How a 7-figure Amazon seller uses ShippingEasy to collect reviews and feedback

Guest Author: Jae Jun is a 7-figure Amazon seller and ShippingEasy customer

It’s no secret that reviews are the lifeblood of Amazon. The importance of Amazon feedback is why there is a throng of thriving black hat services. Sellers do whatever it takes to get reviews, even if that means going against the terms of service.

We first started using ShippingEasy to centralize our orders from our various online selling platforms.

• Amazon FBA
• Amazon FBM
• Etsy
• Walmart
• Woocommerce store #1
• Woocommerce store #2
• Prestashop store
• Manual and wholesale orders

When it came to communicating with customers, it became a nightmare going from one platform to another, logging in, finding the order and sending a response. We were so busy handling customer questions, feedback, and negative reviews, there was never enough time to handle outreach methods to consistently gather reviews.

It’s funny how negative reviews come in naturally, but the good reviews seem to take 10x longer.

Have a Clear Email Objective

At first, we used to send the same generic template to everyone.

“Thank you for buying xxxxx
We would appreciate…. blah blah drone drone dah bah uh”

The result?

Crickets.

Once we clarified the objective of every email to be sent, the proper campaign now goes out automatically based on the objective of the email we want to achieve.

• Asking for a review is not the same as sending a coupon to entice buyers
• Sending a coupon to a new email sign up is not the same as sending a coupon to a shopper who last purchased one year ago

With ShippingEasy’s Customer Marketing, selecting the campaign type based on our objective couldn’t be easier.
We especially love how it’s e-commerce focused.

There are plenty of software services that handle emails to Amazon customers. Very few automate email campaigns to customers across all channels with different campaigns.

The 32% Open Rate Subject Line that Fueled Our Growth

The subject line makes or breaks your email. How often do you open every email in your inbox and read it all the way through? If you’re like me, you have a finger hovering over the delete button as you go through the subject line.

Of all the follow-up emails asking for a review, how many have you responded to?

Likely none.

That’s because you smelled the cheese a mile away. Here’s our secret subject line that generates an open rate of 32%.

“Your Amazon order {{order.order_number}}”

It’s that simple.

It works because it is so direct, yet vague and plays to the buyer’s psychology.

“Your Amazon order xxxx” means different things to different buyers.

• “There could be something wrong with my order.”
• “It’s about my refund.”
• “What did I buy again?”
• “I didn’t authorize this purchase?!”

Then it’s up to you to get straight to the point and lead them to your objective.

Amazon Review and Feedback Request Settings

Getting the settings tuned and optimized is also key to our reviews.

• We do not do any of the following that would go against Amazon Terms of Service
• No free products in exchange for reviews
• No internal employees, friends or family leaving reviews
• No compensation offered for a review
• No discounts or coupons for a review

All we ask is for customers to openly and freely share with others how they feel about the product.

Depending on the type of product you sell, your review rate will differ, but even after Amazon’s latest change regarding personally identifiable information (PII), we are still receiving reviews at 1.4% of emails sent.

I can hear some snorting at the 1.4% number. Let me explain.

Review conversion rate = Number of reviews past month / Number of orders past month

Consider that:

• A large number of customers opted out of receiving emails
• Emails sometimes bounce
• Some emails are sent to a spouse’s inbox
• People changed jobs
• Recipients may be on vacation

A 1.4% review rate is nothing to laugh at. Continue getting 1.4% and within a year, if you sell 100,000 units, you’ll end up with 1,400 reviews. You’ll have a strong review and feedback foundation as social proof in no time.

From ShippingEasy, choose the Amazon campaign.

Our targeting conditions look like this for our most generic email.

This is just one of our review collection campaigns. Below is how we interpret each element.

Order Total

We sell consumable goods such as body wash for sensitive skin, bathroom freshener, and cleaning products below $15, so there’s no reason for us to target by order value. If you sell expensive items, it would be a good way to segment your list further and tailor the message based on order value.

First Time Buyer and Contact Status

Our products are purchased multiple times a year by repeat customers. There’s no reason to annoy them by requesting a review every time they purchase.

Product Category

From ShippingEasy’s product catalog, we’ve grouped the products by category mainly to segment in these emails. By setting the category, we can create different messages per category. The email sent to those who purchase baseball goodies is vastly different to the Martha Stewart crowd.

Buyer Feedback

Here we apply the same logic as first-time buyer and contact status above, where I prefer not to annoy people who have already left feedback.
We set the timer to 10 days after the order has shipped to give enough time for people to receive. This way, FBA will take 2-3 days and that gives the customer 7 days to use it before the follow-up email is sent.

For other channels, you should adjust the number of days depending on your shipping plans. First Class shipments will take anywhere from 2-5 days, so in this case, it is better to adjust your FBM or direct sales email settings to 14 days.

The Result?

With the right subject line, message, and settings in your campaign, you can get responses like this.

“Hi Hanna. I LOVE this damn thing and movie trailers! So thank you!
I have left a review and I will tell you I’ve spent over $10,000 on amazon over the years and have only written a few reviews. You deserve it.”

This is a screenshot we save and share in our slack channel to remind our team what we are trying to achieve with the emails. With negative reviews easily outnumbering the good reviews by 10 to 1, when we receive this type of message, it makes our day. There are many people who just need a little nudge to take action, and our friendly emails using ShippingEasy do just that.

Ready to start building your reputation by increasing your Amazon Feedback? Click below to start your 30-day free trial of the entire ShippingEasy platform!

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Guest Author: Jae Jun is a 7-figure Amazon seller, managing partner of The Crown Choice and founder of Gorilla ROI. He has over a decade of online marketing and sales experience and specializes in supercharging operations by creating systems to increase ROI and margins.