If you have ever browsed the product reviews on Amazon, you have probably noticed a number of them with a disclaimer that says, “I received this product for free or at a discount in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.” A new report by the research group ReviewMeta suggests that critiques with such a disclaimer or “incentivized” reviews as they call them, skew the retail site’s star-rating system.
ReviewMeta analyzed more than seven million reviews on Amazon and found that incentivized users tended to rate products 0.38 stars higher than ordinary users. They also found that incentivized reviewers were 12 times less likely to assign a one-star rating and four times less likely to leave a critical comment. Doug Stephens, a retail analyst and founder of Retail Prophet, told CTV News Channel that 0.38 stars may seem like an insignificant increase, but it can actually have a dramatic effect on the overall rating of a given product.
“When you consider that the average rating on Amazon is about 4.4, that half-a-point difference is enough to project something up to a five (star rating),” he said Wednesday.
Stephens says that many online shoppers tend to filter their search options by star rating and the incentivized reviews can bump a product into a higher star category than it may deserve. He also explains that a number of consumers begin their search with the highest-rated five-star products.
“Even though it sounds like a very small amount, it’s enough to tip the scales,” Stephens said.
Stephens suggested that Amazon’s reviews are the driving force behind the retailer’s enormous online success. Stephens believes the company should be careful about encouraging incentivized reviews because they could threaten the site’s integrity.
“For Amazon to run the risk of tainting consumer perception around these reviews and their credibility, it’s very dangerous,” Stephens said.
CTVNews.ca reached out to Amazon with a request for comment but did not hear back before publication.
Stephens cited the review-based site Yelp as an example of how important authentic reviews can be for a business. Yelp’s credibility was at stake, he said, when companies began posting positive ratings on their own profiles. Yelp ended up taking punitive action against those businesses they caught tampering with reviews.
For shoppers wondering what to look for when they’re reading reviews on Amazon, Stephens recommends searching for products with a three-star rating. He said that five-star and one-star products tend to be the result of overly biased users who most likely have ulterior motives.
“I think you’re better off looking at the threes,” Stephens said. “I think you’re going to get a more balanced view of the performance of just about any product.”
