Negative Review Manipulation (Prevention and Recovery)

Negative review manipulation is very real, but how can you spot Amazon review manipulation and prevent it from happening?

Amazon sellers do everything in their power to sell high-quality products and satisfy customers. That’s why it’s common to panic if you get a bad review.

Even though only 5-15% of Amazon reviews are negative, getting a low rating can result in a loss of sales. 

While sellers may be tempted to respond to every complaint, there’s one key fact that brands must remember: negative review manipulation is very real. In fact, millions of Amazon reviews are completely fake.

So, how can a seller spot Amazon review manipulation and prevent it from happening?

Amazon Negative Review Manipulation

Before we address this, let’s take a look at Amazon’s policy against review manipulation. 

The Amazon review policy states that any attempt to manipulate reviews, whether through direct or indirect contributions, is strictly prohibited. Examples of negative review manipulation include:

• Inauthentic/fake reviews
• Misleading reviews
• Incentivized reviews
• Review bombing
• Purchased reviews
• Review suppression
• Soliciting reviews
• Review trading

Let’s say you play by all the rules and don’t try to incentivize or solicit positive reviews. You notice an influx of negative reviews; while your immediate reaction is to panic, you realize there’s something suspicious. 

If sales are low or it’s during a slow season, how and why are you getting all these bad reviews? Perhaps your competitors are  review bombing you, which is when competitors leave multiple negative reviews on one or more of your products.

Why Negative Reviews Spike

Competitors are often the culprits, and they may use tactics such as review bombing, brigading, or other forms of spam reviews. These spam reviews could be applied to main products as well as their variations (to understand the difference, refer to the Amazon Variation Policy).

Negative reviews could also be from operational threats, meaning the reviews may come from individuals or brands you partner with. This can be due to listing changes or fulfillment issues.

Negative reviews vs Authentic Complaints

The most effective way for sellers to tell the difference is to read each review. 

Authentic customer reviews will usually mention the pros and cons and highlight a handful of issues, such as packaging or product quality. Fake reviews tend to be black-and-white; in this case, they will only mention how bad the product is and why no one should buy it.

Sellers can also click a user’s name and read their other reviews. If the user has rated multiple products, posted a combination of positive and negative ratings, and their reviews are very detailed (such as with long text and several pictures), then the user is likely legitimate.

The Impact of Negative Reviews

Negative reviews have a substantial impact on a seller’s revenue. Low ratings also negatively impact conversion rates, causing a domino effect on a seller’s performance. Low click-through rates and customer engagement can cause Amazon’s algorithm to rank your competitors’ listings over yours.

What about brand perception? While negative reviews do decrease customer trust, low ratings are also an opportunity to improve consumer retention, especially if you respond to and resolve complaints.

Related content: Amazon Review Downgrades Prevention

How Amazon Detects and Handles Review Manipulation

Amazon is constantly working to protect the integrity of its marketplace, ensuring it’s a safe place for consumers. 

Amazon’s anti-manipulation policy outlines what constitutes fake reviews and how they handle them. In short, any seller found to commit review fraud will be suspended or banned.

How does Amazon catch these bad actors? They use machine learning to dig deep into data from sellers and customers and review datasets spanning listings, ads, review history, and more. If AI finds risky behavioral patterns, Amazon will take action.

How to Identify Suspicious Review Activity

Another way Amazon can detect review fraud is by identifying sellers who have been victims of review bombing and other harmful practices. But identifying review fraud isn’t easy. 

That said, there are several key indicators that there are harmful review practices happening on your listings:

• Sudden influx of low ratings. If you receive multiple one-star ratings in a short period, this should raise concerns. Sellers should be especially wary if the reviews are anonymous and/or if they’re “ghost” reviews.

• Repetitive or irrelevant comments. Sellers should be concerned if the reviewer repeats the same phrases, goes off-topic, mentions details that aren’t relevant to your products, or provides extreme details (such as typing in all caps).

• Irregular timing patterns or review spikes. If you have a sudden surge of one-star reviews on a new product, or you get several reviews at once and then nothing, this is a red flag.

• Reviews from sketchy profiles. If the reviews are from unverified purchasers, they haven’t reviewed any other products, or if they only gave one-star reviews, this should set off alarm bells.

How to Respond to Negative Reviews

While the thought of being the victim of review fraud is scary, sellers shouldn’t jump to conclusions when they receive a negative rating. 

Always acknowledge the customer directly and be understanding. Find ways to resolve the issue. If the customer doesn’t want to fix the problem, a nice phrase like, “I’m sorry the experience didn’t meet your expectations,” will still address the customer while staying compliant with Amazon.

But what if you suspect a negative review is fake? Sellers can send a request to Amazon to remove the review. You can do this by following these steps:

• Document the evidence
• Contact Seller Support
• Click the “Report a Violation” button in your listing
• Submit your report

Seller Support will usually respond in 7-10 days. If you don’t hear from them in that time period, send a follow-up message directly to Seller Support.

It can be tempting to go against the grain and handle removing negative reviews yourself. This will only get you in trouble with Amazon. 

Here are things to avoid when you suspect you received a fake negative review:

• Don’t use third-party review tools
• Don’t offer an incentive to reviewers

• Don’t only acknowledge negative reviews

• Don’t let another team member contact or report the reviewer

Preventing Review Manipulation at Scale

Sellers can take small steps to prevent fake reviews in the future. These strategies will help protect your brand in the long run:

• Offering an excellent customer experience. If a customer enjoys their product, they will leave an honest yet positive review.
• Implement product quality control. Sellers should apply it at all steps of the supply chain. This way, sellers will have more oversight and control over their product’s quality.

• Ensure your listings are accurate. Oftentimes, customers leave a bad review if their listings are misleading or poorly written. Inaccurate listings will lead to poor performance over time, since negative ratings and sales losses will impact SERP results.

• Sign up for Brand Registry. With Brand Registry, sellers can protect their intellectual property and control their listings. Similarly, 

• Sign up for the Transparency Program. This is an option that allows brands to verify the authenticity of their inventory and listings. This will prevent unauthorized sellers from stealing their copyrights and creating fake product listing variations.

• Monitoring tools and alerts. While sellers shouldn’t use third-party tools to manipulate reviews, they can use integrations to monitor their listings and receive any alerts. Tools like FeedbackWhiz can detect sudden spikes in negative reviews and will notify you of the next best steps.

Recovering From Review Damage

After you report the negative reviews and get them deleted, you still may be dealing with the aftereffects. Recovering from low sales and financial losses isn’t an easy feat.

The key first step is to rebuild trust with your audience. The best way to do this is by building visibility. Invest heavily in ads and revamp your listings to perform better on Amazon SERPs. Utilize product promotions and advertise your sales. 

Over time, you’ll earn more clicks, which will translate to more conversions.

Competitive Review Management

While negative reviews and review fraud can dampen even the most successful business, great Amazon health is a growth lever. Sellers must optimize the customer experience, ads, and an effective sales strategy to build long-term customer trust and retention.

Even if you do all the right recovery tactics, your business may not be as successful as it was before. That’s when it’s time to consider partnering with an expert. An eCommerce agency can develop a reputation management strategy to protect your brand as you scale on Amazon. 

How can I request a customer review on Amazon?

Inside Seller Central, you’ll find a “Request a Review” button. This sends a message to the customer that’s compliant with Amazon’s Anti-Manipulation Policy. Never write directly to a customer, and avoid third-party review collection tools

What should I do if I’m accused of review fraud?

This depends on Amazon’s response. If you’ve been suspended, you must submit a Plan of Action to get your listings back. From here, do everything you can to proactively prevent review fraud.

Why shouldn’t I use third-party review tools?

Sellers can use third-party tools to monitor reviews, but not to collect them. Third-party review tools may collect ratings in a way that isn’t compliant with Amazon’s Anti-Manipulation Policy.