Ratings are important in all sorts of ecommerce, but they are especially important on Amazon, where many businesses disregard them. We look at some of the less obvious ways that reviews might effect a brand’s Amazon sales and presence in the latest episode of Intertech Digital Ltd’s Amazon Explained series, as well as providing some insights and advice on how to develop and manage them.
The significance of evaluations
Product reviews, at their most basic level, provide social proof that your product is worth purchasing and so have a significant impact on sales – not surprising, given that 72% of customers will not make any purchasing decisions until they have read reviews (Testimonial Engine). However, there are several reasons why reviews and ratings should be an important element of your overall Amazon strategy.
Boost consumer confidence
Having a lot of positive reviews helps you convert because buyers trust your product and brand more. This is particularly crucial in the era of eCommerce, where customers do not have the opportunity to see or try out the product before purchasing. When it comes to making a purchase, shoppers are educated to look for reviews first, and they play an important role in product research and discovery. Customers are 71% more likely to purchase a product after reading reviews, according to a study (3D Cart).
SEO’s influence
Relevance and performance are the two pillars of Amazon’s A9 search algorithm. The performance category includes reviews. The more and better reviews you have, the higher your product will rank for broader key terms, which will affect click-through rates and, eventually, sales.
Your paid search results may be influenced by your reviews. If your conversion rate has decreased as a result of unfavorable reviews, Amazon will begin to serve you for important keywords less frequently. To catch up with your competitors, you’ll have to spend even more on higher bids to recoup.
Information and data
The Amazon reviews for your product are full of market intelligence about what customers enjoy, what they don’t like about it, and what they’d like to see next. You can analyze your product reviews using various tools and techniques to use the information when developing and launching new products.
These revelations can also be used to enhance and optimize your PDPs. If you receive several reviews stating that the size of your product differs from what the consumer expected, for example, you know you need to desc
Retail preparedness, the buy box, and best-selling rankings are all affected.
According to Amazon criteria, to be considered “retail-ready,” a product must have a rating of at least 3.5 stars and at least 15 reviews. Amazon’s metric of retail-ready is how well your PDP shows all of the information a customer requires while completing a purchase. The more knowledgeable a customer is, the happier they will be. This has an effect on Seller Feedback, Buy Box Winners, and eventually, sales.
If you want to use Amazon Advertising, being ready for retail is also important because it gives you access to specific advertising tools that you wouldn’t have otherwise.
The following list is by no means complete, and each of these factors plays a role in Amazon’s flywheel effect. You’ll convert more, get more positive feedback, and increase sales after you start upgrading your PDPs.
How do you get reviews?
So, now that you’ve been persuaded of the value of reviews, where do you begin? Reviews will follow if your goods and PDPs are good (or awful), but it’s critical to speed up the development of positive feedback, especially if you want to start the flywheel effect.
Amazon Vine is a program run by Amazon.
If you already have an Amazon Vendor account, you can submit ASINs for the Amazon Vine program. In exchange for an unbiased, honest evaluation, Amazon gives a free product to a select group of reviewers (Vine Voices). You can register up to five ASINs at once, and depending on how many they currently have, each one can receive up to 30 reviews from the program.
There’s no guarantee that Vine Voices will provide you with positive feedback. They are, however, asked to participate in the program based on the value of previous reviews they have submitted, and they get to choose which products they want to review. This product preference bias ensures that reviews are fair, but it also implies that less appealing products may struggle to gain traction on this platform. Because Vine Voices risk losing their Vine access if they don’t post a review within 30 days, you may expect the program to function swiftly if the product is popular. You can identify reviews left through the Vine program by the green tag that Amazon tags it with.
Program for Early Reviewers
The Amazon Early Reviewer program allows you to submit SKUs for Amazon to promote for review. The reviewers are all chosen by Amazon based on particular criteria such as a lack of a history of dishonest reviews, and they are compensated with a $1-3 coupon. Unlike incentivized reviews, which Amazon outlawed in 2016, this scheme only targets customers who have already purchased the item. Because it’s doubtful that many individuals will post a review despite the incentive, this campaign is best suited to ASINs with a significant client base.
It costs $60 per ASIN. However, you will not be paid until you have received one review or one year has gone, whichever comes first. This program’s reviews are labeled with an orange emblem to tell which ones are from this program.
Alternative review-incentive strategies: There are a variety of other techniques to encourage customers to post a review.
Package insertions
The packaging of a product is an important aspect of the customer experience. If you’re a seller and your orders are being fulfilled by Amazon, you can still add a short card or insert it with your product. Customers are far more likely to share a pleasant experience after receiving a considerate gesture. Thus these will help your company stand out.
Amazon’s customer feedback system
Many merchants are unaware that the post-purchase emails that customers receive can be customized. Although you can’t ask customers to review your product directly, you can ask for “feedback.” If the purchasing experience and the product are both positive, favourable reviews should follow.
What should you do if you get a bad review?
The reviews are starting to come in, but they must still be monitored. Negative reviews can have a negative impact on your sales, and they frequently rise to the top, giving shoppers a negative impression of the product and brand. Because Amazon reviews are so popular, they can have an impact on other sales channels as well. Also, terms like “not as advertised” or “fake” can be picked up by Amazon and result in your account being suspended while they investigate, so you must act quickly if you see them. Here are some strategies for dealing with unfavourable feedback:
Request that Amazon removes the negative review.
Although Amazon favours the customer over the seller, there are a few occasions where you can counter bad comments. Amazon will remove a review if it violates Amazon’s review criteria (promotions, obscene language, etc. ), if it’s about the FBA service, or if it’s in the wrong area.
Make direct contact with the customer.
If you approach them directly and try to remedy their issue, 30-60% of purchasers will erase or change their negative review to a positive one.
Leave a public comment.
Customers will be more forgiving of negative reviews and more trusting of your company if they see that you have responded to them. A good level of customer service can help protect the product’s (and the seller’s or vendor’s) reputation, and you might be able to offer information that will be helpful to others who are considering the same purchase.
Deal with any problems your clients are having with your merchandise.
If you use customer input to enhance and update your items over time, you should notice fewer unfavourable reviews.
Technology and tools
It’s a lot to take in, but happily, there are many of excellent tools available to assist you in creating, monitoring, and analyzing reviews.
Genius Feedback
Feedback Genius interacts with couriers such as UPS, FedEx, and USPS to follow tracking information and then delivers the feedback request automatically once the shipment is delivered. When a review is replaced, you get a real-time notification so you may respond right away. A/B testing and message analytics are also available, with the ability to measure email views, openers, click-throughs, and unsubscriptions.
AMZFinder is a search engine for Amazon products.
The Feedback Request System and Review Management are the two most important components of AMZFinder.
The Feedback Request System will automatically send review request emails and invoices, assisting the seller in gaining more positive feedback. The Review Management function then keeps track of those reviews and notifies the seller if they are bad.
Express Your Opinion
FeedbackExpress takes care of automating your feedback requests. It also uses customer service initiatives to prevent bad feedback proactively, and if you do receive any, it will give you alerts directly to your phone or email. It now also has a capability for tracking product reviews.
Monitoring of the Review
Last but not least, Review Monitoring is the most recent tool that Intertech Digital Ltd has implemented. It scrapes and analyzes user feedback and reviews to identify and answer key concerns about product performance. It has access to all marketplaces and is not limited to Amazon; it may be used on any eCommerce platform.
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