Learn how to identify and deal with fake reviews on Amazon, safeguarding your company's credibility and your product reputation.
Jens Vittrup
Achieving success on Amazon is not easy – it requires hard work. One of the best and most effective ways to succeed is by ensuring your customers genuinely love the products you sell. This results in positive reviews for your products or business, helping the Amazon A9 algorithm to boost your sales.
It is common knowledge that fake reviews are found on Amazon, as is the case on many other platforms where customers can review products and businesses. The reason some companies are tempted to secure large numbers of fake Amazon reviews is the significant impact these reviews have on sales, especially on Amazon.
Don’t do it!
Although it may be tempting to use fake reviews, do not do it! Amazon’s policies and terms of business clearly outline how companies must handle product reviews and customer contact. If you breach these guidelines, Amazon will not hesitate to remove your business from the platform, and you risk losing the opportunity to return.
At least 16 major brands have experienced this first-hand, including Aukey and Mpow, which have enjoyed great success in the electronics/gaming accessories category. In a data leak, they and other companies were found to have contacted consumers, offering a free product in exchange for a positive review of their products.
As a result, the 16 brands have been removed from the platform and thousands of reviews have been deleted. Only third-party sellers can still sell these products, but it has become significantly harder now that so many positive reviews have been removed. Furthermore, it is no longer possible to review these particular products.
In this article, we cover the following points:
What you absolutely must not do
• Do not write a review of your own product – neither under your own name nor under an alias.
• Do not ask friends, family or employees to write reviews.
• Never pay customers to review your product, offer discounts, or send something extra or free of charge.
• Never review a competitor’s product or company.
• Do not ask a customer to remove a negative review of your product.
• Do not include a request in your shipments asking customers to leave a positive review.
The easiest way to get positive reviews starts with your product and customer service.
• Make sure your product lives up to its promises.
• Ensure the quality is top notch. If you know of any potential issues with the product, get them fixed.
• Provide as much information as possible about the product so the customer encounters no surprises regarding colour, size, shapes, fit, etc.
• Answer customer questions and deliver your products on time.
The above are the first important steps in getting positive reviews. If customers have the best possible experience, they are more likely to leave good reviews.
An effective way to collect reviews is to be proactive and encourage customers to provide feedback. One way to do this is by using a provider that specialises in helping sellers collect reviews.
With this method, the request to the customer is fully automated, ensuring you comply with Amazon’s guidelines. One service that can help you with this is edesk.com, which has an excellent system for managing this process. One advantage is that customers can submit their review directly via the email they receive, making it easy and increasing the number of reviews you get.
Edesk.com uses Amazon API access, so when the customer receives an email, Amazon will appear as the sender. This adds significant credibility and increases the likelihood that the customer will leave a review.
Another way to collect reviews is to use a tool provided by Amazon. For each of your orders, you can click “request a review”. This method is effective, and the customer receives an email where they can easily submit their review. Again, Amazon appears as the sender, which, as mentioned previously, adds credibility. This approach also guarantees that you comply with all Amazon guidelines.
The drawback is that you must manually go into each order to do this. If you have many orders being delivered at different times, this can be time-consuming.
Amazon reviews are essential for success on Amazon.
To drive sales, it is important to gain as many reviews as possible, quickly and consistently. If you receive five or more positive reviews within 30 days, your conversion rate increases significantly. But remember to do it the right way and do not be tempted by the shortcuts that may seem appealing.
At WeMarket, we have helped many clients collect reviews and improve their listings and conversion rates on Amazon. If you are interested in learning more or have questions about how to improve your results, you are very welcome to contact us.
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