I bet that like me, you’ve already taken a few minutes of your time to read reviews about a particular product you were looking to buy. And I’m sure you’ve already been frustrated, even with great reviews. This can happen because of fake reviews.
Generally speaking, they are false perceptions about an item, made with the aim of deceiving customers and lessening the work of the competition.
And these false opinions not only harm our customer experience, but also impact the credibility of many companies.
And it was against this backdrop that the e-commerce giant Amazon announced the decision to enter into a legal battle against more than 10,000 Facebook groups, which select people to present fake reviews in exchange for money or products.
But what are the impacts of fake reviews besides the fact of decreasing or increasing the demand for some product? That’s what we’re going to discuss now.
Amazon case: what is this big company doing about it?
With a focus on harming the company and deceiving customers at the time of purchase, false reviews are not only on Amazon in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Japan.
The e-commerce giant says that all the information collected will serve to identify who is behind these Facebook groups and prevent this type of situation from recurring in other businesses.
The company uses advanced technologies and expert monitoring to try to prevent customers from being scammed, barring millions of negative reviews that are considered suspicious. And among the products that suffer the most from these fake reviews are electronic devices.
But this isn’t the first time Amazon has had to deal with this kind of situation.
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the company doubled its efforts in the fight against fake reviews spread on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. In fact, one of the groups overthrown by the Meta team had more than 43,000 members.
In 2015, in an article published by The Guardian, the company said that it faced more than a thousand people in court who published false reviews in exchange for money.
At the time, Amazon demanded that those involved not only pay for the crime, but that they report those responsible for orchestrating this action against the company.
It’s important to remember that Amazon was one of the first companies to adopt product reviews. Since its founding in 1994, the e-commerce giant’s main purpose is to support customers in the decision-making process, based on the availability of complete information about their available items.
Fake reviews: an impact for e-commerces
It is important to say that false reviews do not only apply to negative points, but also to false positive reviews.
After all, who hasn’t come across a product that promised to be everything, and when receiving it at home was surprised by something totally different?
When buying a product, we want our expectations to be met and everything to be as advertised, but when that doesn’t happen, we have consumers who end up opting for other forms of acquisition, whether migrating to other online stores or looking for new ways to buy.
Another point regarding the negative impact of fake reviews on the online sales sector is the increase in returns or exchanges.
In most cases, when receiving something different from what was ordered, customers get in touch to show their dissatisfaction. And when requesting a refund, or an exchange request, this process becomes costly.
Fake Reviews and the People Behind It
Fake reviews are not just made by people looking for money. In many cases the scheme is designed by those who want to harm their competitors.
And there are also situations of false positive evaluations made by the seller themself, with the aim of increasing their sales. However, strategies of this type are not effective if the product is not of good quality.
They may work in the short term, but as customers become dissatisfied with the product received, the rebound effect will cause the brand and reputation to drop.
A promising scenario against fake reviews
As we realized, fake reviews are dangerous and can cause great damage. In addition to lowering conversion rates, they serve to get in the way of overall satisfaction.
And Amazon is not alone in this, as there are already other e-commerces suffering from these impacts and that are already mobilizing to eliminate as many users as possible that are part of these groups.
But despite the continued actions of companies, there is a lot to be done to end fake reviews once and for all. It is necessary for affected businesses to join with the media to talk more about this issue and look for best practices for the safety of their consumers.
So, if you are an e-commerce seller, always try to use the best tools to collect and post reviews that match your products, okay? So, in addition to selling more, you guarantee the best customer experience.
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