Amazon Seller Feedback: Top Tips for Your E-commerce Business
Selling on Amazon is certainly no piece of cake, but definitely worth it when you are well-prepared and informed of the difficulties you might encounter during your journey. Now imagine the following scenario: You are going about your daily life as a seller on Amazon. Business is going well. Sales and seller-rating are up. All of a sudden, there’s a gas supply shortage in your country due to poor decisions your government made in 2016 and your carrier service has trouble finding drivers. Your packages are all delayed, you receive a string of bad reviews, and your seller-rating drops. So does your revenue. Sounds like a nightmare, doesn’t it? In this article, we will take a look at the importance of Amazon seller feedback, learn how to react to negative feedback as well as look at ways on how to avoid such frustrating situations altogether.
As always, let’s start by learning the ropes.
The Difference Between Feedback and Reviews on Amazon
On Amazon, seller feedback is a public evaluation of your selling performance. It is rated on a five-star scale and reflects how reliable you are in terms of packing, shipping, responsiveness, and professionalism. Buyers have 90 days to submit one feedback per Amazon order. The Amazon seller review is based on an average of previous customer reviews.
Although you may hear experts use the phrases interchangeably, feedback and reviews are not the same things. In fact, feedback is focused on the seller, while Amazon reviews are oriented just on goods. Amazon even deletes customer reviews that are just about the product and not about the seller.
Why Does Amazon Seller Feedback Matter?
It goes without saying that sellers should get as many positive reviews as possible on Amazon. Let’s see why.
The Buy Box Is Influenced by Feedback.
Your Order Defect Rate, a parameter that Amazon significantly weights in its Buy Box algorithm, is heavily influenced by Amazon seller reviews. When all other factors are equal, a seller with a good reputation will win the Buy Box more frequently than one who has a history of disappointing Amazon customers.
Your Feedback Rating Can Be Seen by Buyers
As a seller, Amazon keeps note of all of your feedback and compiles it into an overall feedback score. Amazon will either display your 12-month rating or your lifetime rating on the offer listings page, depending on how many seller reviews on Amazon you’ve received in the past 12 months.
Amazon Punishes Sellers for Bad Performance
When it comes to the Order Defect Rate, Amazon uses it to analyze its connection with your company on a regular basis. If your Amazon seller feedback rating falls below specified performance criteria, you may be suspended or banned entirely. Amazon now requires sellers to have an Order Defect Rate of less than 1%.
It’s a Competitive Advantage to Get Feedback
Every piece of favorable feedback you receive gives you a much-needed competitive advantage in the face of an ever-increasing number of sellers.
As you can see, there are a plethora of reasons why you should get feedback. Positive Amazon seller feedback, of course.
Positive vs. Negative Feedback
On Amazon, 5- and 4-star reviews are considered “positive” feedback. On Amazon, 1-star and 2-star reviews are considered “negative” feedback. A 3-star review, sometimes described as ‘neutral’ feedback, may not be so neutral when it pulls down the stellar 5-star overall you’ve been working on so hard for the past months.
Your Amazon seller feedback score is calculated by dividing positive feedback by total feedback received over a certain time period. Your 30-day, 90-day, 365-day, and lifetime feedback scores are tracked by Amazon and shown on your seller storefront page. Anyone, including customers, has access to your seller storefront page.
How to Get Amazon Seller Reviews
So, how to get reviews on Amazon? Here are some tips to consider:
Provide Exceptional Products and Services.
Keep in mind that the primary goal of Amazon seller feedback is to convey the buyer’s satisfaction. So, the first step in getting feedback is to ensure an absolutely impeccable buyer/shopping experience.
Be Punctual With Shipments
Customers have gotten accustomed to receiving free two-day shipping from Amazon. Early deliveries can thrill purchasers and result in high evaluations, despite the fact that late shipments are a primary reason for poor feedback. Internal order processing may be sped up, and client shipment methods can be upgraded to improve customer satisfaction.
Make It Simple to Return Items
Amazon has taken significant steps to automate returns and refunds, which has improved the buyer-seller relationship significantly. Sellers are also encouraged to “diligently” evaluate their return policies and provide complete product refunds for a regular 30-day period, according to Amazon.
Make Accurate and Useful Listings
Buyers are indifferent about how Amazon detail pages are created; all they want is a good product at a reasonable price. As a result, when a product fails to meet or surpass expectations, the seller is frequently held responsible – especially in the case of Private Label and packaged products. Don’t mislead your customers. Always be honest and open. When generating or updating your listings, think like a buyer.
Ask Politely For Amazon Seller Feedback
Nine times out of ten consumers are willing to provide feedback if they are encouraged in some way. It can be a nice idea to include a message with your delivery in which you express your gratitude to the customers and how valuable a review would be to you. Also, after your order has been delivered, you can use Buyer-Seller Messaging, a channel provided by Amazon for reasons exactly like this one, to make a single request for feedback. But don’t become an annoying and persistent Amazon seller by asking for reviews. Customers might be unwilling or busy to leave Amazon seller feedback.
At the end of the day, nobody’s perfect. Take another look at the example we mentioned above. Sometimes it’s not even your fault that a product was delivered too late or in bad condition. Thing is, you’re going to be the one to take the blame. What can you do? First of all, don’t panic. Let’s dive deeper into plan B.
What to Do About Negative Amazon Seller Feedback
Make Sure It’s Written by Your Real Customer.
Don’t just take every negative comment at its value. Take the time to check it for authenticity. Is it possible that the customer is referring to an order that you did not complete? Is the comment rife with profanity? Before you take any action, take a hard look.
Negative Amazon seller reviews are removed based on particular criteria set by Amazon. If a feedback contains vulgar language, discloses too much information about the seller, or is actually a product review, Amazon will delete it.
Keep in mind that negative reviews frequently fail to fulfill Amazon’s standards for instant removal. As a result, the seller has two choices: do nothing or attempt to make the buyer satisfied. Amazon encourages sellers to interact with unhappy customers and try to figure out why they’re upset.
Customers have 60 calendar days (from the date of providing the negative feedback) to delete their feedback. Sellers should cooperate with buyers to resolve any issues that resulted in a low rating.
Many sellers have claimed that their Amazon businesses are taking a hit due to fake product reviews, claiming that they sell counterfeit items.
Fake reviews have unfortunately always been a part of the Amazon business, but the focus was mainly set on gathering fake positive reviews for one’s own listing, not bombarding the competition’s products with fake negative reviews.
The intention behind these actions is of course to see the seller-rating of the competition drop below one’s own. This sort of “business-dealing” is despicable on two accounts:
- It degrades an honest merchant’s seller-rating
- It creates a distorted and untruthful view for the buyers, that rely on reviews to see which sellers they want to give their business
However, we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that there is a lot of fake merchandise circulating in the e-commerce world right now. The most heavily affected categories for counterfeit products are cosmetics, medicines, and eyewear.
The growth of e-commerce as a platform has been a blessing to many sellers and consumers, however, it has also given forgers a better and more efficient channel to sell their goods.
Whether there might be some truth behind the negative reviews regarding fake merch, or whether some sellers are using the wave of fake products that have swept over Amazon as a reason to play dirty, at the end of the day, it’s better to be all better off when sellers gather reviews the good old fashioned way.
Make a List of All the Things You’ve Done Wrong and What You’ve Learned
Negative criticism may provide your business with a great learning opportunity. Try to consider the following: What could you have done better? What could you have avoided? To reduce delivery delays, should you reallocate additional inventory to Amazon FBA? Are buyers more likely to leave negative feedback in specific marketplaces? Make some conclusions and improve your performance to get positive Amazon seller feedback and succeed in e-commerce.
Final Thoughts
Better safe than sorry, so try to avoid negative Amazon seller feedback by following our recommendations. Some customers can be just nit-picking and might expect more than you can provide them with. So, be honest with your products, play by the rules, respect every buyer, and try to meet their needs. But in case of getting a negative review, you are now well-prepared on how to act to improve your seller’s rating and stay competitive on Amazon! Good luck!
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