Before 2016, it was relatively easy to do business on Amazon, but since Amazon updated its review policy in October of that year, prohibiting sellers from using discounted or free products in exchange for incentivized reviews, life has become increasingly difficult for sellers.
Although there are loopholes for sellers to exploit in any of Amazon's policies, Amazon is also making every effort to "fill" these policy loopholes.
Everyone knows how important product reviews are to sellers, especially for new products. Everyone wants to get the first review. Amazon is "generous" in this regard. After all, if a new product is reviewed, it may get more sales orders, which is also beneficial to the Amazon platform.
▼ Product review star algorithm▼
The algorithm for calculating product review star ratings is also relatively complex. If your product has only one review, even if it is a 5-star rating, the rating you will eventually get may not be 5 stars. Amazon has not yet disclosed the algorithm for calculating product review star ratings, but the three major variables of [review age], [reviewer information], and [verified or unverified review] are always important factors.
The Current State of Amazon’s Review Policy
The current status of Amazon's review policy is basically three prohibitions and one restriction:
1. You are prohibited from creating, modifying or posting reviews about the products or services of you (the seller) or your relatives, friends, business partners or employers.
2. It is prohibited to create, modify or publish reviews about competitors' products or services.
3. It is prohibited to exchange reviews for any form of compensation (including gifts, discounted goods, refunds, etc.) or to create, modify or post reviews on behalf of others.
4. Limit sellers from sending automated emails to customers.
This means that Amazon will now delete reviews of products purchased with discount codes greater than 50% off, or simply not review such reviews. And if Amazon can determine that you have a close relationship with the reviewer, such reviews will also be deleted.
Amazon now allows customers to refuse to receive any unimportant emails from sellers, and can choose to withdraw from Amazon’s email recipient list. So although sellers can still send emails now, they may receive more and more “undeliverable” notifications in the future, and it will become increasingly difficult to ask customers for reviews via email.
It should be noted that Amazon is very averse to sellers sending emails to customers in a purely review-seeking tone, such as "If you like our products, please leave a good review", etc. Amazon prohibits if/then statements.
Seven strategies to get positive reviews
1. Early Reviewer Program
Early Reviewer Program is the Amazon Early Reviewer Program. This program randomly invites a specified number of users to write reviews for products participating in the program and gives them $1-3 as a reward. Sellers who want to participate in this program need to meet the following five conditions:
Must be an Amazon Brand Registry seller
Only available for Amazon.com products
Must be a new product with less than 5 product reviews
The product price must be over $15
Reviewers are free to give 1-5 stars
This program is not free. Sellers need to pay $60 to participate and pay after getting the first review. After the seller gets 5 reviews through this program, the program ends.
For new products, this plan is still very valuable and the price is not high. The only drawback may be that it will take a longer time to take effect.
2. Send review requests to customers who left positive feedback
Buyers can’t tell the difference between feedback and review. I believe everyone has encountered the situation where buyers leave reviews in the feedback comment area.
Therefore, sellers should check their feedback frequently to avoid "undercover" reviewers from sneaking in.
It is recommended that sellers can proactively send emails to customers who have left positive feedback. For those "review undercovers", sellers can also guide them to the right place to leave reviews, and attach a document instructing them on how to leave reviews correctly.
3. Ask for reviews from customers you’ve provided customer service to
If you have a conversation with the customer (not Feedback Genius automatic reply) and provided them with very thoughtful customer service, such as answering some of their pre-sales product questions, or helping them solve some problems and making them satisfied, you can ask the customer for a review. I believe that most people will be very willing to leave a good review. You have to strike while the iron is hot, and you have to ask for good reviews while the iron is hot.
4. Product Inserts
Product inserts are great for reminding customers to leave a review, but remember not to include any if/then statements in them. An effective and risk-free way to use product inserts is to ask customers to register their product serial numbers to get an extended warranty (or similar terms, depending on the product). Most people will register, and you will be able to get the customer's email address, which you can then send an automated email requesting a review.
5. ManyChat Chatbot
If you haven’t used ManyChat yet, get started. Set up a ManyChat chatbot first, then use additional services to target old customers or leverage the existing audiences you have set up. If you don’t use one of these two, you’re basically casting a wide net.
6. Product Giveaways and Discounted Products
Using freebies and discounts can not only entice sellers to increase product sales, but also increase the likelihood of getting reviews.
Sellers can try to price their products at a 25% discount when they are released to boost short-term sales. Although this method is really testing the edge of Amazon's policy, it is strictly within the policy. Usually the main purpose of this practice is to allow sellers to gain the weight of full-price sales, rather than the reviews themselves, but most consumers do leave reviews.
7. Send new products to customers on your email list
When sellers push new products to customers on their email list, instead of sending them the website purchase link directly, it is better to send them the link to the Amazon product detail page. This will gain initial sales velocity for the product. Second, the existing email list customers are likely to become satisfied customers after receiving the product, and the chances of leaving a review will be greater.
Tips & Tricks
Some of Amazon's policies can be circumvented, but there are also some that must not be violated. Here are some "tricks" that Amazon sellers can use and "mines" that they must not step on.
1. Ask friends or acquaintances to help write reviews: This is a serious violation of Amazon's terms of service. Amazon is very good at detecting the relationship between reviewers and sellers, so sellers should not try it easily. If you really want to do this, you must be cautious to avoid being detected by Amazon. If you are cautious, even if Amazon is skeptical about a few reviews, it will not overreact. At most, these reviews will not be displayed, which will not lead to the suspension of the account.
2. Use Email Add-ons to locate/contact customers: Amazon is so determined to prevent sellers from obtaining customer information that it even hides email addresses and phone numbers (cheapskate).
The email add-on service can obtain Amazon's delivery information, and then compare it with big data to get the customer's email address and phone number, but the success rate is usually less than 40%.
Sellers who have obtained the customer’s contact information through this method must not contact the customer directly, as there is still a risk of having their account suspended. They can conduct remarketing through social media platforms such as Facebook and Google, which will not be easily discovered by Amazon.
3. Use zombie accounts to post fake reviews: The phenomenon of fake reviews on Amazon is so common, and they are usually large-scale, with dozens or even hundreds of reviews. There are too many channels that provide such services, and the charge for each review is about $1-3. The price depends on the possibility of these reviews being detected by Amazon.
Amazon has been cracking down on this kind of fraudulent tactics, and the detection technology and account suspension are getting better and stricter, so the risk of this method is still very high. However, what is annoying is that there are still many sellers on the market who will take advantage of the platform's loopholes and use fake reviews without receiving corresponding penalties.
4. Bribing Amazon employees to delete negative reviews: Amazon employees’ bribery has been exposed more than once. Sellers bribed Amazon employees and then instructed them to perform a series of malicious operations, including deleting negative reviews.
There used to be a price list in the Chinese seller circle. The cost of deleting a bad review was about US$300. So to use this method, you not only need good luck to not be caught by Amazon, but also need a lot of capital as a backing. Yes, if you have money, you can do whatever you want. But now that you have so much money, you might as well go back and do something else instead of working for Amazon.
Finally, two tips on commenting
If a seller has a 1-star review that appears in the first place and is difficult to delete, sellers can push their other popular positive reviews to the top, increasing the visibility of positive reviews while reducing the appearance rate of negative reviews. After all, not everyone will read all the reviews before buying something.
Based on this, a service has been derived to help sellers to top reviews. Although it is not compliant, Amazon has not paid too much attention to it. However, there was news this year that if a review receives a large number of reports, it will automatically trigger deletion.
What to do if you encounter a really bad review? Open a case!
Submit the review link and clearly state the reason why you want the review deleted. Although Amazon does not approve of sellers deleting reviews, it will still delete some reviews that contain offensive remarks or come with URLs. Even though the success rate may be low, it is still worth a try.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to do business on Amazon, and the rules are becoming more and more stringent. But on the other hand, the rules are just there to help you clear out some malicious competitors. No matter what, products are king.
