How to Get More Reviews on Amazon – a Seller’s Approach
Picture the following: You have an amazing product that you are selling over Amazon but lately your sales have been stagnating even though your product is in demand. A quick market research of businesses similar to your own reveals the reason for this; while you are receiving one or two online reviews a week, your competition averages three times that amount, allowing them to generate more traffic and close more deals. So, the question is: How to get more reviews on Amazon?
You have already heard of how relevant online reviews have become and that they are able to make or break a company selling its product on Amazon. You know it has to be done, but you are still unsure of how and where to begin. Well, one thing is for sure, you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we have put together a list of things you can do immediately that will increase the number of your reviews in no time. But before we begin with the how, let us take a quick look at the why.
Why Are Amazon Reviews So Important?
When it comes to influencing purchasing decisions, online reviews matter – in fact, they matter a lot! Whether it is the direct relation between good reviews and an increase in revenue, or the fact that 93% of all consumers read online reviews before making a purchase, there are countless studies showcasing the importance of online reviews for businesses. What’s more, online reviews have somewhat evolved into the digital word of mouth. According to a recent consumer review survey, 91% of consumers (aged 18 – 34) trust online reviews as much as they would trust a personal recommendation.
There are a few questions you have probably already come across if your plan is to get more Amazon reviews. Can I buy them? Do more five star reviews necessarily result in higher conversion? What is Amazon Vine? These are just a few examples of what you have to take into account and also exactly the kind of questions we will address here.
This is How You Get More Reviews on Amazon – Let’s Get Started!
Play by the Rules
When you’re asking yourself how to get more reviews on Amazon, make sure your solutions are always aligned with Amazon’s regulations. Amazon has created a set of rules to ensure that all sellers play fair and the e-commerce giant has no issue enforcing them, for example by suspending the accounts of sellers. If this should ever happen to you – of course we hope that it won’t – remember that there are certain steps that you can take in the form of an Amazon plan of action. If writing a plan of action is something you don’t really have the time and energy for, then you all need to do is follow these rules written in Amazon Seller Central:
There is no particular rank with these regulations, although Amazon has been known to react particularly allergic to sellers trying to circumvent the Amazon Sales process, so try to steer clear of that by not redirecting Amazon’s customers to your webstore.
Ask Nicely
In many cases, customers wouldn’t mind leaving a review but just need to be nudged or incentivized a little. You can do this by adding a note to your delivery, where you tell the buyers how much you appreciate them and how much an honest review of the delivered product would mean to you. Don’t forget to include your telephone number or email for questions or direct feedback regarding the item they bought. You can also try to incentivize your customers by adding a free gift to your delivery. Even better if the freebie fits the product you sell, e.g. dog treats if you sell leashes or chopsticks to go with your japanese soup bowls.
There is another, more digital, approach on how to get more reviews in. Amazon introduced the “Request a review” button in 2019, which you will find on the top right corner of your order details page on Seller Central. By clicking this button, your customer will receive a message in which – you guessed it – he or she is asked to leave a review for the product in question.
In the meantime, Amazon has switched off this function and sends out prompts to review a product completely automatically.
Whether this is more effective for your business than other options, you will have to find out for yourself. One thing is for sure, it doesn’t cost you a lot of time and is definitely worth a try. Once you receive a review from a customer, show how much you value them by responding personally. Apologize and find solutions for bad reviews, but also be thankful and ask if you can share excellent reviews over your social media.
Build a Story
The best reviews are always written by customers that were blown away by your product. Naturally the product itself has to be pristine in order to earn a five star review, but never underestimate the weight of a proper story, solid marketing and good preparation. How can this get you more Amazon reviews? Here’s an example: if your company sources from an extraordinary location or has an unusual story to tell, be sure to communicate this info in your pictures or product description. Amazon A+ content is a great way to take this sort of marketing to the next level and can also be used to control which recommendations Amazon displays on your product page. Using this method, you can place a second, less successful product on the same page as your bestseller. Follow the link if you want to find out more about Amazon A+ content.
Be Helpful
Amazon is well-known for putting the customer first at all times. Naturally, you as a seller have to keep up and do the same if you want to sell successfully on their online platform. While extraordinary customer service is the fast lane for every seller to winning the Buy Box, there is another positive side effect: the better the service, the higher your rating. The higher also the chances of you getting a positive customer review. After all, customers take the whole experience into account when writing a review, not just the product itself.
Get with the (Amazon Vine) Program
What is Amazon Vine and do you really need it? Here’s all you need to know in nutshell: Amazon Vine is a reviewer program that enables Amazon sellers and Vendors to receive high quality feedback from trusted customer reviewers. These reviewers are handpicked by Amazon and are labelled as “Vine Voices” when they post a review.
The benefits of the Vine Program are apparent: Positive reviews written by Vine Voices carry more weight than regular reviews and are more likely to convince a buyer on the fence. The disadvantage is of course that a negative review will have the same effect in the opposite direction. So be sure that your items are top notch before you send them in for review. You can find out more about the Vine Program here.
You Will Pay for Buying Amazon Reviews
If you came across this blog article by asking your search engine “how to buy amazon reviews cheap”, we have bad news for you – we don’t do that here.
As a matter of fact, we strongly advise you to save your money or spend it on something other than Amazon reviews. The main reason for this is quite simple: buying reviews goes against Amazon’s guidelines. Not only will your bought Amazon reviews be removed, the online giant will also have a reason to suspend your account, which brings us back to the topic we already mentioned above – #planofaction.
Also – and this is more relevant because it affects the whole community – buying dishonest reviews dilutes the overall quality of reviews given by people who actually take the time and are making an effort to create valuable feedback that helps sellers and customers alike.
So, if you value your time and you do not want to spend it on dodgy forums researching why all your 5 Star Amazon reviews were deleted, don’t buy or write Amazon reviews for money.
Nobody’s Perfect
Keep the customer’s perspective in mind when selling your goods. For Amazon, good reviews are vital for success, for the customer, however, they don’t necessarily need to be perfect. Do you know that wary feeling you get when something seems too good to be true? That’s what customers feel when they only see excellent reviews. As this study suggests, having a perfect 5 star score might even be bad for your business. Across different product categories, the study found that purchase likelihood typically peaks at ratings in the 4.0 – 4.7 range, and then begins to decrease as ratings approach 5.0. Put differently, there’s a chance your product might even sell better with a 4.6 rating than with a 5.0 rating.
Get an Amazon Review Checker
Once you are up and running and your account is piling up with Amazon reviews, automated review checkers can save you a lot of time while simultaneously filtering out extremely valuable information. Why do you need a review checker as an Amazon seller? Good question. While Amazon review checkers are normally used by buyers (private or corporate) to filter out fake reviews, they can also be used by sellers to improve their business.
As a seller, an automated solution will enable you to track positive reviews in order to pinpoint your company’s strengths: your hand-written thank you notes are working well and driving up sales because people are sharing the notes on their social media? Apply the same technique to items that aren’t selling so well and give the person who is writing those notes a raise (or at least a hug or something). What’s even more valuable, you will be able to single out your company’s weaknesses by filtering negative reviews: people love the product but the deliveries never seem to arrive on time in a certain area? Maybe it’s time for another company to take over the logistics for that particular location.
How to Get More Reviews on Amazon – In a Nutshell (Video Included!)
One thing is for sure, you will not be making maximum profit or winning the Buy Box if you don’t invest time in working out a proper customer review concept. How you get those Amazon product reviews is up to you; whether it’s through direct or indirect requests, excellent marketing and customer support, or by signing up for the Amazon Vine Program. When you’re working out how to ramp up those Amazon reviews, keep their guidelines. Be particularly careful to not redirect Amazon customers to your own website and refrain from purchasing reviews, since the e-commerce company is extremely careful in those areas and will have your account suspended in no time if it turns out that your 5 star Amazon reviews were paid for. Once you are up and running and the reviews have become too many to check manually, you can think about getting an automated review checker in order to filter out positive and negative reviews, develop and implement learnings from these reviews, and elevate your game to a new level.
Last but not least, remember that the Amazon review mechanism is only as good as the people that participate, so be sure to always reply in person once you get reviews, but also don’t hesitate to write a high-quality review for another Amazon seller or his/her products.
