Tips for Increasing Customer Feedback (and Sales) on Amazon

If you spend long enough perusing through Amazon.com's product pages, you're bound to discover some hilariously random and utterly useless offerings. Things like banana-shaped banana slicers, UFO detectors and bottle openers attached to a deer's rear! Even more bizarre, you'll be surprised to find that many of these products' prices are disproportionately high for what the item is. Who on earth would spend $60 on a horse head mask? Or, better yet, $200 on a book about how to avoid huge ships?!

The funny thing is that people are actually buying these products - even at those extortionate prices. Incredibly, this is only because the items skyrocketed in popularity following a steady stream of entertainingly facetious customer reviews. For exampe, consider this review of "How to Avoid Huge Ships" by Captain John W. Trimmer:

"As the father of two teenagers, I found this book invaluable. I'm sure other parents here can empathize when I say I shudder at the thought of the increasing presence of huge ships in the lives my children."

Or this one about the banana peeler:

"I tried the banana slicer and found it unacceptable. As shown in the picture, the slices are curved from left to right. All of my bananas are bent the other way."

So apparently, selling obscure items that are ripe for parody can do wonders for your e-commerce business.

While I'm not suggesting you sell something odd just so it goes viral (like the Three Wolf Moon Tee), attracts lots of tongue-in-cheek feedback and makes loads of sales, it most certainly is worthwhile enhancing your Amazon seller feedback score.

Seller Feedback Score
This is a rating of how customers feel about you as a seller. It has little to do with your product(s) and everything to do with the service you've provided them. Your score is imperative because on Amazon a high seller feedback score will improve your chances of winning the Buy Box for every one of your items. The more recent (last 30 days) positive seller feedback you gather from all of your sales put together, the more likely you are to win the Buy Box.

Not only does a consistently high seller feedback score impact the Buy Box, but it also builds up customers' trust in you. As Amazon itself says, "Your feedback rating is one of the most important measures buyers use when making purchasing decisions. To be a competitive seller, you must build up your feedback score."

Therefore, sellers must do whatever they can to keep their feedback score high as it impacts all their items and all their sales. In addition, it's extra important to impress customers simply because they aren't required to leave feedback; rather, it's left to their individual preference. In fact, Amazon claims that most sellers only receive feedback on 10 percent to 20 percent of their sales. This means that buyers are far more likely to complain and leave negative feedback when they encounter a problem, than leave positive feedback just because they're happy. However, if you impress them enough, they're sure to want to express their thanks in the form of positive feedback.

Keeping Your Seller Feedback Score High
Here's a list of dos and don'ts based on Amazon's own advice. Following these tips will not only prevent you from receiving negative feedback, but will hopefully also encourage an upsurge in positive feedback:

• DO respond to customers promptly.
• DO explain why you need to cancel an order.
• DO list your items correctly so that customers receive what they're expecting.
• DO provide tracking information for the package you've sent.
• DO NOT package the item without proper care.
• DO NOT pester buyers for feedback.

There you have it - a few simple ways to score you some great feedback on Amazon. Alternatively, you could just sell Uranium ore online and hope that it tops Amazon's "greatest hits" chart!

Shmuli Goldberg is director of marketing for Feedvisor, an algorithmic repricing platform that helps e-commerce retailers to keep their prices competitive.