Wanna Get More Sales?
Igot this comment on a recent video from Glenn.
He says:
“unfortunately we have to compete with the majority of products on the first page packed with fake reviews…I wonder if amazon will ever be able to solve this problem especially if the customer is supposed to be #1.”
I promised I’d respond on YouTube so that’s what I’m doing. If you have an Amazon selling question, leave a comment on there!
Anyway…
What if you’re in a market where your competitors are getting suspicious reviews? They’re too high velocity and they’re too complimentary. What then?
I want to zoom out and get personal for a second:
What kind of person are you?
Are you the kind who would cheat to get ahead? Who sees any advantage and takes it?
Or, are you the kind of person who does things the right way? Even if it’s inconvenient.
I believe “the right thing is always the right thing”. Being sneaky may work in the short term, but comes back to bite in the long term.
“Good business” is activity that benefits all stakeholders: customers, vendors, employees, yourself, society at large.
If any stakeholder is hurt by your activity, it’s only a matter of time until your operation crumbles.
A personal example: in 2014-ish I ran HonestFew, a site that gave sellers product reviews in exchange for deep discounts. It was my first million dollar business and I was stoked.
Now granted, this review activity was allowed under Amazon’s TOS at the time. But in 2016, Amazon changed their TOS, which closed down mine and dozens of other review companies. I went from $1m+ in annual revenue to $0 in 24 hrs.
But the thing is: what I was doing was NOT benefitting all stakeholders. It benefited my customers. And the shoppers getting discounts. It benefitted my employees and me. But Amazon could imagine a world where some reviews would be colored/tinted in too complimentary a way given the “discount for review” dynamic.
So eventually, the system breaks. To this day, Amazon is still actively suing people for fake Amazon reviews.
Here’s an example from June 2022: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/19/business/amazon-fake-reviews-lawsuit.html
Amazon will continue playing a “cat and mouse” game with fake reviews. There will always be new ways to cheat. But know that because they’re misaligned with stakeholders, they’ll eventually be shut down.
Imagine 2 businesses:
(1) Your sneaky competitor. They get fake Amazon reviews. They do better than you for 2 years but then get shut down. Or at least, the reviews get removed. They have to scramble to adjust in years 3-5.
(2) You. You play a strong, clean game. You make less for 2 years. But you don’t get shut down and grow slowly and consistently all 5 years. All your systems are built around doing things the right way.
Who makes more money over a 5 year span?
This is the tortoise and the hare…. where’s the hare is fundamentally misaligned with a group of stakeholders (?). Lol. I think that’s how that story goes.
The right thing is always the right thing.
If you’re the type of person who believes this, we want to work with you. Book a call with us down below.
2 brains are always better than one.
