Get Authentic Reviews with Amazon Vine Program in 2023

What’s your strategy to increase product awareness of your newly launched products? 

Amazon Vine Program helps you to generate valuable reviews from credible buyers. 

Studies show that 91 percent of people read reviews online, and 84% trust reviews as personal recommendations (Source). 

Product reviews matter for your Amazon business. They play a pivotal role in generating sales and promoting awareness among your customers. That’s why you need to create a process to encourage your customers to leave reviews after the purchase. 

Whether you have a slow-moving product or launched a new product recently, the Amazon Vine program can be the right solution for you.

In this article, let’s look at the Amazon Vine Program and see how it works for you.

Quick Guide:

1. What is Amazon Vine Program
2. What are the requirements to enroll in Amazon Vine Program
3. How much does Amazon Vine Program cost
4. Advantages of Amazon Vine Program
5. How to get started with Amazon Vine Program
6. Best Alternatives to get trusted reviews on Amazon
7. Final Thoughts

Amazon invites specific customers to become ‘Vine Voices‘  based on their reviewer rank. Amazon shares free products to these reviewers from participating brands and sellers.

What are the requirements to enroll in Amazon Vine Program?

Only vendors had access to Amazon Vine program earlier. Since 2019, sellers have also had access to this feature.

In order for you and your products to be eligible, you must meet the following criteria:

• Be a professional seller. 
• Be enrolled in the Amazon brand registry.
• Have fewer than 30 reviews or ratings on the product you wish to enroll under Amazon Vine program
• The item should be available under Amazon FBA in the ‘New’ condition.
• Have sufficient inventory.
• Products are launched at the time of enrollment.
• The enrolled product needs to have an image, title, and description on the listing page.
• No digital software, applications, or adult products

What products are not eligible for Amazon Vine?

Not all products are eligible for the Amazon Vine program. Items listed under restricted products are not eligible. Along with that,

• Products that require Amazon to bundle for review or delivery.
• Products that require reviewers to order another product to review. For example, you can’t enroll an ink cartridge under the program, which requires a printer to conduct the review.

You also need to keep in mind that certain products are not eligible for Amazon Vine Program. These include:

• Items sold in packages
• Heavy or bulk items
• Sample goods
• Hazmat goods
• Dropship items

Amazon does not clearly determine the qualifications of a Vine Voice but states that they invite based on the reviewer rank. A reviewer’s rank is determined by the effectiveness and helpfulness of the review. 

Have you ever observed that thorough reviews will often get more ‘helpful’ votes from shoppers?

Your product reviews must be insightful enough to the customers. Therefore, if you are a shopper who wants to be qualified for the Amazon Vine program, you should write detailed and unbiased reviews on the products that should help other shoppers. 

How much does Amazon Vine cost?

As of now, Amazon Vine is absolutely free of cost. Earlier, Amazon charged vendors a fee for each enrolled ASIN that ranged from $2500 each. 

Another important point to keep in mind when enrolling for Amazon Vine is that just because you enrolled in Vine does not mean you can expect positive reviews for your product. So you need to ensure that all the details you give on the product listing page match the exact product. 

Advantages of Amazon Vine Program for Sellers

The benefits of having solid reviews are obvious, isn’t it? But let me remind you of a few. 

• Increase in quality traffic so better conversions
• Increase brand awareness for newly launched products or slow-moving products
• Reviews build trustworthiness in a brand. 
• Products with more reviews get more sales, therefore rank high on the Amazon search results.  
• You’ll get a better understanding of how your audience perceives your product. This gives you more room to improve your product. 
• Reviews from Vice voice tend to carry more weight in the eyes of potential customers as they have credibility. 

How to get started with Amazon Vine Program?

To enroll in Amazon Vine, you need to follow the below-mentioned steps:

• Go to Amazon Seller Central home page and log in
• Click on Vine under Advertising tab
• Enter the ASIN you want to enroll in the search box
• Set up enrollment for the ASINs and give the number of units you want to make available for Vine Voice (up to 30).
• After registering the ASIN(s), keep tracking the progress through the enrollment details page by selecting the ‘Details’ button.

Amazon limits the number of ASINs that can be enrolled under the Vine program. You can enroll up to five ASINs per product. 

You need to provide free units of the product, and they are reviewed by Amazon Vine voices. Once you enroll, they can begin to request the product after 24 hours. After that, they analyze and start reviewing your product. 

You’ll have three tiers of enrollment. They are:

• Basic level – register 5 products
• Plus level – enroll 10 products
• Premium level – register up to 20 products

Best Alternatives to get trusted reviews on Amazon

Verified reviews are hard to generate, but they promote trustworthiness among your shoppers. While there are ample benefits from the Amazon Vine program, it may not be suitable for all the sellers. As I mentioned above, we have certain limitations to Amazon Vine. So if you or your products aren’t eligible for Amazon Vine, you can look at the other alternatives to the Amazon Vine program. Let me name a few of them:

Amazon Early Reviewer Program

Amazon Vine program is similar to the Amazon Early Reviewer program. However, the latter has an additional cost involved and allows only five product reviews. 

Automate your reviews with emails

Send a series of emails post-purchase and establish a connection with your customer. You can send emails after order confirmation, delivery, and after a few days of purchase encouraging them to leave reviews. This will enhance brand engagement and increase your chances of winning reviews on Amazon. 

SellerApp Review Request tool

SellerApp review request chrome extension will automate your work by enabling you to send multiple review requests from your seller central account in one go. Check out the free tool here. 

Want to learn more strategies to get trusted Amazon reviews? Take a look at this video.

Final Thoughts

Amazon closely monitors the active participation of Vine reviewers. Only the best reviewers stay as part of the Amazon Vine so you can peacefully participate in the program. 

If you wish to launch new products on Amazon in 2022, you should definitely use SellerApp product research to find profitable and trending products on Amazon. Try our 7-day free trial. Need more guidance? Then, you can talk to our consultant here. 

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