How To Improve Your Star Rating On Amazon
How To Improve Your Star Rating On Amazon
How To Improve Your Star Rating On Amazon
Emily Louise Spencer

Emily Louise Spencer

Jun 6, 2022 ‧ 4 MIN.

Amazon Seller Reputation: Why It Matters

Increasing your seller reputation is never a bad thing. It lets you increase your sales, boosts your reach and lets you track how you’re doing in terms of marketing. Amazon’s star format is one of the simpler ones for customers and those who view you to understand, but it’s slightly more complex when it comes to figuring out how to increase it.

The first thing we’ll get out of the way is this – your seller rating is not the same as your seller feedback. One is determined by the other, but feedback is discarded by the algorithm and doesn’t have an impact after 365 days. Thus, it’s not only important to get lots of good reviews but get them often if you want to keep your star rate high.

The Difference Between Product Reviews And Seller Reviews

Product reviews aren’t the same as seller reviews. One is directly related to the product in question, while one to the seller. One is about the quality of the product, the other the service and experience that the customer had with you. You’ll find both options on your 

This might seem unnecessarily complex, but you need to remember that plenty of Amazon stores sell things that they don’t manufacture. It wouldn’t exactly be fair to put the burden of manufacturing errors on those who are just suppliers. It’s important to note that only those who’ve purchased from you can leave seller ratings, and only up to 90 days after purchase.

Seller reviews usually focus on packaging quality, shipping speed and communication by the seller. Anything that involves product description would also count. You might see feedback about incorrectly sized items, misleading photos etc. – these are also seller reviews.

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Your seller reputation, in other words your star rating, is concerned only with seller reviews. Given said rating helps determine where you rank in the Amazon search function, it’s important to keep it high.

The Definition – What Are Amazon Product Reviews?

Product reviews are the other end of the stick. They’re reviews that are specific to certain items or groups of items that you and others might sell. They’re written with the intention of helping future customers decide what to buy based on quality, durability etc.

You can leave a product review from the Orders tab just as you can leave a seller review, but it’s important to note that people who haven’t purchased from you can leave product reviews too – they just need to have purchased something from Amazon in the past twelve months. While this is designed to let people who obtained the product elsewhere leave feedback, there’s definitely potential for abuse so keep an eye out for ratings that seem suspicious.

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Given Amazon’s feedback system is in the form of comments left on items, you’ll often find product reviews and seller reviews lumped into one string of text. Customers don’t want to write things out twice when once is easier, so you’ll often find product reviews left in the seller review section and vice versa.

Why Are Amazon Product Reviews Important?

So, if product reviews don’t directly impact your seller rating why should you care about them?

Product reviews affect Amazon’s SEO, that is to say that if you have good ratings you’ll appear higher up in the recommended section of searches. They’ll also give you information about your products – quality, potential defects etc. This can be used by you directly if you manufacture your own products, or if you’re simply a supplier, used to decide what products you should continue to purchase from their manufacturers.

Product reviews also help in another fashion, and that’s to do with the psychology of purchasing things online. Consumers are suspicious of products with few reviews, thinking that they might be faked or inaccurate because of their small sample size. In fact, it’s been shown that how recent your reviews are also matters, with ratings from more than six months ago being virtually ignored by consumers browsing your products.

Techniques To Get Reviews On Amazon

So if reviews are that important, you’ve got to use techniques to get them. Most people won’t leave a review out of their own initiative unless they’ve had a particularly noteworthy experience, so a little bit of incentivisation doesn’t actually affect the accuracy of your reviews.

  1. Ask For Feedback

If you want feedback, you can just ask for it! Sending emails to customers asking for a quick review is a good way to get responses, as it’s quick and easy to do. 

Consumers are aware of the need for reviews to get good Amazon ratings, and a quick reminder is often enough to motivate them if they’ve had a particularly good experience with you, which will give you the bonus of good feedback.

  1. Include Links To Feedback Pages

If you’re emailing customers, you should include links to feedback pages for the specific items they purchased. Nobody likes having to put effort into something that they’re doing as a favor for someone else, so making the process as easy as possible is advised.

  1. Automate The Process

Of course, sending all these emails by hand is going to be a nightmare. The best way to get around that is to use automated email writing software, which has the added bonus of reducing mistakes made when transcribing links or product titles. The words Bread and Breed might look similar to a human, but to a computer it’s all 1s and 0s.

  1. Amazon’s Vine Program

It wouldn’t be capitalism without a pay to promote option. Amazon’s Vine Program is a paid program that lets you confirm that your reviews are genuine, and provides the option to get your products reviewed by e-commerce experts.

  1. Social Media Campaigns

Social media advertisements are another pay to promote section, but in this case you’re paying to have popups reminding your customers that they’ve purchased from you and a review would be nice. This can border on the level of “knowing too much”, but most consumers these days know all about big data and won’t be fazed by it.

Emily Louise Spencer

Emily Louise Spencer

Emily Louise Spencer is an in-house content writer at Revuze. She is a graduate of the University of York with a master's degree in Chemistry. A published scientific author, she now works as a content writer and copy editor.

Emily Louise Spencer is an in-house content writer at Revuze. She is a graduate of the University of York with a master's degree in Chemistry. A published scientific author, she now works as a content writer and copy editor.