Amazon Made Changes To Review Policy

[BlakeIC]

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.

100% Agreed.

This all exciting news for me and should be for anyone else with real products that actually work.

 

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[3things]

Seems like Amazon is removing all incented reviews, including retrospectively. The reddit fba and product testing subs are pretty full of it.

As a consumer not a seller on Amazon, good and about time. The tons of incentived review shit were a cancer and made a once powerful, valuable and trustworthy purchase assister an untrustworthy minefield you had to waste time wading through. Good riddance!

 

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[Late Start]

Amazon made another big announcement today (well, not so much as a big announcement as just a blurb at the bottom of the FBA signup page) - any new (as in brand new, just signed up) seller who didn't have a shipment in by today (the 10th) will have to wait until December 19th to get one shipped in. If you're not an existing FBA seller, Q4 will be strictly an FBM affair.

 

[Kevin Farney]

It's clearly against TOS to buy your own product...and you must understand that since you have a detailed process to avoid getting caught...
I'm new to FBA, this forum and the Fastlane mindset but these sort of tactics go against everything they teach. Best of luck to you though! I'll not be trying it.

 

[biophase]

Again, where did I tell someone to do this? I'm not advising anyone to do this. All I said was "this is possible". And frankly, you need a couple of reviews to kickstart your product.

I could be wrong, it all depends on the situation really.

You do understand that what you post is usually what you recommend right? If I make a long how-to post, isn't it possible that I'm recommending that specific action?

And you are 100% wrong. I think it's clear based on your posts and replies that you have no understanding of how Amazon works.

Go ahead and put in that single review and see what happens. There was another forum member who did not listen to some warnings and guess what happened to his account.

 

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[biophase]

Also, you're taking me really wrong. I don't plan to "put in that every single review", that would be tossing your hands inside a gator's mouth.

What I'm trying to say is let's say I have recently launched a product and say it's a pair of trendy wireless headphones. I'll give myself around 6 or so fake reviews just to kickstart it. I'll create 6 different accounts using different country's IP addresses each time (so Amazon doesn't detect it). Then I'll put my mother's address, my brother's address, my grandparents address, my friends address and so forth.

This isn't against Amazon because if your friends or family were to buy your product they "absolutely can", but in this case, you're simply managing the orders. Purchase and put reviews in at least 2-3 day margin.

LOL, you are delusional. This is absolutely against Amazon's TOS. Here I will post it below for you:

"Creating, modifying, or posting content regarding your (or your relative's, close friend's, business associate's, or employer's) products or services."
"Creating, modifying, or posting content in exchange for compensation of any kind (including free or discounted products) or on behalf of anyone else."

 

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[Bananas]

I'm just now starting on Amazon. Can you or have you elsewhere elaborated on your launch process? I'm surprised you started with so many products. Were they variations or all different (but related) products? Did you private label? I just launched my first product and it is not doing that well honestly. Working on a new iteration that will be better value and bring differentiation from my competition for round two. But it has taken a long time and $$$ to get even this one product up. How did you start with nearly 2 dozen? Thanks in advance.

Were they variations or all different (but related) products?
Different but related products.

Did you private label?
I created my own products, that were never created before. As opposed to re-doing something already done and slapping my own label on it, like putting my name on some Chinese sunglasses that every other person has with their name on it, and then trying to out advertise.

How did you start with nearly 2 dozen?
Amazon was the last platform I got on. My products were (and are) on eBay and even Etsy. I was new to being an Amazon merchant but my products were already tested. This means: my products were already refined by the time I got to Amazon. Obviously there may be future improvements but I was pretty well structured. It took me like a week to get them all up as I had to build my own product pages and I was slow at it.

Please note: I'm like the least cool person on this forum. There are other people here who have done much better, launching with advertising, pre-sales, and a huge social media following. You should follow them. I was only talking about what's possible, not what's great. There are probably people laughing at me for saying that I pulled in 1k+ a month right off the bat. Seriously. But it's also true: this can be done with no reviews, probably better than I did.

Edit: I've also launched sh1t that sucked. It happens.

 

[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

 

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[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.

 

[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?

 

[TKDTyler]

It starts... (see picture)

Can I get an amen?

Looks like Amazon is being proactive and has bots scrubbing the review system.

Even better

*Edit: This screenshot too http://imgur.com/a/OlPun

 

[eliquid]

I've tried to beat it over everyone's head for a couple years now about these "discounts" for reviews when I meet someone starting on FBA.

None of them listened to me.

Being a programmer and marketer has it's perks.

I've had a system developed for months to get around all this $1 or FREE crap to gain a review garbage. Looks like its time to take it full throttle now and grab all the reviews I can in a way Amazon can't track it.

 

[Jon L]

As a consumer, I'm very happy that Amazon's done this. I've gotten to the point where I don't trust the positive reviews. The only ones I look at are the negative ones. If all the negative reviews are from people that just don't 'get' the product (they're trying to use a clock radio as a hammer, for example), and the product looks good otherwise, I'll buy it. If the negative reviews describe actual problems with the product, I'll stay away.

 

[Longinus]

 

[MJ DeMarco]

It's camouflaged to be seen as "value" to sidewalkers but isn't really.

So you are justifying being just another marketing douchebag selling perceived value, over actual value. In other words, you're walking the line of deception, schemery, and even fraud.

 

[Late Start]

Watching folks dig themselves deeper and deeper while they try and impart "wisdom" on people with decades more experience than them *never* gets old.

 

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[petkovic]

Now in effect in Germany as well and it looks like they are starting to purge old reviews here as well:
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meld...ltere-anreizbasierte-Bewertungen-3505694.html

 

[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.

 

[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...

 

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[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

 

[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"

 

[petkovic]

Excellent! When researching competition in the niche I want to enter, I did not find a single(!) review that was not in some way "bought".

I haven't seen any movement here in Germany yet, but I expect that reviews will disappear here, too.

It's almost like Amazon is calling to me: "petkovic, come to us. It is time..."

 

[TKDTyler]

Saw this while looking for computer programming gigs on CL. Obviously, this violates Amazon's TOS, but how would they prevent this kind of thing?

View attachment 13403

Those won't be verified reviews at least... It seems like a lot of work for each product launch to drive around to meet 25-50 random people just to give them $10.

As the reviewer, $10 wouldn't even be worth the inconvience of having to meet with somebody, sit down and let them see me post. I could also take the money and just edit my review to reflect what really happened. It's still playing with fire

 

[devine]

maybe we could turn all of Fastlane Forum into an Amazon feedback machine. We could all buy each others' products and give them 5 stars. They'll never know what hit them. What could go wrong?

We could do so much better than just that.

 

[StartupMonkey]

@Andy Black Great information mate. Enjoyed reading it!

 

[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

 

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[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?

 

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