All About the Amazon Vine Program: How to Use it to Jumpstart Your Sales
If you’re an Amazon seller looking to jumpstart your sales and increase your product’s visibility, you might want to consider the Amazon Vine program.
This program allows selected sellers and vendors to offer their products to a group of Amazon’s top reviewers in exchange for honest, unbiased feedback.
97% of customers read online reviews. Reviews from Vine Voices on Amazon can build credibility for your product and gain valuable insights into customer preferences and expectations.
In this article, we’ll dive into the Amazon Vine program, explore its benefits, and provide tips on how to use it to your advantage.
What is the Amazon Vine Program?
Amazon Vine is a program that allows Amazon’s top reviewers to receive free products from participating vendors in hopes of an honest, unbiased review. These top reviewers are invited to the program.
The program was created to help vendors generate more reviews for their products and to provide customers with more information about those products from trusted sources.
The reviewers are known as “Vine Voices” and are selected based on the helpfulness and frequency of their reviews, often in specific product categories.
What do Amazon Vine reviews look like?
The reviews from Vine Voices appear with a small badge under the review, saying “Vine Customer Review of Free Product” and sometimes the “Vine Voice” badge next to their name, indicating they’re coming from this program.
How does it work?
From the Seller’s side, you can access the Vine program through Seller Central’s Advertising tab. From there, you can enroll your products immediately. More on that in the how to enroll section.
From the Vine Voices side, once these amazon customers are invited to the Vine program, they’ll have access to a platform where they can see available products and choose which ones they want to try.
We found a Vine Voice explaining the process and below are a few examples of what they see on their end:
What are the eligibility requirements for Amazon’s Vine Program?
If you visit Amazon’s info page about the vine program on Seller Central, there are a number of sections that cover information about managing Vine products, errors, frequently asked questions and more.
To enroll your products for Amazon’s Vine Program, they need to meet the following requirements:
- Must be brand registered
- Have fewer than 30 reviews on the product page you want to enroll your product for
- Offer your product through FBA (fulfilment by Amazon) in “new” condition
- Must not be an adult product
- Have already launched when you enroll
- Have available inventory
- Have an image and description (although we highly recommend having a fully optimized listing – more on that below)
How much does enrolling in the Amazon Vine Program Cost?
Although enrolling products in Amazon’s Vine Program used to be free, it now comes at a cost. The newest cost (as of October 19, 2023) depends on the number of ASINs (as well as the country) enrolled:
| Units Enrolled | Vine Enrollment Fee |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | $0 |
| 3-10 | $75 |
| 11-30 | $200 |
Note: Enrolment fees are billed 7 days after the first Vine review is published. The price doesn’t change depending on the number of products claimed or reviews received – it will always be a flat fee.
How many products can you enroll in the Amazon Vine Program?
The number of products you can enroll in the Vine Program at one time depends on your seller tier. These are:
- Basic: 5 products
- Plus: 10 products
- Premium: 20 products
You can only enroll new ASINs:
- Once 90 days have passed from the date of enrollment OR
- After all units are reviewed
Once a product gets the maximum number of reviews, it becomes unenrolled from the program and other ASINs can be added.
How to enroll your products in the Amazon Vine Program
Enrolling your products into the Vine Program is simple.
1. First, click on the hamburger menu in the top-left corner of Seller Central:
2. Next, under the “Advertising” tab, select “Vine”.
3. Lastly, search for the ASIN you want to enroll and click “Begin enrollment”. (You’ll also notice how many products you’re allowed to enroll depending on your seller tier.)
Is Amazon Vine worth it? Pros & Cons
In general, the Amazon Vine Program is worth it if you believe in your product and have a fully optimized listing. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of the program.
Vine Pros
Get trustworthy, high-quality reviews on your products
Vine reviewers are usually invited to the program because of their thorough and meticulous reviews of products. They’ll also often include longer, more detailed reviews as well as photos or even videos.
If you’re launching a new product that doesn’t have much reach yet, the Vine Program gives a leg up to your listings with high-quality reviews from people.
Amazon has ramped up efforts to eliminate fake reviews, as many companies were paying customers to leave reviews. With the Vine Program, you know these are real people who have been hand-selected to offer their opinions, giving your products more credibility from the get-go.
Drive traffic to your listings
Reviews give your product credit.
Think of when you’re on vacation and looking for a restaurant. Don’t you always gravitate more towards the place that’s bustling and full of people over the one with no one inside? This is known as social proof and we as social creatures are very much influenced by this.
Reviews on Amazon signal to customers that other people trust your product and stand by it. When your product appears in the search results with reviews, they’re more likely to click through to your listing. In an internal study in 2022, Amazon identified positive correlations between the number of product reviews and detail page views in the first 90 days of launching.
Understand your customers
Vine reviewers have a variety of products to choose from and selecting your product to review can give you an insightful first glance at who’s buying. Once they leave their thoughtful reviews, you might discover a niche target or something else that could help improve your marketing efforts.
Develop better products
You can learn a lot about your product from customer reviews. Because they’re so accustomed to ordering products on Amazon, they can leave helpful comments about packaging, usability and more. With every iteration of your product, you can include some of these points and
Vine Cons
Costs
The Vine Program can be expensive to start with especially if you don’t have a big budget to play around with. As a seller, you’re giving away your products free of charge in hopes for a review. You’ll have to do a cost analysis to see whether it’s beneficial to your Amazon business.
Once you receive your first review, you’ll be charged the enrollment price per ASIN, but it’s possible you won’t receive all 30 reviews.
Bad reviews
Vine reviewers can be critical, but there’s also a reason why they’re invited to the program in the first place. Since they often give unbiased and honest reviews, there’s nothing they can do if a Vine Voice leaves a poor review. The best thing you can do to avoid this is to manage expectations by explaining everything there is to know about your product in your listing before they even choose to try the product.
No reviews
There is the odd time that no one claims your products to test out or simply doesn’t leave any reviews. The Vine Program doesn’t guarantee reviews, but there’s also a fair chance that these reviewers won’t be invited back to the program.
Remember that your account is only charged once you receive your first Vine review. But there’s still the possibility that only a few people claim your product.
How to Make Amazon Vine Worth It and Your Jumpstart Sales
Offer competitive pricing
Vine reviewers are incredibly honest and will comment about whether or not they would repurchase the product at full price. Remember, these are shoppers who buy often on Amazon, so they’re always open to new ideas. Offering them a new life-changing product is something they’re very open to.
Optimize your listings
There’s nothing worse than getting negative feedback on your product because it was “not as described”. You can avoid this by including all relevant information about your product and optimizing your listing.
A fully optimized listing means:
- A descriptive title
- Benefit-driven bullet points
- Informational images with infographics
- A+ Content
Including all the information and benefits of your product helps Vine reviews better anticipate what they’ll be getting. It also helps weed out the people who wouldn’t necessarily be right for your product.
Not sure where to start? Get a free listing audit and find out where you can improve
Answer all customer questions
There is a section on each product page just above the reviews where customers can ask questions about the product. Sellers, as well as customers, can answer these questions. Answers from sellers appear with a badge next to them.
Answering questions as a seller makes you appear more professional and you check up on your listings. You can also check out questions from your competitors’ pages to anticipate what your own customers may ask. Incorporating these answers into your listing – in the description, bullet points or image – will help customers understand your product better.
Enroll all 30 units
The Amazon Vine Program is perfect for getting your feet off the ground. When customers browsing on Amazon see products with very few reviews, they’re less likely to trust the product.
The program is a great way to give your product a boost when you’re just starting to launch, so getting the maximum number of 30 reviews will help a lot.
TIP: You don’t have to have 30 units in stock to enroll 30 units. You can ship in the inventory after to get it over the 30 units.
Enroll in multiple marketplaces at once
As we’ve said before, the more reviews you have, the better your chances of converting new customers. If you’re selling in multiple marketplaces, it might be worth it to enroll in as many as you can.
If you’re selling in both Canada and the US for example, you can use the Vine Program to get up to 60 reviews.
Just remember that you can’t enroll if the ASIN has more than 30 reviews. Since the ASIN is the same across marketplaces that means you would need to enroll the ASIN in both marketplaces at the same time in order to not lose the chance to enroll it.
Create separate listings and combine them after receiving reviews
If you have multiple color options or variations for a certain product, a great “hack” is to first create a separate listing for each product and submit them all on Vine.
Once you receive all your reviews, you can combine them in a parent child relationship. These reviews will usually combine together on the parent, giving you a bunch more reviews.
For example, if you’re selling 3 colors or variations of something, once you combine the listings you can have up to 90 reviews. Reviews are essential in helping customers choose and purchase products so if you’re just starting with a new product, it’s a great way to increase them.
This may not work for everyone as giving away free products can be expensive but if it’s within the budget it’s a good tactic.
Key Takeaways
Although initially costly, the Amazon Vine Program can be a valuable tool for sellers looking to complete their listings and increase sales.
By offering your product to a group of top reviewers, you can build credibility and trust among potential customers.
To maximize the benefits, make sure to:
- Select products that have fewer than 30 reviews
- Create compelling, complete product listings that answer all potential customer questions (avoiding confusion)
- Carefully monitor and respond to customer questions
With a strategic approach, the Amazon Vine program can help take your sales to the next level.
