A Complete Guide to Amazon Verified Purchases and Reviews

Before we continue, let’s look at what Amazon has to say about verified purchases. Here’s a quote directly from Amazon.com:

“An Amazon Verified Purchase review means that we’ve verified that the person writing the review purchased the product from Amazon, and didn’t receive the product at a big discount.

Reviews that are not marked Amazon Verified Purchase are valuable as well, but, either we cannot confirm that the product was purchased from Amazon, or that the customer paid a price that is available to most Amazon shoppers.“

We can learn from the quote above that non-verified reviews are not necessarily fake reviews. Both kinds of reviews are important in your strategy to gain recognition on Amazon.

However real either type may be, Amazon puts greater value on verified reviews. Moving on, let’s discuss how offering discounts can help you receive more Amazon verified reviews.

For both sellers and buyers, Amazon’s policy on manipulated reviews is clear:

“Any attempt to manipulate reviews, including by directly or indirectly contributing false, misleading, or inauthentic content, is strictly prohibited.”

Years ago, Amazon had a big problem with fake reviews on their website. It’s similar to Google’s old problem of people taking advantage of keyword rankings by repeating the same keyword over and over again.

Reviews were given in exchange for a deep discount. They were also often left by the sellers themselves using alternative accounts. While Amazon hasn’t found a way to solve this problem entirely, its algorithm discourages users from participating in these practices.

Now that you know what a verified purchase on Amazon is, we’ll move on to discussing how exactly you can get them. Not just any reviews, positive, genuine reviews.

Below, we will provide you with tips you can use to increase those verified reviews.

Amazon typically does not want sellers to send a second message regarding reviews. Because Amazon believes in maintaining the customer experience, it doesn’t always like custom messages.

Amazon would likely prefer if you left things in their hands, but that isn’t always the best option for most sales. So while it is good advice to k always be sure that this one message follows guidelines.

Do not pressure your buyers too much to leave a review, or your positive review might turn into a report to Amazon.

If you’re not already familiar, the Amazon Brand Registry offers many tools for sellers with brands. Taking advantage of these tools can help you become a more competitive seller.

The Amazon Brand Registry is also a tool to help you get more verified reviews. This can be achieved using an Amazon Storefront. If you already have an Amazon Storefront, you can check out this article to learn the best practices for Optimizing your Amazon Storefront.

If you’ve paid attention to Amazon Stores, you know that there is a small follow button in the corner of every storefront. This button enables buyers who love your brand to receive updates and recommended product notifications from you.

The follow button also enables sellers to make new product announcements. Those new product announcements will encourage buyers who are already invested in your brand to leave five-star reviews.

You might say that there is no way to establish that this will happen. But the truth is that it is actually far easier to convince people who already know your brand quality to make a purchase, and then leave a review. Since they already know the level of quality they can expect from your brand, it’s easier for them to make a verified review.  If you want to learn more about private label selling on Amazon, check this article out.

Using Amazon Sponsored Products Advertising is an excellent way to get your product exposure. In this case, your ultimate goal is to increase awareness of your products.

In addition to Sponsored Products, you generally want to have a diverse advertising portfolio. So when we say “invest in ads,” we mean to invest in multiple types of advertising.

Despite how fruitful one form of ads might become, smaller sellers often get trumped by someone with more resources. By having a diverse advertising portfolio, you will get the most out of your money.

Having multiple advertising strategies also enables you to discover what works best for your product. ACoS, or Advertising Cost of Sales, is one of the most critical aspects of Amazon metrics.

To provide your advertising strategy with an enhanced data set, DataHawk Amazon Advertising solution can help you optimize your advertisements. The more traffic so your listings, means more sales, which means more reviews!

Many Amazon sellers have limited advertising budgets. If you are just starting out, that budget is most likely to be near $0. Some people do still manage to gain exposure.

How do they do that?

Much of this comes from being incredibly effective with their keyword targets, offering a high-quality product, and being a master at Amazon SEO. Amazon SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of ensuring your Amazon listing meets quality standards.

This optimization process includes the following tasks:

• Uploading high-quality images that meet Amazon’s standards
• Having an engaging product title with a primary keyword
• Creating bullet points with secondary keywords that address customer concerns
• Having more excellent details in the later product descriptions.

Optimization is often thought of as just plugging in the right keywords. However, you’ll find that this mode of thinking is incredibly outdated.

While keywords are important, it is just as important to use them selectively. The backend keywords you place under the “search terms” section are often more critical.

If you are going to place keywords, make sure their location makes sense. Don’t place a keyword just because you think it will make you rank well.  The best strategy is to use an Amazon Keyword Research tool.

Finally, we want to remind you to utilize all of your resources. One of your most valuable resources should involve advertising and partner up with popular influencers.

Influencers are various web stars that have gained their fame online for different reasons. They typically have audiences of followers that follow their style, tech tips, or other lifestyle advice.

To be an Amazon Influencer is to influence people to purchase Amazon products. You can see a good example of an Amazon influencer by looking at Amazon Live.

Amazon Live features various influencers on Amazon that the company has chosen to represent products. The Amazon influencer program exists to link you with some influencers that might appear here.

It isn’t guaranteed that your product will end up here, but you might find an audience elsewhere. Typically, micro-influencers are far more effective at marketing your product anyway.

Much like the Amazon Affiliate Program, influencers make a commission based on their audience. The strongest influencers have greater leverage, typically demanding higher commission rates as a result.

When it comes to collecting Amazon verified reviews, you will want to create a long-term strategy. This involves using all of your sales channels. You might as why would you bother if everything works well already on Amazon.

Ultimately, you should never build your strategy around using a single platform. Instead, your goal should be to develop your brand in such a way where it can stand on its own.

This way, you can acquire reviews on social media platforms, personal sites, and other marketplace platforms. With the addition of Walmart Marketplace, it is possible to develop a business to delegate matters between platforms.

But since Amazon discourages you from linking to off-site locations, how do you gain exposure? The answer is through social media references in product inserts.

When it comes to Amazon reviews on verified purchases, unfortunately, they won’t always be positive. Sometimes, people might be confused by your product or report that it is of low quality.

While some of those reviews might be fake, negative reviews can actually be turned into a positive. For instance, you can use the feedback to improve.

Negative feedback isn’t some vindictive customer trying to destroy your online reputation. It’s someone who wants to share their frustrations and help others avoid the same negative experience.

Nobody wants to attack you personally over having a bad experience with a product. Instead of viewing it as a personal attack, view any negative review as a chance for growth.

With a positive mindset and some effort, you can become a successful Amazon Seller!