The Power of Amazon Reviews for Your Listings

Introduction

Amazon shoppers rely on reviews to make purchasing decisions. Amazon reviews impact product search rankings and conversion rates. They’re also front and center on your ads. And as Amazon develops even more artificial intelligence features, reviews will continue to play an important role in your success on the platform.

In this article, we’ll discuss why having recent and relevant reviews is crucial and how to get those reviews without violating Amazon’s policies.

Customer Review Highlights

Amazon rolled out AI-powered customer review highlights in 2023. This feature is designed to make it faster and easier for shoppers to make purchases. Product reviews are aggregated into a short summary of highlights, key features, and common issues. Buyers can quickly evaluate review sentiment without needing to filter or search through reviews.

Getting relevant reviews is key. After all, Amazon’s customer review highlights are only as good as the reviews they’re summarizing. Proactively encouraging buyers to leave reviews on Amazon can help you increase the number of reviews on your listings. Anyone can leave a review for your product, whether they purchased it on Amazon or not. However, verified purchase reviews from customers who bought your item on Amazon have more weight in Amazon’s algorithm.

Amazon only includes text-based verified purchase reviews created from the local store when generating a review highlight. Because the feature displays frequently mentioned sentiments from customer reviews, it’s important to have a process in place for requesting reviews from customers who recently purchased your product to keep the highlights fresh and accurate. Since reviews can include photos, videos, and/or written content along with the buyer’s star rating, getting more reviews means you may see a natural increase in user-generated content about your products.

How to Get Amazon Reviews

Getting reviews is crucial, but it can also be challenging. Having a strategy for requesting reviews can help you continue to get recent and relevant reviews to keep your listings performing well. If you’re brand registered on Amazon and your product is eligible with less than 30 reviews, you can enroll it in the Amazon Vine program. It’s free to enroll up to two products per parent ASIN, or you can send in up to 30 for $200. You will need to provide your product for free, but Vine reviews carry a lot of weight in Amazon’s algorithm so this can be a great way to kickstart reviews for your products.

You also need to ensure that you’re following all of Amazon’s communication and review policies when communicating with buyers. Any request must use neutral language – don’t ask for a positive rating. You can’t offer coupons, discounts, free products, or any other incentives in exchange for a review.

You can manually request reviews for each order using the Request a Review button in Seller Central. Alternatively, you can automate review requests based on your preferred timing using software included in the Selling Partner Appstore, such as FeedbackFive by eComEngine. In addition to automating the review request process, software makes it easier to comply with Amazon’s policies. For example, all communication with buyers needs to be sent within 30 days of order completion, must include the order ID, and should be translated into the buyer’s preferred language. Software like FeedbackFive ensures that your requests meet these guidelines.

Some sellers experiment with including product review requests on their packaging or a product insert. This can be another way to reach buyers, but it doesn’t have a high effectiveness rate. Be sure you’re always following Amazon’s guidelines in any communication with buyers.

Listen to the Voice of the Customer

Amazon’s Voice of the Customer dashboard categorizes products that require more attention with “poor” and “very poor” health ratings. This feature was recently updated to factor in customer service sessions, Buyer-Seller Messaging, A-to-z Claims, and seller feedback into your product health ratings as well as customer reviews. Voice of the Customer includes recommendations to help you address product issues, update size chart information, lower mishandling of products, edit listings, remove inventory, and reduce returns.

Recognizing and resolving product issues can help you prevent unnecessary negative experiences and the negative reviews that come along with them. Unhappy people are quick to tell you when something is wrong with your product! That’s why it’s important to ensure you’re providing an exceptional customer experience and following up with review requests. Most buyers are happy, but leaving a review isn’t top of mind. Sending a review request is the best way to get more Amazon reviews. It requires persistence – not every customer is going to leave a rating – but it’s worth it! Note that you should only send one review request per order.

Set the Right Customer Expectations

Keep your Amazon detail pages as accurate as possible. Your listing sets the tone for the buyer’s expectations of your product, so it’s important to get it right. Ensure any size information is current and include detailed content to help shoppers evaluate your product.

Monitoring your Amazon reviews gives you direct insight into how buyers experience your product. Don’t discount negative reviews! No one likes receiving them, but they often include useful information that can inform your listing content or even spark ideas for new features or bundles. You can monitor your ASINs and competitive ASINs with FeedbackFive with the option to receive an alert when you receive a new review. This is a great way to quickly filter and evaluate review data, which is available in the software and can be exported to a CSV. Negative reviews can seriously damage your reputation, so make changes if applicable. If you’re brand registered, you can contact the buyer directly to learn more about their experience or offer a replacement/refund.

Power Up Your Listings with Amazon Reviews

As Amazon continues to roll out new features, it’s clear that reviews will remain an essential part of the platform’s shopping experience. Having a process to ensure that you’re regularly getting new reviews will help your listings succeed on this competitive platform.
If you need assistance with your review strategy, the experts at eComEngine are available to answer your questions.

Becky Trowbridge is the Digital Marketing Manager at eComEngine. Her mission is to empower Amazon sellers with the information they need to be successful in a competitive market.

Becky Trowbridge is the Digital Marketing Manager at eComEngine. Her mission is to empower Amazon sellers with the information they need to be successful in a competitive market.