Complete Guide to Understand and Increase Amazon Seller Rating

Amazon is arguably the most comprehensive online platform to buy and sell products.

Being the largest marketplace, it becomes challenging for the sellers to compete with a plethora of other sellers, which means a seller must generate as well as maintain a positive reputation.

In short, a seller must know the way to improve the seller rating. Never forget that Amazon always favors those who have good reviews and sell quality products at an affordable price.

Amazon Seller Rating Explained

Amazon has its own way to monitor and measure a seller’s performance. Your seller rating has a vital role to play in climbing the success ladder on this platform.

In simple words, Amazon Seller Rating is nothing but a rating created by the data collected from buyers.

The rating will be based on the quality of customer service a seller provides to all the customers. All the sellers, be it new or old, has an Amazon seller rating.

One thing that you need to understand is seller feedback and seller rating is two different criteria.

We will explain the difference in the next section, but now let’s focus on Amazon Seller rating.

The seller rating will consist of numerical scores that will be between 0-100. As you can understand pretty well, 0 will be given to someone whose performance is the worst, and 100 being the highest.

Every order that you deliver to a customer will be given a quality score.

The score will be based on all the orders that customers have purchased from a seller within 365 days. The scores for each order will be calculated, and an average score will be given, which is called the seller’s order quality score.

Please note that all the recent orders will carry more weight than the orders sold earlier. To determine the final score, the seller will be rated as excellent, very good, good, and fair.

Now that you know about Amazon Seller Rating, let’s tell you the difference between Seller Rating vs. Seller Feedback.

Seller Rating vs. Seller Feedback

Seller Rating and Seller Feedback are two different things. When we say seller feedback, it means the comments left behind by the customers who have purchased a product from a seller.

It expresses buyers’ experience of the seller, such as packages, shipping, and customer supports.

That feedback can be viewed from the seller’s profile page.

When it comes to seller rating, it will be much broader. Feedback is given for the individual product, but a rating is offered based on the past year’s performance.

Amazon rates sellers by the following levels:

• Fair(0.00-84.49)
• Good(84.50-96.49)
• Very Good(96.50-98.49)
• Excellent(98.50-100)

The Seller Rating can only be viewed by logging into the seller’s Amazon seller central. It displays on the left side of the page under Performance.

How Does Amazon Calculate Seller Rating?

We told you that the seller rating would be based on the fulfilled orders. You need to understand that you must take care of a list of metrics if you want to receive a good rating from Amazon.

What Is a Good Amazon Seller Rating?

According to Amazon, sellers should target to get a high seller rating as possible. Amazon has a transparent way to rate a seller.

The marketplace will give you a 0 to 100 rating. One hundred is the highest, 50 being the average, and 0 being the poorest.

A seller should keep a target of scoring as high as possible. Please note that receiving only positive feedback on Amazon won’t help you score high; there are tons of other parameters.

Let’s get to know what these metrics are.

What Are The Primary Metrics Of The Rating?

Amazon never discloses its seller rating algorithm; however, we know that the following are the key metrics. Take a look. 

Perfect order percentage: Amazon will analyze if you are able to deliver a maximum number of products with 100% accuracy.

Pre-fulfillment cancellation rate: Running out of stock may happen, and Amazon understands that too, but how often you run out of stock will become a concern for this marketplace.

Shipping time: The shipping time that you mention on your product must match the actual delivery time.

Order cancellations: Points will be reduced if you have more order cancellations.

Chargebacks: If the buyer contacts their bank and tells them that they have not purchased anything, you will be held accountable for a chargeback.

Customer inquiries: Some customers will have queries. Amazon will take note of how long it takes to respond to the customers.

Feedback: If you are receiving negative comments, your score will be affected.

A-to-Z claim: Finally, if a customer feels that the product is counterfeit or finds other issues, they may file an A-to-Z claim for Amazon to look into the matter. This yet again will deduct your score.

How Amazon Calculates Ratings?

Amazon understands that they can’t lower your score based on just a few products; hence the team looks at 365 days’ worth of orders and finally give you a score.

If you lack any of the metrics that we have shared above, it’s high time you start working on that to increase your score.

How much weight each of the metrics has is unknown, but it is better to pay attention to each of them.

Does Negative Or Neutral Feedback Hurt Your Amazon Seller Rating?

Even though only customer feedback won’t be enough to give a seller a good or bad rating, still negative and neutral reviews have a huge part to play.

While measuring your score, one of the crucial parts that Amazon will look at is the customer feedback section.

If you have more negative and neutral feedback, your score will be impacted. This happens because negative and neutral reviews signify that the seller is not taking care of customer service.

This is why sellers must take out time to take a look at the kind of feedback they are receiving. Once you notice that there is multiple negative feedback, work on them by approaching the customer.

Offer them better value and encourage them to change the feedback. Many do, and this tip always works.

Is Amazon Seller Rating Important?

Being a seller on Amazon means you are competing with a dime a dozen sellers who are selling similar products like yours.

Never forget that you are competing not just with the new ones, but there are already some well-established companies who are dominating Amazon, and customers always prefer them more.

Just register yourself as a seller and dreaming of earning revenues instantly will never happen.

We have so far talked about seller rating and how it gets calculated by Amazon. But have you ever wondered why it is essential to take care of Amazon seller rating?

Your Amazon rating can make you one of the best sellers on Amazon, or you might end up becoming one of the worst like many others.

Having a good rating is crucial. In fact, it is mandatory if you want to survive in Amazon.

Here are some of the reasons why you need to keep your seller rating high:

More Traffic And Exposure From Amazon Support

When you work on your Amazon seller rating by working on all the parameters that we have listed above, it means that you are serious about your business.

The better your rating will be, the more customers will like to approach you. The higher the rating will be, the better support you will get from Amazon as well.

This rating is prudent because it not only keeps you in the good books of your customers but of the Amazon team as well.

More Chances Of Winning The Buy Box

Buy Box is the display that you may sometimes see on a product offered by the seller. It’s a direct link to add the product to the cart.

This allows customers to instantly add the items to the cart and pay. This, in return, helps the sellers to get their products to sell faster. One feature that many sellers look for.

The lesser hassle it is for the customer, the more inclined they will be to shop from a buyer. What else will a seller want, right?

But not everyone becomes eligible for the Buy Box feature, though. Amazon will consider multiple algorithms before allowing that feature to a customer, for example, product price, positive review of the seller, the rating, and many other metrics.

If you are a loyal seller of Amazon, you will have better chances of availing of the Buy Box feature than your competitors.

Gain More Trusts From Buyers

Buyers of today are savvy. They don’t just pick an item and pay for it abruptly.

They take time to evaluate the seller, how the product is, how the reviews are, how the rating is, and much more.

When a buyer considers so many things, your seller rating will have a lot to encourage a buyer to buy from you and not from your competitor.

With a good seller rating, the seller will build the trust gap between the buyers and them. A good seller rating would tell the customers right away that you, as a seller, are better than others.

Build a Good Relationship With Amazon

We talked about the Buy Box feature, but you need to know that you will have to fall under the good books of Amazon to get that feature. Your Amazon seller rating is the top thing that Amazon will look for.

For some marketing campaigns on Amazon, you will need to meet the requirement for a certain seller rating score so that you can apply for those deal promotion campaigns.

If you want it, start working on your seller rating, and prove to Amazon that you are worth it.

How To Increase Amazon Seller Ratings?

After knowing the importance of Amazon seller rating, you might be wondering how you can improve your seller rating; well, don’t worry, we have got you covered.

Here are some tried and tested means to enhance your Amazon seller rating.

Provide Good Customer Service

Your customers are the reason why you are here on the Amazon platform. They are the ones who will buy from you, and if they like your service, they will leave a positive review, but if they don’t, you are bound to receive negative reviews.

Amazon is a customer-focused platform, which means the more value you offer to your customers, the more rewards you will reap.

Make your customers your priority. Respond to customer inquiries quickly and promptly, don’t leave complaints unattended, avoid late response rate, and so on.

You must provide a response to your customers within 24 hours.

Proactively Tell Your Customers To Leave Sellers’ Feedback

Sellers’ feedback is one of the key metrics to give a rating to a seller by Amazon.

Rather than just plainly sending the product to your customers, think out of the Box to engage with the customer.

You can use a feedback tool such as AMZFinder, to engage with customers by sending them feedback request emails and ask whether they are happy with the product, package, delivery timing, etc.

And then encourage them to leave productive feedback so that others can see and read them.

You should do this to as many customers as you can. If they leave positive reviews, you will have more buyers.

Pay Attention To On-Time Shipping

Every seller has to signify the timeline for product delivery. Based on that, your customer will proceed with the buying process.

If you show something else but end up delaying the shipment, you will undoubtedly receive complaints.

To avoid such a nuisance, make sure to keep track of the inventory so that you don’t run of stock after promising the delivery.

Imagine 100 people ordering the same item, but you realized later that you don’t have it.

Make sure the items are available and share a tracking number for the shipment so that the customer can keep checking it.

Avoid A-To-Z Cases

Amazon offers an A-to-Z guarantee to every customer. This claim helps customers deal with significant issues.

This guarantee gives assurance to the customers that only the highest level of service will be provided.

If any of the customers file A-to-Z, rest assured Amazon will take this case very seriously.

Please note that A-to-Z cases are one of the prime metrics for rating a seller because of which a seller should ensure to offer only the best services to the customers.

Provide the best customer service, sell only authentic, legit, and highest quality products, provide tracking information and be positive when someone requests a refund.

Conclusion

Work on Amazon seller rating from the first order that you deliver. Take proactive steps, and start growing your business.

Of course, it will take some time to understand how Amazon seller rating works, but you already know about the metrics that you should pay attention to.

Focus on them, and receive the highest Amazon Seller Rating!