Dive Brief:
- Amazon is tightening its customer review policy per a company blog post, notably in regards to its incentivized review guidelines.
- Manufacturers looking to exchange products for reviews now have to use members of Vine Voices, who are vetted by Amazon — not product makers — through the Vine program.
- Amazon will match new and pre-release products with suited reviewers as well as limit the number of Vine reviews on display for product pages.
Dive Insight:
According to Marketing Land, Amazon has sued more than 1,000 individuals, websites and buyers for dealing in fake reviews, an issue that likely contributed to the new customer review policy. Vine, launched in 2007, is designed to put controls in place to better manage customer reviews and, according to Amazon, is “especially valuable for getting early reviews on new products that have not yet been able to generate enough sales to have significant numbers of organic reviews.”
Marketers for SMB manufacturers are likely to be hit the hardest by the policy changes due to the difficulty of getting traction for new products in Amazon's crowded marketplace. Through the Vine program, Amazon asks chosen reviewers to post opinions about the products, but doesn’t incentivize positive star reviews, attempt to influence review content or even require that its Voices reviewers write a review for the provided product, which can potentially kill buzz.
Reviews are an important part of the online shopping experience as many consumers rely on them. However, incentivized reviews can undermine customer confidence and repeat purchases, which Amazon is trying to address. By requiring manufacturers to go through the Vine program, it is hoping to improve the quality of its reviews and, as a result, the overall shopping experience.