Boost Your Success: The Importance of Improving Your Amazon Feedback Rating for Sellers

As an Amazon seller, you’re likely familiar with your Amazon feedback rating – it’s like your own public report card from buyers, right?

Having a good score is similar to being at the top of the class, while a bad one might feel like landing in detention.

However, many sellers overlook the importance of having a plan in place to generate more feedback from their customers. This oversight could be due to a focus on getting product reviews, with the misconception that they serve the same purpose – but they don’t.

Both product reviews and seller feedback are powerful in their own right, and you need both for your business to thrive.

In this article, we’ll delve into what seller feedback is, why it’s crucial, and what you can do to get more.

What is Seller Feedback?

When it comes to evaluating your performance as an Amazon merchant, seller feedback is the ultimate metric. After purchasing an item from a third-party seller, customers can rate their experience to inform others. However, keep in mind that only buyers who have purchased from a seller through Amazon may leave feedback and ratings.

Your average seller feedback rating is displayed on your seller profile page. It will also be shown when a buyer clicks on another offer on a shared product detail page. Seller feedback is intended to be feedback from buyers on your performance as a seller, not a performance review of the product being sold. This is where seller feedback and product reviews differ.

Amazon encourages buyers to consider several factors when providing seller feedback, including:

• Item packaging and order shipment
• Seller professionalism
• Quality of the customer service provided
• The overall buying experience

If you’re an FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) seller, you may notice that some of these criteria aren’t applicable to you. Amazon will strike through feedback explicitly about the delivery experience if the order was fulfilled via its FBA service. It will do the same if you use Buy Shipping and the order was shipped late (or not at all) at no fault of your own. In both of these instances, the feedback won’t impact your overall rating.

Accordingly, FBA sellers shouldn’t find it too difficult to maintain a near-perfect seller feedback rating.

5 Reasons Why You Should Be Improving Your Seller Feedback

Here are the top reasons why improving your Amazon feedback rating should be a top priority for your business this year.

1) Your Buy Box Ownership is at Stake

When it comes to winning the coveted Buy Box on Amazon, your feedback rating plays a crucial role. Amazon’s algorithm takes into account a seller’s Order Defect Rate, which is largely based on negative feedback received. In a sea of similar offerings, a seller with a reputation for providing an exceptional customer experience is more likely to win the Buy Box. 

To summarize, the better your feedback rating is, the higher your chances are of securing the Buy Box and making more sales.

2) A Good Score is a Competitive Advantage

With around 3,700 new sellers joining Amazon every single day, saying that the competition is fierce is an understatement. However, having a high feedback rating can make all the difference. When potential customers see positive feedback from previous buyers, they are more likely to trust the seller and make a purchase. This sets you apart from the competition, drives sales, and cultivates customer loyalty.

The key takeaway: Positive feedback builds credibility and consumer trust in a brand, giving you a leg up on other sellers in your category. Negative feedback can harm your reputation and turn customers away.

3) A Bad Score Makes it Harder to Advertise

Running promotions is a great way to differentiate your products from the competition and increase your sales. However, not all sellers have access to features like coupons or social media promo codes. You must meet certain criteria, and your Amazon seller feedback rating is one of the most important. Coupons require you to have at least a 3.5 seller feedback rating, while social media promo codes need you to have an 80% or higher positive feedback rating and at least 20 reviews. (Note that the latter applies to sellers not enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry program.)

4) Your Search Ranking Will Be Impacted

While Amazon remains tight-lipped about its search ranking algorithm, it’s no secret that having top-notch seller feedback can boost your product ranking. Maintaining a strong feedback score gives you a much better chance of improving your product’s search engine results page (SERP) positioning. In turn, this allows you to expand your reach and increase sales.

In short, strive to keep your feedback rating above 96%, which is suspected to be the lowest threshold for ranking well on Amazon. Anything lower and your ranking will start to drop pretty significantly.

5) Amazon Can Penalize You for a Poor Rating

Amazon takes into account several seller metrics based on buyer feedback, such as your Negative Feedback Rate, a critical factor of the aforementioned Order Defect Rate. 

Amazon currently requires sellers to maintain an Order Defect Rate below 1% and strongly urges you to aim for a Negative Feedback Rate under 5%. Persistently low ratings can affect your eligibility to participate in certain Amazon programs and may even lead to a suspension or outright ban. 

What this means: To preserve your selling privileges, you must consistently work to improve your Amazon seller feedback rating.

Recommended read: Why It’s Important To Vet Your Customers?

How to Improve Your Seller Feedback

The biggest thing you can do is not let it go unnoticed – and to get more. Check your seller feedback regularly, either manually or through third-party software like FeedbackFive by eComEngine, which can notify you when neutral or negative ratings come in. You can also use the tool to automate requests for new seller feedback and product reviews and monitor all of the ratings that you receive.

Keep in mind that the more positive feedback you have, the less negative ratings will impact you.

It’s also important to note that third-party seller feedback cannot be edited, only removed by the buyer or by Amazon. Per Amazon’s feedback guidelines, feedback containing promotional content, offensive language, abusive or illegal material, personal information, pricing feedback, and product reviews is subject to removal. 

If Amazon hasn’t already removed these comments, you can request to remove them in Seller Central. The removal policy is rather strict – Amazon won’t remove negative feedback that you simply disagree with, nor will it update a negative rating that you’ve worked with the customer to resolve. In these cases, you’re allowed to politely follow up with the buyer and request removal.

Here are a few other ways to get better feedback from buyers:

1. Ship orders on time. Late deliveries are one of the leading causes of negative seller feedback. Make sure you ship on time or, better yet, early. That should make anyone happy!
2. Set the right buyer expectations. Product listings that don’t set the right buyer expectations (i.e. those that have inaccurate or misleading product details and/or images) are also a main source of negative feedback as buyers will feel tricked or mistreated by you, the seller, not the product itself.
3. Stay in stock. As an Amazon seller, it’s your responsibility to make sure your inventory is in stock and ready to sell. When you suddenly go out of stock or inexplicably send the wrong item, it leaves a bad taste in a buyer’s mouth. 

While receiving negative feedback is never pleasant, it can actually be an opportunity to learn and improve your business. Make changes to your shipping processes, listing content, and inventory practices to prevent the same problems from happening in the future. However, if certain ASINs become more difficult to manage than what they’re worth, it may be time to drop them for the betterment of your business.

Improve Your Amazon Feedback Rating Today 

Seller feedback is often overlooked, but it should never be underestimated. Both buyers and Amazon take it seriously, so it’s important to have a solid feedback strategy in place. Not only can this help maintain a healthy account, but it can also ensure customer satisfaction and increase profits.

FeedbackFive has helped thousands of sellers obtain a positive Amazon feedback rating since 2009. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions or are interested in a free trial.

Additional read:

How to optimize your ASIN matrix with SellerApp

How do you transfer ownership of an Amazon seller account?

Amazon Advertising Grading Checklist for 2023

What is listing hijacking on Amazon and how does it happen?

What are Amazon’s editorial recommendations?

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