How an Amazon Seller Went from 10 to 100 Reviews per Month

Jerry Jones didn’t come from an eCommerce background. Neither did the business he worked for, Lighting and Locks.

But around 2009, this small brick-and-mortar store in Joplin, Missouri, started selling online. Their website allowed them to reach more customers, but selling on Amazon allowed them to explode into nationwide success.

Selling online, and especially through a marketplace like Amazon, is a lot different than selling face-to-face in your local community. In person, customers can see and touch the products, and your employees can build trust with patrons by talking with them personally. And those happy customers can tell their friends and family about their experience, sending more potential buyers your way.

On Amazon, shoppers recognize Amazon’s brand more than yours, and communication with customers is limited. This can make it harder to build trust and benefit from word-of-mouth advertising. But Lighting and Locks made the transition from the physical store to the “Everything Store” look easy.

The secret? Building that trust online through plenty of honest reviews and proactive customer service. Let’s look at how this brick-and-mortar store became a trusted online merchant with FeedbackFive.

The Lighting and Locks Story

Founded in 1996, Lighting and Locks sells all kinds of ceiling fans and light fixtures for both commercial buildings and homes. When Jerry joined the company, he originally helped with inventory.

“And then the owner decided he wanted to talk about building a website one day,” Jerry said. “And I just casually mentioned, ‘Oh yeah, I kind of do that on the side.’ I saw the big giant light bulb go off in his head, and then it just kind of went from there.”

They started selling on their own website around 2009, then on Amazon a few years later.

“It's really a place to expand the business, get seen by far more customers than just our website could with advertising and things,” Jerry said. “Our owner had the foresight to see it was going to be big, and we kind of needed to get in on it and get everything set up.”

As of 2022, Amazon was the biggest sales channel for Lighting and Locks, generating about $750,000 in sales per month, even in their slower season. Instead of selling just to Missouri, they sell all over the United States and occasionally in Mexico as well.

Building a Trustworthy Reputation

How can Amazon sellers gain shoppers’ trust, in them and in the products that they sell? Through seller feedback and product reviews, of course! But those can be hard to come by.

Initially, Jerry shared, Lighting and Locks gained reviews and feedback on Amazon either by sending manual reminders or by relying on Amazon’s occasional automated requests. Or, they hoped buyers would think to leave feedback all by themselves (a very rare occurrence). But with all these methods, the results came slowly.

One day, Jerry was buying something on Amazon himself. “I checked out the seller and said, ‘Hey, they’ve got a lot of reviews. That’s pretty cool. I wonder how they do that.’”

Later, he received a nice automated email asking him to leave feedback for the seller.

“So I asked the seller, ‘I see you’re using this company to help you get reviews. How do they work for you?’” he said.

The other seller shared a glowing review of FeedbackFive. Lighting and Locks signed up for FeedbackFive in 2014, set up an automated email campaign, and saw an instant improvement in their seller feedback.

When we started with FeedbackFive, I mean, we jumped from maybe ten reviews a month to close to 100 in our busy months. It was just like an explosion.

Later on, Amazon updated its messaging policies to limit sellers to one request for feedback and/or a product review per order. Some sellers felt that this reduced the usefulness of feedback automation software, but not Jerry.

“Even though Amazon has forced everybody to scale back how many times they send out for reviews, I think it's still a very, very great tool,” he said.

Why? Because he still sees a difference in the feedback percentage his store receives compared to their competitors.

“They have ratings in the high 80s and 90s, and right now… ours is up in the high nineties to 100,” Jerry said.

Given that excellent feedback increases the chances of a seller winning the Buy Box and qualifying for other Amazon perks, Jerry sees that extra positive feedback as very important to the business’s success.

Plus, he knows it has gained new customers by imitating that word-of-mouth advertising that works so well offline.

We get customers who tell us the only reason they ordered from us is because we had so many good reviews as opposed to the others. And I know that there's no way we could have gotten as many reviews as we did organically.

Proactive Customer Service

Besides requesting feedback, Jerry uses FeedbackFive’s alerts feature to monitor negative feedback and respond quickly.

“I like that it instantly tells you as soon as you get a negative feedback on your seller score,” he said. “That way you can address it with the customer and hopefully get it resolved.”

Customers shopping on the massive Amazon marketplace don’t always realize that their feedback will be seen, much less that their experience could actually be resolved. When they leave negative feedback, and the seller contacts them quickly to make things right, it makes an enormous impression.

“Being that proactive has surprised a bunch of people,” Jerry said. “They're like, ‘Wow, I didn't think anybody monitored that!’”

Jerry also appreciates that the eComEngine Customer Success team is proactive when helping him and his business: asking for feedback on the tool, keeping him updated on product changes, and providing a diverse suite of software tools for Amazon sellers.

Honestly, you guys make it so I wouldn’t consider going somewhere else.

He remembers a time when the team recommended a change to his account that would save him money, rather than letting him pay extra.

“That makes me want to spend more money with you guys!” he said.

Because of his good experience, Jerry now recommends FeedbackFive to other sellers, just as it was recommended to him. His reasoning is simple: “FeedbackFive is just great for getting reviews for a business. … definitely consider FeedbackFive.”

If you’re a current FeedbackFive customer who would like to share your story in an upcoming case study, please contact us.