All sellers know that one of the most important aspects of being a Seller is managing and getting Amazon seller feedback. In this easy to follow Amazon seller feedback guide, we are going to go over all the questions that you might have relevant to Seller feedback, how to get it and how to keep it as positive as possible.
You can read through this guide or skip ahead to the questions and tips you are most interested in.
- What does Amazon Seller feedback mean?
- What is the importance of seller feedback?
- What is the difference between an Amazon Review and Amazon feedback?
- How do I get seller feedback on Amazon?
- Can I ask for a positive Amazon seller feedback?
- How to deal with negative seller feedback?
- How many Amazon Seller feedback should I get?
- Why can’t I leave seller feedback on Amazon?
- What is the right way to ask for seller feedback?
- Where can an Amazon seller locate their seller feedback?
- Should I reply and answer seller feedback a buyer left for me?
- Does Amazon monitor seller feedback?
- What are the best practices when asking for a seller feedback?
- What should I avoid and do when requesting Amazon feedback?
What does Amazon Seller feedback mean?
Amazon Seller Feedback is the metric generated by customers who rate the sellers they bought from in the past. It allows any potential customer to predict the relationship with the seller and their quality if they chose to purchase from them. This metric is important to all sellers since it can affect both the buying decision and Amazon algorithm which decides how and where your products will be presented.
Coupled with Amazon reviews, feedback is among the most important factors what will decide your success, or failure, in the Amazon marketplace.
What is the importance of seller feedback?
Seller feedback is very important both from the customers perspective, since it reflects on your quality and therefore influences their buying decision, and also from Amazon’s perspective where it affects everything from your seller Account health to product placements and locations.
Unlike competition and competitor pricing, the seller feedback is also a factor you can influence relatively easily. You can and should make it a habit to collect as many feedbacks as you can to increase the chances of your listings coming up on top and appear in the Buy box and top of the search page.
What is the difference between an Amazon Review and Amazon feedback?
While often buyers are getting the two rating systems confused, the name suggests the difference – a seller feedback is your rating as a seller while a product review is the rating your product received from verified customers.
A seller feedback is a measure of the service you supplied to the customer – how fast did the items arrive, where you are responsive to their requests and claims, and your overall interaction with them. Note: if you are using FBA then some factors (e.g. delivery, shipping) fall under Amazon’s responsibility since they manage the related order.
A Product Review is the measure of how happy, or unsatisfied, is the customer with the product’s quality, value for money and so on.
Each one of your products or ASINs has their own unique product reviews and product star rating. At the same time, all products share the same Seller feedback – your rating as gathered by verified customers.
How do I get seller feedback on Amazon?
There are many ways you can get seller feedback. Some buyers will rate you on their own, while others need to be asked specifically to give their review.
Waiting for buyers to leave the reviews and feedback is a dangerous practice. Why, you ask? Because your competitors are not simply leaving it be. They are actively pursuing more and more feedbacks and reviews and you are likely to be left behind with much, much less sales and a lingering business.
So, we figured you better approach buyers and ask them for product reviews. Let’s go over the ways to do so.
Early Reviewer and Amazon Vine Programs:
First, you have a couple of Amazon programs you can use. They are made to get reviews for new products, but a by product is getting seller feedback as well:
- The Early Reviewer Program incentivizes shoppers to try out new products. They will get a small gift in exchange (e.g. a $1-3 gift card). This is made for new products only and should get you no more than 5 product reviews. After the first review you are charged $60.
- Amazon Vine is designed for products with up to 30 Amazon reviews. Here, Amazon gets your products in front of select reviewers so you can boost your online sales as you start out. This can also result in you getting your first reviews and feedbacks.
These are nice for new products and when you start out, but the majority of the potential is in the ongoing solicitation process.
Product inserts, Buyer-Seller messaging & Request a Review
Here are the methods you can deploy in your day to day seller life to keep the feedbacks flowing.
- Product inserts are a great way to ask for buyers to comment and give feedback. You can insert messaging, like a card, requesting a review. As in all communications with buyers, you must closely follow the guidelines of Amazon so you don’t get banned or suspended. More on that later.
- Buyer-Seller messaging is an email like communication method used to contact one another. It allows you to contact the buyer and request them to submit a review. This can prove more or less useful, depending on the way you articulate your request. As with Product inserts, you must take extreme care not to cross any line set by Amazon to prevent triggering any kind of corrective measures by Amazon
- Request a Review is a new functionality Amazon added for third party sellers. On each order, you will see a button saying “Request a Review”. When you click it, the buyer will be emailed with a request to leave product reviews and feedback in his native language. Not only is this method effective, it is done entirely by Amazon which minimizes the risk of provoking Amazon or transgressing their guidelines. This is a safe and powerful way that is highly recommended.
Another factor you should consider is the amount of work required on your end in each of the above mentioned ways. Some of them require a lot of manual labor. The good news is you can automate such work using dedicated Amazon Seller apps. For example, if you choose to use the Request a Review method, which is the safest and most effective, you can use HighFive – a seller app that will automatically send the requests and follow the settings that you choose.
Always Follow Amazon Guidelines
An important note about Amazon’s guidelines – you are not allowed to influence the product reviews and feedbacks in any way. According to the guidelines you can not ask buyers who are likely to give positive feedback (e.g. family members and friends), also, you can not exclude people who might give negative feedback and you are not allowed to influence the buyer ratings in any way – you can not offer incentives or even suggest that you are looking for a 5 star grade.
Any violation of these guidelines can result in your account getting banned, your products delisted and can even affect your Amazon funds. Learn more on this page. We suggest to play it safe and only use safe ways. Use the HighFive service to automate the Request a Review functionality which is the safest and most effective. If you install HighFive today you are getting it Free for life. Use this link to go the install page.
Can I ask for a positive Amazon seller feedback?
It is officially forbidden to ask for a positive review or feedback or to influence the rating a buyer gives you in any way. Any such request or interference, might be punished severely if Amazon finds out. We strongly advise against asking or hinting that you are looking for a positive rating.
However, not all hope is lost 😉 You can still increase your chances of getting positive reviews in other ways that will improve your feedback score. The most obvious way is to simply provide a great service. Sell your products at a good price and provide value for money.
Another thing you should do is actively responding to each comment, message and complaint, both private ones you received in the buyer-seller messaging, and on negative reviews. If you reply to comments and message the client in an honest and helpful way you can turn a negative rating to a positive one.
Last and certainly not least, you can time your feedback requests. Different timing may result in indistinct results. As an example, if you sell a product that takes time to enjoy, don’t ask for a feedback immediately, wait a couple of weeks. This can result in much higher seller’s star ratings. While you can hypothesize about the perfect timing for the related order, it is much more powerful to make tests and learn from the results.
You can deploy HighFive to not only automate your requests, but also to designate different request times for different products based on the order date and even make rules per product (e.g. if you sell 10 items you can wait longer than if you sold 1 item, because the buyer probably passed some of the items as gifts). You can also experiment with timing much more easily with HighFive that gives you control over the sending dates.
How to deal with negative seller feedback?
Negative feedback sucks. Seriously. Nothing can bring you down more than an undeserved bad feedback. It can affect your rating, your business, your Amazon accounts’ health and … your mood.
The best way to deal with negative feedback is not to get it in the first place. Do your best to keep your customers happy, respond to their claims and questions and do your best to deliver on time.
If you still got negative feedback while it is hard to negate it and remove feedback, fixing it is still doable. There are a few paths you can take.
- You can ask Amazon to remove any feedback that includes “obscene language” and “personally identifiable information”.
- If the Feedback is wrong since it is not relating to you, the seller, but relates to the product itself, you can request Amazon to remove it.
- When you are a FBA seller and receive feedback about “fulfilment or customer service for an order fulfilled by Amazon”, you can request for removal from Amazon since they are in charge of the shipping, logistics and getting the item delivered.
- If you fixed or properly explained a buyer’s complaint there’s a chance that they can reverse, change their feedback and star rating. As always, be the best seller you can to improve your odds.
The same apply for neutral feedback (3 star). We should always strive to get to 5 stars to beat our competitors to the top.
Another way that works like a Charm is to flood the negative feedback with positive feedback. Make sure to take every chance you get to ask customers to leave feedback and request product reviews after they make an order . That way you can up your 5 stars and positive feedback and dilute unjust low ratings and negative feedback.
How many Amazon Seller feedback should I get?
The number of Amazon seller feedbacks and the average rating matter a lot. It effects a customer’s propensity to buy, your Amazon rating and your listings and their chance to appear in the buy box.
The exact number can not be predetermined since it depends on your industry, competitors, marketplace conditions and goals. As a general rule, try to get the highest rank and more feedback than your top competitors to give you a fair chance of beating them.
Why can’t I leave seller feedback on Amazon?
Since Amazon wants feedback and product reviews to reflect reality as much as possible, they made it illegal to rate yourself and your own products. Any influenced rating can be removed and you, as the seller, might get punished if you do that. We recommend keeping your feedbacks legit and not influence buyers in any way.
What is the right way to ask for seller feedback?
The best way to ask a buyer to leave seller feedback is to let Amazon do it. Seriously. Use the Request a Review functionality so Amazon get an email delivered to your client with the exact wording that will pass their guidelines, so you are safe. See the previous questions for more details. This can up your feedback score with zero risk.
Where can an Amazon seller locate their seller feedback?
Amazon sellers must know their seller feedback and try to improve it all the time, by getting more and better ratings. To view your seller feedback go to the Feedback manager in Amazon’s seller central.
In Seller central, click “Performance” and search for and click “Feedback” you will then see your Feedback star rating and many timeframes (e.g. 30 days, 90 days, 12 months and lifetime).
When you start using HighFive you will get timely reports that will show you your feedback and product marks so you can easily keep track, see progress and gain insights. This is a professional seller app you can get for free to up your game and start selling more.
Should I reply and answer seller feedback a buyer left for me?
Of course, whenever buyers leave product reviews and feedback sellers are advised to reply. Especially make sure you reply to negative reviews and comments that detail what went wrong for them. This shows potential customers you are trustworthy, increase their chance of buying, plays in your favor from Amazon’s perspective and can even offset negative ratings. Make it a habit to search and respond to such comments daily and resolve issues as they arise.
Does Amazon monitor seller feedback?
This one is super important. Amazon constantly monitors and take into account seller feedback. More than that, Amazon treats feedback differently based on the time it was left, hence recent feedback is more valuable than old feedback.
What are the best practices when asking for a seller feedback?
Optimizing asking for reviews and feedback from your customers depends on various aspects. The nature of your product, the customer experience. You can try to assess the time it takes your customer to enjoy the product after the order and “get it” and ask then, but a safer way is to simply start testing. For each of your products try to ask after a different amount of dates after the delivery date and see when works best for you. For some products it might be a week after the delivery date and for other after 90 days. It all depends on the particular product.
What should I avoid and do when requesting Amazon feedback?
We’ve gone through many of the Do’s and Do not’s of requesting customers to leave reviews and leave feedback. Here’s a quick summary:
- Always ask for reviews and feedback after a purchase. Your business health depends on that.
- Successful sellers make soliciting reviews a habit and don’t miss an opportunity to ask a customer after an order is made.
- Never violate Amazon’s guidelines. If you intend to use your own wording familiarize yourself with the rules on this page. We suggest stick to the safe Request a Review process.
- Timing is paramount and can effect your seller’s star rating and number of responses. . Find out the optimal number of days from the date of the delivery by experimenting.
- Take into account the customer experience when asking for feedback and product reviews. Give the best service you can.
- Happy customers get sellers into the buy box. Don’t miss out on this opportunity – the marketplace is a tough arena and you need any help you can get.
What you should do next
You can now get HighFive Free for life. Use the link to go to the install page and you can automatically manage your review and feedback requests from each customer, get data and analytics and run experiments.
