Amazon Seller Feedback Update: What Sellers Need to Know in 2025

Amazon has recently announced a big change to its seller feedback collection method that will be coming soon after August 4, 2025. This concerning change will make it possible for customers to leave seller feedback in star only format (with no written comments). Although these changes are supposed to create a more seamless seller feedback process that encourages more customers to leave seller feedback in a faster fashion, it will also create substantial risks to sellers.

What is Changing with Amazon Seller Feedback?

In the past sellers would receive both star ratings and written feedback from customers which provided sellers sufficient context and insight behind each rating prior to this change. After August 4, 2025 customers will be able to leave only star ratings without a formal written review. Amazon believes this will lead to a simplified method that will lead to encourage more customers to leave seller feedback and potentially increase total amount of seller ratings received during this period.

The risk for sellers is that they will lose the context of why the written feedback left by customers was there before. Sellers had the opportunity previously to gain a better picture of what feedback, if any, was malicious or irrelevant, if it was related to fulfillment issues or if it was simply a case of poor judgment on the part of the buyer. Now “the context” supporting seller feedback is essentially gone, and the meaning has changed.

Seller Feedback Risk

The most obvious risk is that sellers will now essentially be put into the corner. It appears that it will be even more difficult for sellers to filter through legitimate 1-star feedback from 1-star feedback that has nothing to do with their business and is an issue outside their control like slow fulfillment (FBA) by Amazon. In the past, sellers had a legitimate appeal tool and now that the written comments are replaced with star only there is no feedback appeal option.

The best one could hope for is for Amazon systems to see potential signs of abuse, especially without written comments to review. Luckily, Amazon always monitors seller feedback, but we don’t know how well they can differentiate between 1-star seller feedback created by legitimate problems vs. 1-star seller feedback that was simply unwarranted.

Potential Future Impact to Seller Ratings

While Amazon’s goal is to collect a heightened amount of volumes of seller feedback and ultimately prove that positive star ratings will outweigh negative star ratings by volume (potentially). In certain situations, this could actually yield a higher percentage or volume of improved seller feedback.

Of course, there will be unanswered guarantee that sellers will surpass the amount of positive feedback collected from the negative star only ratings. Sellers should prepare for a new reality in the way their seller feedback will affect their marketplace visibility and sales on Amazon. Check out the brands we work with.

What Sellers Can Do to Adapt

While Amazon’s seller feedback process evolves, sellers can do their best to protect themselves from what is predicted to be more risky, near term challenges.

• Pay Attention to Feedback: And if you believe that some of your ratings might be changing, then it is important to observe the changes in your customer ratings closely and verify that you do not see any unusual patterns in how they might appear to be playing out.
• Be Proactive with Customers: Look for extra ways to engage with your customers as much as possible through follow up emails and make customer service excellent. This will allow sellers to address their particular issue before it becomes a negative seller feedback situation.
• Utilize Reviews Purposefully: Selling on Amazon is not solely about building seller ratings, sellers should continue to focus on building product reviews. Product reviews and seller feedback serve different purposes, so sellers should encourage buyers to leave reviews, to build social proof.

What’s Around the Corner?

While recent changes represent a forward movement to simplify the seller feedback collection process, they will create longer-term challenges (for sellers) that require proactive management of their online reputation. At Amify by Cart.com the evolving landscape that these changes present look forward to supporting Amazon sellers based on our extensive experience selling in this marketplace.

If you need expert guidance on managing your seller feedback, maintaining a strong Amazon reputation, and optimizing your overall strategy, reach out to Amify by Cart.com today. We’re here to help you succeed in 2025 and beyond.