Getting reviews on Amazon can be challenging, but adopting the right tactics ensures you get genuine customer feedback while staying compliant with Amazon’s strict guidelines.
Tools like Amazon’s “Request a Review” feature, product inserts, and social media are some of the effective ways to generate genuine reviews. They encourage authentic reviews, boost your credibility, and drive sales, as pages with customer reviews convert 3.5 times more.
These methods work because they target the key customer touchpoints, ensuring timely and credible reviews.
In this article, we have listed 7 actionable ways to get customer reviews on Amazon and boost your sales.
Amazon's Guidelines on Review Solicitation
Amazon has a strict policy to ensure the authenticity and trustworthiness of customer reviews. Sellers must comply with these guidelines to avoid consequences, including removing selling privileges, product delisting, legal action, and public disclosure of the violation.
Here are some key rules
- Sellers can ask for reviews but cannot pressure customers to leave positive reviews or offer incentives for doing so
- Sellers are prohibited from posting reviews of their products or their competitor’s products
- Sellers are prohibited from offering compensation such as discounts, free products, refunds, or rewards for positive reviews.
- Family members, employees, and sellers are not allowed to post reviews.
- Sellers cannot ask reviewers to change or remove their reviews or attempt to influence the content of reviews.
7 Best Ways to Get Reviews on Amazon
Let’s dive right into that to get you genuine Amazon reviews faster:
1. Use Amazon’s “Request a Review” button
Amazon Seller Central includes a “Request a Review” button, which allows sellers to send automated review requests to customers. While this is an easy feature that sends requests to buyers, it has some limitations:
- It lacks personalization as it is a pre-written text sent by Amazon, making it less engaging
- The process is manual and requires sellers to click the button for each individual sale, which consumes a lot of time, especially at scale
However, this aligns with Amazon’s commitment to ensuring authenticity and a quality customer experience. You can use smart automation tools to maximize your chances of receiving authentic positive reviews while staying compliant with Amazon’s policy. We will discuss the tools later in the article.
2. Use Amazon Review Services
Amazon offers a dedicated program like Amazon Vine to encourage unbiased feedback while maintaining compliance with Amazon’s guidelines and helping you generate authentic reviews for their products. Here’s how it helps sellers like you:
Amazon Vine program
Amazon Vine, an invitation-only program connects top reviewers on Amazon to provide honest and insightful reviews for products. The reviewers are called Vine Voices, and they are highly rated. They are offered an opportunity to receive free products from brands across various categories for their unbiased reviews. These reviews help buyers make informed decisions and ensure that feedback is available for new products.
For sellers, it offers an opportunity to generate high-quality product reviews, improve visibility, build trust, and boost sales. Here’s how it works:
- After logging into Seller Central and setting up FBA, sellers can enroll up to 200 products in Vine and provide up to 30 free units of each product for review
- After enrolling in the Vine program, Amazon provides products to a trusted network of reviewers or Vine Voices
- These reviewers select products they are interested in and receive them for free
- The reviewers provide honest reviews in exchange for receiving the product
- The sellers can track the number of reviews and product enrollment status through the Vine Dashboard
Amazon Vine program significantly boosts product discoverability, leading to higher sales. According to Amazon, enrolling in Vine can increase sales by up to 30%. Since these reviews come from verified buyers, customers trust them for authenticity.
This program is, however, not free for sellers. As sellers, you are not charged until after the first review is received. Post that, the following charges apply:
Sellers must fulfill certain criteria to enroll in the Vine program. You can check the program here. Learn more about Amazon Vine from our complete guide.
3. Use third-party automated email responders
Sellers can also integrate third-party automated email responders into their strategy to streamline buyer communication and get reviews. Here’s how you can use this while complying with Amazon guidelines using the Permitted Messaging platform. Permitted messages are those necessary to complete an order.
You can leverage the tools available in the Amazon Application store, APIs, or Seller Central’s Request a Review feature. Sellers can send Proactive Permitted Messages, messages that sellers initiate and are not responses to a buyer’s question. Proactive Permitted Messages must be sent within 30 days of order completion and should not:
- Influence review content (e.g., incentivizing positive reviews)
- Include promotional content or external links unrelated to order fulfillment
4. Utilize product inserts
Product inserts are a great way to gather reviews on Amazon. However, you must be very careful about what you say in your inserts without breaking Amazon’s guidelines. Here’s how you should do it:
- Insert a friendly ‘Thank You’ message, creating a positive tone and setting the stage for asking for a review
Example:
“Thank you for choosing [Your Brand]! We’re thrilled to have you as a customer and hope you enjoy your new [Product Name].”
- Let the customers know the importance of reviews for your business and explain how their feedback helps improve your product and services
Example:
“Your feedback helps us grow and allows other customers to make informed decisions. We’d love to hear your thoughts about your experience with [Product Name].”
- Provide them simple instructions for leaving a review, like including a QR code to your product review page
- Also, add customer service contact information showing that you value them as customers and are willing to help them at all times
Example:
“If you have any questions or concerns, our support team is here to help. Reach us at [Email/Phone].”
Things to avoid here:
- Do not suggest or incentivize positive reviews
- Avoid phrasing like: “Leave a 5-star review” or offering discounts/gifts for reviews
- Keep the tone neutral and focused on offering them assistance
5. Use social media
Now, social media is a great tool for establishing your brand and generating a positive image among buyers. When you create engaging content, you drive more traffic to your product, which has the potential to increase sales and, thereby, reviews for your product.
- Encourage customers to post about your product and share user-generated content to build trust among potential customers
- Run engaging campaigns that create a buzz about your product
- Interact with your viewers on social media and respond to comments encouraging them to buy your products on Amazon and leave feedback
Note: Comply with Amazon’s guidelines and refrain from offering discounts, freebies, or rewards in exchange for reviews. Use social media for authentic connections and honest feedback. This helps your brand become a trusted name and increase sales on Amazon.
6. Regularly offer discounts and special promotions
While you cannot incentivize buyers for reviews, you can keep them happy to shop with you by offering special promotions and discounts. Integrate coupons and discount codes as part of your overall strategy for marketing your product and not for getting reviews on Amazon. For instance, sellers can offer introductory discounts for newly launched products, especially for email subscribers.
Add a small thank you note for shopping and a polite request to subscribe to your email and leave a review on Amazon.
7. Provide excellent eCommerce customer service
Good customer support significantly boosts the likelihood of receiving a review on Amazon, as shoppers are likely to leave a review when they feel valued.
- Amazon allows sellers to contact buyers who leave negative reviews, giving sellers a chance to improve the buyers' experience. Use this to your advantage and address issues as quickly as possible.
- To leave a lasting impression, offer solutions beyond basic customer expectations, such as sending a replacement
- Follow up after offering a resolution or fulfilling the order via an approved messaging system and request a review
Common Pitfalls (and Solutions) in Review Solicitation
“When seeking Amazon reviews, avoiding mistakes like policy violations, ignoring negative feedback, or using unapproved solicitation methods will help protect your credibility and maintain customer trust".
Violation of Amazon’s review policy
Amazon has strict guidelines, and navigating them is no easy feat. You can easily fall into the traps, intentionally or unintentionally, in pursuit of quick results that can lead to severe penalties, including:
- Immediate and permanent account suspension of the seller and withdrawal of the selling privileges on Amazon, including withholding funds
- Removal of all of the reviews of the product and preventing the product from receiving any future reviews or ratings
- Permanent delisting of the product from Amazon
- Legal action against the seller, including lawsuits and referral to civil and criminal enforcement authorities
- Disclosing the violating seller’s name and other related information publicly
Relying on one response for negative reviews
Sending only one ‘Sorry’ response to negative reviews is not advisable. Instead, follow up with the customer and resolve the error. Use the opportunity to change the negative experience to a positive one by going above and beyond by offering assistance, a replacement with better packaging, and discounts. Always make a follow-up call to ensure satisfaction.
Ignoring negative feedback
Customer reviews and feedback are critical for Amazon sellers. If you ignore them, you risk missing valuable insights and losing potential sales. Unanswered reviews, specifically negative reviews, amplify dissatisfaction and hurt your ranking. But, if you address negative reviews and offer buyers a solution, you can turn them into loyal customers.
Additionally, constructive feedback helps you improve your product, fix recurring issues, and enhance your credibility. It helps reveal blind spots like slow shipping or confusing policies that ruin customers' shopping experiences.
Ignoring review management tools
Manually tracking reviews can quickly become overwhelming due to the volume and pace, especially during peak sales and promotional events. You must consistently monitor reviews for multiple products and identify reviews that need addressing. Without a dedicated system, it is easy to overlook critical feedback, miss opportunities to resolve issues, and even fail to capitalize on positive reviews. To avoid this, use tools that help you:
- Monitor your reviews
- Automate your review requests and
- Offer data-driven insights
Which tool can you trust for your Amazon review management, you ask?
To name some, you can try FeedbackWhiz, AMZFinder, and Feedback Genius.
However, if this is overwhelming and you have too much to manage, you can always go to an agency with proven results like SalesDuo.
Introducing SalesDuo– For efficient Amazon review management
Customer reviews are the backbone of Amazon's success, influencing trust and conversion rates. Besides boosting sales, they are also invaluable sources of feedback from customers. However, managing customer reviews comes with a lot of challenges–from strict Amazon policies to customer reluctance to leave reviews.
An agency, such as SalesDuo, makes a huge difference by taking the guesswork out of the process and actually making an impact.
SalesDuo is a full-service Amazon marketing agency trusted by over 250 brands. With its proprietary AI dashboards, tailored strategies, and a team of ex-Amazon experts, SalesDuo helps businesses scale effectively on the platform.
To reduce the time-intensive task of managing customer reviews, SalesDuo offers a hands-on solution to streamline review management. It offers:
- Automated review request systems that simplify the process of requesting customer reviews by automating outreach while complying with Amazon’s guidelines.
- Compliance monitoring with Amazon's policies. SalesDuo ensures your business avoids penalties like account suspension by restricting inappropriate language and preventing incentivized reviews.
- Tailored customer interaction to craft personalized follow-ups, address concerns proactively, and foster customer loyalty. This also helps generate leads that lead to better reviews and long-term business success.
SalesDuo takes the hassle out of Amazon review management by automating essential tasks. Its automated review request systems save time, while real-time monitoring ensures no customer feedback slips through the cracks.
Schedule a call with our Amazon growth expert today!
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About the Author
Meet Arjun Narayan, a Business Dynamo with two decades of conquering boardrooms and founding two companies that didn't just survive but thrived. When he's not navigating business strategies and delivery teams, you'll find him immersed in his love for cars and exploring new models, geeking out over tech trends, globe-trotting for new adventures, and occasionally pondering the mysteries of the universe over a good cup of coffee.
