Amazon Review Not Showing Up? The Top 5 Reasons Why - How To Source Products And Sell On Amazon (2024)
Are you an Amazon seller who’s noticed that your product reviews aren’t really increasing over time? Or is an Amazon review not showing up? They might even be disappearing! Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the Top 5 most common reasons why reviews might not be appearing properly.
Read until the end to see best practices on how to manage your customer reviews on your product listings!
Top 5 Reasons Why Amazon Reviews Won’t Show Up
Take note that reviews take up to 72 hours to appear on a listing after it has been submitted by a customer.
It may take longer, even up to 5 days, because some reviews need to be approved by a human at Amazon before it gets posted to your listing.
Seller Has Been Flagged
This is the most common reason for reviews to not get approved, or for customers to not be able to post reviews.
When a product is flagged, it usually means that the seller has violated one or more of Amazon’s policies. It is also possible for the seller’s entire store to get flagged.
There are many possible scenarios to get flagged. This can be anything from not following the requirements for product listings (such as incorrect or missing information), to pricing products improperly, to selling counterfeit items.
If you have been flagged, you will need to take action to correct the issue before the Customer Reviews function properly again.
Review is Inappropriate
If a review is inappropriate, Amazon will not approve it to show on the product listing.
Examples of inappropriate or offensive reviews can include anything that has inappropriate language, is lewd, obscene, or sexually explicit. They can also be spammy or promotional in nature.
Amazon also does not allow any posting of personal information that may invade one’s privacy such as phone numbers, addresses, or other private details.
Another example of an inappropriate review is if it is completely unrelated to the product being sold. In this case, a customer may have accidentally left a review for a different product on your listing.
Customers often get confused between Customer Reviews and Seller Feedback. Amazon will not post a review that is more along the lines of Seller Feedback.
The difference between the two is that Customer Reviews are related to the product itself. For example, a customer can write about the product’s quality & authenticity, value for money, ease of use, functionality, and more.
On the other hand, Seller Feedback is specifically for a customer to evaluate their experience dealing with the seller. This is most often the case for FBM orders. They can evaluate if the seller is advertising the product properly, packaging the product well, as well as comment on the quality of customer service.
Review is Detected to be Ingenuine
Sellers have long been frustrated by Amazon’s seeming inability to differentiate between fake and legitimate customer reviews.
In what appears to be an attempt to crack down on fraudulent reviews, Amazon is careful when approving of reviews when they look inauthentic.
A sudden increase of positive reviews appears spammy, which makes Amazon hesitant to approve reviews.
Another example of ingenuine reviews is if Amazon detects that positive reviews are from friends and family of the seller.
If you can’t stop your friends and family from leaving a review, they should do it from a different I.P. address, avoid appearing to have a close relationship with you, and avoid overrating the product.
Review is Detected to be Incentivized
Amazon strictly does not allow sellers to incentivize customers in exchange for reviews.
What this means is that you as a seller cannot offer any type of rewards, gift cards, discounts, or anything of value in exchange for a review. This is considered a Black Hat Tactic and is frowned upon in the seller community.
Amazon can even suspend your seller account or give other penalties if they detect this sort of activity occurring in your account.
Review Appears to be Unverified
Verified Purchases are confirmed buyers who have purchased the product without any major discounts.
If a customer leaves a review and Amazon is not able to verify their purchase, there is a possibility that the review will not show up on the product listing.
This verification process happens when Amazon attempts to match the order details with the account information provided by the reviewer.
Be aware that Verified Purchase tagged reviews have a greater impact on a product’s ranking than regular, unverified product reviews.
If you requested a review from a customer and believe it didn’t get posted, one or more of the above reasons may be the explanation!
Additional Information for Product Reviews
I have provided the Top 5 Reasons, but you should also be aware of other reasons for reviews to not appear on your product listing.
Blocked, Limited, or Deleted Reviews
A block means that Amazon is temporarily preventing their users from posting their review on your product listing. Customers will know this because on the webpage, Amazon states that they aren’t allowed to leave a review.
A limit is when Amazon places a limit on the number of reviews they are allowing on your product listing. It is usually temporary and caused by the detection of unverified purchases.
A deleted review is when the review was already posted to your product listing, however, it was removed by Amazon. It can be caused by the detection of the customer posting the same review on multiple listings.
Additional Scenarios for Reviews to Not Appear
With these additional scenarios, Amazon can reject the review from being posted if it was under review by a human, or they will remove it if it was automatically posted.
The review was written in a way that sounds promotional
A seller has been found to insert a request for a positive review in product packaging or shipping box
The product manufacturer is perceived to have written the review posing as an unbiased buyer
The review is for a game that was in exchange for bonus in-game credits
The review appears to be written by someone who has a direct or indirect financial interest in the product
A positive review was written by an artist on a peer’s album in exchange for receiving a positive review from them
A review was perceived to be written by the seller using a customer account
A review was perceived to be written by the seller on a competitor’s product
It has been detected that a seller offered a buyer a refund or reimbursem*nt in exchange for a changed or removed negative review
It has been detected that a seller requested for a changed or removed negative review in general
Amazon is a highly competitive marketplace, and Customer reviews are crucial for a seller’s success.
They provide a transparent way for potential customers to get an idea of how the product is used before making a purchase.
Customers tend to trust other customers more than how the seller is marketing their own product.
The more reviews a product has, the more likely it is that potential buyers will be convinced to make a purchase.
Positive reviews create a ripple effect because more sales due to positive product reviews lead to higher rankings. A higher ranking on the Best Sellers Rank creates even more sales and overall success!
It has an impact on your seller account’s Performance Health
If you have a few negative reviews mixed in with your positive reviews, it’s not the end of the world.
As long as your Seller Performance Health is still in overall good shape, just take the negative reviews with a mentality of improving your product and optimizing your listing moving forward.
Best Practices for Managing Customer Reviews
With all these rules, you may be overwhelmed on how to manage your Customer Reviews in the first place.
I personally use the Alerts tools on Helium 10 to be notified of reviews on my products. These Alert notifications help me be aware of any improvements I can consider making to my products. All you have to do is insert your ASINs into the tool and it will be ready to alert you!
As for requesting reviews from customers, don’t forget that Amazon’s systems automatically make these requests on your behalf.
However, if you are in direct communication with a customer through Buyer-Seller messaging, here are some helpful tips that sellers should follow:
Maintain a professional attitude during your exchange with customers
Keep your review requests short, polite, and to the point
Do not use pressure tactics or make threats
Since sellers are not allowed to specifically request a positive review, simply thank the customer for their purchase and mention that you would appreciate if they could leave a review under Customer Reviews.
Mention to the customer that you value their review and it will help other Amazon customers make an informed decision about your product
Create message templates to make sure that you or the person in charge of answering customer messages communicates in a way that is in line with Amazon’s guidelines
Overall, Amazon is just trying to keep the playing field fair and ensure that customers have an unbiased representation of the product.
If you take a humble, polite approach when requesting a review from customers, then they will feel more encouraged to leave a review that has a higher chance of being accepted by Amazon to appear on your product listing.
Conclusion
Selling on Amazon is definitely not easy and sometimes things beyond our control happen that can impact our sales performance.
If you understand the reasons I provided, it will help you troubleshoot why your Amazon reviews are not appearing.
All in all, it’s best to put more focus on the quality of your products. Positive reviews will naturally follow!
Now that you know more about Customer Reviews, read my article about Seller Feedback to learn how to improve your Seller Performance Health even further!
How Long Does It Take For Amazon Reviews To Show Up? Most of the time, your reviews aren't visible because they're processed. The processing time before reviews appear is just part of using the platform, and it's nothing that should worry over. However, it can be frustrating, and it can take a while.
The product listing has too many unverified reviews. A verified review means that the product was purchased on Amazon and it wasn't at a deep discount. ...
Reviews with odd or suspicious words or phrases in them. ...
Amazon has stringent guidelines that govern the publication of reviews. However, not many customers are familiar with it. Shoppers are always promoted to view the tips and guidelines, but very few take time to do that.
Reviews will generally show up within 72 hours of posting.
Some reviews take a little longer to be posted, sometimes up to 4 or 5 days. It's completely up to Amazon on how long (or even if) a review will be posted so if you're having difficulty seeing reviews, please reach out to Amazon directly.
This badge is awarded to customers who frequently share reviews or answers related to the Interests that they're most passionate about and that other customers find interesting or helpful.
As a result of continued investments, Amazon proactively blocked over 200 million suspected fake reviews from our stores in 2022. We will continue to build sophisticated tools that protect customers, our selling partners, and our store from bad actors that attempt to profit by proliferating fake reviews globally.
There are a few reasons you, as a buyer, could experience a “review block”: Amazon finds your reviews suspicious. Amazon detects that you are systematically leaving negative reviews on a frequent basis. You have violated Amazon's review rules.
We take the integrity of our reviews platform very seriously. If we determine that you have attempted to manipulate reviews or violated our guidelines in any other manner, we may immediately suspend or terminate your Amazon privileges, remove reviews, and delist related products.
While it should come as no surprise that products with more positive reviews sell better than products without, Amazon does specify the threshold of reviews and average star ratings that brands need to officially become “retail ready.” Amazon recommends that your products have at least 15 ratings or reviews with an ...
"Verified Purchase" means the reviewer bought or used the item on Amazon, and paid a price available to most Amazon shoppers. After someone submits a review, we check if they:Bought or used the item on Amazon;Paid a price available to most Amazon shoppers.
Anyone can submit a review for nearly any product sold on Amazon, even if you haven't personally purchased that product. You can also submit reviews on Amazon if you bought the product elsewhere.
How many reviews do you need to get five stars on Google? No set number of reviews is required to get a 5-star rating on Google. The rating is an average of all the individual ratings left by customers. The more ratings you receive, the more accurate and representative your overall rating will be.
Here are some best practices for product inserts: Ask for product reviews, but remain neutral. Telling people to leave you a five-star review — or even showing a picture of five-stars — is against Amazon's guidelines.
A+ Content approval can take up to seven days, but we have also seen content approved within a matter of hours. Keep an eye on the status of your content within Seller Central. Occasionally A+ Content can be rejected and this is usually down to making claims that fall outside of Amazon's policies.
Recent studies carried out by the review analyzer ReviewMeta shows that fake Amazon reviews are on the increase in 2019. They claim to have found 1.8 million unverified reviews, of which 99.6% rate with 5 stars.
Customers are able to use the Amazon Shopping app or the Transparency app for their iOS or Android phone to scan Transparency codes on products. Upon scanning, the app will show a green check mark if the code is valid and a red X mark otherwise.
Yes!Amazon will delete customer reviews if they don't comply with their terms of service. However, the likelihood of Amazon deleting reviews is low. You need to write an email to the support team at community-help@amazon.com or report a review on the product details page.
No, Amazon sellers cannot directly remove negative feedback. They can only remove it by contacting Amazon or asking the customer to delete their feedback. Amazon will only remove negative reviews in the following circ*mstances: The feedback contains phrases that are typically regarded as vulgar or obscene.
But if you get into the habit of returning purchases too frequently, Amazon might start to penalize you. Such was the case recently for a customer who was charged a 50% restocking fee to return an item that wasn't of good use to her.
Try to keep the return rate lower than 10%. Some banned users reported that Amazon also terminated their accounts after the return rate overcame 10%, so it is best to keep the rate as low as possible.
So, yes, it is certainly possible to get banned from Amazon—but, unless you are making an excessive number of returns and ignoring emails from Amazon, it's unlikely that it'll happen to you. The product experts at Reviewed have all your shopping needs covered.
A higher number of return orders than the average amount can also make your account banned. High return orders indicate that your product is low-quality or not delivering what you show in your listing details. To maintain customer reliability & trust, Amazon bans sellers' accounts on those with high returns.
While reviews and feedback are important to our customers and sellers, the comments feature on customer reviews was rarely used. As a result, we are retiring this feature on December 16, 2020. We are committed to your continued success and will innovate and develop other opportunities for you to connect with customers.
Is It Possible To Buy Verified Amazon Reviews? Even though customer reviews are essential for selling on the platform, it's illegal to buy reviews for Amazon. However, all e-commerce frameworks take feedback integrity seriously and actively eliminate fake reviews.
On average, Amazon sellers get reviews on about 3% - 10% of their sales. This ratio is variable and depends on how you serve your customer. To solicit more reviews, ask for feedback in real-time.
Browsing the Seller Central forums on Amazon, sellers have different answers when asked how many customers typically leave a review. Some said about 10-20% of customers will leave feedback. Some said less than 10%. Others have mentioned they'll receive fewer than ten reviews per 100 orders.
All of which comes from the 5% to 10% of customers who actually write reviews. Moog's research finds they tend to fall into four main categories. First are those who really love a product and then those who really hate it.
Amazon said a new law takes effect on June 27 requiring it to “collect, verify, and disclose” information about high-volume third-party sellers. Amazon said in its May 10th announcement that it already verifies sellers' business information during and after registration.
If the seller you are looking to purchase from offers Prime FBA Shipping, this is a sign that they are an established market partner for Amazon, and have been vetted. Additionally, if a listing has the Amazon's Choice badge, they are an Amazon-approved seller.
Your Public Name appears on the public view of your Profile page and next to any public activity, including Customer Reviews, Customer Images, Seller Feedback, Customer Q&A, Customer Communities, or Public Lists created by you. You have the option of using your real name or a pseudonym.
Posting online reviews for products or to inform consumers about the website is a legal gray area in general. However, if these reviews are from the company, family or friends of the business or fake, this is considered a violation per the Federal Trade Commission.
Amazon sellers can respond to negative reviews to limit risk to their FBA business. In fact, many customers expect a response from the seller within a week or so of posting the negative review.
Assuming that only one of every 10 happy customers leaves a positive five-star review, and knowing that it takes four five-star reviews to make up for each one-star review, you can figure it takes 40 positive customer experiences to make up for a single bad review.
Customers Believe A Product Should Have 100+ Reviews
In a perfect world, 43% of consumers have indicated that they want to see more than 100 reviews for an item. Consumers indicate that a notably high volume of reviews can have a big, positive impact on their purchase likelihood.
The average review rate on Amazon is 1-2%. That means out of every 100 sales, you should expect 1-2 reviews. You should be able to aim for a 5% review rate, or one review every 20 sales. This is actually easier than you think, since most Amazon sellers do not have a strategy for getting reviews.
Essentially, bribing people to review your product is not allowed in any form. Amazon does not want reviews to be anything but honest from actual customers, so providing people with a compensational incentive to have a favorable opinion is not allowed.
Third-party seller feedback once added cannot be edited. It can only be removed. Once you've removed feedback for a third-party seller, you can't post new feedback for that transaction.
A+ content pages are a simple way to support your product and lead to an increase in sales on Amazon by up to 10%. If you are asking yourself, “What is Amazon A+ Content?” Read our blog post here. To put it plainly, if you don't use A+ Content, many shoppers won't even take notice of your product details.
Answer: In specific situations, a researcher can choose to decline an invitation to review a paper, such as conflict of interest, lack of time, and lack of expertise or familiarity with the subject matter.
It is legal to remove bad reviews (or get them removed) as long as you're not violating the Consumer Review Fairness Act. This act allows businesses to prohibit or remove the following types of reviews: contains sensitive or private information; or.
No, Amazon sellers cannot directly remove negative feedback. They can only remove it by contacting Amazon or asking the customer to delete their feedback. Amazon will only remove negative reviews in the following circ*mstances: The feedback contains phrases that are typically regarded as vulgar or obscene.
Negative reviews reflect a customer's first-hand poor experience with your product. Negative reviews can either be 'good negative reviews' or 'bad negative reviews'. Here's an example of one such review in which the customer clearly explains their issue with the product after using it for some time.
The Federal Trade Commission on Friday proposed new rules to take aim at businesses that buy, sell and manipulate online reviews. If the rules are approved, they'll carry a big stick: a fine of up to $50,000 for each fake review, for each time a consumer sees it. Tech is not your friend.
Deleting bad product reviews reduces the integrity of all published product reviews, and consumers might suspect that they only see the good stuff said about your brand. Leaving negative reviews up doesn't necessarily hurt your brand, especially when the review is worded in a polite manner.
To ask Google to remove or delete an inappropriate review from your Business Profile, report the review. Google can remove reviews that violate Google's policies. Important: Before you ask to remove or delete a review, read our reviews policy.
Go to Your Profile.Choose the review you want to change in the Community activity section.Edit or delete your review, as required. You can also hide it by selecting Hide on my profile from the three-button overflow menu.
The stats say that 46% of Amazon sellers achieve an average Amazon FBA success rate of 11-25%. Moreover, 64% of Amazon sellers become profitable within 12 months. The article below will guide you through the success rate of Amazon FBA and some steps to start selling on this marketplace.
Approximately 94% of Amazon sellers use Fulfilment by Amazon. 76% of Amazon sellers become profitable, and 63% of them become profitable within the first year. 36% of Amazon sellers earn $5,000 per month.
64% of those we surveyed said they're more likely to buy a product if it has 1,000+ reviews than if it has 100. And 54% are more likely to buy a product if it has 10,000+ reviews than if it has 1,000.
Introduction: My name is Nicola Considine CPA, I am a determined, witty, powerful, brainy, open, smiling, proud person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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