How to Grow Your Amazon Review Count (While Staying Within Amazon’s Guidelines)

Last updated: July 30, 2021

When it comes to selling products on Amazon, few things are more valuable than your product reviews. In fact, 57% of Amazon shoppers listed reviews as one of the most important factors they consider when shopping on Amazon. In addition to helping persuade customers to purchase your product, reviews also play an important role in Amazon's search algorithms and are a big part of determining whether or not a customer is able to find your product. Unfortunately, reviews are one of the few aspects of your product listing that you can’t directly control. 

The good news, though, is that there are ways to go about increasing the number of reviews your products receive without scamming the system and breaking Amazon's Terms of Service. Let’s take a look at a few key ways sellers can do this:

Provide an exceptional customer experience

It may go without saying, but it's crucial enough that we're going to say it anyway— providing an exceptional customer experience is the key to generating more positive reviews on your Amazon products. Customers are much more likely to take time out of their day to write an Amazon product review if they are highly impressed by your product and your customer service.

Here are some examples of how to provide your customers with an exceptional customer experience:

• Promptly answer customer questions: Amazon gives sellers 24 hours to respond to customer questions in the Buyer-Seller Messaging Service. Instead of waiting to answer these questions, respond as soon as possible and let them know you’re working on their issue and hope to have a resolution soon.
• Provide updates on orders and returns: Customers shop on Amazon because they trust they will receive their products in a timely manner, so provide your customers with the information they need to track their products. And, if for some reason they need to make a return, provide them with the necessary steps.
• Find lost customers and clear up confusion: Sometimes customers get confused by Amazon and don’t understand where to leave their questions, feedback, and comments. Make sure you frequently look at your product reviews and seller feedback for customers who didn’t know how to contact sellers directly, and reach out to them so you can solve their issue. Also, Amazon recently made it so sellers can’t respond back as a comment directly on product reviews, so be sure to brush up on those guideline updates here.
• Merge reviews using product variations: Product variations are displays of a single product according to a defined theme, such as color, size, style, and more. Variations make it easier for shoppers to find exactly what they’re looking for and discover alternate options for the product. Additionally, sellers should know product variations also combine product reviews from all of the products to one single listing, which can increase review count.

Place product inserts in your packages

Product packaging inserts provide proactive marketing and customer service opportunities for sellers—they allow you to directly facilitate feedback from Amazon customers once your product hits their doorstep. Many brands use inserts (about the size of a business card) to request honest product and seller reviews, and to share contact information for correcting issues that mitigate negative ratings.

It's important to note that per Amazon’s Terms of Service and review guidelines, the insert cannot offer a "financial reward, discount, free products, or other compensation in exchange for a review on their product or their competitor’s product." 

Send a follow-up email requesting feedback

Amazon allows you to make use of Amazon review services such as FeedbackWhiz and FeedbackFive, which enable you to send automated follow-up emails to customers who purchased your products and have requested feedback. In many cases, this little nudge can go a long way toward encouraging customers to leave a review. However, be sure to read up on Amazon’s updated Messaging Guidelines so you don’t risk account suspension. 

To avoid being marked as spam make sure you have only one email going out to your customers and use neutral language so as to not violate the communication guidelines.

Enroll your products in the Amazon Early Reviewer Program (program retired on 4/25/21)

As of April 25, 2021, Amazon discontinued this program for all new and current users. If you're curious about what this was, the Amazon Early Reviewer program was designed to help new products build honest reviews from actual customers. Amazon sellers could enroll products with less than five reviews into the program (making it great for product launches), and when customers purchase a product, they would be sent an email by Amazon offering a $1-3 Amazon gift card in exchange for a product review. 

Develop a strategy to increase review count

Generating more reviews on Amazon may not be something that is directly in your control, but it is something that you can influence with the right strategy. At SupplyKick, we understand the importance Amazon product reviews play in organic rank and in determining who wins the buy box—and we’ve developed clear strategies for helping Amazon sellers generate more happy customers and positive reviews for their products.

Contact us today if you would like to learn more about how to save time managing your Amazon product listings, customer service, product reviews, and more.