Usually, customers rely on product reviews to make the final decision about their purchase. Brands are well aware of it and try to leverage this customer behaviour to boost their brand by adding Amazon Fake Reviews! While this might look like a quick, foolproof plan, it might surprise many sellers that fake reviews can hurt your brand image far more than add any worth to it. Fake reviews are major reputation killers and can even lead to sales losses if planted by competitors. These are powerful tactics used to impact competitors’ revenue, and so brand owners must be aware of ways to identify negative fake reviews. Fortunately, we have a strategic plan to help you identify counterfeit reviews and take relevant actions against them. Brands must never forget that fake reviews will not only blot their brand but can also lead to possible penalties or a ban on their account. Therefore, a wise decision is to build a strategy which garners legit reviews in a streamlined way.
Read on further for a round-up of common strategies followed by many brands to identify fake reviews and gather legit reviews for your brand:
How to identify Amazon Fake Negative Reviews?
Mention of a competitor
If the review mentions a competitor, it most likely indicates that it is a fake review with the motive of boosting sales of the mentioned competitor.
Go through the Star ratings
If 80% of reviews give a 4-5 star rating and 20% mention a 1-2 star rating, it can indicate foul play. You must look closely to analyse it further.
Use third-party sites
Many third-party sites or browser extensions can help you identify fake reviews within minutes. Some common examples are Review meta, fake spot, review index, etc.
Check the dates
If many reviews were posted on the same date or consecutive dates, then there is a high possibility that these are fake. These can be done for multiple reasons, listing optimisation, enhanced page ranks, more sales, etc.
Find verified reviews
Amazon has a feature of verified users, indicating that this purchase was made via Amazon, so the review can be considered legit.
What are the Best Practices to get more product reviews on Amazon?
Excel at customer experience
As an Ecommerce service agency, one tip we try to follow is to press the brand to provide the best customer experience per the description and details mentioned about the product. We strongly recommend that only correct information about the product should be advertised so that customers know exactly what they are buying.
The magic of Amazon’s Request a Review button
For all the customers who have bought your product, Amazon activates a request a review button which stays in Seller central for 30 days of purchase. It is a powerful tool that can help increase the number of legit reviews on your product.
Use the power of the Amazon Vine Program.
It is an Amazon-exclusive program open to its sellers with less than 30 product reviews. It is free for third-party sellers as of now. Under this program, the vendor is supposed to submit 30 units of inventory, and then vine reviewers receive the product for free. Consequently, they write honest reviews about the product, and this entire process is quite fast.
Use the power of product inserts
You can easily encourage customers to leave product reviews by inserting cards in the packaging. This must not be a very compelling process and should be written in a neutral tone. Amazon has guidelines related to it, and that should be followed thoroughly.
Leverage promotions to launch products
Many vendors deliberately time the launch of their new products with Amazon promotions and give great discounts on their products. Often, they invest in Amazon sponsored ads too to promote the launch. Vendors hope that great deals might make the customers feel obligated to write a review for the product. Although this is not a direct exchange or a guaranteed process but works wonders for many sellers.
Use third-party software
Multiple third-party softwares can help you request reviews. However, Amazon has specific terms and conditions regarding that as well, and vendors should ensure that those third-party softwares are compliant with those terms. This can lead to the banning of Amazon accounts.
Apart from this, Amazon has a strict policy regarding gathering product reviews and here are a few highlights:
- Product inserts must be kept in a neutral tone and must not force the customers to add the review in any way. No conditional language should be used.
- You cannot incentivize the reviews. You can ask for reviews, but it should not look like an exchange of reviews and offers or discounts.
- You cannot pick the customers you know that had a good experience using your product while ignoring the ones with negative feedback. No cherry-picking allowed!
- Do not send multiple requests to the same buyer.
- You should not ask customers to change negative feedback to a positive one.
Since online reviews are basically word of mouth in online marketplaces, they can affect your brand identity tremendously. These should not be taken lightly but should be nurtured organically using multiple easy strategies mentioned above. After all, fake reviews are easy to get, but the harm to your brand might be irreversible.