Product reviews help consumers feel good about the product they’re considering. 70% of consumers trust reviews, which means you need them to make a good impression.
Many online shoppers trust Amazon and what they say about a product. So if you can get good reviews on Amazon, you provide consumers with yet another reason why they should go with your product. Amazon also goes after people that post fake reviews, so you can rest assured that the ones that show up on your products are genuine.
But how can you use reviews to your benefit? How can you increase the amount of positive feedback you receive, and what do you do when you receive negative feedback? Today’s post will walk you through all of that and more.
What Are Product Reviews?
Product reviews are customer testimonials of your product. Many other customers rely on reviews to help them make purchasing decisions. Good reviews give people a reason to purchase the product they’re considering. While bad reviews tend to push people away, good reviews can be what make people decide to buy in the first place.
Product reviews never get deleted and stay on Amazon for the same amount of time as your item does. That means that all of your reviews will accumulate and help paint your products in a particular light. Whether that light is good or bad depends entirely on the buyers and your products.
Reviews provide valuable information to your customers. Other customers can let them know what they liked about the product. A culmination of your reviews can show people patterns that tend to come up with what you’re selling, as well as any other issues they might encounter.
Reviews also provide useful information to you as the seller as well. They can tell you how the public generally views your products. They can also help you uncover issues in your products that you need to address. Even with testing, you won’t encounter all of the use cases your consumers will put your products through. If you keep seeing the same complaint come up in reviews, do some work to see if you can prevent it from happening any more.
It’s important to note that customer reviews and seller feedback are not the same thing. The customer review concerns only the product, while the seller review affects your seller performance metrics.
Many customers tend to leave reviews as seller feedback, even though there are two separate locations for this. Monitoring both will help you to get valuable information about your target audience, what they need, and how you’re meeting those needs.
You want your negative seller feedback to stay below 5%.
Review Guidelines
As a seller, you do have some protection against fake reviews and unjust negative reviews. Here is an overview of the Amazon Community Guidelines that reviews must adhere to.
Amazon has community guidelines that help facilitate safe and useful interactions between buyers. Breaking these guidelines can lead to your account getting terminated. Interactions must be respectful and must be from the buyer, not from anyone impersonating them. Posting sexual content or reviews is not allowed, and copyrights must be respected.
Reviews cannot promote products or link to outside websites in their review. Additionally, only one review per household is allowed.
How Product Reviews Influence Your Seller Account
Product reviews have a huge influence when it comes to how well, or how poorly, your products sell. Without them, some people may not even consider buying from you.
You can’t use reviews as part of your product description, and you also can’t write reviews about your products. Reviews are tied to the Amazon site they were written on, and can’t be used internationally.
Good reviews can link to Child ASINS, so if you have good feedback for one variation, you can incorporate it across your items.
Product reviews give potential customers useful information about what they can expect from your item. Many people will filter products out through reviews, so if you don’t have a total average review high enough, you won’t show up in their searches.
How to Get Reviews
While it might seem like getting reviews is random, there are things you can to do to encourage consumers to leave them on your product page.
The best thing you can do to influence good reviews is creating a quality product. Emphasize quality over quantity and see what you can do to improve the physical condition of your item.
It’s illegal to buy reviews on Amazon. You can’t pay someone to write a useful review because that wouldn’t be genuine, and it would be misleading to the consumer. However, there are some actions you can take to encourage people to leave feedback and boost product performance.
Engaging in feedback management can help set you apart from your competitors in the field. Excellent product reviews not only help improve the likelihood of you selling your items but also increases your chance of being found as well.
When someone buys one of your products through Amazon, they immediately send out emails asking for reviews. While you don’t technically have to do anything to encourage leaving a review, there are a few things you can do.
One of the best things you can do is to send a business card, as well as a card thanking them for their purchase. You can also send a paper reminder to leave a review.
Product packaging gives you many ways to ask buyers to leave a review. You can include a request in the instruction booklet that comes with your product. You can also include a reminder as part of the packaging, but have it on a separate card. There’s no specific way you have to include it as long as you say something.
How to Handle Negative Product Reviews
No one likes receiving negative product reviews. However, you can turn them around in your favor and use them as a way to provide excellent customer service.
You need to be monitoring the reviews left on your products. That will provide you with information relevant to your research and development, as well as overall business ventures. When you see a negative review, that’s your time to spring into action.
Send a reply to the original review, or message the buyer directly. Listen to what they’ve said about the product, and ask if there’s anything you can do to improve their experience. Consider encouraging a return and telling them that you’ll send a replacement or a refund.
When you act in this way, you’re showing your consumers that you care about their experience. You’re not just there to take their money and run. These actions show your customers that you care about how the product improves their life. Doing this can change a negative review into a glowingly positive one.
Ultimately, product reviews provide social proof that people have not only used but liked your items. Reviews are like testimonials for the usefulness of your product. Reviews help you go beyond what you can do as a seller, by having customers advocate for your items.
