Never underestimate the power of feedback when selling on Amazon. Consumer research reveals that 91% of buyers read product reviews before committing to a purchase. Not only do Amazon reviews tell potential buyers if your product is worth buying but, just as important, they let you know what you’re doing right and, more importantly, what you’re doing wrong. The following guide has been created to help you understand why buyer feedback is so important and, how to make sure that your product reviews are as positive as possible.

Two types of buyer feedback

When selling on Amazon, you are likely to receive two different kinds of feedback and, these are:

Product review

This kind of feedback relates solely to a particular product which you are selling on Amazon. After buying any product on Amazon, the buyer is entitled to leave a review for the product and give it a star rating out of 5 (5 being the highest). The buyer has the option to upload a photograph of the received product and to write a review based on their opinion of the product. Amazon product reviews will largely detail whether or not the buyer was pleased with the item, whether or not it matched the description on the Amazon site and, the overall quality of the item. Product reviews are important as they affect the ranking of the product as well as serving as a buying guide for potential customers.

Seller feedback

This type of feedback is, essentially, all about you! Whereas product reviews concentrate on a particular product and the customer’s satisfaction with that product, seller feedback focuses on how you performed as a seller. After making a purchase from you, the buyer is invited to leave seller feedback to describe their overall purchasing experience.The review may include information about delivery, packaging and customer service.

The buyer will be invited to give a star rating out of 5. The buyer is then asked to answer a series of questions to mark their level of satisfaction on a number of factors including; delivery time, quality of item received and its correlation to the description on Amazon and, customer service. The buyer is also able to leave a short comment in order to expand on their answers.

Even more important than product reviews, seller feedback aims to inform future buyers as to whether they should not just buy a particular product but, whether they should buy from you at all. Every Amazon seller should be in the habit of reading each and every piece of buyer feedback as this not only affects ranking but can involve penalties if feedback is consistently bad.

How feedback affects you as a seller

Now that we’ve explained the two different kinds of feedback you’re likely to receive from your buyers, it’s time to look at the most important aspect - how this feedback impacts on you as a seller. Buyer feedback is, essentially, a report card for you and your products and affects your seller ranking and your relationship with Amazon as well as serving as a guide for potential new customers. The following are the 10 most important ways in which buyuer feedback will affect you and your business:

Seller Metrics and site relationship

Shopping sites like Amazon and eBay, continuously monitors its sellers and grades them using a number of different metrics. One of the most important metrics is order defect rate (ODR). Your seller ODR looks at your negative feedback - more specifically, the percentage of your sales which received what is deemed to be below standard feedback for whatever reason. A high number of negative feedback which you received will be considered a red flag to Amazon. First, you lose your Buy Box automatically; then you will even lose your seller privilege.

In general, Amazon wants to help sellers to continue to sell their products on their site and so, will usually get in touch if your seller performance falls below their standards. In this case, they will normally give you 60 days to show improvement.

Sellers whose performance continues to be negative may be suspended or blocked from the site.

Seller ranking

This important aspect of Amazon selling shows how well you are doing in relation to sellers offering products in the same categories and subcategories as yours. When you sell a product on Amazon and, when you receive feedback for a sale, this information is used to calculate your ranking. A potential buyer will often check your seller ranking as well as product ranking to ensure that they feel confident in making a purchase from you. The more products that you sell - and the more positive reviews you receive - the higher your ranking which means that your products will be more visible and will attract more buyers.

Product ranking and exposure

As mentioned briefly in the last paragraph, buyer feedback directly affects your product ranking. Each sale and piece of feedback can count toward your product’s overall rating which is measured against other products in similar categories (often identical products.) When a seller performs well and receives consistently positive feedback from customers, they are rewarded by Amazon who will move the seller’s product(s) higher up in their product listings, meaning that you have a much higher chance of your product being viewed by a potential customer (figures show that customers rarely venture onto page 2 of product listings when browsing).

Conversion rate

One of the most important things for a seller is their conversion rate - i.e. the number of views which lead to purchases. For this, Amazon reviews and seller feedback is vital as, once a customer has clicked onto your product page, the purchase decision will almost certainly be affected by reviews left by previous customers.

Buy Box

The Amazon Buy Box is the white box you sometimes see on the right hand side of a product page (see below). Statistics show that over 80% of Amazon’s sales are made through the Buy Box, which is only available to selected sellers. In order to ‘win’ a Buy Box, you need to maintain consistently great reviews and ranking.

Bad feedback

Although nobody enjoys receiving negative feedback, it’s not all bad news. It’s natural to feel defensive when receiving bad feedback but it can actually help you to provide the best service that you possibly can. Read the feedback carefully and, first, decide if you feel that the comments / rating are fair. If not, contact the customer to ask for further feedback - it could be that they are not using or understanding the product carefully and you may be able to help them - and improve the feedback. If you feel that the comments are fair, it’s time to bring your customer service skills into play. Contact the customer and offer a replacement or refund and assure them that you take customer satisfaction very seriously.

Understanding the customer

Receiving negative feedback is a great way of finding out what’s not working for you in terms of product and service. By understanding the things that customers don’t like about your product, you can then go on to make improvements. Read the feedback carefully in order to find out the specific reason that the customer was not satisfied. Check to see if you have more than one review with similar comments - this will help you to understand if this is a case of one ‘difficult’ customer or genuine issue with your product or service.

Product choice

If you receive consistent negative feedback for a particular product, this may give you an indication that, either the product is not good quality or, you are not suited to selling the product. Either way, this feedback enables you to make the choice as to whether or not to keep selling that product. Again, read the feedback carefully to learn the specifics of why customers were not happy with it, such as the product not working properly or the product being perceived as substandard quality. If it’s a faulty product, this is something which you can then take up with your supplier and, if necessary, switch to a more reliable supplier.

Customer care

At the end of the day, your business is all about the customer - and keeping that customer happy. By welcoming customer feedback, you send the message that you actually care about the customer and, their satisfaction with your product(s). Make sure that you respond to all messages and feedback - good or bad. In a digital world, a lack of communication can make buyers feel nervous about spending their hard earned money with a certain business or individual - keeping in touch reassures them that they’re dealing with an actual human being and not just a computer.

Good customer service is always a winner, even in today’s digital world.

Customer loyalty

By listening to your customers and, making improvements when negative feedback is received, you will gain the trust of the customer who, subsequently, will feel confident in buying from you again. This is particularly important if you’re selling a product which has a lot of competition - buyers are fickle and will only stick around if they receive exemplary service and great products. Online or offline, customer loyalty is the foundation of any business.

Brand reputation

As you continue to listen to your customers and to make improvements to your products and services, you are also building your brand’s reputation. A product with great reviews not only encourages customers to buy but, also to recommend the product to friends and family, helping you to grow your client base - and your reputation. You can use social media marketing to great effect by using your positive feedback in your posts and encouraging others to keep sharing your posts.

Conclusion

Of all the things that you concentrate on as an Amazon seller, feedback should be at the very top of your list of priorities. Good feedback instills confidence in a new customer, improves your ranking and exposure and leads to more sales and increased customer loyalty.

Negative feedback and ranking, on the other hand, tends to be an instant red flag for potential customers who will, almost always, scroll away to a more trusted product. As a seller you should always be actively inviting feedback and, on receipt of negative comments, should respond to these immediately in order to build a strong and trusted brand reputation.

To better help you with your buyer feedback, you will need a tool inkFrog to manage buyer feedback on eBay; and if, you are selling on Amazon, a tools just like AMZFinder would do you a great favor!