Behind the Scenes of Amazon's 5-Star Rating System

If you're a relatively new seller on the Amazon marketplace, you might be trying to understand how Amazon customer feedback works.

For example, what's the difference between a "review" and "feedback"? Does a customer's rating remain public after it has been published? How does all of this impact my sales revenue?

These are all good questions.

In this post, I'll briefly touch upon a few of the ways that Amazon shoppers can express their feedback.

Private Message

Before we discuss the topic of public ratings, I thought we should first address a somewhat overlooked form of customer feedback: direct messages from buyers. When I say "overlooked," it's not to imply that sellers frequently ignore incoming customer messages. Quite the opposite - Amazon actually measures seller responsiveness as a key performance metric and says to "Respond to buyer messages within 24 hours, including weekends and holidays. Auto-responders are not considered a valid response."

So, clearly, if you want to succeed on Amazon.com, you must get in the habit of swiftly responding to buyer messages. What can be less obvious, however, is the importance of such private messages on a seller's business. Like any form of feedback, a direct message offers valuable insight into buyer concerns and preferences. In addition, a private email gives the seller a chance to correct potential issues before they are transferred to the public domain.

Judging by the "Contact Seller" form, it's apparent that many shoppers use this as a conduit to share feedback with sellers. Here are just a few of the "Subject" lines that a shopper can choose from when contacting the seller:

Where's My Stuff?
Cancel Order
Can You Ship Faster?
Received Wrong Item
Received Damaged Item
Received Defective Item
Return Policy
Refund Policy

So, the next time a customer sends you a private message with one of these headlines, you might actually want to thank them for keeping it private!

Public Feedback

Not all feedback is negative. Likewise, not all feedback is private.

When a customer buys from you on the Amazon marketplace, he or she is entitled (but not obligated) to rate the transaction by leaving public seller feedback. Seller feedback:

Is visible on your seller profile once it's published
Should be seller-focused, not product-focused
Is based on a 5-star system
Includes a few open-ended comments from the shopper
Impacts your Amazon Account Health metrics
Influences your ability to win the Buy Box
Can be published by the customer within a 90-day window
Can be removed by the buyer, but must be done within 60 days of publication

With public feedback playing such an important role for third-party merchants, many sellers develop strategies to maintain a pristine seller reputation. Some turn to manual solicitation, while others use automated platforms, such as our FeedbackFive tool.

Public Reviews

Although sellers have been known to use the words "review" and "feedback" interchangeably, they're actually two different entities in the Amazon world. In fact, we've written quite extensively on this topic, such as our popular article, "Feedback vs. Product Reviews: What's the Difference?". In case you don't have time to read the full post, allow me to briefly summarize it.

Reviews:

Appear on the product's detail page (not the seller's profile) once published
Should be product-focused, and not seller-focused
Use a 5-star rating scale and customer comment system (similar to feedback)
Impact an item's visibility on the Amazon marketplace
Can be submitted by anyone, not just those who have purchased via Amazon.com
Can be removed, but sellers should never ask buyers to do so
Have additional guidelines as specified by Amazon

It's no surprise that merchants involved with private labeling and bundling are particularly interested in review solicitation and tracking. In reality, any Amazon seller could glean valuable insights from product ratings. Such information can especially be useful when making sourcing decisions, restocking, or venturing into new product categories.

A World of Customer Feedback

As you can see, customer feedback plays an important role on the Amazon marketplace. Smart sellers take steps to proactively manage such feedback, thereby laying the groundwork for happier customers and stellar reputations.