Amazon Helpful Votes: When They Stop Helping and Start Hurting

Many sellers have a love-hate relationship with Amazon helpful votes—and for good reason. On one hand, you love the traction a glowing review gets when shoppers find it useful (and hopefully factor it into their purchase).

But on the other hand, the impact of upvotes on negative product reviews can be incredibly damaging to not only the success of the product itself, but to your business as a whole. Now, don’t be mistaken—if a negative review drawing attention to legitimate quality concerns is rapidly being upvoted, that’s a whole other issue (and one that demands your immediate attention).

What we’re talking about here are the ramifications of upvotes on negative reviews that innocently or even maliciously spread misinformation about your product. You want to defend your product and seller reputation, so what can you do, especially now that review commenting is dead?

The Relationship Between Amazon Helpful Votes and Review Ranking

Before we go any further, we first need to understand how Amazon helpful votes are calculated and used by the marketplace.

Amazon has remained pretty mum on their review ranking in general, but we do know that clicking the helpful button found below a review helps boost its ranking among the top reviews shown on the product detail page. What we don’t know is how much weight they carry in Amazon’s algorithm or how big of a role recency really plays.

Because while you’ll typically see reviews with the most number of helpful votes displayed first, this trend doesn’t always continue as you move down the list. You’ll sometimes see a mix of older and more recent reviews with upvotes in a non-descending order.

Here’s where that can be super frustrating for sellers: maybe you did have a legitimate quality issue and went back to your supplier with product improvements. Could your updated product still be impacted by an outdated negative review with a slew of upvotes? You bet it could.

And that’s not the only scenario that puts sellers in a tough spot. Here are a few others that we’ve seen.

Upvotes on Negative Reviews Where User Error Occurs

We recently spoke to one seller who was very concerned about a negative review from a few years back that’s holding steady at the top of his reviews due to upvotes. The product requires consumers to use it a certain way—which are stated in the listing and also a bit of common sense—but one buyer failed to do so and damage occurred.

That buyer then left a review that claims the product doesn’t work and is damaging, but this can be misleading for the large majority of shoppers who would follow basic instructions and use it the right way (which plenty of his positive reviews illustrate). Is that upvoted negative review scaring people off and affecting conversion? Unfortunately, this is quite possibly the case.

Competitors Mass Upvoting a Product’s Negative Reviews

You may have already had this nightmare scenario happen to you or know someone who has: you go to bed and all is well, but wake up in the morning to large numbers of upvotes being left on your negative reviews. It could be for one particular product or even your entire catalog!

Chances are this isn’t normal buyer behavior. Competitors have been known to upvote negative reviews, either doing it themselves or hiring upvoting services on the internet. It’s been said that the marketplace has made strides internally to protect against bots that do this, but there’s obviously still a lot of work to be done to stop this practice. Sellers have also reported seeing fake reviews pop up and quickly be upvoted, a tactic that takes black hat activity to the next level.

Is There Anything You Can Do in These Situations?

While Amazon helpful votes can unquestionably be useful for shoppers, they can also be the exact opposite, especially if the review is biased or the result of user error. Here are a few helpful tips if you find yourself facing something similar:

1. Use the Q&A section to help clear up product misconceptions.

If you’re concerned about misinformed reviews picking up steam with upvotes, we suggest using the Q&A section to address what is being said as someone is bound to have inquired about it. Provide a clear, detailed answer about the correct product usage, assembly, dimensions, color, etc. This information should also be prominently included in your listing content, images, and video.

2. Report review manipulation to Amazon.

If you seriously suspect review manipulation through fake reviews or sudden surges of upvotes, this is when you want to get Amazon involved. Report it directly from the product page, through Seller Central, or by emailing community-help@amazon.com. You want proof that you followed procedure and a ticket was opened, although it will probably also require escalation. 

While reporting abuse to community-help@ or via a Seller Central case could initiate an abuse review and get the ball rolling, sellers can't realistically expect to see real action unless they prepare to escalate it from the outset. That means making this first report just to document that you began the process using the channels Amazon suggests, only pushing to escalate it to manager level (or above) if you fail to see any acknowledgement. Make it clear that you outlined the concise complaint and provided actual interpretation and analysis of the abuse, which you sent along to Amazon only to receive no response. If you received a copy and paste generic answer, then cite that as the reason you must escalate. No sign of action or proper review was ever demonstrated, so you're entrusting the matter to a higher-level Amazon employee to press for results.

Chris McCabe
Former Amazonian
eCommerceChris Founder

If you’re enrolled in Amazon’s Brand Registry or SAS Core programs, consider asking for support from these specialized teams. The brand registry in particular has many brand protections in place.

3. Get more reviews to help lessen the effects of negative ratings.

Getting more reviews in general is always recommended because of their importance to the marketplace and to your account health. The simple act of sending a review request shows buyers that you care about their experience and often spurs satisfied customers who didn’t feel compelled to leave a review into action. Automating this task, like you can do with FeedbackFive, allows you to reach out to your buying pool at large and even target certain segments of your customers with more customized requests.

Another benefit of using FeedbackFive is its ability to alert you to any negative seller feedback or product reviews received. When that happens, evaluate what’s being said and continue to monitor the reviews so you can take action accordingly. Keeping your finger on the pulse of your seller and product reputation helps you make smarter business decisions and take quicker action when you spot something that isn’t right.