The Truth About Amazon Reviews

By Exnov system

So you decide to skip the research part and just read reviews…… One of the greatest things about Amazon is also one of its biggest problems: the reviews. Can you trust Amazon reviews? More importantly, can the reviews really help you buy a product you'll love? The answer, as with so many things, is "it depends." You have to be savvy about product reviews. You have to learn what to pay attention to, what to ignore, and what you can and can't believe--and why.

This is especially true for technical products that you don't understand very well and don't know how to evaluate. If you're not sure what to look for, then most other people are probably in the same boat, including those who've already bought the product and already written a review!

You can learn how to use Amazon reviews, as well as other sources of information, to buy wisely and find products you can truly love. But you have to know how to spot fake reviews, and you have to know how to evaluate honest reviews so you know if you can trust what the person is saying.

Here, we talk about the two main categories of unhelpful reviewers: 1) fake reviews and 2) honest-but-unhelpful reviews. Then we talk about how to analyze Amazon reviews to get the most useful information you can, as well as when and how to use external review sites to help you buy as wisely as possible.

Do'nt forget there are also Fake Amazon Reviews. There are two types of fake reviews: the "in exchange for an honest review" review, and the blatantly fake review."In Exchange for an Honest Review" Reviews. User reviews are a huge part of why people buy what they buy on Amazon. A lot of positive reviews equates to a lot of sales. This being the case, sellers have learned to game the system.

One way they do this is to give away or greatly discount products "in exchange for an honest review." These are easy to spot because the review will contain a disclosure statement along the lines of "I received this product in exchange for my honest review." If you see a statement like this somewhere in the review (usually at the end), don't give the review too much weight (unless it's negative, in which case it's probably very honest, indeed).

These aren't exactly "fake" reviews, but you mostly can't trust them, nevertheless. Research has shown that these "in exchange" reviews are overwhelmingly more positive than reviews freely given. So proceed with caution if there are a lot of these types of reviews, especially if they are mostly positive.

Another thing sellers do is use review mills to generate reviews--yes, there are actually businesses that will write fake product reviews for profit. Paid reviewers have been used for awhile by marketers and manufacturers to create buzz about their products on Amazon, and probably elsewhere, too. These may not be a big issue anymore. In 2015, Amazon filed a number of lawsuits against these paid review companies, and a lot of them have shut down. But it's quite possible, even probable, that sellers have found new ways to game the system, because where there's money to be made, disreputable sellers can usually find ways to do it. So you should still be careful when deciding which reviews to trust.