Last updated on July 5th, 2023
A downside of shopping online is product testing, leaving people unable to confirm if a product meets their expectations unless they buy it. They share opinions through reviews, which are powerful vehicles influencing potential buyers’ decisions. But how legit are these reviews? As a customer-focused seller, how can you check if Amazon reviews are fake or not?
There are different ways to handle fake reviews, from reporting them to having Amazon consulting experts back you up. However, the most crucial aspect is confirming whether the review is genuine. If proven legitimate, the customer's review might point out some flaws in your product that will help improve your brand in the long run.
Read on to find out how to spot fake reviews, earn honest feedback, and increase your chances of thriving in the Amazon marketplace.
Despite the recent platform modifications with Amazon’s new algorithm (A10) implementation, the marketplace’s stance on customer feedback remains unchanged. Authentic and positive reviews are still a huge part of Amazon’s criteria for ranking product listings.
Aside from being a ranking factor, reviews can also affect consumer decisions. They are social proof of how great your product or service is, coming directly from people who experienced them first-hand, and ultimately boosting your credibility as a seller.
For these reasons, getting multiple reviews and customer feedback is essential for your Amazon store and brand’s growth. In that case, you may think receiving as many positive reviews as possible, whether genuine or not, is the ideal way to climb to Amazon’s peak. How bad can a few fake reviews be anyway?
The thing is, you should never underestimate the consequences of those few fake reviews.
It may be tempting to ignore or even buy fake reviews to improve your product ranking and attract customers, but there are plenty of reasons to refrain from engaging in such practices. Here are three of them.
Gone are the days when shoppers mindlessly buy products without checking their credibility. Customers nowadays are smarter and will exert extra effort to check whether your product is worth their money.
With that, they can easily spot fake reviews from a mile away. Sooner or later, your readers will catch on to the fact that you're buying fake Amazon reviews. When they do, they're not going to be happy.
More than just an effort to boost sales, buying fraudulent reviews is nothing more than lying to your potential customers. You're giving them a false impression of your product's quality.
If you’re caught doing this deceptive action, customers are more likely to take their money to a seller they can rely on regarding products and services. Buying fake reviews on Amazon is a glaring insult to your actual customers, and you will lose their trust.
We're not talking about the cost of purchasing fake reviews, per se. Instead, it’s about the price you'll pay when caught by Amazon. You can save a few dollars by buying fake reviews in the short term. But in the long run, it will cost you more than it's worth. You never know; it might even cost you your Amazon business.
Buying fake reviews is a risky gamble. You put your entire business at risk once you start doing it.
The retail giant has been actively cracking down on sellers using fake reviews, and if they catch wind of someone doing it, they could suspend their Amazon account and close the store for good.
It would be a huge hassle for you, and you could lose access to your account and all of Amazon's resources.
The brief discussion above may have completely squashed any hint of desire in you to buy fake reviews for better product list rankings. Good!
Unfortunately, your battle against fraudulent reviews on the platform doesn’t end there. Plenty of competitors may want to bring you and your brand down using fake negative reviews.
In that case, it’s crucial to come prepared and learn how to identify fake reviews. How can you tell legitimate reviews from fake ones?
The review typically discusses and details the actual experience of buying or using the product. Hence, the content of the review should say it all. If the reviewer is legitimate, they will comment on their experience using the product. They will enumerate facts, such as
Whether it is a positive or negative review, their feedback will be helpful. You can use it to learn what areas of your product, customer service, or marketing need improvement.
However, if the review is fake, it won’t have as much detail as described above. From the get-go, you can distinguish fake reviews from genuine ones because they refuse to elaborate on the customer’s experience. They won’t tell the seller how the product disappointed them, showing no intention of helping them improve. See the example below.
Amazon makes it easy to tell if the customers reviewing your product are legitimate buyers by screening through reviews and placing a verified purchase tag next to the reviewers’ names.
This badge indicates that they actually bought the product using their Amazon account and validates the reviewer's comments about the item and the store’s services.
By checking reviews off-site, you hit two birds with one stone. Not only are you educating yourself about the general public's perception of your product, but you are also verifying if the reviews posted on your page are credible or otherwise.
Note that comparing the contents has nothing to do with how favorable or unfavorable the customer’s feedback is.
More than ever, getting honest feedback about your Amazon products' performance is crucial. Good reviews serve as powerful endorsements. They can influence potential buyers to make a purchase. But so can bad reviews. How?
You can flip these reviews to your advantage by taking them constructively and as a point of reference for improvement. What’s more, bad reviews can open doors for more opportunities to communicate and interact with your customers.
Here are a few tips to help you get honest feedback about your Amazon products:
Fake reviews are the bane of any Amazon seller’s existence. The issue remains rampant on the platform despite Amazon’s efforts to weed out such fraudulent reviews. Hence, it’s only right for Amazon sellers like you to be vigilant.
You may use Amazon fake review checkers to do the tedious work for you, but acquiring the skill to distinguish between genuine and fake reviews on your own will benefit you in the long run. Seeking insights on the matter from Amazon professionals is another excellent option.
Succeed as an Amazon seller through the expert assistance of Seller Interactive’s account managers. Book a call today to get started.
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