Here are some of the common white hat and black hat methods for getting reviews for sellers’ products. While this list certainly isn’t exhaustive, it does showcase many of the more common or popular ways that people collect legit and non-legit reviews.
Amazon Vine Program
The most popular white hat review collection method for new products is to enroll in the Vine program tucked away in your advertising menu. The Vine program gives your product away to members known as Vine Voices, who are customers with a solid history of providing insightful and helpful reviews. It will cost $200 per ASIN to enroll in the program, and it’s only available for products with fewer than 30 reviews. The downside to Vine is that the reviewers tend to be very critical, and the average rating is about 3 stars.
Request A Review
Since 2019 Amazon has provided a “request a review” button in Amazon Seller Central. In basic testing, using this button is the easiest way to send a polite request for the customer to leave a review, and can push your rate of reviews up by 10% or more. Making it easier and quicker for customers to leave a review is the most effective way to increase your number of overall reviews.
Use Clever Inserts
Using product inserts in the packaging of your products can be intensely useful in reminding customers to leave a review during a time when they are eagerly opening the product they’ve been waiting for. One thing you need to be careful of is that you word your insert specifically to not ask for a positive review, and do not offer any form of incentive. Both of these are tactics that violate Amazon’s seller policies. Asking customers to register their product for an extended warranty is a common way of getting their email addresses, which can then be used to ask for reviews later.
Product Giveaways & Discounts
Another popular way of driving not only reviews but baseline sales is to use steep discounts to bring in traffic. Many sellers will include an automatic 15%-25% discount when launching new products to get a massive number of sales and reviews in a short period. There are also rebate clubs that still technically comply with the terms of service, and while they tend to focus more on getting sellers higher credit for sales, they still result in high review volume.
Request Reviews From Customers That Have Needed Customer Service Before
One of the biggest drivers for repeat business is providing an excellent customer experience, and this includes customer service and issue resolution. If you have engaged with any customer that had questions prior to purchase, support needs following a purchase, returns for an unneeded product, or a customer satisfaction issue, communicating with them can be a crucial effort that results in actual satisfaction. They see that you care about their experience, and are subsequently much more likely to leave a good review.
Request Targeted Reviews From Customers Who Leave Positive Seller Feedback
If you have customers that have bought products and have left you positive seller feedback in the past, they are a perfect audience to court for reviews. You may have to include a short tutorial on how to leave product feedback instead of seller feedback, but it can often be well worth your time.
Follow-Up With Critical Reviewers
Back in 2021 Amazon rolled out a feature that allows sellers to contact customers that left reviews of 3 stars or less. This is the perfect way to open a dialogue with customers who simply weren’t satisfied, in the hopes of finding out what you can do to improve their opinion of your product. The downside is that you must be Brand Registered, and Amazon sends a preformatted initial message, that you cannot customize.
Polish Your Packaging & Manuals
Customers are far more likely to leave engaging, positive reviews for products that have beautiful packaging. Forget your plain boxes and poly bags, if you want to wow your customer before they even open the product, a full-color package is what will really impress. Additionally, make sure that any manuals you have look good, and are written in fluent English, not some vaguely-passable translation. This goes for even simple products that you might think don’t need any manual or instructions.