As an Amazon seller, we usually hear the words reviews and feedback. Normally, we hear these when we talk about our account’s health. And, as we know, a very good account standing has a high potential for getting the Buy Box.
However, have you tried to stop and think what difference is between the two? In essence, they appear the same, but within the Amazon niche, they are quite different.
Now let’s look at the difference between review and feedback. When a customer buys a product on Amazon, they are able to leave a product review or customer feedback. The review relates to the product specifically, whilst the feedback relates to the seller and the purchasing experience. This and a whole lot more relevant but tricky topics are being taught within the Academy.
Review
The review will happen when the customer purchases the product. When someone buys a product on Amazon, they will receive a message from Amazon to ask them to share their opinion with other customers about the product. This review must represent a fair opinion of the customer's thoughts of the product.
And if a customer has left a review on one of your products, you are able, as a seller, to leave some comments below the product review. An example of a comment you can leave would be, “thank you for your review, we really appreciate it” - this is the kind of thing you can comment on as a seller.
Pictured here is an example of a product listing on Amazon. The reviews are at the top, you can see that this product has received 4826 reviews. And they have an average of four and a half stars out of five.
Then, if you scroll down a product listing, you'll see there the breakdown of all the reviews from five stars to one star. Each review appears on the right, and customers are also able to upload some pictures with their product review should they choose to.
As an Amazon seller:
You cannot leave reviews for your own products
You cannot leave negative reviews for your competitors products
You cannot incentivize customers to leave a review
You cannot ask customers to send you some feedback, then ask them to turn the positive ones into a review.
As an example of incentivizing your customers to leave a review is, “please leave me a review, and I'll give you a 20% off on your next order”.
Feedback
Feedback relates to the customer's experience of your customer service, but also their purchase experience. Every time a customer buys a product, similar to the product review, Amazon will ask them to share their opinion about the service. This is because they want to share that with other customers.
A customer can leave feedback to comment on the seller, and the purchase experience and not the product itself. Feedback will be displayed in your seller Feedback Manager.
As pictured, within a Product Listing, this is where the feedback will appear. In this example, it shows a list of five stars feedback. And on the right you can see a breakdown of the positive, neutral negative, and count how much feedback the seller has received over 30 days, 90 days, 12 months, and lifetime of the product listing.
In your Feedback Manager in Seller Central, this is how it will appear. You'll see the Feedback Rating, how many stars out of five, and how many ratings you haven't received. This will be broken down over time as well. If you want to challenge some feedback that people have left, this is where you can do it. Here is an example of five different customer feedback (pictured).
If someone leaves negative feedback and includes a product description, for example if someone said “I hate this product, and will never buy this again”, and put that into feedback, then you could ask Amazon to remove it. This is because it does not relate to their purchase experience.
If you click on the right hand side, where it says Choose one, you could either Post a public reply, like if someone gives you some positive feedback, you can reply and thank them for it, and this will appear in your feedback. However, if you feel that the feedback is not a fair representation of your customer service, then, you can click on Request removal. You can request removal when the feedback relates to the product specifically.
Also, if a customer is complaining that the product has not been delivered, and you are using Amazon FBA, then Amazon will take responsibility for any problems with the delivery. They will cross out the negative feedback, and they will add something along the lines of “Amazon takes full responsibility for the fulfilment of the orders”. As a result, this will not affect your customer feedback ratings.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there's a very simple difference between review which is specific to products, and feedback, which has to do with a customer experience and feedback about the seller themselves.
Lastly, the Academy is where we provide exclusive help and support, coaching sessions, mastermind sessions, and a lot more with our members. If you would like to know more about the Academy, then do not hesitate to book your free Discovery Call.
Need More Help? Here Are Some Additional Resources
Get Coaching: Want our help growing your eCom business? Apply for our Arbitrage Experts Academy Programme Here.
Free Training: How to start, systemise and scale your online business. Register Here.
Book a FREE Strategy Call: Get 1-2-1 support from the OSC Team to devise a tailor made plan you can follow to achieve scale. Click Here.
Get Expert Virtual Assistants: Want us to build your team of transformational VAs and free your time? Learn more here.