Product reviews play a critical role in the success of a business on Amazon. They’re essential for both sellers and buyers, serving as a bridge of trust and insight. Without reliable reviews, sellers struggle to build credibility, and buyers lack the confidence to make informed decisions.
For sellers, reviews are a business asset. They support your brand integrity, validate product quality, and provide much-needed social proof. Positive reviews help improve sales conversions by reassuring potential buyers about their purchase decision.
For buyers, reviews offer key insights into a product’s performance, quality, and real-life user experiences. This information builds trust and confidence, helping them avoid the risk of a disappointing purchase. Without reviews, shoppers are left guessing, which could lead to hesitation or dissatisfaction.
Given their importance, it’s natural for sellers to want more reviews on their listings. But what happens when those reviews don’t appear? Many sellers find themselves frustrated, wondering, “Why is my Amazon review not showing?”
In this article, we’ll explore the reasons behind missing reviews and what you can do to prevent or resolve the issue. Topics include:
- How Amazon evaluates and filters reviews.
- Common seller account issues that impact review visibility.
- Strategies to solicit reviews from customers without violating Amazon’s community guidelines.
By understanding these factors, you can take proactive steps to ensure your reviews appear and maximize their value for your Amazon business. Let’s dive in!
What Amazon Looks Into Before Posting a Review
Customer reviews are the backbone of transactions on Amazon. They drive revenue by helping shoppers make informed decisions and providing insights into product performance. When a listing lacks sufficient reviews, shoppers often lose confidence, which can reduce sales or even lead them to leave the platform entirely.
To ensure reviews remain trustworthy and helpful, Amazon enforces strict policies to screen and filter reviews before they appear on listings. This process helps maintain the integrity of the marketplace, ensuring buyers see only truthful and relevant feedback.
Reviews can fall into three review statuses when missing: they may be blocked, deleted, or limited. Blocked reviews never appear due to violations. Deleted reviews may have briefly appeared but were removed later. Limited means Amazon has capped the visible number of reviews due to abnormal patterns or behavior.
Amazon typically takes 72 hours to review and approve feedback. In some cases, the process can take up to two weeks. During this time, Amazon examines several key factors to determine whether a review meets its standards:
Verified Purchase
Amazon prioritizes reviews from verified purchases. A verified review indicates that the customer bought and used the product directly from Amazon at a standard price, with a minimum purchase of $50. These reviews are tagged with a “Verified Purchase” label, signaling authenticity to potential buyers.
While Amazon prefers verified reviews as they are the closest reflection of honest customer experiences, non-verified reviews (from products purchased elsewhere) are also allowed, provided they are honest and helpful to other shoppers.
Compliance With Community Guidelines
Amazon enforces its community guidelines and review removal policies rigorously. Any review violating these rules is automatically deleted. Examples of violations include:
- Profanity or inappropriate language.
- Racial slurs or discriminatory remarks.
- Personal attacks targeting individuals or groups.
This strict policy ensures that reviews remain constructive and valuable to buyers while promoting a respectful community.
Additionally, reviews that mention pricing complaints, shipping delays, or packaging problems may be removed if they fall under “seller feedback” instead of “product reviews.” If this happens and your product is Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA), you can request removal by:
- Logging into Seller Central
- Clicking the “Performance” tab > “Feedback”
- Finding the Order ID in question
- Selecting the “Request Removal” option under “Negative” feedback
Fake Reviews
Fake or bribed reviews pose a significant challenge for Amazon. They distort buyer perceptions and damage the platform’s credibility. Research on 33.5 million Amazon bestseller reviews revealed that 43% of reviews are unreliable, highlighting the widespread nature of fake reviews.
Fake reviews are so widespread (even in other ecommerce sites) that it merited a proposed rule by the Federal Trade Commission to ban fake reviews and testimonials altogether.
Amazon uses AI technology to combat this issue, analyzing reviews for signs of inauthenticity, such as:
- Overly promotional phrasing.
- Repetitive or unnatural language.
- Irrelevant content.
- Excessive use of special characters.
Amazon actively penalizes those responsible for fake reviews, including the sellers and fake reviewers, to deter manipulation and protect the marketplace.
Review Velocity
A sudden spike in the number of reviews—referred to as review velocity—can trigger Amazon’s attention. This increase could stem from legitimate causes, such as a promotional campaign or improved product quality. However, it might also suggest manipulation.
If Amazon detects suspicious patterns in review velocity, they may delay posting new reviews or conduct a velocity review to ensure authenticity. Amazon may temporarily limit the number of reviews that appear on your listing until it determines the reviews are valid.
In extreme cases, suspicious review velocity could lead to listing suspension. But if the reviews are legitimate, Amazon may raise the velocity limit, allowing for more reviews to appear on your listing over time.
Seller Feedback
Occasionally, customers intending to leave product reviews may mistakenly leave seller feedback instead. This feedback often includes comments about their experience with you as a seller rather than the product itself.
Even if the content is positive and truthful, Amazon removes such reviews because they are not product-specific and, therefore, not considered useful for other buyers.
Key Takeaway: Amazon provides confidence to shoppers about the products sold on its marketplace through authentic, honest, and useful reviews. They do this by screening reviews and ensuring compliance with the community guidelines before posting.
Friends and Family Reviews
Amazon forbids reviews from individuals with close personal relationships to the seller. No matter how well-intentioned, if your friends or family leave reviews, they will likely be flagged and removed for being biased. Amazon states explicitly that reviews must be impartial and unaffiliated with the seller.
Incentivized Reviews or Review Removal Attempts
Amazon has a strict zero-tolerance policy on incentivized reviews. You cannot:
- Offer discounts or gifts in exchange for a positive review
- Ask only happy customers to leave a review
- Use suggestive language like “If you loved our product…”
- Attempt to bribe customers to remove negative reviews
Doing any of the above can result in review suppression, or worse, account suspension.
How To Make Your Amazon Reviews Show Up Quickly
If you want your product reviews to appear on your Amazon listing shortly after a purchase, there’s a simple way to speed up the process: avoid triggering Amazon’s review scrutiny. Reviews that seem suspicious or problematic can take longer to appear—or may not show up at all.
Here’s how to encourage quicker and more reliable review postings:
Sell High-quality Products
The foundation of positive reviews is a high-quality product. When customers are thrilled with their purchase, they’re naturally motivated to share their satisfaction through a review. By offering products that meet or exceed expectations and solve real problems, you increase the likelihood of receiving positive feedback.
Provide Clear Product Information
Set buyers’ expectations by providing comprehensive and accurate product details. Include a clear description, usage instructions, warranty information, and disclaimers if necessary. Misleading or incomplete information can result in customer dissatisfaction and negative reviews. Transparency upfront can help ensure that reviews reflect genuine satisfaction.
Provide Good Customer Service
Great customer service goes a long way toward earning positive reviews. During the buying process, be prompt and clear when responding to customer inquiries. After the sale, remain attentive to any concerns or issues that arise. Resolving problems swiftly and professionally can turn a potentially negative experience into a positive one—and earn you a glowing review.
Solicit Reviews The Right Way
Amazon allows sellers to ask customers for reviews, but it must be done carefully to comply with their guidelines. After each purchase, Amazon sends an automated email requesting a review. You can also independently reach out to remind buyers to leave feedback.
However, avoid actions that violate Amazon’s policies, including:
- sending multiple emails
- asking reviews only from buyers with positive product experience
- using suggestive language that directly solicits positive reviews like the “if / then” messaging, for example “If you like our product, then please leave us a comment.”
- giving incentives such as discounts, free products, or rewards in exchange for a product review
Instead, use neutral, respectful language, such as:
“Thank you for your purchase! Your feedback is highly appreciated and helps us improve our products to better serve you. Please consider leaving a review.”
This approach communicates your genuine intention to enhance the customer experience, making buyers more inclined to leave honest and thoughtful reviews.
Key Takeaway: Providing the best customer service to your shoppers, from selling high-quality products to dealing with any product issue, is the best way to mitigate negative reviews, allowing them to show up quickly on your listings.
Keep Monitoring Your Reviews
If new product reviews aren’t showing up in 72 hours, they might have some issues and you just have to wait until Amazon finishes checking them.
However, in cases where your compliant reviews suddenly disappear and aren’t showing back up, then it’s time to contact the Amazon support team to find out why that is. When connecting with Amazon, avoid making a demanding imposition and instead focus on providing the right data, evidence, and reasons why they should remain on your listings.
Likewise, if you want to be on top of review monitoring, utilize tools that alert you once reviews come through. This way, you can quickly take action by dealing with a customer complaint or just give your thanks for a rave review.
More importantly, if the review is downright non-compliant, immediately file a report to Amazon and request its removal. If this feels like a daunting task, consider the help of a negative review removal service that does the dirty work for you. They have the ability to scour your listings to find the negative reviews eligible for removal, file cases on your behalf, and follow through until removed.
FAQs In relation To Why Is My Amazon Review Not Showing
Why Are Amazon Reviews Not Appearing
Reviews may not be visible on Amazon for various reasons, the topmost of which is being flagged as violation of the platform’s policies or community guidelines. Additionally, the platform filters reviews due to low relevance scores and similarity to other reviews on the same product page that could indicate that they might be fake.
How Long Does It Take For My Amazon Review To Show Up
Reviews submitted to Amazon listings may take up to 24 – 72 hours to appear, depending on various factors such as the volume of submitted reviews and any technical issues that may be present. If your review does not appear after 24 hours, please contact the customer service for assistance. Keep in mind that Amazon may remove or alter reviews without warning.
Why Are My Amazon Reviews Taking Too Long To Post
Amazon reviews take time before they get posted. Reviews need to pass Amazon’s automated filtering process, which could take several hours up to a couple of days. Among the reviews they filter are those that are considered non-compliant reviews, or those that violate the community guidelines. If there are additional issues, such as the high probability that the reviews are fake, Amazon will take extra time to evaluate the authenticity of those reviews.
Finally, during peak times such as holidays and special events, there may be an increased backlog of reviews awaiting approval that could cause delays in posting your review.
Parting Thoughts
There’s great value in having reliable product reviews show up on your listings. Their presence is essential to set the expectations of your buyers about your products. A good number of reviews displayed on your listing raise their confidence and trust, encouraging them to buy.
Follow the guide and avoid violations to keep your review flow steady, credible, and fully visible. Need help identifying, removing, or managing reviews? Contact TraceFuse to protect and grow your brand reputation on Amazon.
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