Amazon cracking down on discounted product reviews and coupon clubs

[4x4ord]

It appears the Amazon reviewer, AMZTracker and coupon club forums are buzzing lately about Amazon cracking down on reviews that aren't coming from true, honest purchases.

I applaud the effort! Amazon reviews are becoming worthless because of the latest scheme of pumping new products with incentivised reviews. People are losing faith in Amazon and it is surely costing Amazon.

As I get ready to launch a new product, it is disheartening to see crappy, unrefined versions of a similar product with 50 outstanding "unbiased reviews for discounted product", and 2 reviews from verified purchases saying the product is horrible.

I decided from the start to grow sales organically. Hopefully Amazon purges all the get rich quick sellers using these tactics to get rankings, so honest sellers will rise to the top on honest sales, good products and good customer service.

http://community.amztracker.com/dis...-the-value-of-reviews-for-discounted-products

https://www.amazon.com/forum/top re...5LRXMSUDQH2&cdPage=1&cdThread=Tx233BJJKDEQMJL

 

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[GPM]

Good. I think those reviews hurt legit sellers AND consumers.

 

[AllenCrawley]

Relevant thread:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...count-in-exchange-for-my-honest-review.65810/

 

[Bigguns50]

VERY glad to read AMZ will crack down on this !

 

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[Vigilante]

Finally. I sent an email to their CEO about this last year. I love to see the stories about the reviewers that are getting TKO'ed.

Some of them are literally too stupid to realize their own integrity breech.

 

[James Fake]

Yup.. it's a good thing for sure.

I have a blog post outlined but can never freakin' finish before this even all happened! Hopefully; I can knock on some tonight..

 

[Rigged]

I can confirm the hysteria around this. I am about to launch my first product soon and I have been following this facebook group with amazon sellers. The predominant topic on the group is regarding the deleted reviews they get as a result of 90%+ discount sales.
It is good this is happening. Too many wanteprenours with selfish reasons are out there. If you have a good product you don't need the crap a$$ fake reviews to make it.

 

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[4x4ord]

Any new news on this? I'm still reading about top reviewers being knocked off by AMZ.

Unfortunately, I am getting ready to launch a product that I've been developing for several months, to find the niche has been completely flooded by crappy imitations and tons of "received this product at a discount" reviews. This niche has gone from 2 to 20-30 in 30 days!

What is the end game? Does Amazon get this fixed and repair their reputation? Is this the chink in the armor that brings down the giant?

 

[JAJT]

Does Amazon get this fixed and repair their reputation? Is this the chink in the armor that brings down the giant?

Their reputation is hardly tarnished. They are still one of the largest marketplaces on the planet and even people who are frustrated with it are still very, very happy to shop there. Giant's aren't dethroned due to a few problems. They are dethroned by better alternatives and if you were to ask me to name even one viable alternative to Amazon that doesn't also suffer the same issues I couldn't do it.

I think the best solution to the problem (from Amazon's side) is to simply institute a ratio of coupon or unverified reviews to full price reviews. This would make it pretty unprofitable to game the system for all but the big players. Imagine if you needed 5 full price reviews for every unverified or coupon-generated review. To game this system you would have to pay reviewers full price for products for every 1 that you can give away for a buck (or whatever). It would be brutal.

As for your own situation - if your product is better, you should win long-term. Better products always do.

 

[biophase]

Any new news on this? I'm still reading about top reviewers being knocked off by AMZ.

Unfortunately, I am getting ready to launch a product that I've been developing for several months, to find the niche has been completely flooded by crappy imitations and tons of "received this product at a discount" reviews. This niche has gone from 2 to 20-30 in 30 days!

What is the end game? Does Amazon get this fixed and repair their reputation? Is this the chink in the armor that brings down the giant?

Is your product better than the others? If the niche has gone from 2 to 30 in a month, I'd say that you picked one of those AMZ seller checklist products and you are in for a battle when it launches.

 

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[4x4ord]

Is your product better than the others? If the niche has gone from 2 to 30 in a month, I'd say that you picked one of those AMZ seller checklist products and you are in for a battle when it launches.

I definitely think I stumbled in to an AMZ checklist product. My product is better than 80% of them. It's a pretty simple tool, so pretty hard to significantly improve the design. I suspect the bogus sellers will loose interest after they sell their first 1000, or Amazon will squash their account for poor reviews after their paid for reviews stop coming. I'll buy 1000 of my product, price them to make my costs back, and wait to see if the riff raff clears out. The market is huge, so I should come out ok.