To organize information on product feedback, Amazon in the United States came up with an advance customer review system that selects newer and more bankable reviews.
Amazon Reviews judges products in two ways; star rating and review ranking. The previous platform treated all feedback equally. The new platform, however, is more discriminating.
For the star rating, a product's overall star rating will now consider factors including the timeliness and upvotes of a review. Feedbacks from verified purchasers are being noted. For the Review ranking, similar machine-learned factors will help determine a review's ranking in the list of reviews.
The new feature has gradually started altering star ratings and top reviews on the product's page.
Amazon spokeswoman Julie Law said, "The system will learn what reviews are most helpful to customers...and it improves over time." With its latest technology, Amazon aims to increase the reliability of reviews to help customers make better choices.
The change rolled out before July. The feature has kept on improving over time. Currently, it is more reliable.
The company assures that the development is well-thought and well-conceived, CNET reported. Commissioned reviews from sellers will be lessened. As the innovation has worked in the U.S., it may be tested in other countries as well.
Amazon's reviews have inarguably been a major key to the online retailer's success. Online shopping sites rely on reviews to make their users their users feel secure. While the user cannot personally touch and feel the product prior to purchase, reviews from their fellow online shoppers give them a sense of security.
In the last couple of years, frauds in product ratings on online retailers' websites have been a dilemma for the consuming public, New Scientist reported.
In 2013, New York State conducted Operation Clean Turf, an investigation on fraud on retail website ratings. Staff from the attorney general's office called local search engine optimization specialists. The staff pretended to be the owners of a yogurt shop in need of positive press. In the end, 19 companies were penalized for violating laws against false advertising.