When Amazon was just a fledgling business startup, everyone in the business world had a good laugh at the absurdity of allowing customers to review and rate products. It turned out to be one the largest contributing factors to Amazon's success. Shoppers expect to see reviews on products before they purchase.
But for new products on Amazon, we run into a chicken and egg problem. You need sales so you can get reviews, but you need reviews so you can get sales. What's a seller to do? Amazon has you covered with Amazon Vine.
What is Amazon Vine?
As mentioned, today's shoppers have an enormous amount of information at their fingertips. They study a product's features and what others users have experienced with it.
To facilitate this process, Amazon created the Vine program, where trusted Amazon reviewers are asked to be Vine Voices and leave reviews on new items. With this program, everyone wins. Vine Voices get a free product, sellers get reviews, and shoppers get real reviews to help in the decision making process.
An important aspect to this is that sellers and shoppers understand that the Vine reviewer is under no obligation to leave a favorable review. As long as the reviewer follows Amazon guidelines, anything goes.
Is it easy to use?
Absolutely! The Vine program is open to any seller enrolled in Brand Registry. Items in FBA and already located within Amazon warehouses are eligible. Products have to be in a New condition, have less than 30 reviews, and have a filled out display page. Take a look at the interface for Vine and you will see just how easy it is.
The first step when registering a product is to enter the ASIN you want to enroll and click Begin enrollment. You will be asked how many units you want to offer. You will also be reminded of the enrollment ($200 at the time of this writing).
A quick note on the enrollment fee. The enrollment fee is only charged after the first unit is claimed. If the enrollment goes 90 days with no claims OR you cancel the enrollment before the first unit is claimed, the fee will not be charged.
After the product is successfully enrolled, you will see the enrolled product under Product Name (we removed it here to protect our client's privacy). To the right of the product you will find the Status and Launch Date. We think you can figure out what launch date means, so let's cover the range of statuses:
Action Required - The product is not currently visible to Vine reviewers because there is an issue. It may be a parent child relationship problem, not enough inventory in stock, or an issue with the Display Page or backend of the product.
Cancelled - This shows when the seller has cancelled the enrollment. The product will no longer be offered to Vine reviewers. If this was done before the first claim was made, the enrollment fee will not be charged.
Awaiting Reviews - Some of the claimed units have yet to have a review posted. You will see this if the number of claimed units is greater than Vine reviews.
Reviews in progress - Reviews are being posted but no more claims are available. Like Awaiting Reviews, claims will be greater than reviews. The difference here is that no more claims can be made.
Concluded - You get this when all of the enrolled units have been claimed and a review left. You also get this status when the enrollment reaches 90 days.
Available tells you the number of units you have in FBA. This number needs to be greater than the enrolled number, otherwise you are likely to get the Action Required status, which makes your product unavailable.
Enrolled / claimed shows the number of units you made available for review, up to the max of 30, and how many have been claimed. Vine reviews is how many of the claimed units have been reviewed.
Clicking into details doesn't offer much. There is a stop button in there, but as you see, there is one to the right of details as well. The only information not available on the main Vine page is how much the enrollment fee was at the time you enrolled.
Should I be aware of any restrictions?
A few. Virtual bundles are not eligible for review, though bundles you have sent to FBA are.
You also can't enroll products that are dependent on another, niche item to be usable. For instance, a phone case for the newest iPhone is eligible, since the iPhone has wide spread use. But a rechargeable battery that only fits a few models of high end digital cameras would not.
Finally, adult products are not eligible.
Wrap Up
Shopping online is all about trust. Amazon has curated a program that allows its customers to be your customers by facilitating trust. Just like we give more weight to reviews and recommendations of our friends, so do shoppers on Amazon.
Vine offers a simple and effective way to build that trust, giving shoppers the peace of mind they need in buying from a new brand. So consider what those trusted reviews could do for your brand, and enroll in Amazon Vine today!
We are full service marketplace agency, offering leading solutions to improve sales on Amazon, Wal-Mart, eBay and more. Whether you want to discuss Vine and be sure it is a viable option for you or cover something else, we are here to help. Visit us at www.arsndigital.com today to setup a free phone call.
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