A peek into: Online Amazon Reviews
Have you ever seen some random product for sale that’s from
some brand you’ve never heard of, and the company has no
website—yet its widget has somehow garnered 15,000 five-star
reviews since … last week? We sure have. This situation is likely
the result of a compensated-review program.
Amazon, which has over 200 million unique monthly U.S.
visitors, accounted for more than 37% of all online U.S.
retail sales in 2020 and once again dominated in the e-retail
space with over $385 billion in net sales. As Amazon continues
to see rapid growth, consumers are increasingly making
purchase decisions with the help of one of the most powerful
ecommerce tools: consumer reviews.
Reviews aren’t just beneficial for shoppers trying to find the
perfect product. They’re one of the most effective ways
for you to boost your brand’s conversion, credibility, and
overall ecommerce presence. If you have very few reviews—or if
the reviews you do have are negative—you’re less likely to
convince consumers that your product beats the competition.
This situation is likely the result of a compensated-review
program. Such compensated reviews—orchestrated by
businesses that cater to companies that want more public
positive feedback—violate Amazon’s terms of use but are
difficult to police. (This arrangement is not to be confused with
Amazon’s Vine program, in which companies provide products
to users in exchange for an honest opinion, although those
reviews can be problematic in their own way. You can read
our thoughts on them below.)
How to avoid getting scammed
You have a few ways to suss out what may be a fake
review. The easiest way is to use Fakespot. This
site allows you to paste the link to any Amazon product
and receive a score regarding the likelihood of fake
reviews.
For example, we ran an analysis on some
headphones we found during a recent research sweep
for our guide about cheap in-ear headphones. You can
see from the results below that the headphones’
reviews didn’t score so well.
We corresponded with an official spokesperson for
Fakespot to get a better idea of where these results
come from. He said:
The quick answer is that every analysis does two
simultaneous things: we analyze every single review
posted and we review each reviewer and every review
that reviewer has ever posted on that account. We
take all that data and run it through our proprietary
engine which grades everything and looks for
patterns.
The engine adjusts based on the prevailing patterns
used by proven fake reviewers and their reviews, so
while there is some base criteria, we’re able to use
artificial intelligence to keep ahead of the imposters.
Every fake reviewer has patterns. And the more data
we collect via analyses completed, the more our
engine is able to adapt and learn. The secret sauce is
not only in the engine but the ability to run the data
in the quickest amount of time possible; ensuring
swift delivery of an accurate product.
The likelihood of knowing for certain if a review is fakeTo get
some perspective, we spoke with Bing Liu, a professor in
the department of computer science at the University of Illinois at
Chicago, whose focuses include sentiment analysis, opinion mining,
and lifelong machine learning. He has written textbooks on the
subjects. We wanted to know his opinion on whether it is possible
for a program or group of programs to evaluate reviews and
correctly determine their validity. Liu’s thoughts:
It is hard to say without knowing their techniques. The problem with this task is
that there is often no hard proof that the detection is actually correct unless the
author of the actual fake reviews (not made up fake reviews) from a review hosting
site confirms it. Of course, it is easier if the company actually hosts reviews (e.g.,
Amazon or Yelp) because they can analyze the public information that the general
public can see and also (more importantly) their internal data which tracks all the
activities after a person comes to the website. A lot of unusual behaviors can be
detected. Unfortunately, such data is not available to people outside the site.
In other words: Unless you have a way to confirm with the person
(or company) writing the review, or you are Amazon, it’s all
conjecture. Keep in mind that these analyses are based on
Fakespot’s techniques, so we have to take their word for it. We don’t
have a way to verify how precise they are. However, you can make
educated guesses. And if you’re in a hurry or in need of a second
opinion, Fakespot can be a useful tool when you're considering a
purchase.
All of that aside, we had a similar opinion when we read the Rxvoit
reviews ourselves, and we can tell you a few factors that we use
when evaluating customer reviews.
How we spot a phony review
What aspects of the Rxvoit headphones’ reviews felt funny to us?
Well, first of all, we noticed that a lot of the positive reviews
happened within a few days of each other. That indicates to
us that people made a push for reviews to happen on a timeline.
In fact, at the time we did our research sweep, the Rxvoit
headphones had a five-star rating and a few hundred reviews posted
within a week or two. This, for a company that is very new (as in, it
has only one product—these headphones) and one we had never
heard of. That's a red flag.
Second, within those reviews, we saw a lot of the same wording,
and even similarly staged user photos. It was as though
someone said, “Hey, take a picture of a close-up of your hands
holding the headphones over a countertop.” While we know that
people do post pictures to accompany their reviews, it seemed too
coincidental that they were all staged in the same way, all over a
span of a few days.
And lastly, we couldn’t find a company website for Rxvoit.
While the lack of a Web presence isn’t in itself an indication of a
shady manufacturer or a signal to look out for fake reviews, it is
worth noting. When your only point of contact for a company is
through Amazon, you have no way of accessing customer service
directly. This means warranty claims are tough to redeem. It also
means it’s tougher for a significant number of people to “just
happen” to stumble across a product and decide to purchase it,
which makes a sudden spurt of reviews very unlikely.
What does this look like in the wild? Well, here’s an example of
reviews that are accused of being fake from the most recent Amazon
lawsuit.
The Vine program
The Vine program, and similar methods of eliciting feedback, give
away products for free (or sell them at a deep discount) to potential
customers vetted (by Amazon in the case of the Vine program) for
the helpfulness of their reviews, in exchange for an “honest review.”
While these sorts of reviews are far more ethical than paid-for
reviews, they can also be a little problematic. Even if the way the
review was obtained is disclosed on product pages, several aspects
of the purchasing process don’t get considered as part of these
programs.
For example, returns and long-term use aren’t part of the
evaluation. When you get something for free, you’re less likely to
follow up on breakage concerns or customer service issues.
Additionally, if the reviewer didn’t actually buy the product, that
person doesn't take the purchase and shipping processes into
consideration.
But most important, receiving something for free or nearly free can
greatly affect one's opinions. You might notice how few of the
reviews through Vine and similar programs are negative or even
critical. This isn’t a case of reviewers intentionally being dishonest,
but rather the result of unconscious positive bias. Not paying for an
item can make difficulties with that item seem less irritating.
Additionally, reviewers may give their opinions on items for which
they have no expertise or real experience and therefore have no
frame of reference about how well something works by comparison.
It’s hard to say how good something is if you don’t know what else is
out there.
So, just know that you can’t always believe what you see when it
comes to five-star reviews. While some overnight successes do exist,
often a four-star product with authentic reviews and a proven track
record is a better buy. Look beyond the overall star rating and read
with a critical eye, and you’ll be in good shape.
Why are reviews important?
Reviews are everywhere, from Amazon to Facebook to Google
to Yelp and beyond, and for good reason. Research shows that
84% of shoppers trust online reviews as much as a personal
recommendation, and 91% of shoppers occasionally or regularly
read online reviews. Why? Because they create trust and add
transparency to the purchasing experience so consumers are
more willing to buy.
How do reviews affect your business?
While reviews are very important for customers, they’re also
very important for businesses. Reviews directly affect your
brand reputation (for better or worse), increase or decrease
sales, and they can be the final nudge that either converts a
customer or convinces them to never give your brand a second
thought. More measurably, the number of reviews you have
impacts your SEO, as online reviews are factored into Google
search results.
How do shoppers use reviews?
While the A9 search algorithm presents consumers with their
options, ratings and reviews are what push consumers from
consideration to purchase. Approximately 93% of
consumers read reviews before making a purchase, and a
whopping 68% of consumers form an opinion on a
product after only reading between 1 and 6 online reviews. With
so many reviews available and so few being consumed before
consumers make a purchase decision, it’s easy to see why you
should be scrambling to gather positive feedback and respond
to negative reviews on Amazon.
Do reviews influence product ranking on Amazon?
Not necessarily. Product reviews are not the sole deciding factor
in where items appear in Amazon rankings; sales are still the
champion when Amazon’s A9 algorithm delivers search results
(read more on our analysis about how Amazon reviews
influence conversion and sales). Amazon happily indicates
“Best Seller” and “Amazon’s Choice” next to products, but those
only appear on two results for any given search. However, every
product gets a boost from its review summary and star rating
right in the results page:
While reviews may not be the most important factor in
rankings, they greatly influence conversions on Amazon.
Statistics show 22% of shoppers won’t look anywhere else once
they’ve identified an Amazon product they want to buy, and
reviews are a major push when it comes to purchase decisions.
How does Amazon build those review summaries?
Amazon is very secretive about how it arrives at an item’s star
rating summary. Reviews and ratings are weighted to scale, but
star ratings don’t necessarily correlate with Best Seller or item
rank status. We do know that Amazon’s models factor in how
recently a rating or review was written and whether the
purchase was verified.
Amazon has migrated through several programs to foster
unbiased, trustworthy reviews and currently does so through
Amazon Vine, an invite-only program that invites trusted
Amazon reviewers to review new products.
Amazon Vine reviewers, called Vine Voices, are invited to
participate in the program based on the helpfulness of their
reviews and their expertise in specific categories. Vendors
participating in the program pay for the products, and
reviewers give their honest opinion in return.
More reviews, more problems?
A true black market has materialized through Facebook, Reddit,
and other platforms for brands and merchants to game the
conversion funnel with fake reviews, despite these reviews
being in direct opposition to Amazon’s selling policies.
Although Amazon claimed in 2018 that more than 99% of
consumer reviews are legitimate, some researchers and
consumers have come to vastly different conclusions.
In 2018, The Washington Post found some product categories
in which up to 67% of reviews were fraudulent and artificially
boosting item ratings. Even though some sellers may argue that
they’re not artificially boosting ratings if they don’t ask for
specifically positive reviews, ReviewMeta found that
incentivized reviewers are almost 4 times less likely to leave a
critical product review.
Three years later, it appears the problem is as relevant as ever.
In August 2020, Financial Times found that Facebook groups
that solicit incentivized Amazon reviews are thriving, with some
groups posting thousands of offers a day. After the initial article
was posted, Amazon deleted 20,000 product reviews on
Amazon UK.
Amazon, which is proactively working to change this
perception, stopped allowing paid reviews in 2016 and has
since cracked down on platforms like Amazon Review Trader.
Services like FakeSpot and ReviewMeta provide consumers
tools to research products and weed out suspected fake reviews.
Amazon has said it has a zero-tolerance policy toward product
review policy violations, and brands that offer incentives like
free products or discounts in exchange for reviews are subject
to punishments including permanent delisting from Amazon,
legal action, and the withdrawal of selling privileges. Long story
short, it’s a much safer bet to focus on improving your
legitimate product reviews.
What’s the deal with ratings?
In fall 2019, Amazon changed its review system verbiage from
“reviews” to “ratings” and started letting shoppers leave a
product rating out of 5 stars in one click. Previously, customers
who wanted to leave a star rating also had to leave a written
review.
This change, which made it easier for shoppers to leave their
impressions of a product, has resulted in a higher quantity of
ratings and higher star ratings for products. The new system
can be positive for brands since it eliminates some of the
negative bias that often accompanies online reviews, according
to Marketplace Pulse, but it also makes it harder to verify which
reviews are trustworthy.
Vox suggests that Amazon’s move to swap reviews with ratings
makes it easier for new Amazon sellers to gain momentum and
that increased feedback from legitimate customers will give
fake reviews less power. In fact, customer ratings aren’t even
considered in an item’s overall star rating unless the rating has
Amazon Verified Purchase status.
How should you handle negative reviews?
After reading all about how positive reviews lead to conversion,
you might be panicking about every negative review. But take a
deep breath—research actually shows that occasional negative
reviews can be good, according to Forbes, as a brand seems less
credible if it has perfect reviews.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t respond to negative reviews.
In fact, responding to these reviews can be a great way to build
credibility and show consumers you’re available and willing to
fix potential problems. You can read more about handling
negative reviews here, but apologizing, fixing the problem, and,
in some cases, removing the review are all good steps to take.