Here’s Why You Can’t Trust Amazon Ratings Anymore

Typically, a review is written by a user with direct experience of the product or service. Ratings help keep companies honest and regulate product quality: A positive rating draws in additional purchasers or users by fomenting trust, according to Dixa. Negative ratings drive away business and tend to force brands to rethink their products’ fabrication process, quality control measures, service record, and other factors. On the most basic level, consumer ratings and reviews act as a conduit that connects brands with consumers.

Because of the importance of ratings, the Amazon experience is driven in part by the number and quality of reviews that products amass (via Lineate). This has been seen in the Kindle marketplace, with authors building strategies to publish multiple books at a time or to create free giveaways in the early launch period in an effort to develop high quality ratings, which will propel their book into the spotlight (via A Reading Place). Because Amazon sells billions of products, it can be difficult to regulate the legitimacy of ratings and reviews. This has led to a cottage industry of false five star Amazon reviews for all kinds of products that may or may not deserve it. According to Lineate, by gaining a large volume of positive reviews, a product is able to take advantage of Amazon’s marketing algorithms. A seller benefits from high sales, of course, but Amazon benefits as well by remaining a trusted resource for fast delivery of a massive variety of products.