How to Get More Reviews on Amazon (Within Amazon’s Rules)

The way to get more reviews on Amazon is to use the tools Amazon provides, mainly the Request a Review button in Seller Central, and to make the product and listing good enough that buyers want to talk about it. Brand-registered sellers can also enroll new products in Amazon Vine to get early, honest reviews. Never offer anything in return for a review, never ask only happy buyers, and never ask for a positive review.

Amazon is stricter about reviews than most platforms. Its rules cover what you can say, how often you can ask and what you can put in the box, and breaking them can lead to removed reviews, suppressed listings or a suspended selling account. This guide covers the methods that work inside those rules.

Product reviews vs seller feedback

Amazon has two separate rating systems, and sellers often mix them up.

• Product reviews are about the item itself. They appear on the product detail page, are shared by every seller offering that product, and drive most buying decisions.
• Seller feedback is about your service as a seller: shipping speed, packaging, communication. It appears on your seller profile and affects your account health.

This guide is about product reviews. If your problem is a negative rating on your seller profile, our guide on removing Amazon seller feedback explains what can be done there.

What Amazon’s rules allow and prohibit

Amazon’s community guidelines and seller policies set out what sellers may do. Details change, so check the current Seller Central help pages, but the core rules have been stable for years.

Allowed	Not allowed
Using the Request a Review button in Seller Central	Offering refunds, discounts, free products or gifts in exchange for a review
Sending a neutral review request through Buyer-Seller Messaging	Asking for a positive review, or asking only buyers who seem happy
Enrolling eligible products in Amazon Vine	Asking a buyer to change or remove a review
A neutral package insert that asks for honest feedback	Inserts that steer unhappy buyers to contact you instead of reviewing
Replying to customer questions and fixing product issues	Reviews from yourself, family, employees, friends or paid review services
Improving the product based on critical reviews	Reviewing or down-voting competitors’ products

These rules sit alongside the FTC’s 2024 rule on consumer reviews, which bans buying fake reviews and offering incentives that depend on a review being positive. Amazon has also taken legal action against people who sell fake reviews, so treat review shortcuts as a real account risk, not a gray area.

Step 1: Use the Request a Review button

The Request a Review button is the simplest compliant tool, and it is the one most sellers underuse.

1. In Seller Central, open your orders and select an individual order.
2. Look for the Request a Review option on the order details page.
3. Confirm the request. Amazon sends the buyer a standardized message asking for a product review and seller feedback.

The message is written by Amazon, so you can’t customize it, and that is part of why it is safe. It can be used once per order, within a window that opens a few days after delivery and closes about a month after. The exact window is shown in Seller Central.

Sending requests one order at a time is slow for busy sellers, so many use automation tools that press the button on a schedule. If you do, choose a tool that only triggers Amazon’s own request and doesn’t send extra messages or filter which buyers get asked. Asking every eligible buyer is what keeps the process fair.

Step 2: Or send a neutral message instead

Some sellers prefer to write their own request through Buyer-Seller Messaging. Amazon allows this, but with tight limits: the message must be neutral, must not mention incentives or ask for a positive review, and should not include marketing content. You shouldn’t send a separate message request and also use the Request a Review button on the same order.

A compliant message can be short:

Hi, thanks for your recent order of the stainless steel kettle. If you have a moment, we’d appreciate your honest review of the product on Amazon. It helps other customers decide and helps us improve. Thank you.

Notice what it doesn’t say: nothing about five stars, nothing like “if you had any problems, contact us first,” and no discount code. Wording like that is where sellers get into trouble.

Step 3: Consider Amazon Vine for new products

New listings face a cold-start problem. Buyers hesitate to purchase a product with no reviews, and without purchases there are no reviews. Amazon Vine is Amazon’s own answer to that.

Vine is available to sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. You provide free units of an eligible product, and Amazon offers them to reviewers it has invited into the program, known as Vine Voices. They write honest reviews, which are labeled as Vine reviews, and you have no contact with them and no say over what they write. Amazon may charge an enrollment fee depending on the program terms at the time; check Seller Central for current details.

Vine is useful, not magic. If the product has a flaw, Vine reviewers will say so, and those reviews will sit at the top of a new listing. Treat it as a way to learn what real buyers will think, and fix problems before you scale up advertising.

Step 4: Make the product worth reviewing

Requests only work if buyers have something to say. The biggest drivers of reviews are a product that meets or beats expectations and a listing that sets those expectations accurately.

• Match the listing to reality. Honest dimensions, materials and photos reduce “not as described” reviews. Promising too much produces disappointed buyers, and disappointed buyers write reviews.
• Answer the questions buyers ask. Recurring questions in the Customer Questions section usually point to something missing from the listing. Add it.
• Read your critical reviews for patterns. If several mention a lid that doesn’t seal, that’s a product fix, and fixing it is the fastest way to better future reviews.
• Package for the unboxing. Damage in transit is a common cause of one-star reviews. Better packaging prevents them.
• Include clear instructions. A simple setup guide in the box reduces “couldn’t get it to work” reviews.

Step 5: Use package inserts carefully

A product insert can ask for a review, but it has to follow the same rules as a message. It may thank the buyer and invite honest feedback. It may not offer a gift or warranty extension for a review, ask for a positive review, or suggest that unhappy customers contact you instead of leaving one.

Inserts are a common source of policy violations because they are printed in bulk before anyone checks the wording. Have someone who knows the rules read the insert text before it goes to print. If you want to include customer service contact details, put them in a separate, neutral line (“Questions about setup? Contact us at…”) that isn’t tied to reviews.

A worked example: launching a kitchen product

Here is an illustrative scenario. A small brand launches a new silicone food storage set. It is brand-registered, and the listing has no reviews.

1. Before launch, the team checks the listing for accuracy and has a friend who has never seen the product try to set it up from the instructions alone. Two confusing steps get rewritten.
2. At launch, the brand enrolls the product in Vine with a modest number of units. Over the following weeks, a handful of Vine reviews appear. Most are positive, but two mention that the smallest lid is hard to close.
3. In parallel, the team switches on a tool that sends Amazon’s Request a Review to every order inside the allowed window. No other messages are sent.
4. After reading the reviews, the brand adjusts the small lid with its manufacturer and updates the listing photos to show how it closes.

Over the next few months, reviews arrive steadily as orders grow. The lid complaint appears less often in newer reviews. The exact numbers depend on sales volume and the category, but the pattern is the useful part: honest early reviews showed the brand what to fix, and consistent requests turned ordinary buyers into reviewers.

Mistakes that get sellers in trouble

• “Free product for a review” deals. Offering refunds or free items in exchange for reviews, including through social media groups or third-party sites, breaks Amazon’s rules and can breach the FTC rule.
• Asking friends and family. Amazon’s systems look for connections between reviewers and sellers. Reviews from people close to the business are removed and can put the account at risk.
• Diverting negative feedback. “Contact us before leaving a review” in a message or insert is treated as trying to manipulate reviews.
• Multiple requests per order. Sending the Request a Review button and your own message, or following up repeatedly, goes beyond what Amazon allows.
• Merging unrelated variations. Grouping unrelated products under one listing to share reviews is a known abuse, and Amazon may split them and remove the benefit.
• Attacking competitors. Leaving negative reviews on competing products or reporting them in bad faith is prohibited and easy to trace.

When it’s worth getting help

A seller with a handful of products can manage all of this in Seller Central. It gets harder with a large catalog, several marketplaces, or a brand whose reputation also depends on reviews off Amazon, such as Trustpilot, Google and social media. Our ecommerce reputation management page explains how we help online sellers keep reviews honest and responses consistent across platforms. For collecting reviews on your own site, see how to display reviews on your website.

Frequently asked questions

Is it allowed to ask for reviews on Amazon?

Yes, within limits. You can use the Request a Review button in Seller Central or send one neutral request through Buyer-Seller Messaging. You can’t offer anything in return, ask for a positive review, or ask only buyers you think are happy.

Can I give a free product in exchange for an Amazon review?

No, outside of Amazon Vine. Offering free products, refunds or discounts for reviews breaks Amazon’s rules. Vine is the approved way to put free units in front of reviewers, and Amazon, not you, chooses who reviews.

Why did my Amazon reviews disappear?

Amazon removes reviews its systems think are connected to the seller, incentivized, or otherwise against its guidelines. Genuine reviews are sometimes caught too. Asking every buyer through Amazon’s own tools and avoiding any incentives lowers the chance of this happening.

How long after delivery should I request a review?

Amazon’s Request a Review button becomes available a few days after delivery and closes about a month later. Asking once the buyer has had time to use the product, but while the purchase is still recent, usually works best.

Can I remove a negative Amazon product review?

Only if it breaks Amazon’s guidelines, for example if it is about shipping rather than the product, contains offensive content, or is clearly fake. You can report it to Amazon. You can’t ask the buyer to change or remove it.