Amazon just found a way to monetize something sellers have spent the last decade
By Kristen Leccese · October 2, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Amazon just found a way to monetize something sellers have spent the last decade being terrified to touch.
For years, Amazon has suspended sellers for crossing the line on review solicitation, manipulation, incentives and improper customer outreach.
Now Amazon is launching Review Requests, an advertising product where sellers can pay to reach verified purchasers and ask them for ratings and written reviews.
Amazon says early testing produced 3x as many ratings and reviews per week.
To be clear, this is not the same thing as incentivized reviews or manipulating sentiment. Amazon controls the audience, placement and request.
But the irony is impossible to miss.
For years, sellers were told that review incentivization was one of the most dangerous areas of the marketplace.
Now Amazon has put a budget, a bid and an ad product around it.
The lesson was never that reviews were too valuable to influence.
The lesson was that Amazon wanted to be the one getting paid for the influence.