Regardless of how you may feel about the retail giant, commonsense dictates that if you have something to sell, Amazon is probably a good place to be selling it. This includes sex toys and related products.

Amazon’s policies and guidelines for adult products are fairly specific, but there’s still plenty of room for retail – and one of the key factors driving consumer purchases on the platform today is the user review.

Jazva marketing manager Albert Ong shared several strategies for getting more legitimate consumer reviews on Amazon without violating rules regarding incentivized feedback via Website Magazine.

Ong stated, in no uncertain terms: “You need customer feedback on your page. Without it, your sales will suffer.”

“Amazon is a buyer’s platform. When they come to the marketplace, they are ready to make a purchase,” he continued. “Before they pull the trigger, people want to know where it’s safe to spend their money. If you can communicate your product’s value through reviews, your product will rank higher on the page.”

According to Ong, with recent clamping down on incentivized reviews in the latest Amazon T.O.S. update, generating organic reviews is no longer an easy task. So, how do you do it?

Ong suggested the best way is to solicit feedback is through engaging emails designed to automatically coincide with the stages of a purchase and ownership of your product. Emails..? In other words, send a series of emails that are nice, timed out to correspond with where a customer is in their experience-with-your-product process.

Here is Ong’s Organic Amazon Review Guide: Email Sequence: 

Order Confirmation/Thank You

When a purchase is made, contact the buyer and thank them for buying your product. Maybe even tell them a little bit about yourself and your brand or organization. 

Received Delivery Confirmation

According to Ong, “The delivery of your product is an opportunity for you to reach out and ask if everything went as expected. This is an appropriate time to introduce an added value offer and even broach the subject of reviews. Take the time to explain the importance of honest reviews to both buyers and sellers like yourself.”

Review “Ask”

“A few days after delivery, it is reasonable to believe that a customer has now used your product for the first time and is happy with the experience,” Ong explained. “Now is when you should strongly encourage your new friend to share their thoughts with other shoppers looking for a similar product.”

According to Ong, strong copy using A/B testing will get you more organic reviews. Using a quality auto-responder service makes the process quick, easy and affordable.

In my view, just reading about email sequences sounds scary and exhausting, yet somehow also dull and dated. But one thing to remember about this is that you only have to do it once. Though technically you will want to test copy and timing at least a couple of times, you are really only working on one mailing project. Once the timer is set, it’s (relatively) hands off.

One other key question Ong addresed is how to avoid breaking Amazon’s T.O.S. in terms of review generation. These are the three rules to obey at all times:

1. You cannot provide compensation in exchange for reviews. This includes free or discounted products.

2. You cannot ask for only positive reviews.

3. You cannot modify or remove reviews.

While not doing the above three things, you may provide a universal discount and ask for reviews in general. Meaning you are not only asking for good reviews and/or positive ratings.

Get creative with outreach and make sure to pay attention to your existing customers. They are a key to future sales.

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Newscaster reacts to colleague’s totally on mark (IMO) theory about why Amazon took the “biggest” status from Walmart.

Image via Thomas van den Berk.