Amazon reviews fake

Dont you just love online shopping?

Its faster than traditional shopping. Things get delivered to your house. No annoying queues.

If youre an introvert like me, online shopping also means no talking to humans. At all. Catch me having a (very quiet, thank you very much) party in my pajamas, drinking raspberry wine and scrolling down Amazon.

Speaking of Amazon, theres something we need to discuss.

I can bet the devil my head that you check reviews before buying a product. Just to make sure you know what youre investing in.

Well, have you ever wondered What percentage of Amazon reviews are fake?

Alexa, play The Godfather theme.

Its a dark place were about to enter.

Lets start with some fascinating Amazon stats:

• There are around 250 million reviews on Amazon.
• 82% of adults in America check reviews.
• Barely 17% of users fully trust reviews.
• Only just 3% to 10% of people actually write reviews.
• 61% of electronics reviews have been deemed fake.
• There were 2+ million unverified reviews on Amazon as of March 2019.
• Black hat companies offer as much as $10, 000 a month for a review.

Are you as uncomfortable as I am right now?

Dont worry.

I have more information and some ideas about how to deal with this problem.

Lets dig deeper.

1. There are around 250 million reviews on Amazon.

(Source: Buzzfeed)

To say that reviews are important would be an understatement.

We all check reviews before buying a product. Its the second-best way to get opinions, after word of mouth.

In fact, I spend a lot of time reading reviews, just for the fun of it.

Yes, I am aware that my definition of fun is not exactly typical.

Anyway.

Reviews increase conversion rates. People are just more willing to get things that are recommended by others.

And if you think that hiding bad reviews is doing you a favor, hold up.

Just look at how many people check reviews:

2. 82% of adults in America check reviews.

(Source: The Hustle)

More than half of customers check reviews before buying.

More than half of those seek negative reviews explicitly.

Why?

We live in an age, more or less dictated by marketing. Every marketer out there is trying to prove that their product is simply the best. Theyre listing all the good qualities, all the benefits, all the cool parts. And they often do it with fancy, and sometimes confusing, words.

You know, if you cant convince them, confuse them.

While I do get that, I want to know what Im actually dealing with.

I want the bad reviews. Judging by those Amazon statistics, I am not the only one.

Of course, people like me dont mean the THIS SUX reviews. We want legit Amazon reviews, with the cons explained.

That said, do people really trust reviews?

See for yourself:

3. Barely 17% of users fully trust reviews.

(Source: Search Engine Land)

Were not living under a rock. You and I both know fake Amazon reviews are a thing.

Besides, a healthy dose of skepticism never hurt anybody.

We still read them though, dont we?

More than half of people do take reviews into consideration. They dont necessarily trust them, but it does influence their decisions.

Those fake Amazon reviews really gave us trust issues.

The bigger question would be who writes those reviews?

I mean, the real Amazon reviews.

4. Only just 3% to 10% of people actually write reviews.

(Source: Buzzfeed)

We spend a lot of time reading reviews and we even let them influence our decisions. Youd think that most of us would take the time of day to actually write them.

But no.

Most of the people only ever leave 1 review. If theyre in the mood, of course.

The majority of them leave 5-star reviews. And almost none leave 2 or 3-star ratings.

Its go big or go home, folks.

Wait.

How many of those Amazon reviews are true? And what percentage of Amazon reviews are fake?

5. 61% of electronics reviews have been deemed fake.

(Source: Marketing Land)

We asked what percentage of Amazon reviews are fake. Heres the answer.

More than half of them.

Dont know about you, but those numbers make me uneasy.

How am I supposed to trust anything now?

First, its photoshopped bikini pics of models on Instagram.

Now its fake Amazon reviews about sneakers?!

Whats next?

The sun being a conspiracy?

Okay, back to the reviews.

6. There were 2+ million unverified reviews on Amazon as of March 2019.

(Source: The Hustle)

Amazon claims that only 1% of their reviews are unreliable.

What they dont talk about is the number of ways to fool them into believing a review is real.

I know what youre thinking.

We need to come up with a fake Amazon review checker.

This is why the likes of Fakespot and ReviewMeta exist.

And although they can help you greatly to spot fake Amazon reviews, they can hardly solve the general problem.

What is the general problem?

People make money out of fake reviews. And Im not talking a dollar or two here.

7. Black hat companies offer as much as $10, 000 a month for a review.

(Source: Buzzfeed)

Now you see why fake reviews are such a big thing.

Those numbers are honestly mind-blowing. There are so many ways to gain money from it. From thumbs up on reviews to removing negative reviews, everything has a price.

The end goal?

To manipulate the ranking systems and pull ahead of the competition. Were talking things like:

• selling information
• rearranging the top results
• reinstating suspended accounts
• keyword tricks
• fooling the algorithm that a product has been added to a shopping cart
• getting a spot in the frequently bought together section
• fake Amazon sellers

People make rules to contain the chaos. Then other people come up with ways to go around those rules and then charge for that.

Its a story as old as time.

As long as there are people making money out of it, there will be fake reviews.

So how can you distinguish between fake and real Amazon reviews?

Tips and Tricks

Determining Amazon review authenticity is not an easy task.

Still, there are some tips and tricks on how to spot fake reviews on Amazon.

Weve already discussed the first and most logical solution you can always use tools that do Amazon review analysis.

Also, you should actually take the time to read the reviews. Reviews that are drastically different from the general trend about a product are most probably unreliable.

The Amazon Verified Purchase badge can be used as a real review indicator too. That means that the user actually got the product from Amazon. To get the badge, the user needs to leave a review and wait for Amazon to confirm they got the product through that account. As we established, that, too, is sometimes handled by black hat companies. But its expensive and hard to do, so most of the time people dont bother.

Repetitive comments on products with a lot of reviews are also red flags. If a product has 236 reviews and 116 of them are something along the lines of DIS IS GR8!!!, it looks slightly suspicious. Needless to say, those 116 reviews are most likely fake.

If you find a particular review suspicious, check the account from which it was posted. If the user has written several similar reviews or has submitted a lot of reviews in a short period of time, you have your answer.

We cant catch them all, but we sure as hell can weed out most of them.

Whew.

That was a lot.

Lets wrap up.

What Can We Take From All This?

Very few people decide to purchase products online before reading reviews.

They are brave and reckless and I wish I could live life on the edge like them too.

However, I cannot. I need to read at least two reviews. Given that youve clicked on that article, youre probably like me.

Because of people like me, there are more than 250 million reviews on Amazon.

Most of them, unfortunately, are fake. More than half of the reviews about electronics, beauty products, supplements, and sneakers should not be trusted.

And people do not trust them. Only 17% of those reading reviews actually fully trust them.

The irony here is that we all want honest reviews, but almost no one goes on Amazon to write them. Less than 10% of people do that.

Who writes reviews then?

People paid by black hat companies and bots.

Its a tricky world to navigate without the insights we just talked about.

Wrapping Up

The good news is that now you know what percentage of Amazon reviews are fake. You also know how to distinguish between real and fake ones.

Youre properly armed against the dangers of fake reviews and can jump straight on Amazon to get your next purchase. And just in time holidays are right around the corner!

Go now. Shop like no ones watching. Because theyre not. Oh, the beauty of online shopping.

Have fun and till next time!