Get legit reviews for new products: How to join the Amazon Vine Program
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For your traffic to convert on Amazon, you need reviews of your products.
But how can you get legitimate, Amazon-sanctioned reviews – particularly when launching a new product, or starting as a new seller?
The Amazon Vine Program might have the answer.
The need for reviews
Customer feedback is a vital part of the online shopping experience.
Obviously you want good reviews: not only are they great for convincing customers, you’re less likely to get the buy box if your reviews are bad.
Negative reviews, though, also have their uses: they can act as valuable communication with your customers, giving you information that helps you hone your product.
But forget for a minute how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ the feedback is, and think about the greater purpose of reviews. Without being able to hold and examine objects physically, shoppers rely on the experiences of others to give them an idea of what products are like.
Which means, if you don’t have any customer reviews, shoppers can’t get an objective ‘feel’ for your product.
Which makes it harder to launch new products on Amazon. You need reviews to get new reviews.
Amazon won’t let you ‘cheat’ to get reviews. It doesn’t tolerate you soliciting reviews from your customers, using discounts, free products or any kind of bribe.
So there’s only a couple of ways to get them: hope that buyers leave feedback, or join the Vine program.
What is Amazon Vine?
Amazon invites insightful reviewers – Amazon shoppers who frequently leave well-written, helpful reviews – to join the program as Vine Voices.
In return they get free stuff: they can request free products from those listed, as long as they leave an honest, unbiased review.
Vine reviews appear in the same place as normal reviews and look the same, except for having a badge that says “Vine Customer Review of Free Product”.
What are the benefits for sellers?
The program’s great for new sellers and product launches in particular because it helps you get your sales off the ground.
The percentage of people who need to read reviews before committing to a purchase is enormous: around 91% shoppers won’t buy a product until they’ve seen at least one review.
With Vine, you can send samples for reviewing even before you launch the product, so when you do launch you’ve got a good build-up of crucial early reviews.
Those reviews will be good-quality too: Vine Voices are often very thorough and often include photos.
How can I join?
You can enrol for Vine in Seller Central or Vendor Central.
Vine used to only be available for Vendors, but as of 2019 has been available for Sellers too. The costs are lower than they once were: expect to pay $200 per parent ASIN, plus the cost of providing products for free.
Don’t expect glowing reviews just because your product is free – Vine Voices are encouraged to be as honest as possible. Leaving negative feedback won’t affect their rating as a reviewer.
Only listings with fewer than 30 reviews are eligible for Vine, and your product must be new, and offered on FBA.