With the popularity of online shopping skyrocketing over the past couple of years, people have endless options to choose from nowadays when making buying decisions. One of the most important contributing factors in competing with other sellers is how much social proof a listing has. Shoppers gauge social proof based on the number of reviews it has, and on Amazon, these are the number of stars you see on each listing.
As buyers leave reviews, the total is averaged and shown as a value out of 5 stars. Listings with the most reviews and ratings tend to sell the best. So try to get as many 5-star reviews as possible for your products.
In this article, we will cover six ways you can get reviews for your product, with some strategies following Amazon’s strict review policy.
Amazon Guidelines For Getting Reviews
Over the past couple of years, Amazon has become extremely strict in enforcing its review policy. Because sellers have realized how important reviews are in relation to sales, scrupulous sellers have started to game the system by posting fake reviews. Sellers are even going as far as doing lifting swaps where they use an established product listing that already has a history of sales and reviews for one product and swap out that product for a new product that they are launching. A clue to spot these types of listings is when you read the reviews, those reviews have nothing to do with the product that they are actually selling. You can see in the review policy that Amazon states explicitly what you cannot do –
- You cannot buy or incentivize reviews meaning you cannot offer a discount or a free product in exchange for a review.
- You must not specifically ask for a positive review.
- You are not allowed only to ask buyers who had a positive experience to leave a review.
- Do not review your own products or have your friends and family do the same.
- You also cannot use social media groups to get a review.
Nowadays, Amazon is taking review manipulation seriously, and if you are caught, in the best-case scenario, the review will not get posted. However, you risk having your listing shut down or your selling privileges removed altogether. The minimum ban now is 12 days or a full account suspension.
Amazon also changed how reviews can be posted. If you get three unverified reviews in a single day, Amazon now blocks the ASIN from receiving additional unverified reviews. Amazon will block the ASIN from receiving any other verified reviews for six to eight verified reviews in a single day.
The average sales-to-review ratio is around 1%, which means for every 100 sales you get, you can expect to receive about one review. Amazon knows this, and they are monitoring their review rate. If it goes over this ratio, they will block additional reviews.
Verified vs. Unverified Reviews
A verified review is left by someone who purchased the product, and it says ‘verified purchase’ next to the review.
Whereas an unverified review is a review left by someone who did not actually buy the product from you, bought it somewhere else, or bought it at a deep discount. These reviews do not have a ‘verified purchase’ tag next to them.
Best Ways To Get Reviews On Amazon
If you are launching a new product, how can you get reviews? Getting reviews on your new listing is challenging but possible. Let’s dive deep into the effective ways to get more reviews on Amazon.
Insert Cards
These are cards you can include inside your packaging that usually thank the customer for their purchase and provide more information about the product or, in this case, ask them to leave a review. Amazon also has strict guidelines about what you can and cannot do with your product inserts. It says –
- You are not allowed to ask buyers to leave a positive review specifically.
- You cannot direct the buyer to contact you instead if they have an issue rather than leave a bad review.
Amazon Vine Program
Amazon offers a review program called Vine. This is where you can offer your products for free to trusted reviewers on Amazon, and they will leave you a detailed review in return.
To use Vine, you must be brand registered, and the product needs to have less than 30 reviews and a few other requirements. Vine is one of the best ways to get reviews quickly, within Amazon’s policy.
Once you enroll your product, Vine reviewers can leave reviews immediately after receiving your product. 25% of reviews are left within five days of the order, while 99% are left within 35 days.
Amazon Early Reviewer Program
Amazon also has a review program called the Early Reviewer Program. Here Amazon will incentivize people who purchase your product to leave a review by offering a $1 to $3 coupon.
The Early Reviewer Program costs $60, and Amazon will help you get your first five reviews. One thing to note is that there is no guarantee on how long it will take Amazon to help you get those five reviews. Once you do reach five reviews, the service ends.
Follow Up Email
First, create an email list and then send a well-written follow-up email asking them to leave you a review. Remember to mention in the email how important their reviews are for you.
There are several ways to create an email list. You can build one through social media or ask people to subscribe by creating a blog. You can also encourage buyers to join your email list through a product insert.
Emails are a great way to communicate with your buyers because they are cost-effective, easy to set up, and automate.
Have Your Friends and Family
A lot of beginners make the apparent decision to have their friends and family leave reviews for their products. We have a few suggestions to help you avoid getting caught.
For someone to leave reviews, their buyer account must have spent at least $50 on Amazon. So if you want to use your friends and family, make sure they have made enough purchases. It would be best if you did not share the same Wi-Fi, did not live in the same household, did not have the same last name, or lived in the same zip code.
Pro tip here: If you are having your friends and family leave you a review, do not let them write the review. You write the review and have them post it. You know your product best and its features and benefits over your competitors.
Take some beautiful photos and videos and have them post it along with the review so others can see more content on your product.
Generating More Sales
You can get reviews organically by generating more sales. Remember, the average sales-to-review ratio is around 1%, so for every 100 sales, you can expect to get one review.
You can boost your sales in the beginning during your product launch by doing aggressive PPC (pay-per-click), which is Amazon’s advertising system. To learn more about Amazon PPC, you can read this article Amazon PPC: A Basic Guide For Beginners .
Conclusion
More reviews can boost your sales. We hope this article helped you get a good idea of how to get more reviews on Amazon. Always follow Amazon’s review guidelines to avoid getting your account banned or suspended.
Make sure to sell quality products and provide good customer service, which will help you become a successful seller and get good reviews.
Have you tried any strategy to get reviews on Amazon? How did it go? Let us know in the comments below!