The eCommerce industry observed a massive surge in sales in the recent few years as customers worldwide shifted from in-store shopping to online. This trend is expected to continue as most customers believe that most shopping in the future will happen online. With customers preferring online stores over in-store purchases, online review management becomes an important factor in building the brand reputation of an online store.
Product reviews are an important part of the eCommerce industry. According to a survey by Podium, 93% of customers believe that reviews impact purchasing decisions. Reviews also play an important role in inventory planning, product visibility, brand reputation, and conversion rate. Relevant reviews provide essential insights to potential buyers about the product and the brand. Online buyers can use them to make informed purchase decisions. Hence, Amazon sellers must consider Amazon product review management as an integral part of their marketing strategy.
Why do Amazon Business Owners need Review Management?
Regardless of the type of product your business sells on Amazon, the power of reviews cannot be ignored. Positive reviews on your product listings on Amazon can help you improve your brand reputation and improve conversion rates. When your potential customers consider buying products online, most of them probably browse online reviews to know more about the product and brand. Hence, the quality of the reviews on your Amazon product can make or break your business. Here are three benefits of Amazon product review management for Amazon business owners:
- It can help improve Sales
- Amazon review helps build a brand image
- It improves product visibility
Challenges in Managing Customer Reviews
Managing Amazon reviews can be a real challenge for Amazon sellers. Customers don't usually make an effort to provide their feedback on a product unless they face a bad experience. In the old review policy, sellers were free to send reminders to customers and encourage them to provide their feedback. However, in 2016, Amazon restricted sellers from encouraging customers to provide their reviews on the product. Amazon made significant changes in its review policies that prevent sellers from providing discounts, free products, or incentives for getting reviews.
Amazon has tightened its review policy for sellers asking their customers for product reviews and sending follow-up emails after the product purchase with the new review policy. These changes in Amazon's review policy have made it difficult for sellers to get product reviews from customers.
Tactics to Effectively Manage Amazon Reviews and Improve Sales
Amazon sellers need to implement an effective Amazon review management strategy to encourage buyers to provide positive reviews as they can improve your brand image and improve product visibility and boost conversion. Amazon sellers need to manage positive as well as negative reviews on their products.
An adequate review management strategy should include the following two things:
- Encouraging new reviews
- Addressing negative reviews and getting them removed
How to Encourage More Positive Reviews?
Not getting reviews from your happy customers may hurt your business as much as a negative review does. Business owners have three options to encourage your customers to provide positive reviews on your product listing:
● Provide a great customer experience
This may seem too obvious, but it is the most important as most negative reviews involve unhappy customers who feel misled about the product. Be honest in what you offer and what your customers should expect from the product. If you want your customers to give good reviews, you need to offer them a great customer experience.
● Use the "Request a Review" button
The new "Request a Review" button allows Amazon sellers to request reviews from the buyers within 4 to 30 days of order/purchase. This incredible feature available in the Seller Central can help Amazon sellers increase the chances of getting reviews from the customers exponentially. The option will send your customers a reminder to provide a review after they have received the product.
● Send a Follow-up Email
While Amazon's review policy may not allow sellers to send emails to encourage reviews, you can send follow-up emails to customers after every purchase. You can use this opportunity to your advantage and use follow-up emails to check customer satisfaction and offer them to solve a problem they might be facing while using the product. This little effort from your side will encourage them to give their feedback.
● Reach out to customers on social media
While Amazon guidelines may restrict you from asking customers to post their reviews on your product, you can use other platforms, such as social media websites like Instagram and Facebook, to encourage your customers. Encourage your happy customers to provide their feedback, and you can also offer them discounts and rewards for offering their reviews.
● Reach out to customers who reviewed similar products
You can also connect with customers who have reviewed products similar to your products and ask them to provide their reviews on your product. You can find your competitor's products from your product page and look for them in sections "Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed" and "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought."
● Reach out to Top Amazon reviewers
Getting a review from one of the top reviewers on Amazon can be a great value to your product page. Find them from Amazon's list of top reviewers and then browse for the tags they used in their reviews. Reach out to the reviewers who used tags similar to your page tag and send a thoughtful and compelling email requesting a review.
How to Address Negative Reviews?
At times, even after offering your best, you may receive negative reviews from your customers. Here are two ways you can manage negative reviews and change them into positive reviews:
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Contact your customers to make it right
The best way to manage the negative review is to turn your customer's negative experience into a positive one. It is better to handle every negative review the same day and resolve the issue your customer is facing. This may encourage them to change their negative feedback into a positive review. You can also contact them to resolve the problem they are facing and ask them to change the review in your favor.
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Remove negative feedback
Amazon policy allows sellers to take down negative reviews only in some cases. Suppose you received a negative review from a customer that violates Amazon's guidelines. In that case, you may report such reviews to customer support and ask them to remove them without going through the customer who left the review.
Reviews are critical for the success of an Amazon seller business. Treat every order you receive as an opportunity to get a five-star review from your customer. An Amazon product review management strategy will help you effectively manage positive and negative product reviews to improve product visibility and accelerate sales.
Get in touch with our team to avail Amazon product review management services for your business and get on your way to a 5-star rating on your Amazon product listings.