American web shop Amazon has created a new rule for user reviews: customers can only rate five items every week, in an attempt to ward off fake reviews.
Customer needs to have bought product
For several years, Amazon has struggled to get rid of fake reviews. Sellers enlist other people to write positive product reviews and they often pay for these reviews, leading to their products getting a better rating and selling better. To counter that, customers are now only allowed to write five product reviews per week and Amazon will also check whether the reviewer has actually bought the item. However, the new rule does not apply to music, videos and books.
Reliable reviews are extremely important to Amazon, because a large portion of its sales model is based on the idea. There is no salesperson to recommend particular products, which means customers have to rely on other customers’ experiences. However, if these are not reliable, that actually damages Amazon’s reputation. Back in October, Amazon already made it impossible to write reviews for items that were given away for free or that were discounted.
