Directly close the store! ! Amazon cracks down on illegal mergers of Vine and wool-pulling behavior on a large scale

Recently, a storm of closures against abusers of the Vine program swept across Amazon's US site! Many sellers previously used the "split variants to get reviews" method, but now they have been directly banned by Amazon!

01 Amazon cracks down on illegal vine mergers

Many sellers were suddenly notified of the closure of their stores without any warning, and the reason was - abuse of Vine reviews and repeated creation of variants. When this news came out, many sellers were stunned.

The sellers whose shops were closed this time committed the following violations:

• Creating dozens of separate ASINs for the same product

• Apply for 2 free Vine reviews per ASIN

• Merge Vine comments into the main variant as they arrive

• Repeat to break the 30 Vine comment limit for a single parent.

Moreover, the store inspection report showed that sellers were involved in creating a large number of duplicate ASINs in an attempt to abuse and exploit the free tier of the Vine program .

The fundamental reason for the store closure this time is the triple violation of Vine abuse + variant operation abuse + repeated creation of ASIN.

This time, Amazon is using a new algorithm to identify and track these non-compliant behaviors of sellers.

One is that the free tier of the Vine program has been abused. Amazon explicitly prohibits the reuse of free quotas by splitting/merging variants. Sellers must not cross this red line.

Another is that after the variant abuse algorithm is upgraded, the review traceability system can track the Vine records of ASIN before the merger, and variant fingerprint recognition can identify cloned ASINs by comparing product titles, pictures and other attributes.

02 How to avoid abusing the Vine program on Amazon US?

• What is the Vine Project?

  It means that the seller sends the products to Amazon's "review masters" for free in exchange for their real reviews.

  Sellers participating in the program can provide up to 30 products to Vine reviewers for free, while ordinary sellers can get 2 Vine reviews for free for each "parent product".

• What is Amazon’s strategy for taking advantage of VINE?

  “Split variants to get reviews” - the seller copies and pastes 2 reviews of 1 product into N reviews.

  Split variants: Split 1 product into multiple independent links, each of which can get 2 free reviews!

  Merge old links: merge old products into new ones, and use the free quota of the old ASIN to give reviews to the new products.

• How to avoid abuse of the Vine program?

  Data cutting: If the seller has similar illegal operations, all variant relationships containing Vine reviews should be immediately terminated to avoid further deterioration of the problem.

  Strictly follow the variation rules: do not create duplicate ASINs and ensure that each product corresponds to only one ASIN.

  Reasonably set up variant relationships: If using variants, ensure that there are real and reasonable differences between the variants, the differences between the child bodies under a single parent body should be small, and the number of variant structure adjustments per month should be less than 2 times.

  Correctly understand and follow the Vine program rules: Have a deep understanding of the various regulations of the Vine program, including product eligibility criteria, methods and restrictions for obtaining reviews, etc.

  Compliance with the Vine program: If comments are required, you can consider using a cross-site Vine approach. This approach currently complies with regulations, but you must ensure that you strictly abide by the relevant rules of each site during operation.

In the new year, Amazon will crack down on illegal activities more vigorously. Once the rules are violated, sellers must be prepared to be caught. Moreover, Amazon is best at settling accounts later, so it is important to avoid risks in advance!