Amazon program trades merchandise for customer reviews—as long as they are honest
Amazon wants shoppers to test merchandise and then share their unbiased opinion.
Amazon Vine is an invitation-only program that provides members with free products in exchange for their honest reviews. The merchandise is provided by participating vendors.
The program was created to provide customers with more details, and help them to make more informed purchase decisions. Participating companies — as well as Amazon — do not influence, modify or edit the reviews, according to the company’s website.
Members, who are called Vine Voices, are chosen based on their reviewer rank, which includes how helpful shoppers rate their reviews, as well as their demonstrated interest in the types of products that are featured in the program. More weight is given to recent reviews, and negative reviews do not impact a reviewer ranking, according to Amazon.
Vine Program reviews are identified on Amazon’s site with a green stripe. In addition to limiting the total number of Vine reviews displayed for each product, the program also features controls that will publish early reviews for new products that have been unable to generate enough organic reviews, an Amazon spokesperson said in a Business Insider report.
“We want the Voice program to reflect the best of our growing body of customer reviewers,” the site reported. “Customers tend to value substantive, informative, detailed and objective reviews, regardless of whether the review is positive, negative, or neutral.”
Despite suppliers issuing merchandise for review, Vine Voices members are not compensated for participating or writing reviews. Other rules include that contributors cannot manipulate content or features, are share false, misleading, or inauthentic content, according to Amazon’s guidelines.
Amazon Vine is an invitation-only program that provides members with free products in exchange for their honest reviews. The merchandise is provided by participating vendors.
The program was created to provide customers with more details, and help them to make more informed purchase decisions. Participating companies — as well as Amazon — do not influence, modify or edit the reviews, according to the company’s website.
Members, who are called Vine Voices, are chosen based on their reviewer rank, which includes how helpful shoppers rate their reviews, as well as their demonstrated interest in the types of products that are featured in the program. More weight is given to recent reviews, and negative reviews do not impact a reviewer ranking, according to Amazon.
Vine Program reviews are identified on Amazon’s site with a green stripe. In addition to limiting the total number of Vine reviews displayed for each product, the program also features controls that will publish early reviews for new products that have been unable to generate enough organic reviews, an Amazon spokesperson said in a Business Insider report.
“We want the Voice program to reflect the best of our growing body of customer reviewers,” the site reported. “Customers tend to value substantive, informative, detailed and objective reviews, regardless of whether the review is positive, negative, or neutral.”
Despite suppliers issuing merchandise for review, Vine Voices members are not compensated for participating or writing reviews. Other rules include that contributors cannot manipulate content or features, are share false, misleading, or inauthentic content, according to Amazon’s guidelines.