How to Write a Review on Amazon Without Purchasing
Amazon isn’t just a huge online retailer, it’s also a resource for people looking for honest product reviews. If you’ve ever purchased anything through them, you’ve probably even received reminders to submit reviews of your purchases. What if you bought something somewhere else, but still want to leave a review where you know it’ll be seen by thousands? Do you know how to write a review on Amazon without purchasing?
The guide below will lead you through how to write Amazon reviews, even if you didn’t purchase anything. The entire process only takes a few minutes, but can be a huge help to companies and other potential buyers alike.
You Might Also Like: Business Tips
How to write a review on Amazon without purchasing
To start with, navigate to the Amazon website.
Sign in to your account
You should see a link to sign in near the top right corner of the screen. Do so now. Note that you have to have purchased at least $50 in products on Amazon before in order to leave a review. This is to crack down on bots and fraudulent accounts.
If you see “Hello, [your name]” instead, don’t worry about this step. You’re already signed in.
Search for the product you wish to review
In the search bar, type in the name of the product you’d like to review. Be as specific as possible — since you’ll have to pick it out of the search results, you want to make this as easy for yourself as you can. If possible, use the exact name of the product.
For example, if you’d like to learn how to review a book on Amazon, type in the title and author here to make sure you don’t get a lot of confusing, similarly-named results.
You Might Also Like: How to Check if an Amazon Gift Card Has Been Redeemed
Find the item in the search results
Depending on how specific you were, this could take a bit. Be patient, and scroll through the results until you find the product. When you see it, click on the name. It will bring you to the product page.
Look for the review button
Scroll down the product page until you reach the “Customer reviews” section. You should see a yellow bars that break down how others have reviewed this item in the past.
Below this, there will be section titled “Review this product.” Just below that, there should be a button marked “Write a customer review.” This button is how to write a review on Amazon without purchasing. Click on it.
Write your review
The “Write a customer review” button will take you to a new page with a review form, titled “Create review.”
Give a star rating
How many stars would you give an item? Five is best, and one is worst. You can only give whole stars, and this rating will heavily affect whether others choose to purchase this item, so consider this part carefully.
You Might Also Like: How to Change Shipping Speed on Amazon
Rate specific features.
Some products, like supplements or clothing, may have specific features that have their own star ratings or sliding scales. If you like, you can rate each one separately to give customers a better idea of the pros and cons of a product.
Add a headline.
Title your review. What is the main thrust of it? What do you want other potential buyers to know right away, even if they skip over the body of your review? Your title should be short and to the point.
Add a photo or video.
Depending on the product you’re reviewing, you might want to add a photo or video. This is especially helpful if the product you received was defective in some way, since you can show exactly how. It’s also good for clothing, since you can help other purchasers gauge how an item will fit them.
Add a written review.
Next, you can add the body of your review. Be succinct yet detailed. People will likely skip over a review that’s more than a few paragraphs, as well as one that’s only a few words and doesn’t offer any explanation for why the user rated the product the way they did.
The exception here is a book review. They tend to be a bit more complex and verbose, so it’s okay if they go a little long. If you want to know how to write a good book review on Amazon, the key is to go beyond just calling it “good,” “bad,” and so forth. Be as specific as you can, without revealing plot spoilers.
Remember, all reviews have to fit Amazon’s community guidelines.
Click submit.
Near the bottom right of the page, there will be a yellow button marked “Submit.” Click it. You’re all set.
Now you know how to write a review on Amazon without purchasing!
You Might Also Like: How to Delete Archived Orders on Amazon
How to leave a rating without a review
Say you want to leave a star rating, but don’t actually have much to say about the product itself. That’s fine! Just follow the steps above to navigate to the review page first.
Create your review
Now you’re going to create your review. Amazon won’t let you submit a star rating alone, so there are a few extra steps to go through here.
Rate the item
When you give the item a star rating, remember that you’re not going to be providing a written reason. The star rating will be the bulk of your review, so put a little extra thought into it and make sure you’re being fair and objective in your assessment.
You Might Also Like: How to Become a Product Tester for Amazon
Write a headline
Create a short headline. You don’t have to be very detailed here — it can even be gibberish if you want, but your review will be more helpful if you can come up with a few words on why you rated the item the way you did.
Include a photo or video.
If you include a photo or video, you don’t have to write a review. If you don’t have a photo or video to attach here, skip to the next step.
Fill in the review portion.
Without a photo or video, you’ll have to write something. One word is enough, you don’t have to type anything else.
Click submit.
Click the yellow submit button, and you’re all set!
You Might Also Like: How to Save Amazon Invoice as Pdf
How to get Amazon book reviews
What if you don’t need to know how to write a review on Amazon without purchasing, and are more interested in getting reviews instead? If you’re an author with books on Amazon, you can solicit reviews easily.
Send free PDF copies to bloggers.
Do you know of any bloggers who write about books? What about prolific users of sites like Goodreads.com? Contact them and ask them if they’d be interested in a free PDF copy of your book! You can request that they review it, but must specify that you accept all forms of criticism — positive and negative. You can’t specify specific Amazon book review guidelines that you want the reviewer to adhere to, or require them to review your work positively.
Offer gift cards or other payment.
If it’s in your budget, you can offer cash incentives for reviews. According to Amazon book review guidelines, you are allowed to pay for a review. Note that this only applies to editorial reviews, which are different from customer reviews.
You Might Also Like: How to Buy Returned Items From Amazon
How to get a review taken down
Say you’re an author or other seller on Amazon. You receive a terrible review, and want it taken down. You can do this only if it falls foul of Amazon’s community guidelines. If someone rates your product poorly, but their review doesn’t break the guidelines, it will stay up.
You Might Also Like: How to Sell Liquidation Items
Amazon tips & tricks
There are some tricks that can help you save money or earn rewards through Amazon. Here are the top three:
Use no-rush shipping
If you don’t need an item right away, select “FREE No-Rush Shipping” at checkout. You can save a little bit of money this way, or receive promotional offers on your next purchase.
Trade old stuff for gift cards
If you have some old items — especially books and electronics — that are just collecting dust and taking up space, trade them in. Amazon’s trade in program will take items that meet specific criteria, and give you gift cards in exchange.
Shop the Outlet
If you’ve ever bought electronics or furniture through Amazon, you’re probably familiar with the Amazon Warehouse. This is how the retailer sells items that’ve been refurbished or have damaged packaging. There’s also the Amazon Outlet, which is a clearance section for other items that are discontinued, returned, or out of season.
Amazon tries to make its website user friendly, which includes making it easy to leave reviews. Even if you haven’t purchased a specific product, you can just click on the “Write a customer review” button, and submit your thoughts.
The above article may contain affiliate links, which help support Clever Sequence