The short answer: self-purchases do not move rankings on their own
A common question from sellers is whether self-purchases on Ozon (buying your own product to generate order history) have stopped working and no longer bring sales. The honest answer is that they never worked as a ranking lever in the first place. What changed is how you should use them.
On Ozon, the volume of demand for a product does not directly affect its position in search. Whether you run self-purchases or not has no direct effect on your sales. The search and ad algorithms work differently from other marketplaces, where buying your way into the top is a recognised tactic. On Ozon, your position is driven mainly by conversion at each stage: from impression to cart, and from cart to order. The higher those conversions, the better your product ranks.
Run self-purchases blindly and the only real winner is the marketplace. You pay sales commission, logistics, the order itself, pickup from the collection point and return logistics back to the warehouse. You spend a lot of money and time, and get no direct lift in sales.
Where self-purchases do pay off: reviews
Self-purchases still have a place, and we use them on client projects in one specific strategy that does return money. The value is not the purchase itself but what it unlocks: a verified review.
We buy our own products only to write detailed, high-quality reviews that close the objections a future buyer would otherwise have. Conversion is the key ranking factor, and reviews are a major part of conversion. On marketplaces, shoppers most often choose a seller and a product based on reviews. The better the reviews, the higher the chance of a purchase.
Two things drive results when you build reviews
- The number of reviews. Generally, the more reviews a product card has, the better for sales and positions. Shoppers often pick the listing with the most reviews, reasoning that if this many people bought it and left feedback, the risk of a bad product is low.
- What the reviews say and which objections they close. Buyers always carry a set of fears and objections, and they look for answers inside your product card. Reviews are where you address them.
Typical buyer fears to address
- The item never arrives, or arrives damaged.
- The item is expired or does not work.
- The buyer cannot use the product for its intended purpose and does not want to take the risk.
Work these objections through both the product card content and the review text.
When to use self-purchases
We use them in two situations:
- At launch. When a new store enters the market, trust is close to zero. Self-purchases let us bring each product to at least 10 to 15 reviews, and only then do we switch on paid ads, grow sales through organic search and so on.
- To close a review gap fast. When you need to quickly catch up with the number of reviews on your closest competitor's product card.
In these two cases self-purchases make sense. In every other case, we would not recommend spending money on this tool.
The takeaway
Do not treat self-purchases as a ranking shortcut. Treat them as a way to seed credible reviews that lift conversion, and only at launch or when you need to close a review gap. The real work of conversion sits in the product card: the title, the description, rich content, fully filled-in attributes, infographics and video. Reviews sit alongside that content, not in place of it.
