If you want to build a real brand with Amazon FBA, product inserts are a very effective strategy.
They help you build trust, increase reviews, improve customer experience, and encourage repeat purchases.
In this article, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about product inserts.
Overview: What Are Product Inserts?
Product inserts are small cards placed inside your product packaging. Their purpose is simple: deliver a message directly to your customer.
In many cases, it can be as simple as a thank-you card.
Some retailers even handwrite these notes. I’ve personally received handwritten cards before—they looked beautiful and felt very personal.
That said, I don’t recommend this approach.
Handwriting takes a lot of time. And more importantly, no matter how nice the handwriting is, most customers will eventually throw the card away. It’s not an efficient use of your time.
Printing inserts in bulk is a much more practical and scalable solution.
Benefits of Using Product Inserts in Amazon FBA
When you include product inserts in your packaging, you’ll start to see several key advantages.
Subtly Collect Customer Data
One of the biggest limitations when selling on Amazon is that you don’t get direct access to customer information. Amazon owns the customer relationship—and they intend to keep it that way.
Product inserts give you a way to work around this, in a subtle and compliant manner.
For example, you can guide customers to your website or social media by offering something of value—like a small gift, a bonus, or useful content. Over time, this allows you to build your own customer base and create a real brand with loyal followers, instead of relying entirely on Amazon.
Increase Review Rates
Product inserts can also help you generate more positive reviews, while softening the impact of negative ones.
When customers have a good overall experience—from the product to the packaging and messaging—they’re more likely to leave a positive review. And even if they’re not fully satisfied, they tend to be less harsh in their feedback.
To be clear, product inserts won’t dramatically increase your review count.
But even a small improvement can make a meaningful difference—and that’s where their value lies.
How to Create Professional Product Inserts
When you’re just starting out, you can quickly create product inserts using ready-made templates on Canva. If you want something faster, you can also buy pre-designed templates on Etsy for just a few dollars.
However, if you’re aiming for a truly professional look, hiring a designer is the best option. This typically costs anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred dollars. And once you’re operating at scale, that level of investment is completely reasonable.
After finalizing your design, the next step is to send it to your supplier. They can handle printing the inserts and placing them directly into each package before shipping.
How to Insert Product Inserts into Your Packaging
Once you’ve designed a great-looking product insert, the next question is: how do you actually get it into your packaging?
With Amazon FBA, the simplest approach is to ask your manufacturer or supplier to handle it for you. They can print the inserts and place them inside each unit during the packaging process.
In most cases, your supplier will charge a small additional fee for this service. But don’t worry—the cost is usually very low, often under $1 per insert.
This approach saves you a significant amount of time and keeps your operations efficient as you scale.
Amazon Is Very Strict About Product Inserts
This is important: if you use product inserts incorrectly, Amazon can suspend your account. And recovering—or creating a new account—is a painful process. It’s much better to get things right from the beginning.
Amazon’s Policy on Product Inserts
Amazon doesn’t explicitly outline “product inserts” as a standalone policy. However, if you read their guidelines carefully, you’ll find relevant sections covering areas like Ratings, Feedback, Reviews, and Circumventing the Sales Process.
You can refer to Amazon’s official policy for more details.
In simple terms, the rules come down to this:
You must not influence a customer’s decision when leaving a review, and you must not misuse inserts to redirect customers in a way that bypasses Amazon’s ecosystem.
Violation: Incentivizing Customers to Leave Reviews
According to Amazon’s policy, you are not allowed to offer incentives—such as coupons or free products—in exchange for reviews.
That means you cannot encourage customers to leave positive feedback by rewarding them.
For example, the following statements clearly violate Amazon’s rules:
- “Leave a review to receive a free product”
- “Leave a review and get a $5 gift card”
In recent years, Amazon has been monitoring reviews very closely. You need to be extremely careful—avoid including any language like this in your product inserts.
Violation: Asking Only for Positive Reviews
If you ask customers to leave a review, you must do so in a neutral way. You cannot specifically request positive feedback only.
Examples of policy violations include:
- “Please leave a 5-star review”
- “Leave a positive review to support our small business”
Avoid using terms like “5-star” or “positive” in your inserts. Your request must be unbiased and not influence the customer’s opinion.
Violation: Redirecting Unhappy Customers to Private Channels
There’s a tactic many sellers used in the past:
- “If you’re satisfied, please leave a review”
- “If you’re not satisfied, contact us via this email”
The idea is simple: unhappy customers are redirected away from Amazon’s review system and encouraged to contact the seller privately.
Some sellers would then offer compensation to “resolve” the issue—effectively preventing negative reviews from being posted.
This tactic used to be common.
But not anymore. Amazon has explicitly banned this approach.
Violation: Diverting Customers Away from Amazon
“Stealing customers” might sound a bit harsh—but in practice, this means directing customers off Amazon.
And this is a sensitive area.
Amazon wants to keep the customer relationship within its ecosystem. So if you use product inserts to send customers to your own website with the intent of selling additional products, you’re putting your account at serious risk.
In the past, many sellers used coupons to drive customers to external websites. But those days are over. Using coupons for this purpose today can very likely get your account suspended.
You can still direct customers to your website—as long as you’re not trying to bypass Amazon’s sales process.
For example, offering free value is generally acceptable.
Let’s say you sell a yoga-related product. You could offer a free yoga course or a downloadable ebook. This adds value to your product (which can improve conversions) and gives you a legitimate way to collect customer emails.
The key is intent: provide value first, not a direct sales push.
Risks of Violating Amazon’s Policies
If you violate Amazon’s policies, the consequences can vary.
In mild cases, your listings may be suspended, your payments withheld, or certain seller privileges removed. But in more serious cases, your entire account can be permanently banned.
And setting up a new account is not easy—especially if you’ve already gone through the process of registering a company (like an LLC). Getting shut down at that stage can be extremely frustrating and costly.
The reality is, some sellers are willing to take these risks in exchange for higher profits. For example, in 2021, around 600 Chinese brands were suspended by Amazon for policy violations.
Note: Amazon’s policies can change over time. The information in this article may not always reflect the latest updates, so you should regularly review Amazon’s official guidelines to stay compliant.
How to Ask for Reviews with Product Inserts (the Right Way)
Amazon is strict about product inserts—but there are still compliant ways to ask for reviews.
Direct Approach: Ask for Honest Feedback
You can include a simple request in your insert asking customers to leave a review. The key is to keep it neutral.
Always ask for honest feedback, not positive feedback.
This keeps you aligned with Amazon’s policy while still encouraging customers to share their experience.
Indirect Approach: Lead with Value
A more subtle strategy is to use your product insert to start a relationship with the customer—by offering additional value.
Instead of directly asking for a review, you provide something useful: a bonus, a guide, or extra content related to your product.
If customers have a good experience, they’ll naturally be more inclined to leave a positive review—without being pushed.
This approach varies depending on your brand and niche, but a common method is offering digital products (like guides, ebooks, or tutorials).
In short, you stay compliant by not asking for positive reviews—only honest ones—while creating a better overall customer experience that naturally leads to better feedback.
Final Thoughts
This may sound like a lot—by now, it’s probably close to six pages of content. But in reality, the process is quite simple.
You just need to hire a designer, clearly explain what you want, and then send the final design to your supplier for printing. That’s it.
In my case, I design my own product inserts (I learned it myself). Of course, I still study what others are doing and adapt what works.
It may seem like a long process when explained, but in practice, this is a one-time task.
So take your time and do it right. A well-designed product insert only needs to be created once—but it can deliver long-term benefits for your business.