Pretty much every Amazon seller knows this scenario: A product has received a bad review, the product ranking goes down and sales drop. Super annoying! Especially when you feel like the review was unjustified and not giving you any serious feedback you can work with.
You are probably wondering now whether there is anything you can do to remove the review or at least to stop the negative impact it has on your listing.
You are not alone. We have done all we can to find the best options for any seller who is in this situation. Ready? Let’s get started!
- Why Are Amazon Reviews so Important for Your Amazon Business?
- How Can You Remove Amazon Reviews - Is It Even Possible?
- Report Abuse of the Review Guidelines - and Make Amazon Take Action
- Get More Positive Reviews so the Negative Reviews Won't Affect Your Listing
- Reach Out to Your Customers and Ask For a Review
- Commenting Publicly Only an Option in the Official Comments Pilot Program
- Conclusion - Focus on Offering the Best Product & Service
Why Are Amazon Reviews So Important for the Success of Your Amazon Business?
Reviews are essential for any Amazon business – probably just as important as Amazon product images. They can make or break it. Why is that?
- More Credibility – First of all, reviews give your product credibility. They show that somebody else has already bought it and when they like it so much, it’s quite likely everybody else will like it. Of course the recent development with fake reviews has made customers a bit more sceptical. But thanks to verified purchase reviews from people with the verified purchase badge that only actual customers have and Amazon’s strict policies on fake reviews trust was restored.
DefinitionWhat Are Amazon Verified Purchase Reviews?
Reviews with the verified purchase badge show that Amazon has verified that the person who gave the review actually purchased the product and isn't biased because they received a huge discount on it.
- Additional Information – Also, reviews give the customers additional information that might have not been provided by the listing. Of course the listing only shows what the seller thinks is relevant and beneficial for the customer to buy a product. But sometimes potential customers want to find out more. For example a review about the quality and durability of the product is very valuable. Only someone who has actually used the product before can give an honest review about it. Hearing it from someone who is not part of the company is great.
- Better Ranking – Lastly, reviews are one of the ranking factors and positive reviews will definitely increase your ranking on Amazon. The Amazon algorithm will count it as a good user signal, which is why products that get a lot of good reviews are pushed to the top. That means the more 5 star reviews you have the better.
So a good amount of (positive) reviews will increase your overall sales. Only think about your own experience as a customer on Amazon. The last time you bought something – Didn’t you also check the reviews? If so, is it true that it was part of the decision which product you chose? See, that’s why Amazon reviews are so important.
How Can You Remove Amazon Reviews?
Now that we know how big the impact of reviews on the success of selling on Amazon is, we definitely want to know how to delete reviews we don’t like. So how does this work?
The simple answer is: You can’t. But there are ways to handle bad reviews, so they will at least not have negative consequences for you.
1. Report Abuse of the Review Guidelines
According to its own statement, Amazon does not edit reviews. But reviews are checked for violations of Amazon’s community guidelines.
Does Amazon Delete Negative Reviews?
Amazon only deletes reviews that are against those guidelines. So which reviews are a violation of the Amazon’s review guidelines?
Here are some examples:
- Disrespectful Reviews – Content that is harassing or invading others’ privacy (e.g. posting other people’s phone numbers, email addresses or mailing addresses) is against the guidelines.
- Promotions and Commercial Solicitations – It is not allowed to post any content consisting of advertising, promotion or solicitation. For example, it’s not okay to post URLs or Affiliate Codes in reviews.
- Sexual Content – Nudity and sexually explicit images are restricted as well.
- Infringing Content – Reviews must not contain any infringing content and therefore intellectual property or other rights need to be respected. For example it is prohibited to attach somebody else’s photos to a review without permission.
- Illegal Activity – Lastly reviews that encourage or support illegal activities like violence, fraud and illegal drug use are also prohibited.
How Do You Report Abuse?
To make Amazon take action you need to report possible violations by clicking the “Report abuse” link near the content. You will then have to enter the reason you believe it violates the guidelines.
Sometimes there is no “Report abuse” link available though. If that is the case, you can just email community-help@amazon.com. Make sure to specify the exact location of the content and the reason you believe the content violates the guidelines.
The more specific, the better! Only then you will have a chance to have the review removed by Amazon.
2. Report Accidental Seller Rating
Most customers don’t know the difference between seller feedback and product reviews which explains why sometimes product reviews end up in the seller rating section.
In this case you can also get the “review” removed. To do so, simply use Amazon’s Feedback Manager and enter the necessary information in the form.
3. Get More Positive Reviews
If there is neither a violation of the Amazon guidelines, nor an accidental seller feedback instead of a product review, Amazon probably won’t help you out.
You don’t have a choice but to take action yourself. One way is to try to get as many new reviews as possible which then somewhat “conceal” the bad review.
How to Get Amazon Reviews
The problem with this is that Amazon has very strict Customer product reviews policies. Whoever manipulates customer reviews, risks getting their seller account suspended. And Amazon is quite good at finding out when something is not okay.
So basically it’s your choice if you want to take the risk or not.
Here are some examples of what other sellers do to get more Amazon customer reviews:
- Ask Friends and Family for Reviews – Some ask friends and family to buy their product and give a positive review. If you consider doing that, be aware that this practice is against Amazon’s Customer product reviews policies.
- Requests for a Review – You can also insert requests for reviews in product shipments (e.g., “Are you satisfied with our product? We would like to hear your opinion in a review…”). Again, according to Amazon’s guidelines, it is against the rules to ask for positive reviews but yet many sellers are doing it.
- Pay for Amazon Reviews – There are also services available that sell Amazon customer reviews. It’s pretty obvious that this is against the rules – so once again, we can’t recommend doing it.
All the options mentioned above are very risky. And you should not and probably don’t want to take the risk of getting your account suspended – especially if you generate your main income over Amazon. So we highly recommend to stay compliant with Amazon’s rules.
But you have some effective options that are totally risk-free:
- Turn Seller Feedback into Product Reviews – As mentioned before, customers can also give seller feedback when they are happy with the service. If they do, that’s great – and an amazing opportunity for you to reach out to them and ask for a product review. As they were already willing to give you a positive seller feedback, they might give you a good product review as well.
- Offer a Good Product with Good Service – This leads us to the last and most important advice on getting more reviews on Amazon. It is a very obvious one actually: if you offer the best product and the best service you will receive good reviews. It’s as simple as that. Just be the best seller out there! So make sure to work on your product and service as much as possible. YOU are the best tool to receive more good reviews.
4. Reach Out to Your Customers
You can also reach out to the customer who left you a negative review – but only if the customer uses the same name on their review as the one in their shipping address.
Is There a Way to Find Out Who Left a Review?
Unfortunately there is no way to find out who left a review if the review doesn’t show a name at all or a different name than the one used as the shipping address.
In the past, you could use Chrome Extensions and other services that promised to help you find out the identity of a person who gave a review. But of course Amazon didn’t approve of it, which is why they closed this loophole once and for all – leaving you with no way to react.
Update: Commenting Publicly Is No Longer an Option for Everybody – But There May Be a New Feature Soon
Until recently, it was possible for every seller to leave a public comment on Amazon customer reviews.
Commenting publicly was also a great way to deal with negative reviews. But the comment feature is no longer available – and sellers aren’t very happy about this decision, as the comment feature has three major benefits:
- Clarification of the Situation – The comment section gives sellers the opportunity to take accountability. They are able to show their side of the story, clarifying what happened out of their perspective.
- Brand’s Reputation Boost – Potential customers like to see that they can actually talk to the seller and are not being ignored. Showing them that their feedback matters is super powerful! So using the comment section can definitely help to boost a brand’s reputation.
- Potential Change of the Review – Besides there is at least a bit of a chance that the person who gave the negative review might change their mind and turn the negative review into a positive one. It might sound weird, but some issues get solved themselves if people feel like they are being heard – sometimes that’s all they wanted in the first place.
The Official Comment Pilot Program
But Amazon is currently testing a new feature through a pilot program: the Official Comment pilot program.
It gives limited manufacturers and vendors the possibility to post Official Comments on reviews of products associated with their account.
DefinitionWhat Is an Official Comment?
An Official Comment will be highlighted and displaced right next to a review. Posters are also given badges that show their relationship with the product for everybody to see right away.
How Can You Participate in the Pilot Program?
The pilot program is only accessible for
- manufacturers or
- vendors.
So if you have an account on Amazon Vendor Central, you can contact your Amazon account manager and request an invitation to the program.
After you have received an invitation, you can ask your company administrator to grant the “Comment on customer reviews” right to your Vendor account.
After your account has been granted the right, you are able to post Official Comments on your products’ reviews.
Conclusion on Deleting Amazon Reviews – Focus on Offering the Best Product & Service
Amazon uses reviews to monitor the performance of a seller and the quality of the offered products.
Reviews are supposed to be genuine and credible to ensure the highest customer satisfaction and transparency. Since Amazon wants customers to give their honest opinion, the platform only intervenes in rare and justified cases.
Otherwise, a seller who received a negative review has no choice but to offer the best product and excellent customer service to get as many new positive reviews as possible – that can make up for the bad one. Good luck!
Find Amazon listing & review optimization experts – Free of charge →
