- What are Amazon Vine Reviews?
- Who can participate in the Amazon Vine program?
- Requirements for the test products
- How much does Amazon Vine cost?
- How do I register for the Amazon Vine program?
- How can I monitor my Vine reviews?
- How do I become a product reviewer on Amazon Vine?
- Are amazon reviewers allowed to keep the products?
- Conclusion
Only a few Amazon buyers leave a positive product review, even though they are satisfied with the product. Sellers suffer because with few reviews, the customer's likelihood of purchase as well as the conversion rate decreases. Amazon Vine is an Amazon-owned review service to generate reviews.
Within this program participating sellers and vendors provide products free of charge so that the product reviewers can test these products and publish customer reviews.
In this article, we explain what requirements you must meet as a seller or vendor to participate in Amazon Vine and how you can become a member.
What are Amazon Vine Reviews?
Amazon Vine invites customers who have provided insightful reviews for previous Amazon purchases to post opinions about new products to help customers make informed purchase decisions. The selected reviewers, also known as Vine Voices, receive the products for free and leave a review in return.
Next to the reviewer's username, the banner "VINE VOICE" is often - but not always - displayed. Alternatively "TOP 1000/ 500 REVIEWER" or/and "Vine Customer Review of Free Product" appears. You can see an example of such a review in the following screenshot:
Amazon Vine reviews are supposed to be independent and unbiased. Thus, the rating can be positive as well as negative. Sellers cannot influence, change or edit the reviews, because the they have no oppurtinity to contact the reviewers on amazon.
Who can participate in the Amazon Vine program?
The program is open to both sellers and vendors. Previously, the program was reserved for vendors only, but since the end of 2019, sellers can also register.
You must have a Vendor or Seller account and provide all the necessary information in Vendor or Seller Central. To protect the anonymity of product reviewers, products are shipped directly from Amazon.
You can find the terms and conditions for this program in Seller Central.
Requirements for the test products
A product participating in the Vine program must meet the following criteria:
- the product's brand is registered with the Amazon brand registry
- it has a maximum of 30 reviews
- it must be stocked on Amazon via Amazon FBA
- it must already be available at the time of registration
- The product must be in stock
- it must have a picture, description and title
- it is not an erotic item
Products are excluded from Vine if reviewers need an additional product to write a review. However, accessories to popular products, such as cases for popular cell phones, are allowed.
Merchants have no contact with product reviewers during processing. The goods are first sent to Amazon and then from Amazon to the reviewers.
How much does Amazon Vine cost?
Before Oct. 12, 2021, Vendors paid to participate in Vine depending on product, category, and review count. For Sellers, the program was free for up to five products.
Since Oct. 12, 2021, a registration fee of $200 per parent ASIN is charged for Sellers and Vendors. Furthermore, a maximum of 30 reviews is possible for one product. Thus, one review costs on average $6.67.
The fee is charged once per parent ASIN seven days after the first Vine review appears. If the product does not receive a review within 90 days, no registration fees are charged. You pay the registration for each country.
If you have already registered for the Amazon Vine program before 12/10/2021, you will not be affected by the changes.
How do I register for the Amazon Vine program?
You can find the Vine tab in Seller or Vendor Central under Advertising. Click on "Start registering products with Vine today".
You will then be taken directly to the page for registering new products.
Here you get an overview of current and past Vine registrations.
How to register a new product for Amazon Vine:
- Enter an ASIN in the text box and click "Begin enrollment".
- Review the information about your product
- Amazon recommends that when you register a product set, you select the "All product variations in stock are available to reviewers" option. Choose a different option if you want to be more specific about the variants requested by Vine members
- Enter the number of units you are enrolling in. You can register up to 30 products per ASIN
- First, you will see the registration fees that will be charged
- Confirm the registration, the fees incurred, and the terms and conditions.
Then you will see in the overview "Reviews pending", the start date, the available units in stock, the registered and claimed units, as well as received Vine reviews.
How can I monitor my Vine reviews?
In our tool AMALYTIX, we monitor daily the new reviews of your products. You can also filter for VINE reviews there:
The corresponding reviews will then be displayed in the tool and you can also export them there as a CSV file:
For more information on the subject, see Monitor Amazon reviews.
How do I become a product reviewer on Amazon Vine?
You cannot sign up or apply as a product reviewer yourself. Amazon invites trustworthy reviewers, but Amazon bases its selection on various parameters:
- Reviewer Rank: the more often your review is rated as helpful, the higher the rank.
- Feedback from other customers: Customers can rate the review, for example, as "useful"
- Review Rank: You must comply with Amazon's review guidelines, e.g. the text length should be between 70-300 words
- Recency of review: more recent reviews have a higher significance. Amazon expects well-reasoned reviews, these do not necessarily have to be positive
Are amazon reviewers allowed to keep the products?
Anyone who regularly requests and reviews products from Amazon will quickly become well acquainted with the parcel carrier. Over time, a lot of products, some of them bulky items, accumulate with the members. This naturally raises the question of what happens to the goods after the review. One of the product reviewers says: "You are obligated to keep the products for half a year, so you can't sell them off. Theoretically, Amazon can ask for them back during this period. Practically, that never actually happens. After the period, I get to keep the product." The Amazon Vine Club guidelines do not allow for a side income through resale. Another product reviewer gave an even longer period: "I have to keep them for two years and possibly answer questions about them." She therefore continued to use the products in everyday life.
Conclusion
Buyers base their purchasing decisions on reviews and thus products without reviews have a hard time. Amazon Vine can act as a jump start to increase sales of yet unknown or new products. It also helps customers make informed buying decisions.
However, retailers do not influence the rating. Participation in the Vine program is, therefore, no guarantee for positive reviews.
