Are you an Amazon seller who’s noticed that your product reviews aren’t really increasing over time? Or is an Amazon review not showing up? They might even be disappearing! Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the Top 5 most common reasons why reviews might not be appearing properly.
Read until the end to see best practices on how to manage your customer reviews on your product listings!
Top 5 Reasons Why Amazon Reviews Won’t Show Up
Take note that reviews take up to 72 hours to appear on a listing after it has been submitted by a customer.
It may take longer, even up to 5 days, because some reviews need to be approved by a human at Amazon before it gets posted to your listing.
Seller Has Been Flagged
This is the most common reason for reviews to not get approved, or for customers to not be able to post reviews.
When a product is flagged, it usually means that the seller has violated one or more of Amazon’s policies. It is also possible for the seller’s entire store to get flagged.
There are many possible scenarios to get flagged. This can be anything from not following the requirements for product listings (such as incorrect or missing information), to pricing products improperly, to selling counterfeit items.
If you have been flagged, you will need to take action to correct the issue before the Customer Reviews function properly again.
Review is Inappropriate
If a review is inappropriate, Amazon will not approve it to show on the product listing.
- Examples of inappropriate or offensive reviews can include anything that has inappropriate language, is lewd, obscene, or sexually explicit. They can also be spammy or promotional in nature.
- Amazon also does not allow any posting of personal information that may invade one’s privacy such as phone numbers, addresses, or other private details.
- Another example of an inappropriate review is if it is completely unrelated to the product being sold. In this case, a customer may have accidentally left a review for a different product on your listing.
- Customers often get confused between Customer Reviews and Seller Feedback. Amazon will not post a review that is more along the lines of Seller Feedback.
The difference between the two is that Customer Reviews are related to the product itself. For example, a customer can write about the product’s quality & authenticity, value for money, ease of use, functionality, and more.
On the other hand, Seller Feedback is specifically for a customer to evaluate their experience dealing with the seller. This is most often the case for FBM orders. They can evaluate if the seller is advertising the product properly, packaging the product well, as well as comment on the quality of customer service.
Review is Detected to be Ingenuine
Sellers have long been frustrated by Amazon’s seeming inability to differentiate between fake and legitimate customer reviews.
In what appears to be an attempt to crack down on fraudulent reviews, Amazon is careful when approving of reviews when they look inauthentic.
- A sudden increase of positive reviews appears spammy, which makes Amazon hesitant to approve reviews.
- Another example of ingenuine reviews is if Amazon detects that positive reviews are from friends and family of the seller.
- If you can’t stop your friends and family from leaving a review, they should do it from a different I.P. address, avoid appearing to have a close relationship with you, and avoid overrating the product.
Review is Detected to be Incentivized
Amazon strictly does not allow sellers to incentivize customers in exchange for reviews.
What this means is that you as a seller cannot offer any type of rewards, gift cards, discounts, or anything of value in exchange for a review. This is considered a Black Hat Tactic and is frowned upon in the seller community.
Amazon can even suspend your seller account or give other penalties if they detect this sort of activity occurring in your account.
Review Appears to be Unverified
Verified Purchases are confirmed buyers who have purchased the product without any major discounts.
If a customer leaves a review and Amazon is not able to verify their purchase, there is a possibility that the review will not show up on the product listing.
This verification process happens when Amazon attempts to match the order details with the account information provided by the reviewer.
Be aware that Verified Purchase tagged reviews have a greater impact on a product’s ranking than regular, unverified product reviews.
If you requested a review from a customer and believe it didn’t get posted, one or more of the above reasons may be the explanation!
Additional Information for Product Reviews
I have provided the Top 5 Reasons, but you should also be aware of other reasons for reviews to not appear on your product listing.
Blocked, Limited, or Deleted Reviews
- A block means that Amazon is temporarily preventing their users from posting their review on your product listing. Customers will know this because on the webpage, Amazon states that they aren’t allowed to leave a review.
- A limit is when Amazon places a limit on the number of reviews they are allowing on your product listing. It is usually temporary and caused by the detection of unverified purchases.
- A deleted review is when the review was already posted to your product listing, however, it was removed by Amazon. It can be caused by the detection of the customer posting the same review on multiple listings.
Additional Scenarios for Reviews to Not Appear
With these additional scenarios, Amazon can reject the review from being posted if it was under review by a human, or they will remove it if it was automatically posted.
- The review was written in a way that sounds promotional
- A seller has been found to insert a request for a positive review in product packaging or shipping box
- The product manufacturer is perceived to have written the review posing as an unbiased buyer
- The review is for a game that was in exchange for bonus in-game credits
- The review appears to be written by someone who has a direct or indirect financial interest in the product
- A positive review was written by an artist on a peer’s album in exchange for receiving a positive review from them
- A review was perceived to be written by the seller using a customer account
- A review was perceived to be written by the seller on a competitor’s product
- It has been detected that a seller offered a buyer a refund or reimbursement in exchange for a changed or removed negative review
- It has been detected that a seller requested for a changed or removed negative review in general
There are many other possible violations, and I encourage you to read Amazon’s Community Guidelines for Customer product reviews in full.
The Importance of Customer Reviews
Amazon is a highly competitive marketplace, and Customer reviews are crucial for a seller’s success.
- They provide a transparent way for potential customers to get an idea of how the product is used before making a purchase.
- Customers tend to trust other customers more than how the seller is marketing their own product.
- The more reviews a product has, the more likely it is that potential buyers will be convinced to make a purchase.
- Positive reviews create a ripple effect because more sales due to positive product reviews lead to higher rankings. A higher ranking on the Best Sellers Rank creates even more sales and overall success!
- It has an impact on your seller account’s Performance Health
If you have a few negative reviews mixed in with your positive reviews, it’s not the end of the world.
As long as your Seller Performance Health is still in overall good shape, just take the negative reviews with a mentality of improving your product and optimizing your listing moving forward.
Best Practices for Managing Customer Reviews
With all these rules, you may be overwhelmed on how to manage your Customer Reviews in the first place.
I personally use the Alerts tools on Helium 10 to be notified of reviews on my products. These Alert notifications help me be aware of any improvements I can consider making to my products. All you have to do is insert your ASINs into the tool and it will be ready to alert you!
As for requesting reviews from customers, don’t forget that Amazon’s systems automatically make these requests on your behalf.
However, if you are in direct communication with a customer through Buyer-Seller messaging, here are some helpful tips that sellers should follow:
- Maintain a professional attitude during your exchange with customers
- Keep your review requests short, polite, and to the point
- Do not use pressure tactics or make threats
- Since sellers are not allowed to specifically request a positive review, simply thank the customer for their purchase and mention that you would appreciate if they could leave a review under Customer Reviews.
- Mention to the customer that you value their review and it will help other Amazon customers make an informed decision about your product
- Create message templates to make sure that you or the person in charge of answering customer messages communicates in a way that is in line with Amazon’s guidelines
Overall, Amazon is just trying to keep the playing field fair and ensure that customers have an unbiased representation of the product.
If you take a humble, polite approach when requesting a review from customers, then they will feel more encouraged to leave a review that has a higher chance of being accepted by Amazon to appear on your product listing.
Conclusion
Selling on Amazon is definitely not easy and sometimes things beyond our control happen that can impact our sales performance.
If you understand the reasons I provided, it will help you troubleshoot why your Amazon reviews are not appearing.
All in all, it’s best to put more focus on the quality of your products. Positive reviews will naturally follow!
Now that you know more about Customer Reviews, read my article about Seller Feedback to learn how to improve your Seller Performance Health even further!