Vine is an official evaluation program launched by Amazon. Amazon invites trusted reviewers (Vine Voices) to post their reviews on new products to provide reference for other buyers.

Participating sellers can provide products for free so Vine Voices can post product reviews. Participation in the Vine program can help increase seller visibility and promote sales of slow-moving and new products. From this perspective, the Vine plan seems to be beneficial to both the seller and the buyer. However, as a seller, you need to ask yourself these 5 questions before participating in the Vine program.

1. When should I register for the Vine Plan for my product?

You should always aim to promote new products. The registered product must be in the finished packaging state. This means that the product will participate in Vine Voices in exactly the same way that customers will receive at the time of standard purchase, and cannot be different from ordinary products. Vine’s reviewer must have the exact same buying experience as other ordinary buyers.

2. Which product is suitable for registration?

There are two aspects to answering this question. First, for example, if your product is a shirt with multiple color variations, it is recommended that you only register 1-2 variations. Use what you think is the best-selling variant of the series, and plan to use it in any ad and social media campaign. Or, based on historical data for similar products, such as black sports watches, choose a color that you expect to sell the most.

Next, use the Vine program to help increase product reviews that have been on the shelves but haven’t reached their target sales. Positive reviews can improve low ASIN rankings. In addition, new reviews can increase the relevance of other new products in your brand. Continue to use the Vine plan until you have accumulated 10-15 positive reviews. By then, VP comments should begin to appear. Until 30 comments are received on the page, ASIN is still eligible for the Vine program.

3. How to judge the value that Vine plan and Amazon advertising will bring?

Determining the unit cost of signing up for the Vine program can vary widely. As of this week, the estimated supplier cost for registering an ASIN in Vine is $ 2,500. Although third-party sellers currently do not have to pay anything, this situation may change. The actual cost has not been officially announced and is often negotiated as part of the contract between the brand owner and Amazon. However, the seller is not limited in the number of ASINs registered. Some sellers have registered at least 5 units, up to 24. It all depends on the needs of the seller: to gain exposure for new products, or just to generate more positive reviews for new variants of existing hot-selling listings.

As with other attention-focused campaigns, considering that the Vine program is most useful for increasing awareness of the products at the top of the sales funnel, adding a standard ROI is also a challenge. The value of the Vine program is as good as the quality, functionality, and usability of the product and the advertising and promotions that support it. This is a constant testing and learning situation when establishing a baseline and developing performance indicators that are meaningful to the business. Then there are the subjective factors: whether the Vine program’s reviewers posted reviews, when they were posted, and how they rated your product.

Therefore, it’s best to use Vine as part of a multi-channel advertising and promotion plan for different channel levels: awareness, consideration, and conversion. Since you can’t measure direct sales returns like Sponsored ads, we recommend that you sign up for the Vine program as part of a more focused campaign budget. Although the effectiveness of Vine Voice reviews can be measured by ASIN’s success rate in terms of clicks, impressions, search rankings, and star ratings, and how these factors correlate with increased sales.

4. How long does it usually take for a product to get a review?

The first Vine Voice review can be seen about 3 weeks after Amazon received the registered product. You have to take into account the processing time of the FBA, the product is stored in the Fulfillment Center in Amazon, and it needs to match the appropriate reviewer. After Reviewer selects a product, they need to spend some time using and testing the product for accurate and truthful evaluation. In the end, each reviewer must decide whether to write a review, because under Amazon policy, they are not obliged to write a review.

5. Compared with regular VP reviews, does the Vine plan’s reviews have a greater impact?

Vine Voice reviews are really important, in part because Amazon’s strict process selects reviewers to join the program and matches them with the products you register based on their interests and areas of expertise. These reviewers were selected because of other undisclosed factors such as their usefulness, information, and integrity that have helped other customers make purchasing decisions.

Amazon Vine Program Guide

To join the Vine program, products need:

● Register a brand on Amazon;

● less than 30 product page reviews;

● Already listed before registration. Products should also have available inventory, as well as product pictures and descriptions;

● It is an FBA product in a new state.

The following are the factors that prevent a product from qualifying for the Vine program:

● Need to bundle multiple products for delivery and review;

● It is an adult product;

● Require reviewer to order other products separately for review.

Summary

Vine plan reviews should be comprehensive and true, regardless of whether product reviews are positive or negative. They often provide useful points on how to determine a rating’s validity and can be useful feedback for future product development. A VP review can include these elements well, but there is no guarantee of authenticity.