The Amazon Vine Program for Sellers: Top 5 Questions Answered

I wrote an article called Get to Know the Amazon Vine Program back in 2017. Though the program has remained largely unchanged, it has matured, and new questions have arisen from eComEngine’s customers and blog readers. Since Vine is now open to third-party sellers, I thought this topic would be worth revisiting. Here I'm addressing some of your most popular questions.

1) When should I enroll a product in the Amazon Vine Program for sellers?

You should always aim to enroll new products as soon as they launch. Enrolled products must be in their finished packaging state. This means that they will enter the Vine Voices pool in exactly the same manner that a customer will receive them upon a standard purchase. There can be no discrepancies. The Vine reviewer must have the same experience in receiving the complete product that any other customer would have.

2) What kinds of products are best to enroll?

There are two aspects to look at in answering this question. First, if your products include variations like a shirt available in different colors, I recommend only enrolling one or two options. Use the color options your company considers the heroes of the line, those that are planned to be featured in any advertising and social media campaigns. Alternately, select a color that is anticipated to sell the most units based on historical data of like items, such as the black colorway of a new sports watch.

Fresh reviews will show a product is still relevant to those who are new to your brand.

Secondly, use Amazon Vine to help boost reviews for a product that has a presence online, but isn’t meeting your targeted sales numbers. New positive reviews will help improve a slow selling ASIN’s search ranking. Plus, fresh reviews will show a product is still relevant to those who are new to your brand. Continue to use Vine for this product until it reaches 10-15 good reviews. By then, verified purchase reviews should begin to show up. ASINs remain eligible for the Vine program until they have reached 30 reviews on the page.

You should also note that adult, digital, and heavy and bulky items are not allowed.

3) How can I determine the value of Amazon Vine versus other advertising options?

Determining a cost per unit enrolled in Vine can vary greatly. Estimated Amazon Vine costs at the time of this writing come in at $2,500 for vendors and at no cost for sellers (although it is likely that this will change). The actual costs are not officially published and tend to be negotiated as part of a brand owner’s contract with Amazon.

Update: While Vine was "temporarily" free from late 2019 to 2021, the Amazon Vine enrollment fee is now $200 per parent ASIN. 

You can only enroll an ASIN in Vine once in its lifetime. However, I’ve seen as few as five units and as many as two dozen enrolled for a single ASIN. It’s all a matter of context: is the ASIN a brand-new product that needs strong attention at launch or simply a new variation of an existing top seller that would benefit from a few new reviews?

Considering Vine is most useful for boosting awareness for a product at the top of the funnel, like any other awareness-focused campaign, it’s challenging to attach a standard ROI. Vine’s value is as good as your product’s quality, function, and usefulness along with the advertising and promotion efforts supporting it. It’s a constant test and learn situation as you establish a baseline and develop performance indicators meaningful to your business. Then there is the factor of subjectivity: whether a Vine Voices reviewer posts a review, when it posts, and how they rate your product.

Therefore, it’s best to use Vine as one part of a larger multi-pronged advertising and promotion plan that targets different levels of the funnel: awareness, consideration, and conversion. I recommend including the cost of providing free Vine products to reviewers as part of your awareness-focused campaign budget since you cannot measure a direct return on sales like you would with sponsored ads. Though you can measure the effectiveness of Vine Voice reviews against an ASIN’s success rate in clicks, impressions, search ranking, and star rating and how these all correlate to any lift in sales.

4) What should I expect? How long does it typically take for the product to be reviewed?

You should anticipate seeing the first Vine Voice reviews approximately three weeks after Amazon has received the enrolled products. You have to account for the processing time at the Amazon distribution center, where the Vine-intended products are held and matched to the right reviewers for the job. Once a reviewer has selected an item, they need to spend some time with the item – using it, testing it, you name it – before making an accurate and honest assessment. Finally, each reviewer must decide whether to write the review as they are under no obligation to do so per Amazon’s policy. You will not be charged a fee if the enrolled product doesn't receive any reviews within 90 days of enrollment.

5) Do Vine reviews carry more weight with Amazon than typical verified purchase reviews?

Vine Voice reviews do carry significant weight, due in part to the rigorous process by Amazon that brought the reviewers into the program and matching them to your enrolled products based on their interests and areas of expertise. These reviewers are selected for their helpfulness, informativeness, and honesty among other undisclosed factors that have helped other customers through their purchasing decisions.

Vine reviews are expected to be thorough and honest, whether the experience with a product was a positive or negative one. They typically offer valid points of how a rating was determined and could serve as useful feedback for future product development. A verified purchase review could very well include these elements and more, but there are no guarantees.

As long as you fit Vine into your budget, you cannot go wrong using it.