Improving Amazon Customer Feedback

Updated 2/11/2020

In October 2019, Amazon changed “Reviews” to “Ratings”, and now allows shoppers to leave star ratings without a written review. This change helps increase the overall rating seen by customers, and the overall feedback rating seen by sellers when logged into their account.

A significant factor for the success of Amazon is the level of customer interaction permitted by the marketplace. Therefore, Amazon Customer Feedback can make or break sellers on Amazon. With more positive reviews, the better your odds are of making a sale. Sellers with high numbers of positive reviews have a leg up on sellers with poor reviews, or those with few customers who have reviewed the product.

The goal with Amazon customer feedback is to have as many positive reviews as possible, with few neutral or negative reviews, like the seller in the example above. Whenever sellers receive negative reviews, it is important to respond and try to fix the problem at any cost.

Improving Amazon Customer Feedback

• Sellers can solicit feedback from their customers by using the “Contact Buyer” link in Manage Orders. Select “feedback request” for the customer in question
• Include request for seller review on packing slip
• DON’T provide incentive for buyers to leave reviews, even if you request an unbiased review. Amazon will treat these incentives as bribes and will assume you are attempting to buy false positive reviews from your buyers. Review Amazon’s prohibited seller activities  to ensure your actions don’t break any rules.

Too many negative reviews can result in suspension of your account, so be careful to stay on top of your business practices to prevent these reviews from occurring. The most common causes for negative reviews (along with the possible solutions) include:

• Out of stock products = do not list items that are backordered, take down items that are consistently out of stock until the problem is solved, maintain a minimum threshold of inventory if possible, send updated feeds frequently when products are sold through other feeds, set aside dedicated inventory for Amazon orders,( If you use text files, you can simplify inventory updates by setting “update-delete” to partial update, and then use only the SKU and quantity data. The rest of the columns can be left blank.)
• Inaccurate product descriptions
  • this can be avoided by carefully checking your inventory feed before uploading to make sure all descriptions match their products. For example, be careful not to include “one size fits all” in the description for a product that comes in sizes small, medium, and large. This sounds silly, but it happens when we don’t pay close attention to optimization
  • provide clear images of product from multiple angles, provide custom sizing charts for products, fill out description and product dimension fields and review for accuracy
• Late shipments
  • inform customers of errors as early as possible
  • cancel the product or order as soon as errors occur
  • automatically upgrade to expedited shipping if you’re shipping an order late
  • remove offerings that are consistently late until the problem can be solved
• Wrong item shipped
  • Check to make sure your SKU is paired with the correct product on Amazon
  • check your packing and shipping processes for issues
• Complicated return address or policy
  • avoid complicated return policies like restricting full refunds before 30 day
  • simplify return policy language so it is clear and easy to understand for any reader
  • streamline return process whenever possible
• Product Quality
  • describe your product accurately (don’t say high-quality for low quality, low price products)
  • remove products that have consistently negative reviews
  • include instructions for the item’s use on product page

Note: Amazon is arguably the most consumer-centric market on the World Wide Web. Due to this, shoppers on Amazon are accustomed to a certain above-and-beyond degree of customer care. The expectations in terms of quality and shipping are significantly higher than on eBay, for example. In addition, the repercussions for deviating from this high standard can be devastating, so not putting in the appropriate amount of care in your Amazon store can be disastrous. However, the potential rewards are incredible. If you are able to pay attention to your customers, quickly and professionally responding to any of their needs, you can become an Amazon superstar, dominating the market for your products with higher sales than you thought possible.

For more useful information, take a look at “The Smart Way to Optimize Your Amazon Sales Strategy” from Search Engine Watch.