Succeeding on Amazon in 2024 is all about standing out from other sellers: capturing prime top-of-page real estate and winning customer trust. To get there, you need to keep up with moving targets like Amazon’s new SEO algorithms, evolving search technologies, and changing performance metrics.
The best place to start is to get a clear understanding of the different seller ranking terms and metrics. In this article, we’ll review the Amazon Seller Rating, its history and how it can impact your business today.
What Are the Different Types of Amazon Seller Ratings?
When most people talk about Seller Ratings now, they’re talking about the Seller Feedback Ratings (more on that below). But in 2024, that’s far from the only metric that plays a role.
They could also be talking about their Best Sellers Rank (BSR), or any number of other Amazon quality scoring metrics like, like their Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score or Amazon Listing Quality (LQI).
Let’s take a look at three different terms Amazon uses for seller ratings, and what each one means for your business:
What Is the Amazon Seller Rating?
The Amazon Seller Rating was a numerical value from 0-100, assigned to all Amazon third-party sellers, based on customer satisfaction with their service. The metric was visible to the public, and Amazon customers could use it to evaluate a seller’s trustworthiness before making a purchase.
In 2015, Amazon dropped the metric with no warning or fanfare, leaving sellers a bit in the dark. But in the years that followed, it would introduce a plethora of new ways for sellers to monitor and optimize their performance.
How Does Amazon Calculate the Seller Rating?
Amazon wasn’t entirely transparent about how Amazon Seller Ratings were calculated, but they were largely based on metrics like:
- responsiveness to customer inquiries
- on-time shipping
- shipping speed
- order defect rate
- chargeback rate
- negative feedback rate
- pre-fulfillment cancellation rate
- A-to-z guarantee claims
Essentially, all of the things you do now to stay in good standing with Amazon and boost your internal quality scores were reflected in that one public number.
Amazon Seller Rating vs. Amazon Seller Feedback Rating
Instead of the Amazon Seller Rating, Amazon now uses a new metric, called the Seller Feedback Rating, to accomplish the same goal — letting customers know which sellers they can trust to provide the best customer experience.
Amazon Seller Feedback Rating is a star rating system that customers can use to rank and review their experience with each seller they transact with. Customers choose a ranking from 1 to 5 (worst to best) and have the option to leave written comments as well. They can do this through a seller’s Feedback page or from their own Orders page.
This ranking is based purely upon customers’ feedback on their experience with a given seller. Customers can only rate sellers they’ve already transacted with on the platform.
How Does Amazon Calculate the Seller Feedback Rating?
Amazon aggregates all the star ratings from the past 12 months and generates an average star rating and a percentage score, both of which are publicly visible. When a customer clicks on the seller’s name in a product listing, they can see the average star rating, the percentage score, and the number of ratings used to generate that score.
For example, a seller might have four stars and next to those stars, a score of “67% positive in the last 12 months (42 ratings).”
Amazon Seller Rating vs. Best Sellers Rank
Amazon Seller Rating is also not to be confused with BSR, or Amazon Best Sellers Rank. This metric appears on each item’s product detail page and is based entirely on sales compared to other items in the same product category on Amazon.
BSR is awarded to specific products, not brands or sellers. (To see a list of the top ranking third-party sellers on Amazon, you can check out Marketplace Pulse’s rankings, which are updated daily.)
BSR is updated in near real-time, and items in the #1 spot get a badge on their listings. Customer reviews, seller feedback, and page viewing data are not factored into BSR.
How Does Amazon Calculate Best Sellers Rank?
BSR scores are calculated with an algorithm, and are updated multiple times each day. The algorithm makes its determinations based on the past two years’ worth of data about a particular ASIN or product, and recent sales are weighted more heavily than older sales history.
The Changing Face of Amazon Seller Ratings
As an Amazon Seller, you already know that Amazon still uses many of the metrics that historically went into calculating your Seller Rating score (that number from 1 to 100). Those KPIs determine your standing on Amazon and can mean the difference between the top of the SERP and a suspended seller account.
But the shift from publicly displaying Seller Ratings to Seller Feedback Ratings represents a broader shift in the e-commerce landscape: the gradual move toward using more user-generated content to influence buying decisions.
A decade ago, customers may have trusted big businesses like Amazon to tell them what to buy. But today, 72% of shoppers now trust reviews and testimonials more than brand messaging. The move toward (at least externally) emphasizing user-generated ratings is also consistent with Amazon’s recent decision to subtly rebrand its “Amazon’s Choice” badge, removing the words “Amazon’s Choice” from search results and replacing it with “Overall Pick” or “Popular Brand Pick.”
Benefits of a Strong Seller Feedback Rating
In truth, ratings aren’t as accurate as any of us would like to think. Research shows that the more often people rate things, the more their ratings tend to go up.
But ratings do matter more than almost anything else when it comes to landing a sale: shoppers typically won’t even consider your product if you don’t have enough positive feedback.
In fact, a recent Yotpo survey found that, out of all purchases for all products across multiple stores and verticals, 94% had an average rating of 4 stars or higher. Of those purchases, 126% more were for products with 5-star versus 4-star ratings.
On top of that, when a product has a 4- or 5- star customer rating, other customers are more likely to review it. 94% of all product reviews are written for products with 4 stars or more, and there are 174% more reviews for products with a 5-star than a 4-star average.
The bottom line? The higher your seller ratings, the more people purchase your product. Over time, the effect is exponential — each positive rating drives even more transactions, which drive positive product and seller reviews. Your ranking goes up, you increase your shot at the Buy Box, and boost just about every other Amazon metric.
5 Ways to Boost Your Score
To boost your Amazon Seller Feedback Rating, it’s all about delivering the best possible experience.
Here are some tips to help you nail it.
1. Seek customer feedback to enhance your seller reputation
More positive customer reviews on your product pages can improve your seller reputation and lead to even more positive seller feedback. Any time you make a sale, always reach out to your customers to request a review.
To get more and better reviews, you can also:
- Use product inserts to request reviews
- Ask for reviews on social media
- Join Amazon Vine, if eligible
- Reach out to your email list
Make sure to follow all current Amazon guidelines around requesting reviews, including never specifically asking for a positive review, offering compensation for a review, or diverting negative reviews away from Amazon.
2. Provide detailed information on your product pages
The best way to get good seller feedback is to deliver an experience that aligns with or exceeds customer expectations, and the easiest way to do that is to be extremely clear about what you’re offering them.
To get it right:
- Review your product listings regularly and update them with the most current information
- Read customer reviews and seller feedback and address any ongoing product or delivery issues
- If your apparel isn’t true-to-size, update sizing charts or clearly indicate this in your Amazon listings
- Make sure your photos clearly and accurately reflect product attributes like color and dimensions
- Use A+ Content, like comparison charts and high-resolution images, to provide an in-depth look into your products
Accurate, optimized product listings don’t just help ensure customer satisfaction. They can also boost your rankings, drive sales, and improve customer trust in your brand.
3. Improve your inventory planning to prevent stockouts
You can’t keep your customers happy if you can’t deliver the products they want. That’s why it’s important to have an up-to-date demand forecasting and inventory planning system.
With smarter inventory planning, you can:
- Avoid disappointing customers with stockouts
- Keep your inventory carrying costs down
- Prepare for seasonal events, like Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday
- Know when to push sales with promotions, or slow sales by pausing PPC ads
- Stay on top of Amazon inventory requirements like the Amazon Inventory Level
Stockouts can hurt customer loyalty, trust, brand satisfaction, and customer lifetime value. If you can prove that your brand is a more reliable choice, you’ll boost your seller rankings and increase your odds of scoring the Buy Box.
4. Address any issues promptly
To be the kind of seller Amazon customers love, respond to and correct any issues, right away. In 2024, consumers expect ongoing brand engagement and the post-purchase experience greatly influences future trust in your brand.
While Amazon doesn’t allow customers to edit their seller feedback after it’s been submitted, customers can choose to remove their feedback as long as they give a reason for removal.
When a customer opts to remove seller feedback, they’re given the following options:
☐ The seller resolved the problem
☐ I left feedback for the wrong seller
☐ The problem was with the nature of the product and not related to anything the seller did wrong
☐ I left the wrong feedback by mistake
☐ Other
If you’re an Amazon Registered Brand, you can use Amazon’s Feedback Manager to reach out to customers and address any problems. Just make sure you check Amazon’s most up-to-date rules about asking them to remove negative seller feedback and comments.
5. Request the removal of negative seller feedback when necessary
In some cases, a review is so inappropriate, you can ask Amazon (or an Amazon Bot) to take it down. You do this by reporting the review to the Feedback Manager in Amazon Seller Central.
Amazon will usually remove feedback in cases where:
- It includes obscene or profane words
- It includes personally identifiable information specific to you as a seller, including email addresses, full names, or phone numbers
- The entire comment is a review of the product, not the seller
If your request to remove the review is rejected by Amazon’s bots, you can try again by reopening the case. However, because these judgments are made by AI, some users complain that they can be inaccurate.
An Extra Boost for Your Amazon Business
On Amazon and in business, the game is always changing. Shifts in ratings criteria and reviews collection are just one part of the picture.
No matter what Amazon has in store for future ratings criteria, the right strategy can keep you a step ahead. And the right partners can help you win more business along the way.
To learn more about keeping up with Amazon, check out SellersFi’s growing Amazon resource hub. Or reach out and let us know how we can help you master the marketplace.
