How to Handle Negative Reviews on Amazon

Sooner or later, all Amazon sellers get negative reviews. This is not the end of the world, though. You just need to approach them in the right way.

Keep reading to find out how to deal with negative Amazon reviews, proactively reduce negative feedback, and respond to negative Amazon reviews.

What Is a Negative Review on Amazon?

Negative Amazon reviews are bad shoppers’ feedback about your product or customer services. Apart from the textual complaint, a buyer can give a product star rating, ranging from 1 to 5 stars.

If a shopper rated your product over three stars, it is a positive review. If the product has less than three stars, it’s a bad review.

Example of a bad Amazon review

Many negative reviews can divert buyers from purchasing your product. Therefore, you can’t just ignore them. They matter for your reputation as a seller, ranking on Amazon, and actual sales.

Note. When you do product research, you should avoid products with customer issues. Seller tools allow you to identify such problems right on the Amazon search page.

Seller Assistant App will help you detect potential problems with the product. The IP Alert feature will show a red triangle on the notification bar. This means that there have been problems with the product in the past. The database of complaints is updated daily and automatically.

The Restriction Checker feature will show if you can sell a product on your account. A green "Lock" icon means that you can sell the item. The red "Lock" icon means that you are not eligible to sell this product on your account.

Seller Assistant Аpp’s Advanced IP Alerts help you avoid products with customer issues

Why Are Negative Reviews Important?

Negative reviews influence your reputation as a seller and the product’s sales capacity because people pay attention to them.

10 reasons why negative reviews matter

• more than 80% of shoppers trust online reviews, and over 90% read them;
• people trust other people's opinions much more than direct advertisement;
• bad reviews are indicators of shoppers’ behavior toward your product;
• some people tend to read bad reviews,
• negative reviews impact your SEO;
• bad feedback lowers product ranking and visibility since the Amazon search algorithm weights them;
• low ranking reduces customer loyalty and prevents recurring purchases;
• negative reviews reduce your chances of winning the Buy Box;
• negative Amazon reviews may show the problem with your product.

Also, though it’s a paradox, a brand seems less credible to shoppers if it has only excellent reviews.

Why Do Shoppers Leave Bad Reviews?

When you receive a bad review, it’s essential to know why. It will also help you to address customer complaints and improve your services.

Reasons for bad reviews

• issues with the product quality;
• listing problems;
• the product doesn’t look like in the picture;
• delivery issues;
• damaged or faulty product;
• the customer wants you to apologize;
• the shopper wants to save others from bad experiences;
• an offended buyer wants “revenge.”

How to Deal with Negative Amazon Reviews?

First, you need to identify if the negative feedback is relevant.

Questions to answer to qualify negative review

• Why is the buyer unhappy?
• Is the review fair?
• Is the complaint compliant with Amazon regulations?

If the negative review is relevant, you must take action. Try to fix the situation and inform a customer of your actions.

Note. There are instances when shoppers leave offensive, funny or inappropriate comments. Competitors may also intentionally give false negative Amazon reviews. If you think that has happened – you can ask Amazon to remove a review. However, you should provide substantial proof of that.

How to mitigate the impact of a negative review?

Ways to deal with negative reviews:

• contact a shopper to try and fix the problem;
• comment on a negative review;
• earn many positive reviews to mitigate negative review’s impact;
• ask Amazon to remove a review.

Many positive reviews can "hide" the negative feedback

Contacting a shopper to fix the problem

You can reach a customer through Buyer-Seller Messaging or email if available.

How to contact a negative reviewer step by step

Step 1. Apologize.

Step 2. Ask for the reason for the negative feedback.

Step 3. Openly explain your perspective on a problem.

Step 4. Tell what you’ve done to fix an issue and why it will not happen again.

Step 5. Show that you care about a shopper, and thank them for the review.

Note. Remember that Amazon doesn’t allow sellers to influence reviews, for example, by paying buyers or offering other incentives.

Responding to negative reviews

Sellers can comment on a negative review in the “Comments” section of the Product page.

Commenting on a negative review step by step

Step 1: Log in to your Seller Central;

Step 2: Scroll to the “Comments” section of the Product page;

Step 3: Find the review you want to comment on, and click “Add a comment.”

Step 4: Make sure that the comment identifies you as a seller and leave your comment.

Earning many positive reviews to mitigate negative reviews’ impact

Encourage shoppers to leave reviews by all possible legitimate means.

Methods to attract customer reviews

• ask shoppers for a review by emails with personalized review requests;
• adding to the product an insert with a request for review;
• request for reviews in your newsletter;
• encourage to leave a review via social media;
• use the “Request a review” button;
• enroll in Amazon Vine program.

Removing negative reviews

If a reviewer has left unfair or inappropriate feedback, you can ask Amazon to remove it.

Amazon’s review removal policy

• the review should refer solely to the product;
• reviews that compare prices, alternate options, and product availability are not allowed by Amazon;
• a review should not contain hate speech or abusive comments, propagate pornography or illegal conduct;
• a review should not collect personal information, like emails;
• a review should not have any kind of advertisement;
• a review should not request or offer compensation in exchange for content;
• a review should not contain feedback from competitors;
• multiple negative reviews by the same customer for a single product are prohibited;
• one-word-reviews are not allowed.

Final Thoughts

Negative reviews can harm your product sales in many ways. They affect product ranking and visibility. They lower your chances of winning the Buy Box. Also, they negatively influence your reputation as a seller since many people trust reviews as personal testimonies.

There are several ways to mitigate negative feedback. You can contact a shopper through Buyer-Seller Messaging and try to fix the problem; comment on a negative review; earn many positive reviews to mitigate a negative review’s impact, or ask Amazon to remove a review.

However, it’s much better to avoid problematic products proactively. When doing product research, you should ensure to stay away from products with customer issues. There are seller tools that allow you to identify such problems right on the Amazon search page. Seller Assistant Аpp’s Advanced IP Alerts can immediately tell you if a product has any sales restrictions or has led to problems with account health in the past.

Seller Assistant App helps you research the right product. This plugin combines an FBM&FBA profit calculator and many other features for sellers. With it, you’ll get access to Advanced IP Alerts, Quick View, Stock Checker, and Restrictions Checker in one tool.

Try Seller Assistant Аpp now. Register for our 14-day trial. Grow your Amazon business with confidence.