UK Amazon Vine – Drop in Claims & Reviews
Hi all,
We’ve been using Amazon Vine regularly in the UK and have recently noticed a significant drop in performance compared to previous launches.
Previously:
When enrolling 30 units, most would be claimed within a few days
We would typically receive a good number of reviews within 2–3 weeks
However, with our last two products:
First product: 30 units enrolled → only 4 claimed, 2 reviews received
Latest product: 2 units claimed in about 10 days → no reviews yet
Both products are in what we consider popular/active categories, so this slowdown is quite unexpected.
Given the £140 Vine fee for 30 units, this is becoming hard to justify if only a handful of units are claimed and even fewer reviews are left.
We wanted to ask:
Has anyone else in the UK (or EU) noticed a recent drop in Vine engagement or claim rates?
Are Vine Voices being more selective, or has visibility decreased?
Is it still worth enrolling 30 units, or are sellers seeing better ROI with smaller quantities now?
Would really appreciate hearing others’ recent experiences before continuing to invest at this level.
Thanks in advance.
UK Amazon Vine – Drop in Claims & Reviews
Hi all,
We’ve been using Amazon Vine regularly in the UK and have recently noticed a significant drop in performance compared to previous launches.
Previously:
When enrolling 30 units, most would be claimed within a few days
We would typically receive a good number of reviews within 2–3 weeks
However, with our last two products:
First product: 30 units enrolled → only 4 claimed, 2 reviews received
Latest product: 2 units claimed in about 10 days → no reviews yet
Both products are in what we consider popular/active categories, so this slowdown is quite unexpected.
Given the £140 Vine fee for 30 units, this is becoming hard to justify if only a handful of units are claimed and even fewer reviews are left.
We wanted to ask:
Has anyone else in the UK (or EU) noticed a recent drop in Vine engagement or claim rates?
Are Vine Voices being more selective, or has visibility decreased?
Is it still worth enrolling 30 units, or are sellers seeing better ROI with smaller quantities now?
Would really appreciate hearing others’ recent experiences before continuing to invest at this level.
Thanks in advance.
6 replies
Jameson_Amazon
Thank you for reaching out on the Seller Forums, @Seller_vxeanJigTlOr3!
While I don't have direct insights into why you may have experienced this slowdown, I did want to share a few potential reasons and tips on how you can continue maximising your Vine ROI:
- Seasonality: Claim rates can fluctuate depending on the time of year and enrolment volume
- Listing quality: Vine Voices are more likely to claim products with strong titles, images, and descriptions
- Test with fewer units: Try 10-15 units to gauge demand without overcommitting on fees
- Use the "Request a Review" button in Seller Central to encourage organic reviews alongside Vine
- Complement Vine with promotions like Vouchers or Lightning Deals to drive sales velocity and organic reviews
I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any additional questions.
All the best,
Jameson
Seller_vxeanJigTlOr3
Thank you for your response.
I understand the point about organic reviews.
However, my concern is that once we register a product for 30 units, we are charged the full £140 fee, even if only one Vine reviewer claims the product and leaves a review. This has now happened to us with a second product in the last few months.
Previously, our products would typically be fully claimed within a few days, with all 30 units taken. That no longer seems to be the case, at least based on our last 2 product launches over the past 6 months.
My question to other sellers was whether they have also noticed a drop in Vine claims recently. If so, it would help us adjust our strategy, ideally by registering fewer units rather than committing to all 30 units and paying a higher fee.
Jameson_Amazon
Thank you for the follow up and for your patience, @Seller_vxeanJigTlOr3!
I understand your thought process here. Since the £140 fee is charged per enrollment regardless of how many units are claimed, starting with fewer units (e.g., 2-5) is a reasonable approach to reduce risk. You can always enroll additional units later if claims come in quickly.
For account-specific concerns, I'd recommend opening a case with Seller Support so they can review your enrollment data directly.
All the best,
Jameson
Seller_TaeOq1xbNGdHE
Hello
I'm finding this too. Some Vine reviewers take the product and never leave a review. Is this pro-rata refund to us.
Also, last year, a reviewer received a product next day and immediately left a scathing and negative review without even trying the product as it's a supplement. 95% all other reviews from vine and organic are overwhelmingly positive. Are we able to challenge this?
Same product, one other Vine review wrote, "the tablets are big" and that's it! That was the entire review. We are paying for these reviews. Vine reviewers should also have a feedback system that the seller can rate and comment on, like Uber ratings, then they may think a bit more before reviewing. Some of them clearly don't care and just want free stuff. In that regard it should be a free service not a paid for service.
Seller_vxeanJigTlOr3
We don’t think we will continue using the paid Vine programme anymore. Our last two enrolments did not perform well in terms of product claims, despite paying the full fee of £140 per product.
It would make much more sense if the programme had a proportional charging system in place. For example, if a seller enrols 30 units but only a few products are actually claimed, then the seller should only be charged according to the relevant tier based on the number of claims received.
Regarding the reviews themselves, our experience with the most recent enrolment was also disappointing. We received only two reviews, and one of them disappeared within a couple of days.
Overall, we feel the quality of the reviews is poor, particularly for supplement products where proper assessment takes time. Some reviewers leave feedback within just a few days, which is not enough time to properly try or evaluate a supplement product. In many cases, the review content appears to be copied directly from the listing text. We have also noticed a tendency for some reviewers to leave 4-star ratings seemingly just to appear balanced, rather than based on the actual product experience.
More concerning is that some negative review points highlight characteristics that are actually intended features of the product or ingredient. This suggests that certain reviewers either do not fully understand the product category or have not properly researched the ingredients before reviewing. At times, it gives the impression that products are simply being claimed because they are free, rather than by reviewers genuinely suited to evaluating them.
Based on these experiences, we currently do not feel the programme offers sufficient value for the cost for the seller.
Seller_JzVm29bKwifQs
I launched two products on vine 30 days ago and am shocked with the results only 7 and 8 taken 3 reviews, i used in the past and 30 items taken within an hour, something must have changed
