In 2019, Amazon accounted for over 50% of all retail sales in the U.S. With over 140 million mobile users visiting the site in 2019, and it’s no wonder this marketplace is known as the world’s largest online retailer. This intense competition for attention means that merchants are always looking to get Amazon reviews from customers.
Why?
Product reviews are a viral and trusted feedback mechanism that can sway the opinion of people. They are an online word of mouth marketing tactic that impacts which products perform best on this eCommerce platform.
When it comes to managing reviews, Amazon gives its customers the freedom to write whatever they think, which will make or break your product. Fortunately, you are not completely at the mercy of your shoppers. If you are about to launch a product this 2021, there are many strategies you can use to earn five-star reviews.
Here is how to get reviews on Amazon legally and quickly.
How to Get Reviews on Amazon in 2021: Using Amazon
Method #1: The Amazon Automated Follow-up System
The first and most obvious way to get Amazon product reviews is the dependable Amazon review system. Once a shopper purchases products from your store, Amazon sends out an automatic email that prompts the shopper to report any challenges they had with the product and leave a review.
Amazon usually sends one customer review email per purchase. However, you can use the “Amazon Request a Review” button to send a second customer review email if you notice that people don’t respond to the initial review email. Once you click the “request a review” button, an automatic email is sent to the shopper in four to thirty days after purchase.
Sending the second review request increases the probability that they will leave a review. If sellers provide fast services that match your description, they are likely to get a positive review.
Method #2: Join the Early Reviewer Program on Amazon
The Amazon “Early Reviewer Program” is a shopper program that sends people to review requests. They leave product reviews on new products in exchange for things such as a gift card. Once a shopper buys a new product, the shopper gets an automatic email offer from Amazon, offering them a $5 gift card in exchange for a review. This system encourages the user to leave a positive review, as they’re receiving a positive incentive.
To sign up for the Early Reviewer Program, Amazon Seller Central has everything you need. All you need to do is upload the details of the new product you are about to launch. Amazon charges you $60 for Amazon product reviews you receive from a shopper.
Method #3: Enlist Your Product in the Amazon Vine Program
The Amazon Vine Program was launched in 2007. Publishers and manufacturers can get verified reviews on Amazon from customers. It’s an invite-only program, and people who participate in the program are called Vine Voices. Amazon vets these customers before they join the Vine program as reviewers and provide feedback.
Sellers with Amazon brand-registered products and less than 30 reviews were recently invited to join the Vine Program. Any seller who enlists in the program sends in 30 units of their products to be reviewed by the Vine Voices. The reviewers get the Amazon product for free, test it out, and then leave a review.
Amazon Vine is free if you are a third-party seller on Seller Central.
How to Get Reviews on Amazon in 2021: Using Sales and Marketing Tactics
Aside’s using the Amazon system to get reviews, you can also use the following sales and marketing tactics to garner Amazon reviews:
Method #4: Use Product Inserts in Your Packaging
One easy way to get reviews is by putting product inserts that politely ask for a review in the packaging. However, it would be best if you did this within Amazon’s rules, or you could get flagged, and Amazon will ban your seller account.
Here are some rules for making the best out of a product insert without breaking any Amazon rules:
- When asking for a product review, don’t suggest a number. For example, asking a shopper to blatantly give you a five-star rating on an Amazon product review is against Amazon rules.
- Share how-tos and any other information that makes it easier for the shopper to use your product. Make sure to add your contact information so that shoppers can reach out to you if they experience an issue while using the product or want to give feedback. Prompt customer service is a great way to avoid negative reviews (more on that in a bit).
- DO NOT offer shoppers financial incentives for reviews. Try other non-financial methods as you could risk losing your seller account. You could also try to use the product insert as an opportunity to ask customers to join your email list as that could be useful in many ways to the success of your new product on Amazon.
- Buying fake reviews from bots or scammers could also put you in trouble with the giant online retailer.
Method #5: Reduce Negative Product Reviews
Negative reviewers are the bane of any seller on Amazon. Online sellers never want to deal with negative feedback, whether on Amazon or social media; however, you can do a few things to make the situation right.
The first step towards proactively reduce negative reviews is to ensure that your new product is of top quality. That way, most of the seller feedback will likely be positive reviews. However, some shoppers might have an issue with their order quality and some way to be compensated. Reaching out politely and asking what things you can do to improve their experience goes a long way.
There is also various third-party seller software that helps you keep track of negative reviews. Once you get an adverse review notification on your registered email address, ensure you respond quickly and address the customer’s problem. Handling negative reviews swiftly and politely can turn some into positive reviews.
Method #6: Take Advantage of Third-party Email Autoresponders
You can also install a third-party autoresponder to respond to messages and send emails via the Amazon seller messaging system. There are various Amazon feedback software tools out there, such as the popular FeedbackWhiz, Helium 10 follow up, Feedback Genius FBA software. This particular tool allows you to set up automated emails that you can send to shoppers who have purchased your product.
Something to note, Amazon has begun to restrict the number of message formats you can send via the internal Seller Messaging System.
Method #7: Deliberately Curate an Email List
An email list is a no-brainer for any discerning Amazon FBA seller. Any customer who shops from you via the Amazon platform is an Amazon customer. And if you are kicked off the platform today, you lose all those customers. To make your business anti-fragile, you need to deliberately build an email list of customers who shop from you on Amazon.
You can do this using various tactics:
- Use social media to get existing and potential customers to sign onto your email newsletter.
- Launch a blog that has a subscribe link for your mailing list.
- Include your email newsletter prompt in your product inserts, as we discussed earlier.
On your mailing list, you can get Amazon reviews by sending well-worded review request emails.
Method #8: Optimize Your Product Listings
If you want to get Amazon reviews that boost your business, you’ll need to get used to proactively optimizing your product listings. If you are a new product on the Amazon store, you need to do this regularly until you hit the sweet spot.
An informative product listing improves your sales numbers and your shopper’s overall experience. Likewise, a poor product listing can result in low sales numbers and dissatisfied customers who are more likely to leave a negative review.
Here are the various things you need to optimize to improve your product listing:
- The product title (ensure it gives the shopper enough information).
- Product description (ensure you show why your product is better than competing products).
- Product imagery (ensure it’s clear, hi-resolution, 1000 pixels X 500 pixels, and shows all sides of the product).
- Key product features (ensure you describe the product features and benefits).
- Keywords (ensure you use keywords in the right places, such as the Amazon product description and title).
- Search results fields ( ensure you use your target keywords here).
- Product rating (ensure you get star reviews by launching a top-quality product).
- Product reviews (ensure you take advantage of one or all of the methods mentioned earlier to get a positive review).
Optimizing these eight factors affects the quality of the reviews you get from shoppers.
How To Get Reviews on Amazon: Playing by the Rules
No matter the method you decide to use to get Amazon reviews or the tools you purchase, you need to ensure you follow Amazon’s terms of service and play the part of an ethical seller. The giant retailer takes its reviews system seriously and won’t hesitate to ban any Seller account that is getting reviews by unscrupulous methods. You have to do your part and earn reviews honestly, not by the following four methods.
Here are some of the most critical Amazon review rules that you must know and follow:
Method #9. It would be best if you didn’t use manipulative language
Amazon is quite particular about a seller flouting this rule when selling on Amazon or sending a product review request. Sentences that mention “worth five-star review” or “support a local business” can be flagged as manipulative and trying to play on the shopper’s emotions to get a positive review. While this can be confusing, you should steer off these sorts of issues, especially if you are looking to sell new products on the Amazon platform.
You don’t want your new Amazon business to be blacklisted even before you began raking in profits.
Method #10. It would be best if you didn’t incentivize reviews
A couple of years ago, you could offer products for free or at a low selling price as rewards for customers to leave reviews when selling on Amazon. This tactic enabled numerous Amazon sellers to build credibility and get higher rankings.
However, professional reviewers emerged on the scene and started giving out inflated fake reviews about products they had never used or seen. In 2016, Amazon scrapped this functionality from their platform, and the team has been quite strict about reviews on Amazon since then.
While some sellers still sneakily offer cash rewards or discounts for positive product reviews, they run the risk of being kicked off the platform if Amazon finds out. The company has learned the tactics sellers use to get reviews, and you’re likely to get reported if you try to get reviews on Amazon this way.
Here’s what you should not do:
- It’s not appropriate for sellers to reach out on social media as a way to circumnavigate Amazon’s customer service system.
- Do not contact reviewers via their email address and offer anything exclusive. Many sellers have been reported for this behavior, as both customers and Amazon deems it unacceptable.
Method #11. It would be best if you didn’t cherry-pick customer reviews
Cherry-picking is one of the many ways to get reviews on Amazon inappropriately. Through this tactic, sellers select customers who ask for reviews based on customer loyalty or because the customer had a great experience with the seller. In the process, they ignore the customers who are ambivalent or had a bad experience.
This is akin to manipulating reviews, and Amazon will suspend a seller found to be engaging in this devious practice.
Method #12: You mustn’t get a customer to edit or change their review
You are probably confused as we earlier mentioned, you could get a customer to change a negative review. But hold on, there’s a slight difference. If a shopper withdraws a negative review after trying to solve the issue that led to the bad review, that’s amazing. However, that’s different from outrightly asking the customer to remove or edit a negative review.
It doesn’t matter how polite you are; Amazon seriously frowns on this practice by sellers. If you think about it from the customer’s perspective, it doesn’t look good on a business if the owner asks a dissatisfied customer to edit or withdraw a review. Your business will look unprofessional, and the customer will probably never buy your products again. They are also likely to share that experience with others, who will also avoid your products when they come across them on the Amazon store.
Further reading:
- Amazon deleted all my reviews – now what?
- Amazon review checker – how to check if the reviews are real.
- Amazon reviews not showing up – Find out why here.
The Bottom Line
Getting product reviews and seller feedback is vital to the success of any Amazon store. Reviews validate the product and provide the social credibility needed to influence shoppers and drive repeat purchases and referrals. However, learning how to get reviews on Amazon is a skill that takes time.
If you are a new seller or are about to launch a new product, these 12 methods should help you get a leg up on your competitors and increase your sales with positive customer reviews.
Just make sure you follow Amazon’s rules when interacting with others, getting reviews, and asking for feedback. Happy selling!
