3 Strategies for Requesting Reviews on Amazon

While many factors will influence your success on Amazon, one of the biggest is your ability to consistently get product reviews from buyers. It’s been widely shown that reviews play a major role in consumers’ purchasing decisions — you’ve probably relied on them with your online shopping — so without strong review numbers, people will more often than not just pass you by. Outside of this social proof that your product is worth purchasing, reviews also help you increase your product visibility on the marketplace, make inventory decisions, and even maintain a good standing with Amazon.

Reviews are important for sellers, but customers don’t always feel inclined to leave them. That’s why Amazon sellers need to have a strong review strategy in place. Here are three methods to help you get more reviews while staying compliant with Amazon policies.

Manually Sending Review Requests Through Amazon

Amazon sellers may send proactive permitted messages to buyers to request product reviews and/or seller feedback. This can be done through Buyer-Seller Messaging or the Request a Review button in Seller Central. Per Amazon, messages must be sent within 30 days of order completion, include the order ID, and be translated into the buyer’s language of preference.

Buyer-Seller Messaging: Amazon’s Buyer-Seller Messaging system allows you to create and send your own customized review requests to buyers. While this is an appealing option from a branding perspective, be forewarned that you must handle any translation needs and pay close attention to Amazon’s communication guidelines as it’s easy to inadvertently break a rule here.

Request a Review Button: Clicking the Request a Review button alerts Amazon to send out a combined seller feedback and product review request on your behalf. You can’t customize these requests, but they will be automatically translated into the buyer’s language of choice and fully compliant with Amazon policy.

Note that both methods require you to log into Seller Central, locate the order, and select the buyer for each review request that you send. This can be hard to manage and quickly become very time-consuming as you grow your catalog and get more sales.

Using Amazon Review Programs

Once you launch a new product, kickstarting review is a common problem. Amazon has created programs to help sellers clear this hurdle, but with the closure of the Early Reviewer Program in 2021, Amazon Vine is left as the only true customer review program offered by the marketplace.

Vine invites trusted Amazon reviewers called Vine Voices to review your product. To participate, you must be a Professional seller enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry who identifies as a brand owner. Products should also have:

• An FBA offer in “New” condition with available inventory 
• Already been launched at the time of enrollment
• Less than 30 Amazon reviews
• A product detail page with an image and description

Vine products can’t be adult items, nor should they be bundles or require separate orders to be reviewed.

Amazon paused enrollment fees for Vine during the past couple of years but will now charge $200 per parent ASIN. Enrollment fees are billed after the first Vine review is published, which typically takes around three weeks as reviewers need time to try out the product. That being said, these reviewers aren’t obligated by Amazon to leave a review. You must reconcile with this fact and be prepared to pay the cost of enrollment and provide your product for free. This may not be in the budget for everyone or every item.

Automating Requests with Third-Party Review Software

When it comes to requesting reviews, you should be casting as wide of a net as possible. To get more ratings, you need to reach more buyers. One of the best ways to achieve this is by automating your requests with third-party Amazon review software like eComEngine’s FeedbackFive.

FeedbackFive connects to your Seller Central account and sends out review requests on your behalf to people who have purchased your products. Prebuilt campaign options, including Amazon’s official Request a Review message or your own customized Buyer-Seller Messaging template, make it easy to request reviews at scale. Better yet, FeedbackFive comes with customizable sending rules to help you reach the right buyer at the right time and shares in-depth analytics to help you examine the effectiveness of your emails.

But as any smart Amazon seller will tell you, managing your reviews is just as important as getting them. Understanding the types of ratings that your products are receiving is crucial as it may dictate whether or not you carry that item in the future or clue you into a problem that may be causing an influx of negative reviews.

FeedbackFive continuously monitors your ASINs for ratings and shows a detailed review history for each item so you can better identify review trends. Sort and filter reviews to find exactly what you’re looking for, and set up text and/or email alerts to stay informed of new reviews even when you’re not logged on.

FeedbackFive: EcomEngine’s review request dashboard

You can find FeedbackFive in the Seller Central Partner Network, formerly known as the Amazon Marketplace Appstore.

Need More Help with Your Amazon Review Strategy?

While these are some of the top methods for requesting Amazon reviews, building a successful Amazon review strategy doesn’t stop there. For more help, and to give FeedbackFive a try, reach out to your friends at eComEngine today.