Amazon’s Product Review

 Over the years, Amazon has made considerable changes to its product review policy. This has led to a lot of confusion surrounding the do’s and don’ts of asking for an Amazon product review.

In this article, dig into all the details to determine what Amazon ultimately considers illegal or unethical, and what they believe is okay. It’s a lot of (important!) info, so read through this article carefully to ensure you don’t miss anything.

If you’re ever in doubt that what you’re doing might be considered unethical or illegal in Amazon’s eyes, err on the side of caution and check Amazon’s product review policy. It’s always the best option.

Let’s start with the terms of service, straight from Amazon’s site.

In Amazon’s words: 

When it comes to the actual terms of service for customer product reviews, you can find Amazon’s guidelines in Seller Central. But to make this really easy for you, here is exactly what those guidelines say

Amazon encourages buyers to review the products they like and dislike to help customers make informed decisions about the products they purchase.

For answers to common questions about customer product reviews, see Answers to questions about product reviews.

To ensure that reviews remain helpful, sellers must comply with our Community Guidelines. For example, you cannot offer compensation for a review, and you cannot review your own products or your competitors’ products. You can ask buyers to write a review, but you cannot ask for positive reviews or ask a reviewer to change or remove their review. If you believe a review does not comply with our Community Guidelines, click on the Report Abuse link next to the review. As sellers and manufacturers, you are not allowed to review your own products, nor are you allowed to negatively review a competitor’s product.

Inappropriate product reviews

The following are examples of prohibited activities. This is not an all-inclusive list.

• A seller posts a review of their own product or their competitor’s product either in their own name or as an unbiased buyer.
• A seller offers a third party a financial reward, discount, or other compensation in exchange for a review on their product or their competitor’s product. This includes services that sell customer reviews and websites or social media groups with implicit or explicit agreements or expectations that an incentive is contingent on customers leaving a review.
• A seller offers to provide a refund or reimbursement after the buyer writes a review (including reimbursement via a non-Amazon payment method).
• A seller uses a third-party service that offers free or discounted products tied to a review (for example, a review club that requires customers to register their Amazon public profile so that sellers may monitor their reviews).
• A family member or employee of the seller posts a review of the seller’s product or a competitor’s product.
• A seller offers a refund or other compensation to a reviewer in exchange for changing or removing their review.
• A seller only asks for reviews from buyers who had a positive experience and attempts to divert buyers who had a negative experience to a different feedback mechanism. This includes cases where the customer proactively reaches out to the seller to express satisfaction with their products.
• A seller creates a variation relationship between products that are not actually related to each other in order to boost a product’s star rating.
• A seller inserts a request for a positive Amazon review or an incentive in exchange for a review into product packaging.
• A seller manipulates the ‘Helpful’, ‘Not Helpful’, or ‘Report Abuse’ features on any review on his or his competitor’s products.

Breaking it all down

It’s a surprisingly short document, but the guideline page is easily one of the most important on the entire site. Now, let’s break down what each element means, and how it can impact your Amazon FBA business.

1 – “Amazon encourages buyers to review the products they like and dislike…” 

Amazon advocates neutrality. It wants its shoppers to review not just products they like, but those they’re disappointed with as well. Essentially, if a customer is unhappy with a product, Amazon wants them to let other potential customers know.

2 – “…to help customers make informed decisions about the products they purchase.” 

The second part of the guidelines’ first statement reveals Amazon’s true intent. They want to appear totally transparent when it comes to their shoppers’ experiences. Reviews–good or bad–should be honest. Then, other customers know exactly what to expect from a product

3 – Amazon’s resources for sellers

Amazon seems to be aware of the confusion surrounding product reviews. The terms of service page offers not just one link to its Frequently Asked Questions section, but two.

4 – “To ensure that reviews remain helpful, sellers must comply with our Community Guidelines.” 

Next, Amazon directs sellers to its Community Guidelines document. We strongly recommend you review this important guide. It’s just as important as the customer product reviews page.

And again, to simplify this for you, some of the most important parts of the guidelines are listed below. However, the sections on promotions and commercial solicitations, and additional guidelines for customer reviews, aren’t included here as I go into more detail later on.

5 – Promotions and Commercial Solicitations

Within Amazon’s Community Guidelines section, there are details on what sellers (and shoppers) can and can’t do regarding promotions. 

First, what is a promotion or commercial solicitation?

Promos and solicitations include advertisements (both on and off Amazon), product inserts, follow-up emails, or any other content that you put in front of a current or potential customer regarding an Amazon product (yours, your competitors, or any other item on the site).

Second, what can and can’t we do?

Within Amazon’s community, this is what the guidelines say is NOT permitted:

• “Creating, modifying, or posting content regarding your (or your relative’s, close friend’s, business associate’s, or employer’s) products or services.”
• “Creating, modifying, or posting content regarding your competitors’ products or services.”
• “Creating, modifying, or posting content in exchange for compensation of any kind (including free or discounted products, refunds, or reimbursements) or on behalf of anyone else.”
• “Offering compensation or requesting compensation (including free or discounted products) in exchange for creating, modifying, or posting content.”
• “Posting advertisements or solicitations, including URLs with referrer tags or affiliate codes.”

However, it also states that there are exceptions.

According to Amazon, these are the only ones:

• “You may post content requested by Amazon (such as Customer Reviews of products you purchased on Amazon or received through the Vine program, and answers requested through Questions and Answers). In those cases, your content must comply with any additional guidelines specified by Amazon.”
• “You may post an answer to a question asked through the Questions and Answers feature (but not a question itself) regarding products or services for which you have a financial or close personal connection to the brand, seller, author, or artist, but only if you clearly and conspicuously disclose the connection (for example, “I represent the brand for this product.”). We automatically label some answers from sellers or manufacturers, in which case additional disclosure is not necessary.”
• “You may post content other than Customer Reviews and Questions and Answers regarding products or services for which you have a financial or close personal connection to the brand, seller, author, or artist, but only if you clearly and conspicuously disclose the connection (e.g., “I was paid for this post.”). However, no brand or business may participate in the Community in a way (including by advertising, special offers, or any other “call to action”) that diverts Amazon customers to another non-Amazon website, service, application, or channel for the purpose of conducting marketing or sales transactions. Content posted through brand, seller, author, or artist accounts regarding their own products or services does not require additional labeling.”
• They also state, at the end of the section, that, “Book authors and publishers may continue to provide free or discounted copies of their books to readers, as long as the author or publisher does not require a review in exchange or attempt to influence the review.”

6 – “You can ask buyers to write a review…”

It’s true! Amazon does tell us in its Customer product reviews terms of service that its sellers can ask buyers to write reviews. You just have to follow their regulations.

Use a tool like Review Automation to send out automated review requests to your customers. 

7 – “… but you cannot ask for positive reviews or ask a reviewer to change or remove their review.”

Two important points here:

No matter what, you can’t ask a customer to leave you a positive review. Not in your follow-up emails, not in your product inserts, and not through another messaging system like Facebook bots. Amazon has been cracking down on this in the last few months, and are taking it very seriously.

Second, you can’t ask a reviewer to change or remove a review. Requesting or suggesting a customer edit or delete their negative review is against the rules. Even if their problem is solved, and they tell you they are satisfied, asking them to make changes is not allowed.

8 – “As sellers and manufacturers, you are not allowed to review your own products, nor are you allowed to negatively review a competitor’s product.”

While not a new rule, it’s important to point this one out anyway. You can’t leave reviews for your own products. You can’t leave an unfavorable review for a competitor’s product either.

It’s worth mentioning that it specifically says “negatively review”, though. In other words, a positive review of your competitors’ product might be okay, but I doubt you’ll be doing that!

9 – “A seller offers a third party a financial reward, discount, or other compensation in exchange for a review on their product or their competitor’s product.”

Amazon’s been trying to fix the problem ever since.

10 – “A seller offers to provide a refund or reimbursement after the buyer writes a review.”

After incentivized product reviews ended, some creative sellers started offering refunds and reimbursements after the sale to encourage reviews. Amazon caught on. Now, the Amazon abuse team monitors and stops the practice.

11 – “A seller uses a third-party service that offers free or discounted products tied to a review.”

Before Amazon stopped incentivized reviews, a large number of review clubs existed. They offered deeply discounted Amazon products in exchange for product reviews. When the October 3rd, 2016 policies emerge, those businesses had to shut down.

12 – “A seller only asks for reviews from buyers who had a positive experience and attempts to divert buyers who had a negative experience to a different feedback mechanism.”

One tactic we used to see in the Amazon community were automated emails asking the customer if they were satisfied. The emails had ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ links.  The ‘Yes’ link took them to the product’s review page, while the ‘No’ link took them to customer support.

But Amazon has cracked down on cherry picking. Following up with buyers who liked your product, but not with those who didn’t, is now prohibited. In fact, even follow-up emails suggesting a customer should leave a review if they had a positive experience are forbidden.

For example, if your email or product insert uses language like, “If you enjoyed this product and would like to share your five-star experience”, you’re at risk. Amazon views this as manipulative.

13 – “This includes cases where the customer proactively reaches out to the seller to express satisfaction with their products.”

Even if the customer contacts you to let you know they love your product, you can’t ask them to leave a review. So, if a customer writes good seller feedback for you, or replies to your follow-up email, don’t ask for a review. Amazon considers it to be manipulative.

14 – “A seller creates a variation relationship between products that are not actually related to each other in order to boost a product’s star rating.”

Say you’re selling a kitchen knife, and it’s been getting poor reviews. For that reason, you try to connect it to one of your products that’s getting good reviews, like a frying pan. 

The theory behind the move is that the product with good reviews will boost the product with bad reviews. But that’s no longer acceptable. Amazon (you guessed it!) sees this as manipulative and forbids it.

15 – “A seller inserts a request for a positive Amazon review or an incentive in exchange for a review into product packaging.”

Only recently did the word ‘insert’ appear in Amazon’s terms of service language. Now, if a seller includes a product insert that specifically requests a positive review, or gives an incentive for a review, they can face review suppression and account suspension.

Amazon isn’t banning all product inserts though. We just have to make sure that the language in the insert is completely neutral.

Here’s what is NOT allowed on product inserts:

• Incentives for reviews.
• Requests for only positive reviews.
• Hints at product reviews. Even an image of five stars is problematic.
• Explaining that you donate profits to charity, you are “a family-owned business”, or any other language that suggests not leaving a review could damage your business or hurt others.
• Offering to take care of potential issues (customer service) before a customer leaves a negative review.
• Your insert should simply ask for a review. Period.

16 – “A seller manipulates the ‘Helpful’, ‘Not Helpful’, or ‘Report Abuse’ features on any review on his or [her] competitor’s products.”

You can’t attack your competitor’s products either. You can, however, report any abuse you discover.

17 – “You can ask for reviews from customers who purchased your products off Amazon.”

If a customer buys your product from somewhere other than Amazon, they can still leave a review ON Amazon. Of course, the review will be unverified, and it must follow Amazon’s guidelines.

18 – “…you cannot ask customers to change or remove their review, even after an issue is resolved.”

Again, you can’t ask for a customer to edit or delete their review for any reason.

19 – “…you can reach out to customers by replying to their review on the product detail page and asking them to contact you through Buyer-Seller Messaging to resolve their issues. You cannot reach out to buyers via other means.”

You can leave a reply on the actual review itself, but you can’t track down your customer’s email and use it to resolve issues. Using software or “hacks” to find the shoppers who left a negative review can get you suspended.