How to Get Reviews on Amazon: The Right and Wrong Ways

Reviews on your Amazon listings are some of the most powerful and underrated helpers to boost traffic and sales. In fact, some 79% of online customers are swayed to purchase (or not purchase) items based off of reviews. With the correlation between favorable reviews and buyers’ behavior being so strong, it would be in any Amazon sellers’ best interest to acquire as many positive customer reviews as possible. Since Amazon began cracking down on incentivized reviews, the feat of receiving positive reviews has only become more difficult. Fortunately, in this article, we’ll discuss how to get reviews on Amazon, through safe and genuine means.

How NOT to Get Reviews on Amazon

Before we can dive into safe methods of getting reviews, it’s important to understand ways that Amazon deems as unacceptable for getting reviews. Amazon is rather strict when it comes to customer reviews, as their top priority is to maintain integrity and buyers’ trust.

Here are some types of reviews that Amazon will deem as unacceptable, and will be grounds for action against their zero tolerance policy for fraudulent reviews:

• A review by someone who has a direct or indirect financial interest in the product.
• A review by someone perceived to have a close personal relationship with the product's owner, author, or artist.
• A review by the product manufacturer, posing as an unbiased shopper.
• Multiple negative reviews for the same product from one customer.
• A review in exchange for monetary reward.
• A review of a game in exchange for bonus in-game credits.
• A negative review from a seller on a competitor's product.
• A positive review from an artist on a peer's album in exchange for receiving a positive review from them.

How To Get Reviews on Amazon

Now that we’ve covered ways to not get customer reviews, we’ll discuss safe and effective ways to receive more genuine, positive reviews for your products.

1. Provide a Stellar Shopping Experience

This one might be a given, but it’s number one on our list for a reason. A flawless and memorable shopping experience is more likely to stand out to a customer, especially one who frequently purchases and reviews products. The absolute best way to obtain reviews is those you don’t have to ask or prompt, they just happen. Of course, this is easier said than done, however providing no negatives to the experience will give the customer nothing to leave a bad review for.

When reverse-engineering the drivers behind negative reviews, it has been discovered that the majority of negative reviews involve customers feeling misled or lied to. To proactively avoid these, it’s important to be honest in the product description and provide as accurate of information as possible. Doing so will not only instill confidence once the product is received by the customer, but will also void any possibility of negative reviews for these reasons.

2. Ask For Reviews Through Amazon

This method is number two on our list for one simple reason: it works. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. In fact, 77% of shoppers would be happy to provide a review if requested by a business. Without prompting, Amazon will automatically send a follow-up email after completing their purchase asking if they would like to leave a review.

You may also use Amazon’s “Request a Review” button, which will send the same automated email to the customer. This button is available to sellers within the Order Details section of Seller Central, and is available for use between four and 30 days of the customer’s purchase. If you are looking for an integrated, straightforward way to request a review, this method should become a best practice following a sale.

3. Ask For Reviews Through Email

Instead of requesting reviews through Amazon, the same technique can also be moved off-platform, and the technique improved. While Amazon will send the same, generic template for requesting a review, you may create a totally new and personalized template to better speak to customers.

Now, this technique isn’t without a roadblock or two, as Amazon doesn’t give you access to customer emails. It’s important to keep in mind that as long as customers are purchasing your products on Amazon, they are still Amazon’s customers. The only way to obtain customers’ emails is to get them outside of Amazon, before they reach your listing.

A good method for going about this is building an email list of potential customers. There are several effective ways to build a quality email list. You can leverage social media, Facebook groups, create a blog with subscribers, or, utilize product inserts with QR codes to reach every customer who orders your products.

4. Ask For Reviews Using Product Inserts

Product inserts are one of the most straightforward and effective ways of requesting reviews. The beauty of product inserts is that each and every customer is bound to see it, at the very least. Another winning benefit is that they can be personalized as a thank you note, and can also include a QR code with a direct link to the product review page on Amazon.

Product inserts do not need to be particularly fancy or long; in fact, you don’t want the customer to not bother reading it and discarding the insert along with the packaging. A simple insert with a clean and attractive design is perfect, as is minimal length. A short blip such as “Thank you for buying our product! We’d appreciate it if you left us a review of your experience shopping with us,” or something of the like, will suffice.

With product inserts, and deciding what to write to customers, sometimes less is often more.

Conclusion

Customers love product reviews because it is the one part of a product listing that is not created by the seller. A product with sufficient positive reviews from authentic, genuine customers will outperform any product with little or no reviews.

Product reviews can be incredibly underrated, yet incredibly effective when acquired. If you are looking for a tried and true way to bolster your listings (and sales), getting better reviews on Amazon is a surefire way you don’t want to miss out on.