The Best Way to Get Product Reviews on Amazon

October 8, 2018

Everyone who has ever bought from Amazon knows how important product reviews are in a customer’s purchasing decision making process. For us sellers, they are the difference between a home-run and a failed product.

The review system on Amazon has always been one of its main selling points and the reason that it has grown the giant it is today. As such, we need to ensure that we rack up as many product reviews as possible, social proof is everything in this ecosystem.

If your competitors have 1000+ reviews and you have 9, do you think it’s negatively impacting your sales and conversion rates? You can bet your bottom dollar it is.

Consequently, we must utilise all avenues available to us to maximise our review counts and maximise our success. This is why I’m writing this article, and hopefully why you’re reading it.

However, before we start I must mention the elephant in the room, Amazon’s Terms of Service (TOS).

Play smart

Amazon are constantly updating and changing their TOS. If we as sellers want to continue selling on the platform, we must adhere to these rules.

Find the product review policies here:

Amazon are very particular on practices concerning product reviews as you might expect. One of the largest recent changes saw sellers no longer able to incentivise reviews. They’ve also been removing vast quantities of reviews from sellers this year who had acquired them ‘illegally’ over the last few years.

If you value your business over the long term, I’d strongly advise playing to the rules. This way you won’t jeopardise your account or your reputation.

The strategies below are the safest and smartest way to maximise review counts in the current climate.

1. Offer a great product

The most obvious but the most overlooked factor that you need to reconsider. If you are even entertaining the possibility of releasing a product that isn’t fantastic at its job – don’t do it.

I can say this with confidence because of course, I’ve fallen into that trap before. I found a great niche (quite competitive) with lots of sales in the iPhone accessory market. Sourcing was easy with a profit margin around 30% all costs considered.

But after receiving a couple of samples, I had noted that the product was slightly loose in the Lightning port. The product worked perfectly well but this apparent downside was hard to ignore.

Alas, I choose to ignore it and convince myself that I’d only sell one batch of the product for a quick buck and then move on.

A long story short, I only managed to sell about 30% of the units before the reviews dragged the rating down to a 3 star. At this point sales fell off a cliff and the product was doomed. Being a competitive niche, rival competition with better review ratings swept up the sales. Even though I was first to market, my product had a slight downfall which was its demise.

I only had myself to blame, I knew the product wasn’t as good as it could have been before I even went ahead with the purchase.

So, the key take-away here would be to honestly ask yourself a few questions before making an order with a factory. Is the product as good as it can be? If I was buying this product, what would I complain about? Would I be proud to sell this to my family and friends?

If you can answer those without a problem, then you’re in business. Bad products and products that need improvement will always be uncovered by the masses on Amazon.

Yes it’s obvious but needs to highlighted, focus on offering a GREAT product to the marketplace that you are proud of and the positive reviews will write themselves.

2. Increase sales velocity, more sales = more reviews

A great product will attract a better review rating than a poor product, obviously. But how do we now get more of these good reviews? We need to increase the sales velocity, as increased sales = more reviews.

If 100 people buy my product in October, I may expect to receive 3 reviews working on a 3% average review rate.

Similarly, if 1000 people buy my product in October, I may expect to receive 30 reviews for the same period.

All easy stuff but worth thinking about especially when launching. I have significantly lowered my price to break even and below on occasion to encourage as many sales (reviews) as possible.

You have to weigh up the pros and cons for your situation, but often a small loss when gaining initial reviews can get products moving off the shelves sooner. This can make more money in the long run.

3. Product inserts

The primary method of gaining reviews should always be the first two steps above. Create a killer product and get it moving as quickly as you can. However, there’s merit in a friendly product insert in persuading customers to get online and leave a review for you.

I intended to include a good example picture of an insert I received recently in a product from Anker. However, I can’t find it so you’ll have to accept my apologies and a description instead.

It was very simple, no larger than a credit card with a smiley face on one side an unhappy face on the other. If you were happy they would kindly ask for feedback on Amazon. If you were unhappy they would offer an external email address with which any issues could be dealt with.

Here’s another example from a post over on JungleScout:

These examples both just about stay within the bounds of Amazon’s TOS and neatly encourage the more positive feedback towards the review process. However, I would advise caution if operating quite so close to the line.

An insert that offers some sort of value works well from my experience. A quick usage tip or simple set of instructions with a thank you at the bottom is usually well received. Somewhere at the bottom you can include an email for any issues and a polite request for feedback and how important it is to the company.

Keep in mind what you bother to read when receiving an item from Amazon. If there is a booklet I know I won’t be reading it. However, a small nicely presented card with a few notes on will retain my attention.

4. Ask unrelated friends to write you a review for first 0-10 reviews

The first reviews are always the hardest to acquire. Consequently, I’ve asked people I know to purchase my products and leave an honest review for me. This gets the ball rolling and again, stays (just) within the Amazon TOS.

For the most part this technique works very effectively. However, it’s important to not have any relation to said individuals. If Amazon are able to link the two parties in any way, you could find yourself in trouble.

You may choose to reimburse your ‘associates’, but this would be outside of the TOS, so I’ll leave that one up to you!

5. Use an email follow up sequence

Once sales are being made, an email follow up sequence is probably the most effective way to keep maximising the review counts. If you haven’t heard of such a thing before, they are tools that send a series of emails over a strategic time period, after certain actions have been taken.

Treat these similarly to product inserts, they serve the same purpose. Again, try to provide some value for the customer, thank them for their custom and encourage their feedback.

Here’s some top tips for email follow ups:

Don’t spam your loyal customers – I’ve heard of sellers sending upwards of 3 emails to a customer after a purchase. This is too many! I prefer the more non-intrusive approach with one email or at most two.
Make it snappy – include some useful information like how to best wash your product for example. Let them know how much you appreciate their custom and encourage their feedback. Keep it simple and actionable.
Subject line – make the subject enticing, use a question or ask if product ‘x’ was delivered on time etc.
Use simple formatting – emails with complex html and attachments can often get automatically sent straight to the junk folder, I prefer to keep it basic to avoid this.

Additionally, the timing of your follow up emails is a big factor. I’ve found good results sending just one email around two days after the product has been received.

Many customers choose to opt out of email contact from sellers, this lessens the impact of email follow up tools. However, they are still effective. Expect a ballpark email open rate of between 15-20%.

There are lots to choose from but personally I use Feedback Genius. It integrates nicely into the UK marketplace and offers a free subscription that allows 100 emails to be sent per month. This is a great, free way to test the waters of email follow up.

Of course, if you like the tool, the paid subscriptions offer a better service. But the free service is ideal for dipping a toe in.

UPDATE: As of 2020, I’ve swapped my email follow up software to Helium 10. Why? I now use Helium 10 for the vast majority of my Amazon FBA software tasks. Consequently, it works out more cost effective and easier to manage having everything in one place.

When setting up your email sequence, feel free to use the following email template as a baseline, modify it to suit your needs:

Hello [[first-name]],

We see that your new order was shipped. This is a courtesy follow-up to ensure your
[[product-name]] is everything you hoped it would be!

We appreciate your business and want to make certain you are 100% satisfied. Please reply to
this email if you:

– Have general questions about your product.
– Need help with **using/operating** your product.
– Have concerns or issues with your product.

Please contact Amazon via the Amazon website if:

– Your order has not arrived (Amazon handles shipping for us).
– Your package arrived damaged.

As our valued customers, we are always available to you to provide exceptional customer
service.

Did you read any reviews while you were shopping for your [[product-name]]? Most shoppers
do. If you have 2 or 3 minutes today, would you help other Amazon customers by
[[product-review-link: leaving a product review?]] Thanks!

Enjoy!
**Signature**

Parting thoughts

In summary then don’t sell crap! No but really.

Make doubley damn sure that you are offering a KILLER product – to the Amazon (or any) marketplace. Ask yourself those hard questions to make sure that you’re not selling yourself short.
A good product will get good reviews – there’s no better way be successful and no worse way to fail. Hopefully you will get it right first time after reading this, unlike me.
Increase sales velocity in the early stages to boost review counts.
Use simple, aesthetically pleasing product inserts where possible – stick to the rules or face your fate, hopefully my opinion on that is clear.
Ask friends for help with initial reviews – be careful again here and make sure to read those TOS.
Use an email follow up sequence – the most effective, long term way of maximising your review counts. Don’t spam your loyal customers and always make sure you offer something more than just a plea for a review.
If your Amazon Reviews are not showing up read this artice here!

As always guys I hope this has been useful to you. Apologies for the wordy nature of the post, I’ll try to put some more pictures in the next one.

Find out how to deal with eBay revisions here!

Take care,

How to Use Amazon’s UPC Lookup Feature to Your Advantage