Hepsiburada Buy Box criteria, the 9.0 store score threshold, how the fixed transaction fee constrains price competition, and a five-step diagnostic when you lose it.
On Hepsiburada, whoever holds the "Add to Basket" button among dozens of sellers listing the same product also takes the large majority of the orders. This article covers the criteria behind the Buy Box, the store score threshold, how Hepsiburada's cost structure constrains price competition, and the diagnostic order to follow when you lose it.
The Buy Box is the algorithm that decides which seller the main "Add to Basket" button belongs to. Other sellers listing the same product remain in the "other sellers" section, where the click-through rate is very low. In practice this means: if you are not in the Buy Box, simply being listed on that product contributes little to sales.
What decides the Buy Box
- Store score. The decisive filter. Stores below 9.0 see their chance of winning the Buy Box fall sharply — even with a registered brand.
- Price. You need to be competitive, but price alone is not enough; a discount made before the other criteria are level only erodes margin.
- Shipping performance. Delivery time and a low delay rate are critical. The "dispatched today" badge alone can win you the Buy Box.
- Stock continuity. The product must be continuously in stock; running out, or an error in stock data, cancels the listing.
- Return and cancellation rates. A low return rate and reliable supply strengthen your operational status.
- Customer experience. Positive reviews and fast answers to customer questions build a "reliable seller" profile in the algorithm's eyes.
The store score is calculated for sellers who have made at least 10 product sales in the last six months. A new store therefore has to accumulate some sales history before it can enter the Buy Box race — during that period, keeping operational metrics clean is a better strategy than cutting price.
Why the cost structure constrains price competition
On top of commission, Hepsiburada deducts roughly 8 TL + VAT as a transaction fee on every successful sale. This fixed line directly narrows your room to compete on price at the low end:
| Sale price | Transaction fee as % of price |
|---|---|
| 80 TL | 12.0% |
| 150 TL | 6.4% |
| 400 TL | 2.4% |
| 1,500 TL | 0.6% |
Category commissions sit on top of that:
| Category | Commission |
|---|---|
| Gold & jewellery | 4–6% |
| Electronics | 6–10% |
| Computers & accessories | 7–15% |
| Mother & baby | 11–16% |
| Supermarket (food) | 12% |
| Home, living & decoration | 14–19% |
| Cosmetics | 15–17% |
| Fashion & clothing | 18–20% |
| Footwear & bags | 19.49% |
Remember that 20% VAT is added on top of commission: an 18% rate is effectively 21.6%, and with the transaction fee it reaches 22.1% on a 2,000 TL item. We work through every deduction line in our article on marketplace commission and profit margin.
The conclusion: winning the Buy Box on price in the low band is mathematically hard. In that band the route to winning is operational — shipping speed and score.
The diagnostic order when you lose the Buy Box
- Has your store score dropped? A score below 9.0 may have eliminated you regardless of price. Find which criterion fell.
- Was there a stock interruption? Even a few hours at zero stock can drop the listing, and regaining it takes time.
- Did your shipping commitment change? If you lost the "dispatched today" badge, a competitor at the same price has passed you.
- Did your return or cancellation rate rise? A single problematic batch can distort the monthly average.
- Did a competitor cut price? This is the last item on the list — because when the first four are clean, a price gap usually closes with a few lira.
Most sellers read this list backwards: they cut price first, and when that does not work, cut deeper. If the cause is in the first four items, the discount changes nothing and only burns margin.
Winning the Buy Box without cutting price
- Tighten the shipping commitment. Clarifying your order cut-off and raising your "dispatched today" rate is a stronger signal than a few lira of discount.
- Keep a stock buffer. A buffer of one or two units per channel largely prevents zero-stock events in multi-channel selling. Automate your stock synchronisation.
- Never let customer questions pile up. Response time affects both the score and the trust profile; keep the inbox at zero daily.
- Categorise return reasons. Most returns usually come from a single product or a single sizing error; fixing that recovers the average quickly.
How it differs from Trendyol
The Buy Box logic is similar on both platforms but the emphasis differs. On Trendyol the price signal is relatively more dominant; on Hepsiburada customer experience and store score weigh more. Hepsiburada's fixed per-order fee also leaves a narrower manoeuvring space on low-priced items.
The practical consequence: if you sell the same product on both channels, your pricing strategy should not be identical. Read our Trendyol operations guide as well and set the thresholds for each channel separately.
Common mistakes
- Treating the Buy Box as a price race. Below the score threshold, discounting produces nothing.
- Ignoring the fixed transaction fee. A 12% additional load on an 80 TL item can turn that product into a loss.
- Updating stock manually. In multi-channel selling, manual updates sooner or later lead to overselling and a score drop.
- Assuming the loss is a one-off. Losing the Buy Box is usually the delayed consequence of a metric that broke weeks earlier.
- Advertising a product where you do not hold the Buy Box. You pay for the click and a competitor makes the sale — covered in detail in our advertising article.
Conclusion
On Hepsiburada the Buy Box is the sum of trust signals more than it is price. A seller who keeps the store score above 9.0, never runs out of stock and holds the shipping commitment can keep the Buy Box even while being a few lira more expensive than a rival. The reverse is not possible: a store with a broken score cannot win even at the lowest price.
At Commerslab we manage marketplace stores against these metrics and build stock and price synchronisation with our own integrations. See our marketplace management service or request an assessment for your store.
Commission rates, transaction fees and score thresholds may be updated by Hepsiburada; verify the current values in your seller panel before making pricing decisions.
