Amazon Made Changes To Review Policy

[Kevind88]

Important Change to Customer Review Policy
"Amazon no longer permits providing free or discounted products in exchange for product reviews. You can read more about this change here. Please note that this policy is effective immediately, and the policy applies regardless of whether you provide compensation to reviewers directly or through a third party. If you continue to offer free or discounted products in exchange for a review, your Amazon privileges may be suspended or revoked.

You may continue to offer discounts and promotions as long as they are not offered in exchange for reviews."


https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/abpto3jt7fhb5oc

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Vigilante]

excellent

too bad they don't make it retroactive and purge all the bought reviews

 

[TTG SS]

excellent

too bad they don't make it retroactive and purge all the bought reviews

I know! Cause now the brands that blasted their way to the top are going to still have huge amounts of reviews. Even launching a better product would be difficult when comparing against products with 1000+ reviews that are all 4 star or better.

 

[Denim Chicken]

excellent

too bad they don't make it retroactive and purge all the bought reviews

It actually says that if it's excessive they will retroactively remove it somewhere on their blog page

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Bananas]

FINALLY.

What a joy to read today!

Not only does this annoy me as an Amazon merchant, it is also makes it incredibly difficult as a customer. Last night I purchased two items through Walmart because I couldn't bear to sort through all the fake reviews to figure out what to buy.

 

[ApparentHorizon]

Cat and mouse game

Q: How do you identify the dark pools of incentivized reviews next?

 

[BlakeIC]

I know! Cause now the brands that blasted their way to the top are going to still have huge amounts of reviews. Even launching a better product would be difficult when comparing against products with 1000+ reviews that are all 4 star or better.

Assuming they have an inferior product (which is a common theme I have noticed and personally experienced) those negative reviews will seep through the cracks

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Paul Thomas]

Some data from - TechCrunch on the impact of incentivized reviews below.

" That’s not just a “feeling,” as it turns out – a recent study of over 7 million reviews indicated that the average rating for products with incentivized reviews was higher than non-incentivized ones. (That is, a 4.74 average rating versus a 4.36 average rating, out of 5 stars)........

Even with this 0.38 star difference, the impact was substantial – boosting products from the 54th percentile to the 94th percentile. Effectively, incentivized reviews could create top-rated products.

The study also found that incentivized reviewers were 12 times less likely to give a 1-star rating than non-incentivized reviews, and almost 4 times less likely to leave a critical review in general."

Study is here: http://reviewmeta.com/blog/analysis...em-much-more-likely-to-write-positive-review/

Will be interesting to see how the AMZ landscape changes going forward since there are SO many already boosted products from giveaways. Intersted to see how the true quality products make it to the top.

 

[funkj25]

excellent

too bad they don't make it retroactive and purge all the bought reviews

It looks like they may be in the process of this already. I've seen some people report already losing 200+ reviews on products that they "incentivized."

Honestly I've been watching the fallout of this situation on various websites and Amazon selling groups on Facebook (The Amazing Seller, etc.). The comments are almost comical to me...

"This isn't fair." "Jeff is a mean man." "Jeff is greedy, it's only about more money for him." "What about the little guy?"

On and on. Well, tough nuts.

The entitlement of access to someone else's business platform shouldn't astonish me at this point, but sheesh....

 

[Late Start]

The Change.org petition to Jeff Bezos to change back the review policy is already being shared all over FB, LOL.

This is going to make launching a slower process, but overall will make things much nicer. I also suspect Amazon will roll out some sort of Vine Lite program for non-Vendors. There is too much revenue in it for them to not do so.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

The Change.org petition to Jeff Bezos to change back the review policy is already being shared all over FB, LOL.

Basically, it's "internet marketers" crying because they've been exposed to have a product that sucks and cannot "pull" without the assistance of fake reviews and manufactured sizzle. This move is great for Fastlaners with real products that legitimately move the needle.

 

[Envision]

The Change.org petition to Jeff Bezos to change back the review policy is already being shared all over FB, LOL.

This is going to make launching a slower process, but overall will make things much nicer. I also suspect Amazon will roll out some sort of Vine Lite program for non-Vendors. There is too much revenue in it for them to not do so.

All of my competition does incentivized reviews, after the summit I took @biophase advice and started a new brand by creating just a better product with better images and descriptions. I did 0 giveaways and had friends and family buy at full price to kick off my sales. I've done WAY better than I ever did with my previous brand incentivizing reviews and I am next to the best sellers in my category that continue to do giveaways.

I'm glad they took it away because now those people who actually provide value and have a great product will be able to show it and break through the noise.

 

[Late Start]

I spent my week off of the day job last week talking to local manufacturers about moving my production to the States.

The upfront costs will be sizable, but I've already learned a hard lesson over the last month - my supplier botched an entire shipment of 1000 units, requiring me to hastily recall my inventory and pause my listing. In the two weeks I've been offline, the competition has gotten thick, and thanks to the seven day holiday in China, it won't ship for another several days. Had they not bumped the original date or the inspection, it would be in my hands within 24 hours.

Thankfully my organic review count is very solid, particularly compared to the new competition, but I've got to formulate a strategy in the next week to get myself back at the top of the heap (the "heap" *was* me and two other serious sellers, it's now those two plus about eight dabblers with about 250 inventory apiece). I got lucky finding an untapped product, by the commandment of control is coming home to roost until I can get my custom designed, made in the US version up and running. My initial strategy was going to be a sizable giveaway to jumpstart my rank back to where I had built it organically prior to the stock fiasco, but that path seems dangerous now...

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Sanj Modha]

It's a great time to get into FBA. Rankings will be dropping all around.

 

[Late Start]

It's a great time to get into FBA. Rankings will be dropping all around.

Between my product sub-category becoming gated with a fee, and now this, it seems like I got in at a good time.
Before I launched, I was worried about hijackers, now if they try to jump in, it will cost them $2500 for the privilege.
The upfront investment is going to be steeper, but that will hopefully shoo away many of the weekend warriors.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

Before I launched, I was worried about hijackers, now if they try to jump in, it will cost them $2500 for the privilege.

Hey, I'm not that familiar with Amazon. Can you tell me why there's a $2,500 fee to get into your category?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Late Start]

Hey, I'm not that familiar with Amazon. Can you tell me why there's a $2,500 fee to get into your category?

Amazon decided a couple of months ago that there should be? In all honesty, I suspect part of it is a safety/liability issue. It sounds like they are doing it for a lot of kids products, likely as a gatekeeper to keep somebody throwing up the latest Bag O' Glass from China.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/irwin-mainway/n8641

 

[Y.B.]

Actually, I think everyone has this all wrong. Amazon's most recent update is going to help new sellers.

I'm a member of a few amazon review groups. After this change, they both sent a similar email, revising their terms. Now, people are not required to leave reviews, they are optional. However, everyone is still going to continue to leave positive reviews, otherwise they won't be able to get free products anymore. The review groups no longer require you to add the disclaimer that you received a discount for testing the product. So now users get positive reviews and don't have the disclaimer so amazon customers won't even be able to tell if it's fake or not anymore.

Amazon Review Groups - 1
Amazon - 0

 

[Late Start]

Actually, I think everyone has this all wrong. Amazon's most recent update is going to help new sellers.

I'm a member of a few amazon review groups. After this change, they both sent a similar email, revising their terms. Now, people are not required to leave reviews, they are optional. However, everyone is still going to continue to leave positive reviews, otherwise they won't be able to get free products anymore. The review groups no longer require you to add the disclaimer that you received a discount for testing the product. So now users get positive reviews and don't have the disclaimer so amazon customers won't even be able to tell if it's fake or not anymore.

Amazon Review Groups - 1
Amazon - 0

I figure their next step is going to be requiring the reviewer have a non-discounted order on file of said product. Chances are they already have some bots in place sweeping incoming reviews, if I were to guess. A fellow FBAer I've become acquainted with had an incentivized review that was posted today disappear within about 20 minutes of publication (it was from a promtion he had set in motion prior to the big news). If people want to risk it, I'm all for it - I have no problem with competition getting themselves banned.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Bananas]

I figure their next step is going to be requiring the reviewer have a non-discounted order on file of said product. Chances are they already have some bots in place sweeping incoming reviews, if I were to guess. A fellow FBAer I've become acquainted with had an incentivized review that was posted today disappear within about 20 minutes of publication (it was from a promtion he had set in motion prior to the big news). If people want to risk it, I'm all for it - I have no problem with competition getting themselves banned.

You are correct about this. Amazon already had some algo and were banning people left right and center. Now they've taken this drastic step, which I believe is an attack on sellers who engage in these practices. If sellers doing this continue, Amazon will (IMO) target them instead of targeting the reviewers themselves.

See this discussion:

https://www.amazon.com/forum/top reviewers/ref=cm_cd_tfp_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2Z5LRXMSUDQH2&cdThread=Tx1U0Q0A61KKP1Z

 

[Late Start]

Ran across a dude ranting and arguing across multiple FBA Facebook groups about how Amazon has made a huge mistake, and how things will only get worse.

Out of curiosity, I click his profile, and see:

"Chief Strategy Officer at Tomoson"

 

[SenGracic]

Was about time !

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[JasonR]

Amazon Review Groups - 1
Amazon - 0

Not necessarily. Amazon has already steeply discounted discounted reviews. They barely count any more for the product rating, where the full price reviews do.

Try not to follow what everyone else does in most Amazon groups. They are usually not the brightest minds when it comes to business, IMHO.

 

[biophase]

Actually, I think everyone has this all wrong. Amazon's most recent update is going to help new sellers.

I'm a member of a few amazon review groups. After this change, they both sent a similar email, revising their terms. Now, people are not required to leave reviews, they are optional. However, everyone is still going to continue to leave positive reviews, otherwise they won't be able to get free products anymore. The review groups no longer require you to add the disclaimer that you received a discount for testing the product. So now users get positive reviews and don't have the disclaimer so amazon customers won't even be able to tell if it's fake or not anymore.

Amazon Review Groups - 1
Amazon - 0

Are people still going to buy from these review groups at full price? Probably not. People in these groups wanted cheap products for $1. Now that you can't leave reviews using a heavily discounted coupon why will sellers give out $1 products to people?

 

[biophase]

BTW, I should mention that this is an awesome thing. Yesterday I was looking for that toilet bowl illuminator product that was on Shark Tank. The problem was that the main product itself had 3 stars only because it broke after 2 months.

There are dozens of pages of Chinese knockoffs. All of them were fake reviews and all of them had the same exact issue as the Shark Tank version. If you read through the reviews, the solution was a very simple soldering fix. If only ONE seller would actually fix that issue, they could be #1 within a few months easily!

Try to find me one seller in this niche that has a clearly better product than the rest, and I'll buy it.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...oilet+bowl+light&rh=i:aps,k:toilet+bowl+light

FREE PRODUCT IDEA: Improve this and clearly state it in the title, call it version 2.0, guaranteed to last for 12 months, etc... There would be no need to launch or ask for reviews, you'd just get them naturally.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[eTox]

Are people still going to buy from these review groups at full price? Probably not. People in these groups wanted cheap products for $1. Now that you can't leave reviews using a heavily discounted coupon why will sellers give out $1 products to people?

Exactly.

 

[Late Start]

BTW, I should mention that this is an awesome thing. Yesterday I was looking for that toilet bowl illuminator product that was on Shark Tank. The problem was that the main product itself had 3 stars only because it broke after 2 months.

There are dozens of pages of Chinese knockoffs. All of them were fake reviews and all of them had the same exact issue as the Shark Tank version. If you read through the reviews, the solution was a very simple soldering fix. If only ONE seller would actually fix that issue, they could be #1 within a few months easily!

Try to find me one seller in this niche that has a clearly better product than the rest, and I'll buy it.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=toilet bowl light&rh=i:aps,k:toilet bowl light

FREE PRODUCT IDEA: Improve this and clearly state it in the title, call it version 2.0, guaranteed to last for 12 months, etc... There would be no need to launch or ask for reviews, you'd just get them naturally.

I'm planning a similar approach when I shift manufacturing of my initial product to the US. It will be strictly a cosmetic change (the functionality of the original is solid), but between having a unique look AND being the only one (of what by then will likely be MANY) that is Made in the USA (in a niche where that is a rare premium), I hope to have a decent run of dominance - well until the designer's patent application is finally approved, anyway (and I'm small potatoes enough that even if the current iteration is approved in 12 months or so, I'll likely be under their radar).

 

[funkj25]

It starts... (see picture)

Can I get an amen?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Late Start]

I launched my product with a 50 review giveaway promotion from GetBSR. Nothing has disappeared thus far, but I do have my listing paused while I wait for my corrected shipment. Honestly a good chunk of them were Verified anyway - not that that will keep the bots away. Between leading to the discovery of a good local manufacturer, another opportunity that dropped in my lap tonight, and being inactive while the Amazon bots scrub reviews, there is a lot of silver lining for all the lost revenue of my inventory fiasco.

 

[Envision]

It starts... (see picture)

Can I get an amen?

I've had people completely disappear over night. I think Amazon banned them from the category simply because all their reviews were fake.