While reviews are vital for virtually every online selling platform, the Amazon marketplace in particular revolves around them. Your success often starts and stops here. Reviews impact everything from product visibility to inventory planning, not to mention the most obvious one: sales. Look at any detail page and take note of the item’s ratings – you can easily gauge the success of a product with one glance.
But how do you go about getting Amazon reviews in the first place, and why is monitoring them so important? This article will discuss why Amazon reviews matter so much, different ways to get them and what to do once you have them.
The Importance of Amazon Reviews for Social Proof and Search
Consumers use reviews as social proof that a product is trustworthy and will often heavily factor them in their purchasing decisions. Amazon, however, is a notoriously crowded marketplace with many of the same products being sold by different brands. Having more quality reviews can help separate your product from a competitor’s, sometimes making even more of a difference than price – the perceived sense of trustworthiness is that important!
Furthermore, reviews greatly impact how shoppers can even find your items in the first place. Most shoppers aren’t looking past page one of the search results. However, a steady stream of recent and relevant reviews and satisfied customers helps to increase your organic search ranking and, subsequently, your chances of making a sale.
How to Get Amazon Reviews
Buyers are much more likely to purchase a product that has good reviews, so you must do your best to get them, especially after a new product launch.
Bad actors have recently put reviews in the news, but it’s important to note that Amazon allows you to solicit reviews – you simply must follow the rules. That being said, let’s look at five recommended ways to get more reviews on Amazon.
1. Request a Review Button
Amazon’s Request a Review messaging system sends a combined seller feedback and product review request to buyers on your behalf. Messages are automatically translated into the buyer’s preferred language and come directly from Amazon, so you can rest assured that they are compliant with Amazon policies.
2. Buyer-Seller Messaging
Requests can also be sent through Seller Central’s Buyer-Seller messaging system. This method allows you to create your own customized requests, which can be great for branding purposes but also makes it easier to inadvertently break the rules. Make sure you check all review solicitation and buyer communication guidelines before sending this type of message.
3. Automated Review Requests
Both of the options above require you to log into Seller Central, find the specific order and select the buyer for each message you send. This can quickly become time-consuming, especially as you scale your business. Automating your requests with trusted Amazon feedback and review software helps you take back your day and focus on other important tasks. Amazon review software can automate your requests through Amazon’s Buyer-Seller Messaging or Request a Review systems. Better yet, you can also control your message’s timing, monitor reviews and view detailed analytics about your account (look for a more detailed breakdown of these benefits and more at the end of this post!).
4. Amazon Vine
Amazon Vine is a program that invites trusted Amazon reviewers called Vine Voices to review your products. You must enroll in the program and provide free products for review, which can be costly, but it’s a popular Amazon-approved tactic that has been shown to increase reviews on new products. However, there’s no guarantee that your product will be reviewed, so make sure to weigh the pros and cons before enrolling.
5. Product Inserts
If you’re like the millions of people around the world that shop on Amazon each day, you’ve probably seen product review requests in some of your packages. This is yet another way that sellers can ask for reviews, but as product inserts are harder for Amazon to police, many sellers blatantly violate the marketplace’s policies with their messaging. The consequences can be steep, however, so it’s definitely not worth the risk. Understand the rules for this type of communication and follow them.
Why Amazon Review Monitoring Is So Important
Once the reviews start rolling in, don’t let all of that valuable information go to waste! Regularly performing an Amazon review analysis can reveal key insights into your products and customers and even influence future business decisions.
Here are three reasons why you need to monitor your Amazon reviews:
• Learn how to improve existing products. Do several reviews make mention of something wrong, like a clasp that breaks or a color that isn’t described quite right? Diagnosing what’s causing customers to leave negative reviews and correcting the issue with your supplier or on your product detail page can help solve the problem.
• Discover new product or bundle opportunities. Buyers have been known to leave reviews like, “This product is great, but I wish it ___.” Compile a customer wish list and get to work! Or, if buyers express another need, a complementary product in a bundle might be a big hit.
• Keep an eye on competitors. Monitoring what your competitors are doing can also help you come up with new product ideas or inspire ways to make your products stand out from the crowd.
Using Review Software to Get, Manage and Monitor Reviews
By reading this article, you’ve learned that reputable Amazon review software can be used to automatically follow up with buyers to request feedback and reviews, but what else can best-of-breed review management software do? Plenty!
Sophisticated Amazon review software also allows you to:
• Send messages at a time you deem suitable. You can also create exclusion lists to safeguard against sending messages to certain customers, like those who’ve been refunded or received their order late. Most times, you can set specific campaign rules that help you send the right message at the right time.
• Continually monitor your ASINs for reviews. Most Amazon software tools can track any ASIN that you’re currently selling, are considering selling, or those of your competitors. And, in-depth analytics together with a detailed breakdown of each review makes analyzing them that much easier.
• When a negative review does come in, you’ll know about it right away. Thanks to real-time review alerts, you can adjust the alert settings to the types of responses (positive or negative) you want to be notified of and your desired timing (individually or a daily digest).
The right Amazon review software is a powerful tool that helps any business on Amazon build its seller and product reputation. The Amazon review system is complex, but innovative software and an expert team are the perfect support system for your success.
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