Amply familiar to millions of global consumers, Amazon features customer reviews and ratings to influence the consumers’ buying process. However, Amazon is reportedly testing a significant change in its product search results: BIN101: Examples include, concealing the conventional star ratings of customer reviews. As it unfolds this experiment has generated discussions among consumers, sellers, and industry specialists because it sparked controversies related to online purchasing behavior and the prominence of customers’ reviews.
The Experiment: What’s Changing?
In this test, the company excludes the customer rating stars that have been quite common with Amazon’s product search results. Heretofore, these, which are an average of customer feedback, are placed in large font below the title of the product and are preceded by the number of feedbacks available. They are useful to give a first impression of the product to potential buyers as to its quality and sales.
What is Amazon trying to achieve?
Amazon has not officially stated its reasons for conducting this test, but several theories can be drawn based on market trends and user behavior:
- Reducing Bias in Shopping Decisions: However, when using the star rating system, there tends to be a bias with the star rating rather than giving information on descriptions, specifications, and even prices of the product. Perhaps the real reason, Amazon has opted to eliminate star ratings from its initial search results, is to get the customer to think more about a product than simply focusing on ratings.
- Combating Fake Reviews: It has been fighting the problem of fake reviews since it started its operation several years ago. If Amazon virtually downplays the star ratings it displays, it is seemingly seeking to cut down instances of rating manipulation as a way of providing shoppers with a more naturalistic experience.
- Encouraging Purchases of Newer Products: It is difficult for a newly developed product to be sold because the general public is more inclined to purchase established products, they are generally rated low compared to products that have already been developed. This change could make new products compete effectively and be easily recognized by the consumer as a result of the change.
- Testing User Engagement: Amazon is very sensitive in experimenting and adjusting the site layout to increase the level of its users’ interaction. It can be a part of a large number of experiments that are likely to be performed to identify the impact of various formats of presenting objects in engaging the users and converting them.
Possible Consequences to the Consumers and the Sellers
The potential impacts of this experiment on both consumers and sellers are significant:
- For Consumers: Consumers may be equally having limitations in their ability to easily determine the quality of the product ahead without star ratings. This was further compounded by several possibilities such as longer session times as consumers are compelled to depend on various factors like descriptions, images, and other information on the products. On the other hand, it may also cause more rational buying decisions because instead of relying on the star rating, consumers will have to extend their time, and go through the reviews.
- For Sellers: There could be some concerns in the minds of sellers who have a large percentage of customers who click on stars and the like. They may have to spend more of their time and resources on other factors of the listings, for instance, quality images, comprehensive descriptions as well as accurate price offers. On the other hand, this may be advantageous to those with a small or low number of reviews as an absence of star ratings may work to the disadvantage of established products.
What are the implications of this for the future?
If Amazon chooses to assimilate this change in the long-term this may change the dynamic of how online Shopping Platforms address consumers’ feedback. It stepped up the evaluation of products that could be based on star ratings and other such simple ways and gave real detailed values that would enable the consumer to read through the details before buying products.
Conclusion
An unorthodox trial that Amazon currently applies on its website consists of abolishing customer review star ratings from analytics of the products we are seeking at the online marketplace is a brave and rather provocative choice that might change the future of e-shopping. Whether this change will be beneficial and make shopping more enjoyable or whether it will introduce a range of new issues still has to be seen. However, it emphasizes the need for innovation when it comes to e-commerce as it presents a new challenge when the marketplace moves to the digital sphere.
