In October 2016 Amazon laid down a rule that's a double edged sword--incentivized reviews are no longer allowed. On the one hand, it gives sellers with higher quality products a more level playing field, but on the other hand, it makes getting genuine reviews increasingly hard.

In this episode Dave and I talk about what you can do to generate reviews after Amazon banned incentivized reviews. We talk about all the possible ways to get reviews, i.e., legal ways, illegal ways, and those we think might be in the "gray area". We're not in any way encouraging you to use the "black hat" and "gray hat" ways of getting reviews--we simply want to give you some awareness and it's up to you to decide which strategies you want to use in your own business.

The review strategies we discuss in this episode are all taken from Dave's blog post on How to Get Amazon Product Reviews in 2018. We also discuss which methods we actually use in our own businesses to provide examples.

The strategies that we discuss in detail are the following:

• Amazon Early Reviewer Program
• Request Reviews from Customers Who Have Left Positive Seller Feedback
• Request Reviews from Customers You've Provided Customer Service To
• Friend and Acquaintance Reviews
• Product Inserts
• Discounted Products
• Launching Products to an Email List
• Review Grooming – How Small Sellers Dominate Large Sellers

From the list you can clearly see which ones are definitely illegal in Amazon's TOS, but ironically those are the ones that are easiest to do. While getting reviews gets definitely tougher, keep in mind that the risks of using black hat strategies are far too great and the end results too costly.

Resources mentioned:

EcomCrew AMA Update on customer reviews How to Get Amazon Product Reviews in 2018

Do you have any questions about this episode? Just leave a comment down below or leave us a voice message.

Thanks for listening! Until the next one, happy selling.