Amazon reviews can be daunting, yet they play a significant role in your product becoming successful on Amazon. Whether you're launching a new product and want to establish a good review base or you're trying to overcome a slew of negative reviews, we cover some of the top questions here.

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How can I increase my product review count?

It can be especially hard for customers to discover new products organically, and if they can't find your product, they can't leave a review. Fortunately, Amazon gives you a number of tools for increasing traffic and reviews –

Email. Amazon automatically sends emails asking buyers to leave reviews, so there is no action needed on your end. Amazon will not allow brands to incentivize customers to leave reviews with gifts cards, future product discounts, reimbursement, and so on.

Vine. We talked a little bit about Amazon Vine here, but it's a great opportunity for brands to receive trusted reviews in order to help customers make informed purchase decisions. Although there is a fee per ASIN for this program, it can be helpful during those first few weeks of launch as your product gains sales momentum.

Variations. Is your product the same as an existing product, just a new color, size, or flavor? If so, Amazon allows brands to variate like products on the same page, which can help your new listing generate more page views. For example, if you have a coconut protein bar with a history of positive reviews on Amazon and you are introducing a new peanut butter flavor, it can be helpful to pair the two together.

Advertising. Paid advertising on Amazon is a great opportunity to get your product placed at the top of search for shoppers to see.  With a variety of ad types available, it's a great way to increase visibility and sales (and reviews) on Amazon.

Social Media. If you brand is active on other social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, it can be helpful to promote new products on these channels and direct consumers back to your Amazon product page to purchase and review.

What should I do if I receive a negative review?

There are a few important things to do if you receive a negative review –

Respond. If you receive a poor review, one of the best things to do is respond and respond quickly. Just like a shopper wants the product in their hands as soon as possible (hello, one-day shipping), they want immediate resolution if there's an issue. Furthermore, because customer reviews are public, future buyers can read through customer reviews and feel confident about their purchase if they see the brand is actively communicating with its customers.

Offer a solution. Whether you publicly respond with a solution or include a phone number or email address for the customer to contact you directly, offering a solution to the issue will provide a positive experience for the customer, and they might even update their review to a positive rating as a result.

Consistent, sincere voice. Whether you employ a customer service team to manage Amazon reviews or you handle them on a one-off basis, it's important that the responses sound like your brand, are consistent with how your customer service team manages poor reviews on other sites, and most importantly, sound genuine and sincere. Because there's nothing worse than an automatic, generic response that leaves the customer feeling even more frustrated.

Is there a way to track negative reviews?

It can be hard to stay on top of negative reviews and manage them regularly. Luckily, our software provides brands the opportunity to not only track sales, advertising and marketing activities, but also track weekly reviews at the ASIN level. Brands can even filter reviews by star rating to isolate the negative reviews and take immediate action.

Can I remove a negative review?

Product reviews can only be changed or deleted by the reviewer. However, in the event a product review is written about issues not directly related to your product or includes inappropriate content, you can contact Amazon support to remove the review. As we mentioned above, the best course of action when you receive a negative review is to simply respond.

Questions?

For questions on reviews, or if you would like to see a demo of the reviews data included in our software, reach out to a Stackline Pro.