How to maintain Amazon Seller Feedback

What is feedback and why would you need it? Actually, why would you care about it? As on any online marketplace, having great seller ratings is crucial when seeking to earn new customer’s trust and ultimately making new sales. Given the fact that we’re talking about amazon, a lot of questions will arise, such as:

1) How does Seller Feedback actually work?

Seller Feedback is meant to evaluate a seller’s performance in three main categories:

-How accurately the product was described in the item listing

-Evaluate the merchant’s packaging and delivery time

-Grade a merchant’s overall customer service and customer experience provided

Amazon actually uses these Seller Feedback ‘questionnaires’ and translates them into a more tangible rating. Your standing is measured based on what is called your ‘Negative Feedback Rate’. The absolutely best sellers on Amazon have a 0% Negative Feedback Rate but generally speaking any rate which remains below 5% is considered good.

Here’s a great tip: Amazon shoppers have 90 days to leave a review and 60 days are provided to allow for the removal of a review. In both cases, act swiftly, ask for positive reviews and try to immediately resolve issues that arise from negative reviews. The quicker you address the issue, the higher the likelihood of getting a negative review removed is.

More about seller feedback

Though often confused, seller feedback and reviews are two distinct categories. Despite the fact that both of these use a star-based system and allow open-ended comments the difference is that:

Seller Feedback – Pertains to a customer rating a merchant

Seller Reviews – Pertains to a customer rating a product

Do note that a seller can be rated multiple times by a customer if he or she makes multiple purchases from the said merchant but products can only be rated once by a customer unless their previous review has been deleted.

Also, please keep in mind that feedback on Amazon is local. Amazon has 13 global marketplace, servicing 180+ countries and many people believe if they have great Seller Feedback and reviews in the US it will carry over to other marketplaces. This is a widespread misconception. In this respect, every Amazon marketplace is independent and Seller Feedback and reviews must be built from the ground up in each individual market. This makes a lot of sense as different people from different countries have unique expectations of products and merchants alike.

2. Okay, so what’s considered a good seller rating?

As previously mentioned, anything less than 5% negative reviews is considered good, while under 1% is considered great. Try to make sure that you get as few negative reviews as possible.

3. How to encourage buyers to leave you Seller Feedback?

Believe it or not, it is much less common for buyers on Amazon to leave feedback. Consider the following statistic:

Less than 5% of shoppers leave Seller Feedback after making a purchase on Amazon! (Source: Amazon Seller Central Forum)

Try to digest this number for just a second, especially considering the fact that on eBay, by comparison, the number is around 40%, I would like to tell you that the main reason that a customer does not bother to leave feedback on products has nothing to do with the quality of service or product they received, rather customers simply do not feel strong enough about your items in order to drive them to action.

Believe it or not, many shoppers are actually unaware of how important their Seller Feedback is and that is why you should always ask your customer to kindly rate you on Amazon. You can do this by:

-Handwriting a note in the package you send over

-Sending a follow-up email

-Offering a discount or promotion to shoppers who leave you feedback

Or you can combine all three. Whatever method you choose, do not feel uncomfortable as Amazon actually encourages merchants to solicit feedback.

4. Can you get negative Seller Feedback removed?

Even though you did everything right and you have plenty of positive Seller Feedback but just like anything else in life, you cannot please everyone and for whatever reason, you got negative Seller Feedback from someone. So, what can you do next?

Try to talk to Amazon. It is easier to approach Amazon and request that they remove Seller Feedback than it is to request that they remove a Product Review. Especially if you can prove that it wasn’t your fault, say FedEx lost the package, or it was Fulfilled by Amazon and was not delivered on time, etc.

Or try to talk to your customer. First of all, read the customer’s review and when writing to them make sure to address the concerns they raised in their review. For example, if a customer complained that the item was not as described then maybe offer them a refund or offer to replace the item with a new one. Whatever the concern is, let your customer know that you care and are doing your utmost to remedy the situation. At the end of your correspondence, politely ask that they remove their negative review.

5. How to increase your seller rating percentage?

For every order you (or Amazon for that matter) fulfill, you are graded on a scale from 0 (the worst possible rating) to 100 (the best possible rating) based on a number of categories:

• Shipping speed – Your rating will take a hit if you list that shipping will take a certain amount of time let’s say 2 days but in actuality, it takes you longer, say 4 days
• Cancellations – Your rating will also be affected if a customer places an order and then cancels it
• Credit card cancellations – If a shopper calls in a fraudulent charge on their credit card and that leads back to you that looks bad for you
• Inquiry response time – The more you wait to respond to an inquiry the more this will affect your rating. It is highly recommended that you reply within 24 hours of receiving an inquiry
• Seller Feedback – Negative Seller Feedback translates into lower Seller Ratings
• A-Z claims – This means you did not provide a customer with good enough service so they feel compelled to ask Amazon to step in and sort things out. This too hurts your ratings

Try to keep this score as high as possible by following the above guidelines, and you lost always get a good score.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that nobody ever wants to get negative feedback but sometimes it happens and you just have to know how to approach the situation in the best and quickest way. You should not shy away from asking for feedback from buyers from fear of receiving negative feedback.

Reviews and seller feedback are a crucial and very important part of the Amazon selling and buying experience!

Learn more:

• How to scale your eCommerce business in 2021
• Is selling on Amazon worth it if you’re already selling on eBay?
• The main reasons why customers choose to shop online
• Common Amazon seller mistakes
• How can customer feedback help improve your business
• How to write product descriptions to increase sales
• How to contact Amazon seller support?