What is Amazon Vine?
With “Amazon Vine – Club of Product Testers,” Amazon has established a program that allows sellers to generate reviews for their products. Similar to other tools (such as A+ Content), the Vine program was initially available only to Vendors. Since 2019, Sellers with brand registration can also benefit from it.
Since product reviews are a crucial factor for the Amazon algorithm in evaluating a product listing, Amazon Vine can be an important tool for new sellers or new products to obtain the necessary reviews. Without reviews, it is nearly impossible to achieve a good ranking or win the Buy Box. Therefore, the Vine program can significantly increase the awareness and visibility of a product. Additionally, reviews fundamentally help to convert potential customers into actual purchases.
How can sellers have products tested through Amazon Vine?
In principle, any seller with a professional seller account in Seller Central can access Amazon Vine under “Advertising.” There, individual products can be registered for the program using their ASIN. There is no direct exclusion of a specific product category. Sellers can also register only certain variations of a product; however, Amazon recommends providing all variations, as it increases the likelihood of receiving a positive review if the product tester can choose their preferred variant.
The following requirements must be met for products to participate in Amazon Vine:
- It is a brand registered in the Amazon Brand Registry.
- The product has been rated fewer than 30 times on the product detail page.
- It must be in “New” condition and available at the time of registration.
- It must be shipped using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and already be in stock.
- The listing must include a description and an image.
- The product must not be an erotic item.
- Additionally, it must not be an accessory but should be usable on its own. (Exceptions are accessories for common products, such as cases for popular mobile phones.)
Where do the products for Vine testers come from?
The test products are provided to the testers by the sellers and fulfilled via FBA. Each seller has a limited number of registrations available. These typically remain active for 90 days from the start date, unless all units are reviewed beforehand. If the limit is reached, sellers must wait for an existing Amazon Vine participation of a product to end before re-registering.
To ensure the anonymity of the reviewers, Amazon does not disclose customer data for Vine orders to the seller. However, such orders can be identified in the seller account statistics with a price of 0.
Are Amazon Vine reviewers obligated to write a (positive) review?
Reviewers in the Amazon Vine program are neither obligated to write a positive review nor to publish one at all. Regarding this, Amazon states: “We value honest opinions about the product – positive or negative.” This also means that negative reviews cannot be deleted as long as they comply with the community guidelines.
Since only Amazon customers can become Vine product testers if they receive an invitation, a certain level of quality control is ensured. Additionally, Amazon monitors active Vine participants and may remove them if they no longer meet the participation criteria.
Accordingly, only selected customers can become Amazon Vine members/product testers, as Amazon wants to prevent untrustworthy users from signing up solely for the free products.
How much does it cost to have products reviewed by an Amazon Vine tester?
Currently, registrations with Vine are free. If a fee were to be charged, it would be listed during the registration process on the “Registration Details” page. It is still unclear what costs marketplace sellers would have to expect.
Can sellers legally hire product testers outside of the Amazon Vine program?
To find Amazon testers, sellers have come up with various strategies in the past. However, the legal generation of reviews for Amazon products is only possible organically. It is definitely illegal to offer a reward for a positive review or to fabricate reviews.
While sellers do have some subtle options, these are very limited and should also be applied with caution. Accordingly, Amazon Vine testers may be the only way to gain more reviews for a product – especially in the period following the product launch.
