How to get the first reviews on a new Amazon product (2026)

You've got a new listing, zero reviews, and slow sales. Amazon lists three ways to get reviews:

The same page describes the Customer Reviews tool as a way to "resolve customer issues," so for a launch it's Vine and Request a Review. Timing matters for both, and two rules changed recently: Vine caps across variations (2025) and review sharing between variations (2026).

Before launch: enroll in Vine

You don't have to wait for the first sale to enroll. Amazon recommends having inventory in place at least three weeks before the launch date.

What you need: Brand Registry (or generic products), FBA, and fewer than 30 reviews. Adult, digital and bundled products are out. Enrollment is billed per parent ASIN: $0 for up to 2 units, $75 for 3–10, $200 for 11–30. You aren't charged until 30 days after enrollment and after your first Vine review is published, and if none comes within 90 days you aren't charged.

Amazon doesn't promise how many reviews you'll get or what they'll say. The details are in our read of the Vine agreement. An Amazon moderator told a new seller:

How to get the $200 Vine credit

Brand Registry has to happen within six months of your first eligible listing. The credit then expires 90 days after that registration. The page also says to enroll in Vine "within 90 days" without saying from when, so count from the Brand Registry date and enroll well before day 90.

$200 is the fee for the top Vine tier. It covers the fee only: the free units and their FBA costs are still yours, and the Vine agreement doesn't promise a number of reviews.

The page doesn't say who counts as a new seller. The full terms sit behind the Seller Central sign-in, so check them there before you plan around the credit.

A product with variations: enroll them together

The cap belongs to the parent ASIN. If you enroll variations separately and merge them later, "only the maximum number of reviews for your highest enrollment tier will be retained." Two parent ASINs with 30 Vine reviews each merge into one with 30.

A seller in the thread under that announcement had enrolled six child ASINs one by one: "That cost $1200 in Vine fees plus all the free product and FBA fees. The plan was to variate them together and have a parent with 180 reviews." Under the cap, that parent ASIN keeps 30.

Can a new product borrow reviews from an older listing?

Amazon rolled this out by category between February 12 and May 31, 2026. Reviews still carry over for:

• Color or pattern variations of the same product.
• Sizes that keep the same function, like king and queen bedding.
• Pack size or quantity.
• A secondary scent on a product that isn't about scent.
• Model fitments of the same product type, like cases for different phones.

If the new item differs from the older listing in function, not just color or size, it won't show the old reviews.

First orders: when you can press Request a Review

The button says the same thing when you press it too early or too late: "You can’t use this feature to request a review outside the 5-30 day range after the order delivery date." Amazon's API docs count from the promised delivery dates, not the actual one. One seller got the error six days after delivery. More in our guide to the Request a Review button.

Pressing it sends the buyer one email asking for a product review and seller feedback, in the buyer's language, with wording you can't change.

One seller's routine is to "look for all of the orders that were placed between 8-14 days ago from today. … Its not a major increase in review generation...but its enough to get you off the ground." A moderator replied in the same thread: "This is a great way to get started on getting reviews on your products." The 8–14 days is that seller's habit, not an Amazon rule.

Pressing Request a Review order by order in Seller Central takes a while. Aftermesh's browser extension does it from the order page in one click and keeps a list of the orders you haven't requested yet. It's on the free plan and doesn't connect to your seller account.

What an insert card can do

That's Amazon's own example of a request it accepts. Amazon's seller review policy applies the same rules to "shipping box and package inserts," so a card can carry that kind of sentence to every buyer.

It becomes a violation if you ask only buyers who liked the product, or offer anything in return. The first is easy to write by accident. A seller on the forums proposed "If you enjoyed your purchase, please consider sharing your experience by leaving a product review on Amazon." The next reply: "That does break policy." The "if you enjoyed" part picks who gets asked. What to print and where the QR code should go is in our insert card guide.

If the card has a QR code, it needs a page to land on. An Aftermesh care page does that in 9 languages: the buyer scans, rates the product, says how it went, and then sees an invitation to review on Amazon.

You have reviews, so why hasn't the star rating moved?

A star-only rating without Verified Purchase stays out of the overall rating until the buyer adds text, a photo or a video.

Verified Purchase needs two things: the reviewer bought the item on Amazon and "paid a price available to most Amazon shoppers." It's the only thing about discounts we found on Amazon's pages. The "over 30% off" and "over 50% off" cutoffs in launch guides aren't there.

Some buyers can't leave a review at all. The Community Guidelines require having "spent $50 on Amazon.com, using a credit or debit card, in the past 12 months," and add: "Promotional discounts don't count towards the $50 minimum spending requirement."

What not to do, and what to do instead

The rebate offers we've seen say "a review is not required to receive the rebate." Amazon's seller review policy covers that case:

The Early Reviewer Program still shows up in launch guides. A seller reposted the notice Amazon sent enrolled sellers:

An older Amazon policy PDF still recommends it. Ignore that part.

If you'd rather look before signing up: the demo walks through the care page, in about ten seconds.

Frequently asked questions

How many reviews does a new Amazon product need?

Amazon doesn't publish a number. Targets like "30 reviews in 30 days," or the idea that ten reviews is a tipping point, come from agencies and tool vendors, and we couldn't find any of them on Amazon's own pages. The one number Amazon does state is Vine's cutoff: products with fewer than 30 reviews.

Can you still join the Amazon Early Reviewer Program?

No. Amazon's notice to enrolled sellers, reposted by a seller on the Seller Central forums, says new enrollments stopped on March 10, 2021 and the service ended on April 25, 2021. An older Amazon policy PDF still mentions it, so some guides still recommend it.

Can friends or family buy the product and review it?

No. Amazon's Community Guidelines don't allow reviews of products offered by friends, relatives, employers or business associates, and reviews from anyone with a financial interest get removed. The seller review policy lists "a family member or employee of the seller" posting a review as a violation.

Will Vine reviews be positive?

Not necessarily. Vine reviewers are asked for honest opinions, and the Vine agreement makes no promise about how many reviews you get or what they say. An Amazon moderator has warned that some sellers reported few reviews or negative ones.

Why does Request a Review say "Not eligible at this time"?

Either the order is outside the window, which Amazon describes as 5 to 30 days after delivery, or you've already requested a review for that order.

Related: Amazon Vine rules: what the agreement actually says · The Request a Review button · How to make an Amazon insert card · How to get more Amazon reviews