Get Authentic Reviews with Amazon Vine Program

Earning reviews is one of the more difficult aspects of selling on Amazon. You can create the perfect listing, get all the correct research done, and even have a great product - but if you can’t get reviews, your listing will always struggle in the organic search results. So how can you get these reviews easily on Amazon? Let’s find out.

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The “Good Old Days” of Reviews

Years ago, getting reviews on Amazon was relatively easy. Sellers could somewhat easily solicit or purchase reviews from eager buyers by offering free products in exchange for the review or paying a small fee per review. 5-6 years ago, this was standard practice for Amazon sellers and was relatively easy to do.

This didn’t last for long, however. Consumer Protection laws made it difficult for users to utilize this method, and Amazon started to crack down on fake or purchased reviews. Even for sellers who are able to find loopholes and obtain purchased reviews, Amazon has become pretty intuitive at recognizing when a given product has “too many” reviews in comparison to other products in the same niche.

Amazon protects its own image - so having a bunch of sellers who rely on purchased reviews is not a good look. They needed more control over the review process to build credibility - so they encouraged sellers to utilize the Early Reviewer Program. 

In the Early Reviewer Program, sellers were allowed to pay for their first five reviews, which Amazon would actually solicit for you. This ensured that Amazon had some form of control over the process, but still gave sellers the ability to boost their listings with a good start on reviews. However, Amazon canceled the Early Reviewer Program, and in its place, they have relied on the Amazon Vine Reviewer Program.

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The Amazon Vine Program

The Amazon Vine Program is an easy way to get reviews for registered brands with quality listings. In the early stage of a product launch (before you have 30 reviews) or even before your product officially becomes live, the Vine program allows you to give your product away to an Amazon-approved reviewer for a comprehensive review. 

When this product review program first rolled out, it was expensive, costing FBA sellers thousands of dollars to participate - per ASIN. When it replaced the Early Reviewer Program as the go-to review acquisition tool for Amazon sellers, it became free. Now, Amazon Vine costs $200 per parent ASIN (plus the cost of giving your product away for free).

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Requirements to Use Amazon Vine

In order to use Amazon Vine, you have to meet a few requirements. 

• You must be a registered brand from the Amazon brand registry.
• Your listing images must match the product description.
• The product you are enrolling in must be owned by your brand.
• The product you are enrolling in must have less than 30 reviews
• You must have sufficient inventory.
• You must be using FBA for fulfillment.
• Your product must be in “new” condition.

Amazon Vine is intended for newly launched products - but technically can be used even for existing products with limited reviews.

Enroll in Amazon Vine very easily. In the Seller Central tab under “Advertising,” you’ll click on “Vine.”

From there, you’ll be guided through the enrollment process.

You can enroll up to 30 items per ASIN (assuming that you have 0 reviews) or however many reviews are remaining for you to hit that 30 review Vine cap.

You will be giving away these products for free, so keep that in mind when you choose how many products to include. At the same time, remember that most customers rely on these reviews to decide whether or not to buy. These reviews are valuable. You can expect to see the reviews finalized about 22 days after the reviewers request your product.

Vine Reviews can be labeled as such on your listing. Because Amazon labels these as trusted reviewers, and because they tend to be longer and more comprehensive than a traditional review, they tend to get upvoted and are seen as reliable by future customers. 

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Pros & Cons of Using Amazon Vine

So should you use Amazon Vine? It’s really a no-brainer, in our opinion. Here are some pros and cons of the Amazon Vine Program.

Pros:

• Get up to 30 reviews on new products from reliable vine reviewers that Amazon trusts.
• Relatively affordable - no more thousands of dollars in fees to participate. 
• Boost your organic search traffic once you get your reviews.
• Get quality, comprehensive reviews.
• Amazon Vine Voices offer great feedback.

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Cons:

• Not completely free. Must pay $200/ASIN and give away a free product.
• Vine Voice reviewer do not have to offer positive reviews. They are trusted for giving honest and unbiased reviews. If your product stinks, their review will also.

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Conclusion

The bottom line is that the Amazon Vine Program is incredibly helpful and we encourage all FBA sellers to utilize it. The only situation I would recommend not using this program is if your product is bad, to begin with. In these cases, Amazon Vine will only result in bad reviews. Hopefully, this isn’t the case for your product, however! For sellers who have put in the work to offer a quality product and are ready to boost their listings with real reviews, Amazon Vine is a clear choice.

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