Product reviews on Amazon are hugely important for new products to gain traction. Without reviews it’s very hard to get sales.
Amazon itself offers a few ways for sellers to get the an initial set of reviews for newly launched products.
In this post, we discuss two programs: Amazon Vine & the Early Reviewer Program. What these programs are, who is eligible and how to participate.
The Amazon Vine Program
Amazon Vine is an invite-only program for generating honest, high-quality reviews.
The Vine Program is exclusively available to Vendors. So if you only sell through Seller Central you are not eligible to participate. You would have to also apply to be a vendor in order to be eligible. And Amazon would need to contact you directly to tell you that your products qualify for being reviewed in the Vine Program.
Vine Voices are the reviewers selected to leave reviews for the Vine Program. Amazon reaches out to their top reviewers to receive free products to review. The Voices are selected based on the quality and helpfulness of past reviews they’ve left.
Reviews left by Vine Voices receive a ‘VINE VOICE’ tag, displayed beside the name of the reviewer. So these reviews might carry considerable weight in the minds of potential customers.
However, don’t try getting your products reviewed through the Vine Program with the expectation of strictly positive reviews. Amazon created the program to encourage honest opinions on new and pre-release products. And the vendors participating in Vine have no contact with the Vine Voices. So you can’t influence the Voices to review your products and leave positive reviews.
Early Reviewer Program
The Early Reviewer Program is another initiative from Amazon to encourage more authentic reviews for new products with little or no reviews.
Amazon instituted this program, because getting reviews for new products helps shoppers make more informed decisions. And it helps push more sales on the Amazon.com Marketplace.
Like reviews from Vine Voices, reviews from the Early Reviewer Program receive an “Early Reviewer Rewards” badge displayed beside the review.
And also like Vine Voice reviews, sellers can not contact the reviewers. Amazon reaches out to the reviewers. In this case, it’s not strictly elite reviewers. It’s anyone who bought a product with few or no reviews.
Once selected, reviewers are given a deadline, by which if they leave a review, they will receive an Amazon gift card of $1-3.
Getting More Reviews
These are just a few of the ways Amazon products can receive the initial set of reviews that are so crucial for sales.
To learn about more ways to generate product reviews on Amazon to build customer trust and make more sales, download my Guide to Getting More Amazon Product Reviews.