The Amazon Vine Program for Vendors and Sellers: A Guide
Launching a new product on Amazon is challenging for a lot of reasons. One very big reason is that strong reviews are a very important part of marketing that product, from winning the Buy Box to placing highly in product rankings when a customer searches for certain keywords.
But, of course, a new product doesn’t have any reviews. And as a result, most people won’t ever see it and the few that do don’t want to buy a product with no reviews. So what can Amazon vendors and sellers do?
That's where Amazon Vine comes in.
What Is Amazon Vine?
Amazon Vine is a review program that Amazon provides in order to help brands gather verified quality reviews for their products. The brand sends Amazon the product, and Amazon has a bench of reviewers they send the product to. These reviewers get a free product from the brand, and in exchange they provide their (honest) review.
As Amazon puts it on their website: "Amazon Vine invites the most trusted reviewers on Amazon to post opinions about products to help their fellow customers make informed purchase decisions. Amazon invites customers to become Vine Voices based on the insightful reviews they published on their past purchases and helpfulness of their reviews. Amazon offers Vine members free products that have been submitted to the program by participating selling partners. Vine reviews are the independent opinions of the Vine Voices and the selling partners cannot influence, modify or edit the reviews."
how much does Amazon Vine cost?
Enrolling in Vine used to cost thousands of dollars for each ASIN and be available by invitation only, but as of Oct. 12, 2021, Amazon only charges a $200 enrollment fee per parent ASIN (although you will have to cover the costs of shipping your products).
You will be charged that fee seven days after the publication date of your first Vine review. You will also have to pay the fee for each country in which you enroll in the program, even if it's the same ASIN.
If you do not get any reviews after 90 days, you will not be charged the fee.
How Do I Enroll in Amazon Vine?
You can enroll in Amazon Vine by clicking on "Advertising" and then "Vine." If your brand is registered, you can enter the ASIN of the product you want to gather reviews for and then click on the "Begin enrollment" button.
If your product is accepted, you will send some samples to Amazon, who will reach out to their "Vine Voices" to let them know that this product is available. Amazon will start by offering it to reviewers who are in your product category before offering it to all reviewers if there is still remaining inventory after a few weeks.
Keep in mind that this program is available only to ASINs with fewer than 30 reviews. Once you hit 30 reviews, the ASIN will be removed from the program.
How Do I Track Vine Enrollment Fees?
To track the money you are paying into the program in Seller Central, click on "Reports" and then "Payments." The fees should be listed under the Transaction View on the Payments Dashboard.
How Do Sellers/Vendors Benefit From Vine?
The most obvious way sellers and vendors benefit from Vine is by getting their products visibility and credibility with reviews. It’s a helpful program for big and small brands alike, as it’s a good way to generate reviews quickly (and it’s the only Amazon-sanctioned way to generate reviews).
But there are other benefits, too. Reviews also serve as content generation, particularly when a qualified Vine Voice writes a robust review. This, along with good A+ content, boosts the product in organic search results and further heightens its visibility to Amazon customers.
Another way that Vine can be beneficial is helping sellers and vendors identify potential manufacturing mistakes or other issues. While it’s not ideal to pay the money for a product that does poorly with reviewers, in some cases it is more valuable for companies to receive this early feedback and make adjustments to the product before they launch in other channels besides Amazon.
When Is Amazon Vine Not Worth It?
Vine is generally a good investment for companies seeking to give new products a boost, but there are situations where you would want to hold off on paying the fee and sending the product to reviewers.
The most obvious situation would be when the product would likely receive middling to bad reviews. Ecommerce companies should thoroughly vet their products before enrolling in the program to ensure that when the product does arrive, the reviewer will be impressed. And that means more than just having a good product: the product page should also accurately reflect the qualities of the product, or you might get a bad review anyway due to the reviewer expecting something else.
Another thing Amazon sellers and vendors should be aware of is they need to closely monitor the return on investment (ROI). It’s helpful if you’ve already done a few Vine enrollments so you can see how sales were impacted after you gathered reviews for an ASIN through the program. Some companies don’t bother to look too deeply into the data, but by monitoring sales after you gather reviews, you can determine if the cost of the program is worth it. Don’t just assume that that is the case.
That said, tracking data in both Vendor Central and Seller Central is a challenge, because you have to manually download reports. If you want to better track your data, there are a few methods available, and we have produced a whitepaper to help you decide. It’s available for a free download below.
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