With the unexpected outbreak of Covid 19 came a huge surge in online shopping, and now this way of life is here to stay. According to the Jungle Scout Consumer Trends Report Q1 2022, 48% of us shop on Amazon at least once a week. Furthermore, 61% of us say that we are influenced by ratings and reviews when making a purchase decision, and 92% of us are more likely to make a purchase after reading a good review.
As an Amazon seller, reviews are incredibly valuable to your business, but getting them is not an easy job, particularly without violating Amazon’s Terms. Let’s explore six ways to get reviews on Amazon, what to bear in mind, and how a full-service Amazon agency can help.
Amazon’s “Request a Review” tool
Although consumers are invited by Amazon to review their recent purchases, sellers can also go into Seller Central and click on the “Request a Review”. This tool allows you to manually request reviews within 4-30 days after a purchase is made. However, you can only use this tool once for each sale and only in relation to orders that are fulfilled through Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). Although the manual process can be slow, this tool increases your chances of obtaining a review by about seven times.
Amazon’s Early Reviewer program
At the cost of $60 per stock-keeping unit (SKU), you can sign up for Amazon’s Early Review program, which encourages consumers to leave a review by offering them Amazon gift cards for $1-3. Once your enlisted product gets at least one review, the charge is applied by Amazon, and your registration with the program lasts until your product gets five reviews or for a period of 12 months.
To be eligible for this program, you must enrol on Amazon’s Brand Registry program and enrol products that cost at least $15 and that have less than five reviews. Although you have to pay for this service, it is a good way to get initial reviews when you launch a new brand or product.
To sign up for Amazon’s Early Reviewer program, simply log into Seller Central, click on Advertising, and select Early Reviewer Program from the dropdown. You can then start enrolling your products.
Amazon Vine
Through the Amazon Vine program, sellers submit 30 units of Amazon brand-registered inventory, and Amazon invites trusted reviewers (called Vine Voices) to receive the product for free so that they can test it and then write a review. Sellers are able to monitor reviews written by Vine Voices in Seller Central. In order to qualify for Amazon Vine, you must be signed up for FBA; your product must have less than 30 reviews and be accompanied by a product description and an image. However, you can’t enrol products that fall into specific categories, such as Adult, Bundled, Dropship, Hazmat, or Sample. There are three service levels for Amazon Vine, with the basic level being free, making it worthwhile since new or soon-to-be-released products get reviews quickly.
Third-party Permitted Messages
Sellers can use third-party email responders to send messages through Amazon’s Seller Messaging System. Utilising this tool, you could ask for feedback or a review, but you must take care not to offer any kind of compensation in return and be aware that Amazon limits the number of Permitted Messages that can be sent through this system.
Subscribers
Make use of your subscribers by contacting those who have purchased from you and asking them to leave a review on Amazon. Try to encourage any feedback as even negative reviews can be useful. As well as helping to show that your reviews are genuine, they also provide shoppers with more information like whether they need to order a size up or whether they will need to purchase an adapter separately.
Another way to build up your mailing list is to use product inserts or social media to ask your followers to subscribe. Alternatively, create a blog or post a link to your product and ask followers to write a review on Amazon.
Product inserts
A great way to encourage reviews is to insert a card into the packaging of your products, asking customers to provide feedback, whether negative or positive. Take care not to ask shoppers to write a positive review or to contact you instead of leaving a bad review, as these tactics breach Amazon’s Terms. Offering gifts or payment in exchange for a review also breaks Amazon’s rules, but you can motivate shoppers by adding value to their purchase. For example, use your insert to include a tip on how to use the product and make sure the buyer knows how to contact you if there is an issue. Good customer service helps to prevent poor reviews and may even encourage a good review.
How a full-service Amazon agency can help
When it comes to reviews, Amazon has strict rules, and if you break them, you can be suspended from their platform. This is where a full service Amazon agency can help. They know the difference between acceptable methods and black-hat tactics and are able to help you to amass more reviews without running the risk of getting your business suspended from Amazon.
A full service Amazon agency, such as Nuoptima.com, can also reduce poor reviews by helping you to address issues that arise. Once the shopper’s experience has been improved, the customer can then remove or amend their review.
Final thoughts
While it can be difficult to get shoppers to leave product reviews on Amazon, it is important to spend time on this process. Reviews not only help products to get purchased more frequently, but they also help your products to rank high in Amazon search results. In order to get reviews quickly and legally, make use of the methods offered through Amazon. Or, to avoid running the risk of getting suspended, consider engaging a full-service Amazon agency.
