Categories: Amazon Business

How to Use the Amazon Vine Program

You need to try every way possible to get reviews for your Amazon product if you want it to do well. It’s especially important at the beginning of a listing’s life to get comments from customers.

This helps build trust and social proof that your product is valuable. A great way to do that is through the Amazon Vine program.

A lot of sellers would offer their products for free or very cheap in return for reviews on Amazon before 2016 when they changed their review policy. Since you can’t do that anymore, getting early reviews on Amazon is getting harder and harder.

Thanks to new ideas like the Amazon Vine program, there are now more ways to get people to write reviews about your products. The Amazon Vine program has pros and cons. Let’s talk about how to join, and what other Amazon sellers think about it.

What is Amazon Vine?

A program called Amazon Vine gives shoppers free goods in exchange for honest reviews of products they buy. On the other hand, Amazon is VERY picky about who they let review goods.

Some people are invited to be Amazon Vine reviewers, also known as Vine Voices. These reviews are the most trusted on Amazon. Review rank is the only way that Vine Voices are picked. Review rank is a measure of how good and useful Amazon customers think a review is.

As a buyer, you can get free Amazon stuff, and as an Amazon FBA seller, you can use Amazon Vine to get reviews for your goods.

Vine Voices

Members of the Amazon Vine program will have their products reviewed by Vine Voices, a group of Amazon’s best reviews. A Vine Voice is someone who has been invited by Amazon to join.

According to the reviewer’s rank, Amazon chooses Vine Voices. According to how helpful their reviews are for other customers, reviewers are ranked. A review’s rank is affected by how fresh it is. Review count is not important; what matters is the quality of the reviews and how useful they were for other buyers.

Amazon Vine Benefits

9 out of 10 people who buy something from Amazon FBA read reviews before they buy it. Reviews have a big impact on what people buy. It helps buyers feel confident, figure out which product is best for them, and tell one product from another. These changes then lead to more sales and conversions.

Reviews are read by 90% of people who buy something. A particular amount of goods of the same SKU can be reviewed through the Vine program. You should send in at least 5 units, and no more than 30 units, according to Amazon.
After 30 reviews, a product will no longer be able to be part of the program, but you can sign up at any time. In March 2023, Amazon raised the limit on how many ASINs could join Vine from 60 to 200.
Potential customers get a better idea of how the product might work for them because Vine Voices tries to break it down in every way. Instead of giving vague, one-word reviews, Vine Voice reviewers give customers feedback that they can use to make an informed buying choice.
Positive reviews from customers are one of the most powerful things that can affect sales and conversions on your offering. High-quality Vine Voice reviews of your product will help boost your general best-seller ranking and increase the number of people who buy it.
Quantity is not as important as quality when it comes to reviews. Ten reviews that only say “item is great” and don’t say much else about the product are less useful than one review that goes into great detail about the item.

For example, some customers don’t trust reviews left by other customers. This was especially true when sellers offered free or heavily discounted products in return for reviews. Since Amazon doesn’t change or edit reviews and the brand owner doesn’t talk to the customer, Vine Voices reviews are reliable and honest.

Cons

You can’t be sure of reviews, good or bad. Although Amazon doesn’t promise that the Vine Voices will leave good reviews or any reviews at all, any reviews they do leave will be full of useful information. What the reviewer says will be up to them, and sellers will not be able to get in touch with them.
Brand-approved sellers are the only ones who can get it. By doing this, the app can only accept a certain number of Amazon FBA sellers. Take advantage of Vine reviews to get ahead of the competition if they haven’t already registered their brand.

The Mechanics of Amazon Vine

Brand owners can easily join the program. To join the program, all they have to do is go to Vendor Central or Seller Central, choose the ASIN they want to use, and agree to Amazon’s terms and conditions. Brand owners need to talk about the goods in a few ways.

Once you are signed up, you can either have stock pulled from your Amazon FBA inventory or follow the steps to send stock in.
As for which reviewer gets to write about which products, Amazon will let Vine Voices choose products that are a good fit for them based on topic and relevance. Amazon gives them this item for free so that they can write an honest report.
Vine Voices will post reviews about you within 90 days of signing up. In other words, once goods are enrolled, brand owners will start to see benefits pretty quickly. If the enrolled goods don’t get any reviews at that time, you won’t be charged.

Who Should Participate?

Amazon Vine is a great tool for brand owners who have new goods or items that don’t have many reviews and are having a hard time making sales. There is no guarantee that products will get good reviews through the Vine program, so make sure you give a good product.

When Vine Voices leaves comments, they will be honest and fair. However, good reviews can help your product beat out competitors and get more people to buy it. If you want your new goods to get noticed, you should join the Amazon Vine program.

How To Enroll In The Amazon Vine Program

Enrolling a product in Amazon Vine is easy once you’ve gone over all the requirements.

Click on “Vine” in Seller Central’s “Advertising” tab.
If you meet all the standards, Amazon Vine Signup
You’ll see a screen where you can choose products to sign up for. Amazon will usually offer new products that you should sell.
Make sure you have enough stock and pick out your items!
After you choose up to five ASINs to join, you will set these products away for Amazon. Amazon will then let Vine reviewers know that your product is ready for review.

Amazon FBA won’t just give your products to any Amazon Vine reviewer, as we already said. Vine carefully chooses voices based on demographics and past purchases.

It will be open to all Vine reviewers after 28 days if Amazon can’t find 30 focused reviewers for your product.

How Many Vine Units Should You Send Amazon?

Send at least 5 units of your product to Vine when you sign up for the program. Reviews on
Amazon Vine is limited to 30, so you want to make the most of all 30 reviews that come your way.
Sending in more than 30 units is best since some Amazon users might not choose to write about your product. After 30 reviews, you can’t get any more Amazon Vine reviews for that product.

How Many Products Can You Upload To Vine?

A seller tier determines how many active goods you can add to Amazon Vine at the same time.

Five items can be registered by sellers at the basic level.
Plus-level sellers can get 10 goods registered.
There are 20 items that premium sellers can register.

You can enroll in a new product after 90 days or when all units have been reviewed if you’ve already hit your limit.

Are Vine reviews unbiased? While this is technically possible, Amazon works hard to protect the privacy of Vine sellers and reviews. Aside from that, Amazon has a lot of power over who reviews products.

Amazon, for example, gives each Vine member a unique list of things to review based on their demographics and review history. Anyone who wants to review your product on Amazon Vine might not even see it.

It’s also very unlikely that a Vine reviewer would be ready to risk getting caught for extra money since they are only invited to apply.

How To Become An Amazon Vine Reviewer

It’s important to leave full and detailed reviews on a lot of different goods if you want to become an Amazon Vine Reviewer. With 100 reviews, you must have published at least 100 reviews according to the list of Amazon’s top users. You can buy a list of products for free at any time as an Amazon Vine Voice.

Here are some tips on what kinds of reviews you should leave on Amazon FBA because they value quality over number.

Most importantly, you don’t have to write a review. If you do, Amazon won’t let you go if it’s bad:).
It’s too bad that there isn’t a set way to get into the school. Individuals who write full, in-depth reviews of the things they buy are much more likely to get in.
Don’t leave a review with just one line or word. Reviews should be helpful, and it doesn’t matter how many you leave.
Write detailed reviews on certain types of products. You’re much more likely to be chosen if you focus on a single area and show that you know a lot about that niche.
Reviews that are current and consistent get more weight on Amazon.
To give an example, don’t worry about a product’s size if the measurements are made clear.
For reviewers whose reviews are regularly voted up, the best chance of being invited to Amazon Vine is high, but no one knows the exact formula.

The Amazon Vine Program for Sellers: Top 5 Questions Answered

At What Point Should A Seller Enroll A Product In Amazon Vine?

It’s best to sign up for new goods as soon as the product launches. Products that are enrolled must be in their final packing state. This means that they will be added to the Vine Voices pool in the same way that a customer gets them when they make a normal purchase.

Differences are not allowed. When the Vine consumer gets the whole product, they should have the same experience as any other customer.

How Can I Compare Amazon Vine To Other Advertising Products?

Finding out how much it costs per unit to join Vine can be very difficult. Amazon Vine costs are estimated to range from $1,750 per ASIN enrollment for 1P sellers. Amazon FBA revealed new pricing tiers for brand-registered third-party sellers in October 2023. These tiers let up to two units per eligible ASIN be enrolled for free.

In Vine, you can only add an ASIN once in your whole life. But I’ve seen anywhere from five to twenty units signed up for a single ASIN.

It depends on what the ASIN is for: is it a brand-new product that needs a lot of attention when it first comes out, or is it just a new version of a best-selling item that could use some new reviews?

Given that Vine works best for making people more aware of a product at the beginning of the buying process, it’s hard to give it a standard return on investment (ROI). Vine’s value depends on how well your product works, how useful it is, and how well you advertise and promote it.

You have to keep trying things out and learning from them as you set a baseline and come up with success indicators that are useful for your business. Subjectivity comes into play when it comes to whether or not a Vine Voices customer posts a review, when it posts, and how they rate your product.

So, the best way to use Vine is as one part of a bigger advertising and promotion plan with multiple goals that target different stages of the sales funnel, such as awareness, consideration, and conversion.

You can’t directly track sales with sponsored brand ads, you should include the cost of giving reviewers free Vine goods in your campaign budget if you want to raise awareness. But you can check how well Vine Voice reviews work by looking at an ASIN’s clicks, impressions, search score, and star rating, and seeing if any of these things lead to more sales.

Does Amazon Value Vine Review More Than Verified Purchase Reviews?

You can trust Vine Voice reviews because Amazon FBA puts reviewers through a tough process to join the program and then matches them with your goods based on their interests and areas of expertise.

For reasons that aren’t made public, these reviews were chosen because they are helpful, informative, honest, and have helped other customers make buying decisions.

What Kinds Of Products Are Best To Enroll?

When answering this question, you should think about two things. In the start, if your products come in different versions, like a shirt that comes in different colors, we suggest that you only list one or two of them.

Use the color choices that your brand thinks will shine in advertising and social media efforts as the line’s “heroes.” If that doesn’t work, choose a color that has sold a lot of similar things in the past, like the black version of a new sports watch.
To people who are new to your brand, new reviews will show that a product is still useful. On the other hand, use Amazon Vine to help get more reviews for an online product that isn’t selling as many as you’d like.
The search ranking of an ASIN that isn’t selling very well will go up with new good reviews. For newcomers to your brand, new reviews will show that a product is still useful. This product should keep getting Vine reviews until it gets 10 to 15 good ratings.
It should start to show up by then, along with validated buy reviews. If an ASIN has less than 30 reviews, it can still be part of the Vine program. As a reminder, you can’t bring anything adult, digital, or big and heavy.

The Impact of Vine Reviews on Amazon’s Algorithm

Vine reviews have a notable impact on how products are ranked and recommended on Amazon. Here’s how they influence the algorithm:

Enhanced Visibility in Search Results

Vine reviews contribute to a product’s visibility in Amazon’s search results. Products with numerous high-quality reviews, including those from Vine Voices, are more likely to appear at the top of search results.

For example, if you list a new gadget on Amazon FBA and it receives several positive Vine reviews, the algorithm will likely rank it higher, making it more visible to potential buyers.

Improved Conversion Rates

Conversion rate is a key metric for Amazon’s algorithm. Products that convert well—meaning they generate a high percentage of sales relative to their views—are favored by the algorithm.

Vine reviews can boost conversion rates by providing credible feedback that encourages more buyers to make a purchase. For instance, a product with several Vine reviews highlighting its features and benefits is more likely to convert viewers into buyers.

Influence on Buy Box Eligibility

The Buy Box is a prime spot on an Amazon product page where customers can add items to their cart or buy now. Winning the Buy Box is crucial for sales success. Vine reviews can influence Buy Box eligibility by enhancing the product’s overall rating and review count.

A product with positive Vine reviews and a high rating is more likely to win the Buy Box compared to products with fewer reviews.

Examples of Vine Reviews Affecting Algorithm Performance

Example 1: New Product Launch

Consider a company launching a new fitness tracker. Initially, the product may have few reviews and limited visibility. By utilizing the Amazon Vine Program, the company can get early feedback from Vine Voices.

These initial reviews will likely be detailed and unbiased, which can significantly boost the product’s visibility in search results. As a result, the fitness tracker gains traction, sees improved sales, and climbs the search rankings.

Example 2: Established Product Rebranding

An established brand decides to rebrand its popular kitchen appliance. To drive interest in the updated version, the company uses the Vine Program to gather reviews from respected Vine Voices. The influx of positive reviews helps improve the product’s search ranking and visibility.

Additionally, the updated product benefits from enhanced credibility, leading to increased customer trust and higher conversion rates.

Conclusion

We hope that this article has given you some good ideas for how to get reviews on Amazon in 2024. Use Amazon’s ways at the very least; they have no “gray areas” at all. Always follow Amazon’s rules. Remember: Using a black hat strategy to get a few extra sales isn’t worth risking your whole selling account for.

Tayyaba

Hi there! I’m the content marketing and branding specialist for AMZ One Step. I work hard to create engaging and informative content that helps our readers learn more about Amazon selling and how to make the most of their businesses. I love spending time with my family and exploring literary works when I’m not writing or working on projects.