7 Tips to Boost Reviews on Amazon & eBay

People browsing Amazon and eBay are far more likely to purchase from a reputable seller with great feedback and reviews on their items.

That means ensuring that you’re a trusted seller is key to increasing your sales; no one wants to buy from a seller with hardly any feedback (or worse – poor feedback).

So how do you boost customer reviews (and sales) on eBay and Amazon?

1. Ask

If you don’t ask you don’t get. It’s as simple as that.

Customers aren’t going to be motivated enough to go out of their way to leave a review unless you’ve really brought your A game and included a silver unicorn in their package or something.

How many times have you gone out of your way to write a review for service that hasn’t really stood out and grabbed your attention? I’m going to put my money on never.

You need to give your customers a prod and ask them to leave a review if they were happy with the goods and service you provided.

Just give them a quick email with a link to your store and a request for them to leave a review, and they’ll most likely be willing to give you a quick review or some positive feedback (if they’re happy with your service, that is).

That leads us to our next point…

2. Automate

Okay, so if you’re a large scale retailer with lots of customers (or if you’re a very busy person) it can be difficult and time consuming to keep up with every customer who’s bought something from your store, but it needs to be done if you want to come across as a reliable seller.

Worry not, there are tools which can help you automate the process of emailing customers to ask for feedback and reviews.

Feedback Five and Reply Manager are both excellent. You can use them to automatically send your customers an email asking them to leave you a review and feedback, and Reply Manager is also great for general customer communications…but we’ll get to that later.

There are similar tools available if you’re selling on another webstore as well – Shopify, for example has a wide variety of similar apps if you have a Shopify Amazon integration.

3. Keep your promises

This is such an important part of making sure your customers are satisfied. If you promise one day delivery and can’t keep that promise, customers will probably give you poor feedback as they’re likely to be irritated that they haven’t received their items.

It’s best to be honest; if four day delivery is the best you can do, then say that. They’ll be much happier to receive a package on or before the time specified than be misled, and will be more likely to use your services again.

If you can exceed their expectations, that’s even better.

If you say 4 day delivery and their goods arrive in 2, they’ll remember you for being a fast shipper. If you’re a small scale seller, try leaving a small token of thanks – even just a note – to show your appreciation. It’s nice to be nice, and you’ll stick out for it.

(If you’re having trouble on Amazon, you should manage your orders with an inventory/order management system to make things easier.)

4. Provide accurate product descriptions

Customers want their goods to be exactly as described, so pay a lot of attention to detail in your descriptions, and try and include plenty of photos from a variety of different angles.

You’re selling a dress, for example. Headlining your listing with “Blue Dress” just won’t cut it. You want to include the size (bonus points for specific measurements); the brand (if there is one); what materials it’s made of etc. The more specific the better – “Zara royal blue dress, size 8” would be a much better title.

If you include the exact measurements, materials and any other information in the description (such as cleaning instructions) you can be confident that your customer is getting exactly what they want and will be much more likely to leave positive feedback.

Your buyers will not be happy if they receive goods which are not exactly as described, and will probably leave you a scathing review, so it’s important to get this part right.

5. Become an eBay top rated seller

If you’re selling on eBay, becoming a Top Rated Seller is key to success.

Most listings that reach the top page of an eBay search will be from Top Rated Sellers who have a large sales history and plenty of customer feedback. And it is these are the listings that are most likely to sell.

Being a top rated seller indicates that you’re a reliable seller with a good reputation, so it’s vital that you achieve this status if you really want to get ahead as an eBay seller.

Here’s a cool trick for you. You can gain positive feedback simply by purchasing goods from other people and paying on time. So buy some small, cheap items and rack up that positive feedback.

For example, when you first start selling, you’re going to need packing materials like tape, packets, labels etc., so buy them all from eBay and get good feedback by paying on time.

6. Communicate

Communicating with your customers is essential to keeping them satisfied, and satisfied customers are more likely to give positive reviews and feedback.

Even a quick email notifying the customer that their product is on its way, or a simple “thank you for using our service” email can go a long way in showing that you’re a competent retailer who cares about, and is going to meet their needs.

If the customer contacts you first, you need to respond quickly (Amazon requires you to respond within 24 hours or there will be a demerit against your account) so show that you’re engaged and professional when it comes to dealing with your customers.

If you’re selling on eBay, Replymanager is a great tool for reading and responding to mail from eBay’s “My Messages and Resolution Center”, and if you’re an Amazon seller, you can use Amazon Seller Central to communicate with your customers (you can even arrange for customer questions to be forwarded to your email, so you can respond when you’re not on Amazon).

7. Handle negative reviews

If you do receive negative reviews, don’t panic, because you can always turn them into positive reviews.

As soon as you’re aware that you have a dissatisfied customer, email them apologizing for any mishaps and asking if there is any way you can rectify the issue.

If there isn’t any conceivable way you can rectify the situation, then offer them a token of your sincerity, a gift card for Amazon or eBay would go a long way, or of course you can offer a refund.

Hopefully this will be enough to satisfy your disgruntled customer. Once you have explained and rectified the error, you can politely request your customer to reconsider their negative review – but make sure you don’t ask straight away, wait until the problem is solved, or you will look like you’re just looking out for yourself and not putting your customer’s needs first.

Go get some reviews!

Reviews and feedback are crucial if you want to be a successful seller on Amazon and eBay. Apply these tips, and you should be on your way to a solid strategy for boosting your marketplace reviews.

 

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