again in a few weeks: if Amazon runs out, it can be a buy.