It’s no secret that Amazon shoppers rely on reviews when making purchase decisions. Customer reviews are important for every Amazon business, but they are absolutely essential for your private label products.
In this article, we’ll discuss three reasons reviews matter for private label sellers and how to get them while following Amazon’s Communication Guidelines. Note that Amazon recently shared updates to the Communication Guidelines that will go into effect on November 3rd.
1) Establishing Consumer Trust While Building Your Brand
Amazon reviews are the closest you can get to “word of mouth” advertising for your products. While you should absolutely make every effort to create a well-optimized product listing, remember that reviews are key to the decision-making process for online shoppers. In fact, one survey found that over 90% of consumers between the ages of 18-34 trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Reviews help build your brand as well as consumer trust in your products. You can have a great listing and awesome product photos, but if that listing is inaccurate or oversells your product, buyers are going to let you know in the reviews. Other shoppers know this and rely on those ratings to help determine whether to buy your product or a competing item.
2) Improving Product Visibility and Conversions
Reviews impact your BSR and how your products appear in organic search results on the Amazon platform. As Amazon advertising continues to grow, getting your products to rank organically becomes increasingly challenging. Reviews can boost your product visibility and improve the performance of your advertising efforts.
After all, advertising on Amazon can help you get your product in front of shoppers, but if you have poor reviews/ratings, your click-through-rates will be lower. That means less traffic, and ultimately fewer sales. Don’t waste your money driving traffic to a product with a bad rating.
Many Amazon shoppers use filters to help narrow their search for a product. If your product has a low average rating, it may be excluded. When you’re selling online, reputation is everything. Don’t let yours suffer by ignoring your reviews.
3) Informing Continuous Improvements
As a private label seller in a competitive market, you need to know what customers think of your products and what they want to see next. Luckily, you don’t need to conduct extensive market research to gather that information.
Your Amazon reviews offer a wealth of information about how your products are perceived. Track and monitor reviews to get ideas and inspiration for ways to improve your current product offerings or innovate and create new items. If you notice a trend in your customer reviews, pay attention to it.
Customers are telling you what they love about your products and what they’d like to see changed. Listening to them will help you continuously improve your business and build your brand successfully. After all, your products reflect your brand.
To consistently provide an exceptional experience for Amazon shoppers, you need to know how they think and what your target audience is looking for in a product. Evaluating your own product reviews as well as reviews for competing products can help you maintain your competitive edge.
How to Request Reviews
Amazon has strict rules about how and when to communicate with buyers. If you are sending review requests through Buyer-Seller Messaging in Seller Central or with a third-party tool that is authorized in the Amazon Appstore, it’s very important to understand what you should avoid including in your messages to buyers.
For example, your request needs to be as neutral as possible. Amazon does not allow you to ask for a positive rating or imply that you would like a positive review in any way. You cannot include any kind of marketing message or offer a discount. Learn more about how to request Amazon reviews without violating the Communication Guidelines.
There are other ways to get reviews, including the Request a Review messaging system. You’ll see the Request a Review button on the Order Details page in Seller Central for eligible orders. You can click this button to ask Amazon to send a review request on your behalf or schedule automation for this messaging system with Amazon-approved software such as FeedbackFive. Sellers are seeing a 41% increase in average daily reviews with this feature!
These messages are automatically translated into the buyer’s preferred language and, best of all, you can rest assured that your message will not violate Amazon policies because it is created by Amazon.
Stay Relevant
Buyers look for recent reviews and want to see reviews that are relevant to your product. Amazon wants to provide a great experience for shoppers and reviews are a big part of that experience.
Don’t assume that having a few great reviews is enough to keep your product selling steadily. Have a review strategy in place to make sure that you are regularly getting new reviews and monitoring the reviews you’ve received to ensure customer satisfaction.
Want to save time and manage your seller reputation more effectively? Consider using a tool like FeedbackFive by eComEngine. It is designed specifically for the needs of Amazon sellers and offers you the option of sending your own messages via Buyer-Seller Messaging or Amazon-branded messages with scheduled automation for the Request a Review messaging system.
Not sure what is best for your Amazon business? Schedule a free product review consultation call to discuss your product review strategy.
Becky Trowbridge is the Content Strategist at eComEngine. Her mission is to empower Amazon sellers with the information they need to be successful in a competitive market. When she’s not writing or managing content, she enjoys spending time outdoors, trying new recipes, and reading.
