As a seller on Amazon, you know just how important reviews are — product reviews or seller feedback — on the marketplace. For shoppers, they rely on reviews to guide them in their purchase decisions. For sellers, reviews can make or break their business . And for Amazon, the quality of reviews represent their reputation in comparison to other ecomm marketplaces.
In this post, I’ll focus on seller reviews and how they differ from product reviews, the reasons why you would want to remove them, and the different methods of doing so. I’ll also touch on tools and services that can help you manage negative reviews, and remove them when necessary — especially the ones that intend to hurt your brand.
Table Of Contents
Understanding Seller Reviews on Amazon
In order to monitor your reviews effectively, you need to understand certain terminologies to differentiate one from another.
Between product reviews and seller reviews, the key differences are:
- Product reviews are given by shoppers to describe their experience on the product itself. In a product review they can talk about the product’s quality, value for money, and expectations (met or failed). With product reviews shoppers are guided whether to buy or not.
- Seller feedback are reviews about the shopper’s experience with the seller. They describe the quality of the sellers’ overall service based on response rate to inquiries, the accuracy of shipped products, or even their initiative to resolve issues. Seller feedback guides future shoppers whether they’d transact with the seller or not.
Because both are entirely different, any mixup in the review language used by the customer could cause Amazon to label it as “non-compliant reviews”, deleting them eventually.
So even if you receive seller feedback that is positive but contains mentions about your product, then Amazon will block it before it’s posted. If the review got through and shows up in your listing, then it’s possible that Amazon may spot it and delete it.
What about seller ratings?
Seller (star) ratings are also all about the seller, except that the shopper gave a star rating (from 1 to 5) instead of a text-based review. But in most cases, seller ratings still accompany a review.
Seller feedback cannot be underestimated for its value if you’re serious about building a strong and sustainable business on Amazon. Whether the feedback you receive from customers are positive or negative, they provide you valuable insights into the minds of your customers, shedding light to areas of your business that need improvement.
How else does seller feedback impact your business? Let’s take a look.
Positive seller feedback:
- You gain customers’ trust. In a highly competitive marketplace, positive seller feedback serves as a green light to shoppers for a safe transaction. Even with a little mishap, customers would know that you’re the kind of seller who will turn it around for their satisfaction.
- Your listings get increased visibility. Amazon’s algorithm will be in your favor as they push trusted sellers up more in search. More exposure means more potential sales.
- You gain a higher chance to win the Buy Box. More positive seller feedback will eventually lead to a high seller rating, enabling you to score an opportunity to feature your products in the Buy Box — where the most sales on Amazon are happening.
Negative feedback:
- Shoppers steer clear of your products. Seeing positive product reviews may not be enough to convince them to buy your product. If your listing shows a pattern of negative seller feedback, they might even think of your positive product reviews as fake.
- Your search ranking will take a hit. An overall poor feedback score will cause Amazon to push you down SERP. With over 3,000 new sellers joining Amazon each month, you will feel the pinch of the tight competition.
- Your seller account is at stake. Unresolved negative seller reviews create a ripple effect of troubles on your account, including increasing Order Defect Rate (ODR), losing your seller privileges, and seller account eventually.
Benefits of Removing Negative Seller Reviews
All this being said, you should include negative seller review management as one of your business priorities. By removing negative seller reviews, especially the non-compliant ones, you reverse their damaging effects on your brand or business.
Likewise, by removing these reviews before potential customers see them, you maintain your image as a trustworthy seller. Without them on your listings, sales increase because buyers will focus more on the positive aspects of your products instead of being discouraged by the bad experiences of others on them.
Additionally, with fewer negative reviews your overall seller rating will increase, causing the marketplace algorithm to push you up in search, enabling more eyeballs to land on your listings.
Key Takeaway: It is your responsibility as an Amazon seller to know the damaging effects of negative seller reviews on your brand or business. Being defensive against negative reviews with the right action ensures your marketplace reputation remains unharmed.
Deleting Negative Seller Reviews On Amazon
You need to first identify the nature of the negative review on your listing to know the best plan of action to remove it.
Compliant Negative Review
Remember that some negative reviews are legit and valid, representing your buyer’s authentic experience with your product. This kind of review is valuable, so it is best to get in touch with your customer and find out the reason behind it. This is your chance to connect with them on a deeper level and show your sincerity in resolving their concerns. If you do this well, your customer might just edit their negative review, in your favor, if not delete it entirely.
How to Respond To Negative Seller Reviews
It’s possible to feel emotional (or confrontational) when dealing with a negative review. Avoid this and remember that it is more economical to satisfy your current customers than acquire a new one.
Employ the standards in tackling customer complaints to gain success with that action. Give a sincere apology, acknowledge and understand their concerns, and offer a resolution to their satisfaction.
Non-compliant Negative Reviews
The action you could take against a non-compliant negative review is to report it immediately to Amazon and file a case for its removal. To make it a solid case and speed up Amazon’s removal process, ensure you’ve collected and submitted enough proof of the violation.
Here are the steps to request Amazon for seller review removal:
- Step 1 – In your Seller Central, go to the “Performance” tab.
- Step 2 – Find the “Feedback” section.
- Step 3 – In the feedback section, look for the review you want to report and click the “Report Abuse” next to it.
- Step 4 – Once promoted with options, select the best one to describe the abuse or violation. If you have supporting data, add them in this section.
- Step 5 – Click “Submit Your Request”.
Be persistent without demanding quick action if you don’t get a response right away from Amazon. Continue to follow through or connect with other departments of Amazon until you get the right response.
Professional Services For Deleting Negative Reviews
If you consider removing negative reviews an overwhelming task, exhausting your time and energy with almost no guarantee of success, then it may be time to consider professional negative review removal services. These services offer an efficient and effective solution for removing unwanted feedback from listings, allowing you to maintain a positive reputation with customers.
There’s a big difference between the typical third party review management apps and the review removal services.
Review management tools enable you to monitor negative reviews once posted on your listings, directly connect with your customers to tackle issues, or file a case on Amazon. Yes, with the help of such tools, you can still achieve the goal of deleting negative reviews, but the task can be exhausting.
On the contrary, a professional negative review removal service takes all the burden of scouring your ASINs for all the negative reviews off your hands and actually files the cases on Amazon on your behalf. The best part is they follow through on your cases diligently until the reviews are removed.
Considering the latter makes for a very strategic business decision, enabling you to focus more on building your brand on Amazon while somebody else takes care of your ASINs cleanup.
Check out my blog on growing your brand on Amazon, where I’ve outlined all the necessary factors you need to consider when looking for the best negative review removal service.
Key Takeaway: Removing negative reviews is very challenging to an Amazon seller because of the lack of skill in properly doing it. Commissioning the help of professional negative removal services enables sellers to focus more on other important aspects of their business.
FAQs In Relation To How To Delete a Seller Review On Amazon
How Do I Delete an Amazon Negative Seller Feedback?
Deleting a negative seller feedback, although a daunting task, is achievable. You just need to persevere through the process and take each step as a teachable moment to enhance your skills in this department.
Be quick to tackle negative reviews by getting in touch with your customers to resolve the matter. Provide the best customer care to encourage your customers (without pressuring them) to edit or delete their negative reviews.
When the seller feedback is non-compliant, immediately report it to Amazon and request for its removal. Provide all the necessary evidence that indicate a violation against their Community Guidelines to expedite your case.
Can a Buyer Remove a Review From Amazon?
As the author of the reviews, yes they can. Once their reviews are posted, they have 60 days to alter or remove them. After that, the reviews stay on the listings indefinitely. That said, act quickly within that timeframe to deal with a negative review, without asking your customer to remove them (that’s prohibited!) even if you were successful in handling the complaint.
How Do You Ask Someone To Remove a Bad Review?
You can’t. Asking someone to remove a bad review is against Amazon’s ToS. If you do so, you risk losing your seller account and may never be able to sell on Amazon again. Instead, deal with a negative review in the most professional way possible and achieve to delight your customer. The result of that cannot be underestimated.
Parting Thoughts
By taking the necessary steps to delete a seller’s review on Amazon, you can protect and defend your brand while also increasing customer satisfaction. If you find it difficult to learn how to delete a seller review, professional services are available that specialize in doing that using time-tested and efficient processes. So, make sure to take advantage of them if needed. Taking the right action can guarantee your seller image on Amazon remains unharmed, and your business thrives.
Looking for experts to manage the most complex aspects of selling on Amazon?
Contact TraceFuse today
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