Category: Amazon Content

If you are considering selling on Amazon in 2021, or you’re already in the process of doing so and you’re wondering if it’s the right choice for you, this blog may clear some things up. Selling on Amazon can be seen as a daunting task, but it won’t look that way if you have done your research and are informed about the process. In this blog, I’ll take you through some facts, and we can see if selling on Amazon in 2021 is really right for you.

Now let’s dive in.

Quick History of E-Commerce of Recent Years

In 2014 e-commerce sales reached 1.3 trillion, a number most could not have ever fathomed. Jump forward six years to 2020, and we find that the e-commerce sales total has more than tripled that 1.3 trillion-dollar number, coming in at 4.2 trillion dollars. In 2020 47% of all US e-commerce sales were on Amazon.

Those are some pretty massive numbers, but what’s even more impressive is that these sales numbers are forecasted to continue growing at an exponential rate. E-commerce sales are expected to reach 6.5 trillion dollars by 2023. To put 6.5 trillion dollars in perspective, only China and the US have a higher dollar amount in GDP. No other singular country in the world has a GDP higher than 6.5 trillion dollars.

So take a guess as to who’s going to capture 50% of all US e-commerce sales in 2021.

Yep, you got it, Amazon. This means for every two e-commerce purchases in the US, one of those purchases will be from Amazon. This market capture is something we’ll want to consider when deciding whether or not selling on Amazon in 2021 will be a good idea or not.

Covid-19’s Impact on E-commerce Sales

Covid’s impact on the entire world has changed how many of us now shop. Instead of going to Walmart to get diapers, you went online and ordered them to the house. Instead of going to the pet store to buy your dog its food, you ordered it online. Instead of going out and getting groceries, you ordered through Amazon.

People who were already ordering these things online continued to do so even more, but that’s not what caused such a surge in e-commerce sales. It was the massive influx of people who had never online shopped until the pandemic hit. People had to learn fast, as, at the height of the pandemic, many weren’t allowed to or too scared to go out.

The pandemic changed the flow of business as we know it. People had no other option but to shop online. Business owners who had established their business online could survive, if not flourish, but unfortunately, we saw tons of brick-and-mortar stores close.

Going forward, a lot of people have found that shopping online for many of their essentials is simply easier than going out to buy them. With all of these new shoppers entering the e-commerce space, it is not hard to see why there are projections for that 6.5 trillion dollar sales mark for e-commerce in 2023.

Again this is another point to consider. Although you may think the market is already saturated with sellers, we’ve already seen a massive increase in buyers.

Online E-commerce Options

Let’s quickly clarify something. There are two ways of selling your products online. Selling on Amazon is not the same as selling on your own website.

1.Your Own Website

Pros: You control exactly what is on the site. Most websites will use a plug-in like BigCommerce, WooCommerce, or Shopify. They act as your store liaison in the online purchasing process.

Cons: You’re liable for everything associated with selling online. That includes packaging, shipping, and having infrastructure set up to efficiently deliver the products to the consumer. You’re also the person solely responsible for marketing your site to potential customers.

I don’t mean to make it sound like selling directly from your website is a bad idea because it works out really well for many people. Again, you have to weigh out the pros and cons.

2.Marketplaces

Marketplaces are sites like Amazon, eBay, and now even Walmart.com. Think of these places like farmers’ markets. There will be many people at the market every Sunday; you don’t have to convince people to be there. If good word of mouth gets around the farmers’ market, you may find a line up at your stall.

Maybe that’s not the best analogy, but basically, you get exposure and lots of potential customers just by being somewhere (and in this case, it’d be being on Amazon).

Pros: A network of customers are regularly on the sites and maybe recommended your product via the marketplace site without you having to spend any money on customer acquisition. The payment process and the shipping and handling process are handled by the site, not you. These sites have customer service departments so they can handle returns and complaints.

Cons: You are now competing with everyone on that marketplace. You have to figure out a way to differentiate yourself from the competition. Unless someone has specifically searched for your product by name, they will see many similar products on the same page. You need yours to pop out and say, “look at me!”. You also have to be very conscious of reviews as that can determine if someone will even look at your product; first impressions are everything.

Now that you understand the most common ways of selling your product online let’s look at what Amazon specifically can do for you.

 

How Amazon Helps Sellers

As you may have guessed, Amazon has an immensely efficient worldwide infrastructure. This is how they have grown to their size and why they will be virtually capturing 50% of the US’s e-commerce market in 2021. So let’s look at some of the infrastructures in place.

• When you start selling on Amazon, you are instantly exposed to a network of customers. People trust Amazon, so just being on there can add some credibility to your product and brand.

• They package and deliver the product. You can send your product directly from your manufacturer to Amazon, and they will handle all packaging and delivery.

• They handle payment and offer customer support. You won’t have to worry about refunds or dealing with angry customers over the phone.

 

• Amazon even has an advertising platform; you can set up sponsored ads to drive even more traffic to your store.

• Selling on Amazon also minimizes the risk of starting a business. Back in the day there were extremely high barriers to entry and a high amount of risk involved in starting a business. Amazon has knocked down that barrier to entry and made selling online accessible for many more with a lower initial investment and less risk.

 

Conclusion

Let’s finally answer the question ‘Is it a good idea to start selling on Amazon in 2021?’ In my opinion, the answer would be yes. If you are looking to start selling your product online in 2021, I would absolutely have my products on Amazon.

As we talked about before, Amazon has just really nailed down and streamlined the online shopping experience for buyers and sellers. They have made it so that you, the seller, have all of the tools you could possibly need to be successful.

So yes, I think you should be selling on Amazon. The tools are there for you to utilize. Of course, your success will really come down to how good your product is and how committed you are to its success.

Find your competitive advantage, become as knowledgeable as you can, and in 2021, your business may just be the next best thing. Amazon is only too saturated and too competitive if you don’t know what you’re doing, so stay informed.

If you would like to stay up to date on other pieces for Amazon sellers that may help you on your selling journey, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or find me on Twitter @nolanswriting.

Do you ever feel like life is dangerously becoming more and more like a horrid episode of Black Mirror: Nosedive? Where everything you do and say is heavily monitored and makes all the difference in your socioeconomic status?

People can rate you, write about you, and it can have a tremendous effect on your seller credibility, sales, and your overall business. The buyers on amazon are serious and they mean business. They come to buy with a mission in mind: Get the best deal and with no compromise.  

In this ruthless competition of e-commerce, where everyone is fighting tooth and nail to be the best, it is no doubt, very hard to maintain the perfect image, ratings, and reviews. Especially when there are thousands of strangers to be satisfied. 

PRODUCT REVIEWS DIRECTLY AFFECTS YOUR CONVERSIONS

A survey shows that about 65% of the buyers first check out the reviews and ratings before making any purchase. It goes without saying that, the more (positive) reviews and ratings you have the more chances you have of success with your business. 

Consumers are likely to put trust in you of a close friend when they see a flock of fellow buyers affirming your credibility as a good seller. It is important that you change the relationship from strangers to trustworthy friends. 

What happens when the buyers find the service or product to be compromised? You receive scathing reviews and disappointing ratings. Which consequently dumps your conversion rate. 

Negative reviews on Amazon are no joke for a seller. Your mere presence at Amazon demands your best version. You can not just chin up and move on or simply ignore negative feedback. Doing so can hurt you in several ways: 

Firstly, since buybox is awarded to those only with stellar seller metrics, positive feedback becomes a necessity among other things. You must win the hearts and trust of your buyers if you want to increase your chances of winning the buybox. Amazon has a process of calculating a seller’s overall performance. Every time someone makes a purchase and provides feedback to you, Amazon chalks it up to your buybox score, whether it turns out good or bad. 

Say you had a successful sell with no complications and you receive positive feedback. 100 points (to Gryffindor). Although on the unfortunate situation where you do receive some backlash, that is a negative of 500 points from your point total that decides your buybox eligibility.   

Secondly, not only your chances of getting the buybox slims but you have a much bigger threat to face in lieu of negative feedback. Sometimes a seller gathers up so much negative credit that can eventually result in account suspension, or worse, removal. 

If amazon detects your order of defect rate (ODR) to be higher than1%, as a result of negative ratings and reviews, Amazon will revoke your selling privileges.  

Check out Has Amazon Blocked Your Account? to revive your seller account

Do not worry! 

Sometimes you make someone unhappy, and as much as your situation presents itself dire, you can always make reparations. Getting negative feedback is a very common situation to be in for an online seller. You just need to know how to handle such a situation and be able to bounce back to your feet. 

You must be asking yourself, ‘Can I delete negative reviews on Amazon?’ 

 

There are times when you actually deserve such feedback, but also when you are free of any fault, but still receive the heat nonetheless. It may feel unjust and wrong but that is expected from online business. Nothing that cannot be fixed. There are ways to remove both kinds of negative feedback. Question is, what to do with the negative feedback on Amazon? 

Here are several steps to consider:

 1) You can request removal if the feedback is violating Amazon guidelines.

The first thing you need to check is, is it even following the amazon guidelines or not before worrying and taking any further action. In the lucky case, the buyer has indeed broken Amazon Feedback rules, contact the authority (Amazon) and have it removed as soon as possible.

• Product Reviews: Sometimes, it just so happens that unsatisfied buyers make the error of leaving product reviews in the seller feedback section that has actually nothing to do with your service at all. 

If a buyer has bought a product from an FBA seller, the seller is not responsible for the shipping delay, any damages to the product bought and the customer service. Although if the review is a combination of seller + product review, Amazon will not remove it.

All of these services mentioned above fall under the purview of  Amazon FBA and does not concern the FBA seller. A simple way to fix this issue is to contact Amazon, explain the issue at hand and file a request for removal. 

Although this condition applies to only FBA sellers, non-FBA sellers must face the music and act accordingly, which I will get to in the next steps.

• Promotional material: A review counts ineligible and can be removed upon a request to Amazon Seller Central if a consumer has left any promotional content in the feedback section.  
• Foul Language: Obscene and abusive language is prohibited and can also be removed.
• Personal Information: Sometimes consumers leave out personal details on the feedback section and such reviews too can be asked to remove.

Step 1: Simply access your Amazon seller account. 

Step 2: Next, visit the Amazon Seller Central page and choose the tab ‘Performance’ between ‘Reports’ and ‘AppStore’. 

Step 3: Scroll down to ‘Recent Feedback’

Step 4: Find the negative feedback you would like to remove.

Step 5: Look for ‘Action’ on the right, adjacent to the relevant order ID and click on the drop-down menu.

Step 6: Select ‘Request Removal’

Step 7: Affirm that the feedback you received is indeed violating guidelines so Amazon can determine its removal.

Step 8: Enter your reasons why you think Amazon should remove the feedback in question. Submit when done.

Keep it neat, short and straightforward. Nobody likes to wade through a river of complaints and whining. 

Any of the above misstatements can be used as a reason for feedback removal. Now you can sit back and wait patiently for Amazon to asses the situation and decide if your complaint about negative feedback qualifies for removal or not.

  2) Request the buyer to remove negative feedback

If the buyer has left negative feedback that does not break any Amazon guidelines and is legitimately pointing out your fault, the next best step is to do what is right and make amends with the buyer. Amazon buyers hold the power to remove negative feedback.

Take the time to understand their concerns, resolve the issue at hand and politely request them to remove the negative feedback. It is important to understand that this will not always work. You may fail to satisfy them yet again or maybe it will prove difficult to make contact with them. With all the luck, here are a few pointers to keep in mind when requesting feedback removal from the buyer.

What to do: 

• Always carry a polite and professional tone when communicating with the buyer. They must not feel like they are being ordered rudely to take down their reviews.
• Do what is right and apologize to the buyer. Take ownership of any disappointment you may have caused them and let them know you care about providing not less than satisfactory service. 
• Never pressurize the buyer into doing anything. 
• Do not make haste with your apology nor request for removal. After you are done with resolving their issue, give it a little time before asking if they could please remove it. You do not want to sound like you don’t care about them and are just doing this for the sake of negative feedback. 
• While you may wait after the initial contact, do not wait too much, because Amazon has a 60-day removal period for any feedback written.
• Do not offer the buyers a full refund while asking them to remove the negative feedback. It may come off as a bribe. You may offer them a partial refund for the inconvenience but never think of it as a favor to the negative feedback removal.

 Quid pro quos, manipulation, bribes, and harassments go in violation of Amazon’s guidelines. Going against the Amazon’s Guidelines will result in account suspension. 

How to contact an individual buyer and request negative feedback removal: 

Step 1: Visit the Amazon website.

Step 2: Open up the tab called ‘Orders’ (between ‘Pricing’ and ‘Advertising’)

Step 3: Select the ‘Manage Orders’ option.

Step 4: Find the negative feedback you would like to address and click on the Order ID number.

Step 5: Click on the name of the buyer.

Step 6: Select the option ‘ Other’.

Step 7: Choose the appropriate subject and write down your message professionally. 

Step 8: In case you would like to attach any supporting documents, click on ‘add attachments’

Step 9: Review your message and documents attached, and then click send.

Hopefully, the buyer will respond and then you can proceed to make sure if they are satisfied with your service. As I said above, after the customer is satisfied, now is the time to moderately wait and request them politely to remove the negative feedback.

 3)  Leave a response on Amazon’s site.

If all fails, you can still take one final measure to clear your name. 

Sometimes, Amazon decides that your reasons for removing the buyer’s negative feedback were insufficient, and sometimes even the buyer does not respond back to you in your attempt to remove negative feedback on Amazon, then you have one last lifeline. Maybe as effective as the other two but it does the job of showing the other customers that you at least tried to reach out and resolve customer issues. 

All you need to do is:

Step 1: Once again, access your www.amazon.com seller account. 

Step 2: Next, visit the Amazon Seller Central page and choose the tab ‘Performance’.

Step 3: Scroll down to ‘Recent Feedback’

Step 4: Find the negative feedback you would like to remove.

Step 5: Find ‘Action’ on the right,  look below for the drop-down menu next to the relevant Order ID.

Step 6: Select ‘Post a Public Reply’ option.

Step 7: Write your Amazon Merchant response for the Individual in question, but still keep in mind you are indirectly speaking to the audience of Amazon. 

Step 8:  Review once and then click ‘Submit’.

This is the last resort to clear your side. Make sure you are doing it right. You may be speaking to the individual but all visitors on your product are now your audience. Keep it short, to the point and professional. Do not write in an informal way, your audience may mark you as not serious or sincere. 

If you do not know how to write such a response, here is an example: 

“We apologize for any inconvenience our service might have caused. We have made adjustments according to your complaint. We hope that all issues are resolved, in case they are still not satisfactory, please feel free to reach out to us anytime’.  

Now you have on record that you are a professional seller and sincere about your customers. Hopefully, the potential customers will disregard the negative review or rating and proceed to buy from you on the account of your professionalism. 

It can be difficult to keep track of every negative comment, especially when you are a seller of multiple products and have a successful line of buyers. You could be away or sleeping and one little negative feedback can have the ability to drive away many potential buyers.

To stay on the top of every feedback directed your way, you can use an Amazon research tool such as Feedback Express. With Feedback Express, you can put your Amazon seller feedback and product review requests on auto-pilot in minutes, and start generating more positive feedback from your orders.

Forget the constant checking for product reviews and seller feedback. You will be notified whenever someone shares negative comments about your products or service, so you will be able to respond fast and help put things right.

Conclusion

The key to becoming better is to take the grey clouds and turn it into a silver lining. You can either focus on the negative aspect of the situation or you could make use of it to your advantage. Even though you have received negative feedback, you can use the opportunity to address the areas of improvement and maintain your quality of seller performance. 

In case the feedback is uncalled for, you still know how to deal with it in a swift and efficient manner, while maintaining professional integrity. 

As much as Amazon Product Photography is important for your listings, feedback also holds a significant value in the A9 Amazon Ranking Algorithm because it directly affects your conversion channel. 

Negative feedback is the buyer’s frustration calling out for justice. Just take a deep breath, listen carefully and address their issues in a professional and timely manner.  

You would have heard sellers screaming about the high fees of Amazon while showing disapproval for the Amazon policies.

The worst that you might have heard is that selling on Amazon is no more profitable. These kinds of arguments are everywhere on the web, and I would absolutely not waste my time justifying each and everything they have to say.

From a real perspective, one needs to understand that Amazon is a tough market place and it isn’t fair always. With growing competition and new sellers entering the market, sellers have to stay more vigilant while adopting new ways to grab the market. to  is so true and is indeed undeniable.

But, it doesn’t mean that it’s no more profitable. Those who play the king in fear of someone playing the ace are more likely to fail on Amazon. Because the Amazon algorithm isn’t a game of spades that can finish your game in a flash.

If you’re entering or entered Amazon without enough preparation, you’re most likely to fail.

But, if you do proper product research and take experience into consideration while making your marketing strategy for Amazon, you can definitely get to the top.

Is Amazon FBA Still Profitable? Do I have a solid ground to justify that Amazon FBA is still very much profitable and a great way to earn financial freedom? Can I prove it with evidence and stories?

I have. And I can.

In this post, I would like to first talk about the 3 most talented individuals who started from scratch and became the top Amazon sellers in no time. Let’s jump right into it.

Amazon FBA Success Stories

As I said, the stories of these successful sellers are not only inspirational but also shows you the way forward to Amazon.

#1 Marvin

This man succeeded in earning a revenue of $10,000 in the very first 4 months. So now, I’ve got your attention so I expect you to follow me till the last.

Marvin was an average guy who was working 9 to 5 on a salary of peanuts. Like everyone, he was in the hunt for new opportunities that could earn him ‘Financial Freedom’. In his hunt for passive income, he made his way towards Amazon selling.

He didn’t have thousands of dollars to invest for his Amazon business and that was the first hurdle he faced. But, there was determination and a strong drive to succeed that didn’t shade away his goal.

Before landing his hand into the Amazon business, he made his mind of earning at least $500 to $1000 a month so he can work full time on his Amazon business.

He started with the product research by visiting store to store with the Amazon app, but couldn’t find a reasonable niche to sell.

Finally, he decided to delve into the grocery business because of his experience in working as a grocery shopper. He took the approval from Amazon and begun selling groceries online. Here is the first lesson for you:

Don’t rely fully on the product research tools. At times, when you’re unable to find the profitable niche, look for the area where you have the expertise or where you can find the bargain.

Marvin introduced himself to the managers as an online retailer that further help him reaped the rewards. Many people fear to tell the employees about sourcing the product on Amazon because of large chains such as wall mart, Target, and Macy’s. Here is the second lesson for you:

Your fellow employees can very helpful for you in your Amazon business. They can make a purchase and leave you with good ratings and reviews. Those reviews will help you in gaining value for your brand and will eventually increase your conversions.

Soon after finding the niche and starting on Amazon, Marvin soon found a strategy that fortunately worked for him. Here are few major points of his remarkable strategy that helped him earn $10,000 in the very first 4 months.

• Look for the items that can help you earn at least a 20% profit margin.
• Check your competitors who carry similar items and analyze their pricing for those products.
• If you can’t find the same items, that’s cool
• If you do, and after checking their pricing, shop at least 30 of that item.

Then start off on Amazon with an optimistic attitude. And as Marvin says

‘It might look impossible to begin but once you succeed in selling a few items, it will be breeze’ [Marvin]

#2 James Fend

James Fend has been selling on Amazon FBA for over a long time. He entered the Amazon market when it had already become saturated. According to James, “It is never too late in the game to gain a foothold.”

He succeeded in earning $50,000 in just 8 months of selling on Amazon. Instead of visiting store to store and selling reusable items, James reached out to the foreign manufacturers because he wanted to sell products under his own private label.

James started selling the basics that he sees around his house.

• Body measuring tapes
• Jogger Pants
• Dog Collars

He ordered few units from Alibaba and started selling on his own private label.

And, he collapsed. He lost all the money because he failed to calculate his profit margin against the Amazon fees.

But, he knew that his niche has a good demand that can help him earn a good profit margin. Despite the fact that he lost all of his money and didn’t have that investment again, he started again by borrowing some money.

He reached out again to Alibaba and ordered 100-300 units of his bestselling products. Meanwhile, he focused on getting reviews for his products that could help him rank in the Amazon ranking algorithm. Apart from optimizing the listing, he dedicated his time in improving the packaging and label that could reflect a positive tone of his product and can increase the customer retention rate.

Soon after he started selling again, he realized that at least 20% of his products are enjoying decent rankings and are earning 80% of the revenue; he then again cut the less profitable products in exchange for new products that could help get a decent conversion rate.

He kept on making changes on his products through analyzing the data until one day he woke up with a bank account of $50,000.

#3 the man behind niche pursuits

He started off in 2015, and soon after a few months of selling on Amazon, he reached the million-dollar mark. He is pulling more than $40,000 a month from Amazon FBA as of now.

He got successful in picking up a good niche and was able to sell most of the units in the first 45 days. The inventory problem did trouble him in many instances. But he soon realized that it’s not completely his fault because you can’t estimate fully as how many days it would take for his units to sell.

But, he learned 1 thing after he suffered heavily. He saw the alarm sign that his products are going to run out of the stock in 2-3 weeks, he immediately ordered them again, this time in a larger quantity, from Alibaba. But, he realized that it was too late.

After ordering the products, he realized that it takes a minimum of 1 month to manufacture the product followed by 2-3 weeks for products to ship from Alibaba to the USA and another 1 week getting the product shipped to Amazon and unpacked by Amazon.

So, it took 2-3 months for his products to become live again on Amazon.

And then, he expands its network and ordered the best-selling products in bulk amount.

Few things to consider on Amazon FBA

From my personal experience of selling on Amazon FBA and after reading countless success stories, I have learned quite a lot of things that I wish I knew it before.

Amazon selling is a process of trial and error, that’s constant. But, you can resist the mistakes that are too obvious.

1. Order small on first

If you’re new, you should be testing the market first. Ordering 100 units are more than enough to test the market, its competitiveness, pricing, and profit margin.

This way, you can start with little investment and can limit your downside.

2. Keywords do make a difference

While many Amazon SEO Gurus will tell you that since Amazon works on the metrics of sales, CTR, and conversions, you should not worry about the keywords. This is so wrong!

Keywords are the basics; they tell Amazon about the relevant products against a search query. And without any doubt, they’re an important ranking signal of the A9 Ranking Algorithm.

You should definitely optimize your listing in accordance with 2022 listing optimization techniques to get your product ranked and get sales.

3. Invest in your best-selling product

Your best selling products are your oxygen. Not only you should add up the inventory by ordering them more while reducing the cost on the low-selling products, but also you should look for running Amazon PPC Ads for those search terms that are relevant to your products.

In short, make the most of your best-selling products.

4. Look for new products

Your best selling product may not remain bestselling after a few months or a year. Either it can be due to a new product taking over your product or change in consumer’ demands.

You should at least add 2 new products in a year.

5. Invest in Amazon PPC

Every business is always in dire need of advertisement. Amazon PPC is a great way to increase your sales, especially in hot selling months when Amazon is loaded with tons of buyers. Get your PPC Ads run by the experts who can drive your decent sales out of your investment.

Over to you:

Amazon is not for everyone. It is different from other e-commerce platforms. And it isn’t fair all the time. But at the same time, if you do things well, it can help you earn quite a lot at least more than your salary of peanuts that you get from your 9 to 5 office job.

I would love to hear your experience on Amazon FBA, let me know in the comments below.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Value Relationships more than Transactions.

Customers can make or break any business. That’s why, they are known as the lifeblood of any business.

In Amazon, customers are the boss. Therefore; you will have to please them in order to survive.

Taking care of customers is more than just the greeting cards and writing emails. It’s should be feeling for a lifetime.

Although, and as a matter of fact, emotions are the best way to attain customer loyalty and trust. However, this isn’t the only way.

It’s not about the product reviews and customer retention, it’s more about the brand building. As a starter, you need to be extra cautious about your customer feedback, because a single bad review will not only take away that customer, but, also it will make you lose many sales.

In Amazon, product reviews and ratings are more than just random comments. They not only reflect the value of your product, but, also they will highly reflect your product rankings. The A9 Ranking Algorithm of Amazon highly consider reviews when determining the ranking of a product.

Amazon product reviews are a great way of increasing traffic and sales. Why, because product reviews plays a convincing role for customer in making a purchase. Whenever, a customer finds himself on a confusing ground, he looks for the ‘social proof’. So, if you have good product reviews and ratings, you’re most likely to get a conversion.

This is why, you need to be extra cautious in Amazon.

So how we get reviews on Amazon?

First of all, go away with fake reviews. There isn’t a review machine that can help you generate good reviews. You have to achieve them!

As far as the paid reviews are concerned that have been a hot topic among Amazon Sellers, it is vital to know that Amazon has banned most of the paid reviewers except the few like Vipons that functions with Amazon’s TOS for getting reviews.

Brands can offer huge discounts to customers and increase the chances of reviews with Vipon, however, it doesn’t guarantee whether you will receive one. Why would you pay a hundred dollar for a review that too is not guaranteed?

Getting the information

There are few tricks that you can take help of:

• Always read reviews

Not just your own, you need to pay attention to your competitor reviews as well.

If you’re getting bad reviews and are more-like ‘clueless’ about the reason, may be, your competitor reviews will tell a lot.

Moreover, reading your competitors reviews can help you know and learn the interests of people towards your product. This is what you want, right?

I can say for sure, from my personal experience, Amazon product reviews are the 2^nd vital thing in Amazon selling after Product photography. As much as you need ideal photography for your Amazon listings, you need ideal reviews too.

• Check the authenticity

There are fake previews too. For them, you can’t really do much about them. You can remove those product reviews from your listings by reporting them to Amazon.

• Gather advice from the experts

Now, this is the most crucial part of gather information about reviews in Amazon.

If you’re selling ladies clutches, you need ladies for expert opinions. Name it A/B testing or whatever, you need to find the real feedbacks from real people.

If you’re selling clutches, give it your mom or sister but not to your girlfriend (you can’t satisfy her); ask them for honest reviews.

What Can Amazon Reviews do for you?

Amazon Reviews are a reflection of your product. You will realize their real value while running PPC. Sometimes, you’re getting clicks, but not enough conversions. Lack of ‘decent’ reviews can be the major reason for the low conversion rate.

• Reviews increase your conversion rate. If your products have reasonable good reviews, you’re more likely to get sales.
• They give you a superiority edge over your competitors. As a matter of fact, the products with more reviews are more likely to get sales even if they are expensive.
• They enhance your brand reputation and customer loyalty.
• They act more like a ‘word of mouth’ recommendation.

Top Practices to earn product reviews in 2020

Don’t fall on the old-fashioned way of generating reviews. I am going to tell you the most uncommon ways to acquire customer reviews in Amazon. Let’s dig out.

Reach Out to Bloggers

The best part about social media and bloggers is the fact that they are the trusted voices. People follow them and adore them as empowered individuals who are making a difference in society.

Bloggers share the power and audacity to market your product in front of an untapped audience. You can reach out bloggers for your Amazon product reviews, but it should be carefully planned and executed.

Instagram bloggers are a major source of marketing nowadays. You can reach them for a review by asking them to make a purchase in exchange for a gift/discount or maybe their ‘fee’. Getting reviews through Bloggers have significant benefits for your brand.

• You can get high star reviews from bloggers. In this case, you are very much guaranteed of positive and quality reviews that can really turn on the viewer in making a purchase.
• This will enhance your brand visibility in the market along with a sense of trust and reliability.
• What can be a better way to increase your sales than reaching out to bloggers? Their fans can literally turn into your customers by just doing a click. As a matter of fact, these bloggers have some serious fans who take their words and suggestions for granted.

The only reason I have kept Bloggers on the top of the list is that they are more than just getting reviews. Highly uncommon, but highly successful, I recommend sellers to reach out as many bloggers for their Amazon product reviews even if you have to pay an additional fee.

Here are a few steps that are to be followed when reaching bloggers for Amazon Reviews.

Step #1

Reach out to the popular Bloggers

You need to find as many bloggers that share content similar to your niche. Off course, you shouldn’t ask a sports enthusiast to promote a lipstick as that would make no sense and neither any difference.

There is number of tools online that can help you find bloggers on a specific niche. Moreover, they also tell the engagement rate and authenticity rate. That’s cool, han!

HypeAuditor, FollowerWank, and Alltop are two of the best tools for finding popular bloggers on specified niches.

Step #2

List down the bloggers on the basis of their Social Authority.

Just like the web has DA (Domain Authority), social channels have their own way of defining popularity “Social Authority. So, if you are using FollowerWank, you will also find the SA (Social Authority) listed alongside the blogger.

Step #3

Make yourself visible to the selected influencer

The next step is to let the influencer know about your existence is the market. You should follow them, like, and follow their recent posts. Building a relationship is very important in this business because that develops a sense of confidence between you and the blogger.

Step #4

Reach out to the influencer.

After that, you can hit their message button and describe your demand. It is wiser to ask for their opinion and suggestions for reviews because they’re more experienced about the marketing techniques and they know what works.

When asking for a product review through email; you should be polite and clear.

Include Product Inserts in the packaging

As mentioned by Forbes, product inserts in packaging help increase good reviews by establishing an emotional attachment with the customers. The insert provide a customer an immediate opportunity to express his thoughts and experience about the product which will refrain you from getting a negative product review in Amazon.

Note: You can’t incentivize a customer in writing a review because it’s wrong and is a direct violation of Amazon policies.

Moreover, you can take a step further by providing customer a discount on their purchase. Known as the CLV, this will not only enhance your brand value, but also it will increase customer retention rate.

Ideal example of Product insert:

Are you happy with our leather jackets? We hope it reached you timely and is delivered on 100% quality. Your satisfaction is our #1 priority.

If you like our product, please give us a short feedback. In case you don’t, please reach us back on our email Id so we can help you.

You can design a creative template of product insert and write an ideal content for the insert.

When giving customer a discount on the next purchase, it is wiser to mention the word ‘Gift’.

Encourage Customers to write reviews through Email

You need to have automated emails being sent to the customer after a purchase is made. These 4 steps will definitely help you gain a positive review.

• Sent an order confirmation email
• Once the expected delivery date has passed, write an email to ensure that the customer have received their order. Also, ask them whether he is enjoying it or not.
• In case, they aren’t up to any negative feedback, politely ask them a review

You might be wondering about directly mailing the customer about requesting him for a review; trust me, this doesn’t work most of the time. In that way, you are going to lose many reviews and it may not help you with your ‘Brand Building’

There are 2 things you should be careful when asking for the review:

• Flooding their mailbox with tons of mails. Don’t do that.
• Offering incentive for giving feedback. I repeat, it’s a clear cut violation of Amazon Policies.

Amazon Early Reviewer Program

Earlier, sellers use to get fake reviews by incentivizing customers with free and discounted products. This trend badly hit the reputation of Amazon for having skewed reviews on their site. In order to protect the integrity, Amazon banned the incentivizing method and introduced its Early Reviewer Program.

The program is designed to help sellers in their new product launches. With this program, they can get reviews for their products that have little to no reviews.

Under this program, the seller participation in the reviewer program is only visible to Amazon and not to the seller. So, as a seller, you can’t really brag anyone for high ratings. This draws a clear line between incentivizing method and the early reviewer program.

Amazon chooses those customers who have bought a similar item before. They are offered an early program reward in exchange for a product review. It should be noted customers are only notified about the reward after they make a purchase. Those customers with history of negative and abusive reviews are excluded by Amazon in their reviewer program.

After making a purchase, the customer can leave a review ( any rating between 1 to 5). Following the review, customer will receive the corresponding reward of $1-$3 on amazon gift card.

The fee for this program is $60 for each product. Maximum of 5 reviews can be obtained through this reward program, and you will be charged once you get your first successful review.

The Not So GOOD is that you may not get good ratings or positive review as there is always a chance of getting a low star rating and a negative comment.

This program is great for your new product launches, however, it is not a standalone solution for your Amazon Product Reviews.

Offer Discounts

If the first 3 fails to deliver decent reviews, you can offer discounts to customer for writing a review because that acts as a motivation.

In this case, designing an ideal email template is the most crucial aspect. You can go ahead with stuff like win-win situation, write us a review and get a $20 discount on your next purchase etc.

According to Power Reviews, this has worked greatly for their clients as 83% of them were able to witness uplift in their reviews by offering discounts.

Paid Reviews

Although, Amazon has banned most of paid reviewing sites except few such as Vipon that works differently and in accordance with the Amazon Policies. Unlike other banned practices, this isn’t a way of getting reviews by paying few dollars.

Brands can use their services to promote heavily discounted products to the customer that is aimed to receive more Amazon Product reviews. These services suggest the customer to leave a review to the specific product.

However, these services doesn’t guarantee a brand that whether it would receive more product reviews or not.

Friends & Family

If you notice all the methods of generating product reviews for your listings, you will realize that getting 5 star and quality review is still difficult. But, your friends and family can really make it easy for you.

It is ideal to ask out your friends and family members to make a purchase of your product and leave a 5 star review. This is an ideal technique that can be used in the beginning of a product launch. I must say that this is by far the easiest way to generate quality Amazon Product Reviews in no time.

Many Chat Reviews

Many Chat has been in the spotlight among many marketers for establishing a strong and constant connection with their customers. The Facebook Messenger Bot, Many Chat, is an automated machine that pops up whenever there is a visitor on a page.

Many Chat is an innovative way to generate Amazon Reviews without violating the policies of Amazon. However, it is a bit technical so you have to learn the process of setting up Many Chat for Amazon.

Build your audience on social channels like Facebook.

It’s all about gathering the users of a particular interest into a Facebook group. Like, if you’re selling pet supplies on Amazon, you need to create a base of loyal buyers who are interested in pets. This will help you generate good sales and some quality Amazon product Reviews.

When launching a new product on Amazon, you should take help of social media by finding pages where you have the right audience. The right Audience will help you achieve quality Amazon product Reviews that will eventually increase your brand exposure.

Over to you

Getting reviews on Amazon can be very tempting if you are practicing the old-fashioned methods for earning reviews. Using dishonest methods for getting product reviews aren’t worth the risk of permanent banishment from Amazon. In order to game the system in the right way, follow these ideal methods for getting reviews on Amazon.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]