March 25, 2022

How to Rate Higher on Amazon Seller Feedback

With over 12 million products being sold on Amazon, buyers have a lot of choice in both product selection and vendor selection. Wholesalers and resellers on the platform often sell the exact same products giving buyers a choice on whom to purchase from. In this case, apart from price, buyers usually look at the seller’s trustworthiness and reliability to determine the best one. To help customers decide, Amazon gives all third party sellers a score that shows up next to their name on their seller page.. This score is determined by Amazon’s internal seller review systems.

While everyone is aware of product reviews, few vendors and customers understand how Amazon seller ratings works. However, experienced sellers are using this feature to grow their business and improve brand reputation. If you want to get ahead of the competition, and win the buy box, you must boost your seller rating. Read on to learn more about the Amazon Seller review system.

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What is Amazon Seller Feedback?

The Amazon seller review system allowscustomers to quickly decide which vendor  gives the best service. In your product listing, under the Buy Now button, Amazon gives a link to your seller page.

When your customer clicks on it, they see a percentage score that is calculated based on past reviews.

They can also see your past seller feedback as below.

As you can see, the seller rating metric takes into account past customer ratings that they leave for you or your company, not just for your products. Customers can use the Sellereedback system to review every aspect of the sale from ordering and delivery to customer support.

Seller feedback vs. product review

Product reviews and seller feedback are two different features on Amazon. Product reviews appear on a product page. They reflect the customer’s opinions regarding the products, its quality and its usage, but do not discuss the sale itself.  You can see product reviews on the product page itself, right below the listing.

Seller feedback, on the other hand, deals not as much with the product, but with the entire buying experience from ease of ordering to delivery time, and communication. Instead of an opinion on the product which might be sold by multiple companies, a buyer lets others know what they think of the third-party seller.

Customers typically leave seller feedback on:

  • How quickly a question was answered
  • How long the product took to arrive
  • How accurate the product description is
  • Discrepancies between actual and promised delivery experience

It is important to note that FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) companies shouldn’t get feedback regarding fulfillment problems. Because Amazon packages and ships the product, it is responsible for that part of the buying experience. FBA sellers can request Amazon to remove feedback about negative shipping experiences.

How does Amazon Seller Feedback work?

For 90 days following a purchase, customers can leave seller feedback on Amazon. They provide a rating, answer some yes or no questions and leave comments about their buying experience. The Amazon seller feedback scale is between 1 and 5 stars. Amazon adds up and averages the number of positive reviews customers give   to arrive at a feedback rating. The overall score appears on  your Seller Central homepage. Customers can also see it  on your storefront page.,

Below are the instructions Amazon gives for sending seller feedback.

  1. Go to your orders and select Leave Seller Feedback
  2. Find your order and select the correct options to the questions.
  3. Select submit feedback

How is Amazon Seller Feedback calculated?

Amazon adds together the seller’s feedback ratings by customers and averages them to come up with an overall score. It treats

  • 4 and 5 stars as positive
  • 3 stars as neutral
  • 1- or 2-star ratings as negative.

Amazon tracks both positive and negative scores over 30, 90, and 365 days and over the supplier’s lifetime. You might, for example, have a:

  • 90% positive score for the last 30-days
  • 85% score over 90 days
  • 89% for the past year
  • 88% lifetime rate.

Your negative rating is also measured, and it’s important to keep that number very low. Having a negative  score above 1% can sometimes lead to your account being suspended.

Benefits of a high Amazon seller rating

Customers check your Amazon Sellers Feedback rating to see how reputable you are, and higher positive scores often translates to more sales Your ratings also affect several things beyond your brand reputation. Benefits of a top score include

Higher product placement

Amazon's algorithms consider a seller’s feedback score when deciding where to place their products in search results. When site visitors search for particular terms related to your products, your higher positive score could result in your products  showing on top. You can also use Semrush's Keyword Wizard tool for Amazon to strategize on the best keywords to target in your listing SEO. Ranking automatically results in more product visitors and conversions.

More Buy Box wins

The Buy Box is the little box that pops up on product pages and lets customers to add the product to their cart right away. Amazon rotates the products in the buy box and winning a spot could result in an exponential sales increase. 82% of all Amazon sales go through a Buy Box, and the percentage is higher on mobile apps. You can win the Buy Box more often with a higher positive seller rating.

Preventing account suspension

The Order Defect Rate metric indicates the amount of negative feedback (1 or 2 stars) you accumulate. Amazon suspends accounts with an order defect rate greater than 1%. Your seller ratings are extremely important if you plan to continue selling on Amazon for a long time.

How to get Amazon Seller Feedback?

While buyers may know about the product review procedure, many are unaware about how to rate a seller on Amazon. Most may avoid giving such feedback unless something negative occurs leading to higher negative reviews. It is important to ask all customers to rate you so you get more positive ratings. You can use Amazon’s messaging service to politely ask customers once an order has been delivered.

Make sure to follow the below guidelines for Amazon feedback requests.

  • Don’t incentivize feedback. You can’t offer money, discounts, or free goods in exchange for positive ratings.
  • Only ask once for each order, and make sure the order has been delivered before asking. Instruct the buyer about how to rate a seller on Amazon.
  • Don’t ask buyers who have opted out of receiving unsolicited messages.
  • Be polite and professional. Amazon feedback requests should never pressure buyers.

Proactive management

To avoid getting negative Amazon Seller Feedback, you should be proactive. You should do whatever you can to prevent problems to begin with. For example, before launching a new product, do extensive testing and research. Test your product yourself and get others to evaluate it. Work out the bugs. Evaluate its inner packaging, and shipping container to make sure it arrives in good condition. Ship it to yourself and a few friends and see how it arrives.

Accurate listings

Check your description for accuracy. Don’t guess at the size of your product or take the supplier’s word for anything. Get the product in front of you and do the work yourself without overpromising. There is a difference between advertising a product’s advantages and promising more than you can deliver. You can always use a tool like Semrush's Listing Quality Check for Amazon to scan your listing for all the ways you can improve it without breaking Amazon rules.

Efficient delivery and returns

If you are fulfilling orders yourself, ship ahead of schedule whenever possible. Making a delivery sooner than expected will gain you better feedback. Make returns easy so buyers feel you are a responsible seller. An easy return experience can turn a negative review into a positive one, which will improve your Amazon seller feedback rating. Switching to FBA is often a better option for most products.

Negative feedback: what should you do?

You have several options when it comes to receiving negative Amazon seller feedback.

Removal

You can ask Amazon to remove the Amazon customer feedback if it qualifies, such as when it is:

  • A product review and not seller feedback
  • Obscene or inappropriate language
  • A comment on fulfillment by Amazon.
  • A promotional link to other websites or sellers
  • Personal contact information about the buyer or seller

You can  raise a removal request with Amazon by going to your account page and choosing the tab marked Performance between Reports and AppStore.

  • Scroll to Recent Feedback to find the one you want
  • On the right, next to the order ID find Action and click on the drop-down menu
  • Select the Request Removal button
  • Affirm that the feedback qualifies for removal under the guidelines
  • Type in the reason for it.

Communicate with the buyer

Responding and fixing any problems can help. You can ask a buyer to remove feedback once a problem is solved, but it’s strictly up to the buyer. To respond to feedback, click your order tab and select “Manage Orders”

  • Find the feedback you want and click on the Order ID number.
  • Click on the buyer’s name
  • Select “other” for the option
  • Choose a subject and write your message to the buyer
  • You can also attach any documentation
  • Send

After you have addressed any buyer concerns, you can politely ask them if they feel comfortable removing the negative feedback. If they agree, you can provide them with the below instructions:

  1. Go to Leave Seller Feedback.
  2. Click Completed Feedback.
  3. Scroll to locate the specific feedback you want to remove and click Remove.
  4. Select a reason for removing the feedback, and then click Remove.

Leave a public response

If the buyer does not respond, you can post a public response about how you addressed the complaint. When potential buyers see you have handled a problem, they may ignore a less than perfect rating.

On your Seller Central page choose Performance. Then you can:

  • Scroll down and find the feedback you want to address
  • Engage the drop-down menu under Action and choose Post a Public Reply
  • Write a professional reply
  • Submit

How can you improve brand reputation on Amazon?

You can improve your brand reputation with positive Amazon seller reviews. Product reviews are very important, because shoppers often start their buying decision there. However, it is the Amazon Seller Feedback ratings that link to your brand reputation. The feedback includes comments about the buying and fulfillment experience, including whether it arrived on time, was packaged well, and opinions on the customer service or returns experience.  Success in these areas adds to the overall brand image.

By asking for and getting seller feedback, as often as possible, you stand a much better chance of having a high overall score. By thinking through your product description, packaging, and shipping procedures, before launching a product, you can start your reputation on good footing. Key points to improve you Amazon brand reputation include:

  • Regularly seeking both Amazon product reviews and Amazon seller feedback
  • Responding to negative feedback quickly and politely
  • Revise descriptions, and improve packaging, or shipping procedures in response to customer comments and complaints.

The sooner a procedural problem is solved, the better your rating and brand reputation will be.

Conclusion

Just having product reviews is not enough. You also require Amazon seller feedback to build your reputation on the platform. You can build up your seller rating overtime by working hard on service delivery, product quality and review requests. Customers may not be aware of how to rate a seller on Amazon, especially if they are happy with your product and service. Therefore, it’s important to ask buyers to use the feature, and explain how to do it. Having a feedback response process in place will help you in dealing with negative feedbacks swiftly.

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Read further:

Would you like to get more Amazon customer feedback on new and existing products? In How to get more reviews on Amazon we discuss nine strategies to get more feedback, and grow your business faster on the platform. Most of these strategies are free and require minimal time and effort! So use them to take your business to new heights this year!