Breaking News! Amazon's review policy has been significantly adjusted

Amazon's review policy has once again undergone major adjustments!

Amazon's front-end review policy has changed, showing the ratio of star-rated reviews for the first time. At the same time, Amazon has recently decided to add AI-generated review summaries. Compared with previous review policy adjustments, this change is larger, including highlighting product authenticity and attributes, and only showing reviews of real purchases.

With the new review policy adjustment, Amazon sellers may start a new round of price spiral.

Amazon review count suddenly disappeared

This morning, many Amazon sellers found that the front-end display had changed. Products that previously had tens of thousands of reviews suddenly no longer had the number of reviews, and instead showed the percentage of five-star reviews. On the front-end page, the percentage of five-star reviews for products was shown as 40%, 63%, 81%, etc.

This new change has begun to show up on the US and Japanese sites, but not all sellers’ product reviews have changed, and some sellers have reported that their product front page has not changed. Industry sellers said that the policy is probably in the early testing stage and has not yet been fully rolled out.

Later, a colleague reopened the browser and found that it was different again. The rating level and number could be seen. There were several different ways to display it: only one star, 4 stars + the ratio of reviews; only one star and the number of reviews; only one star, 5 stars + the ratio of reviews.

This change has sparked heated discussions among sellers, with some even calling it a "big earthquake". We will have to wait and see how this change will be implemented. Based on the feedback from everyone, the main impacts are as follows:

1. The number of reviews is not that important anymore. Hiding the number of reviews weakens the sensory stimulation of thousands or even tens of thousands of reviews on old products;

2. Good news for new products. The proportion of five-star reviews for new products is high, so they should be able to compete with old products;

3. It is not conducive to product selection. You cannot see products with a lot of reviews, which makes you lose the reference direction for product selection;

4. Exacerbating price spirals. Combined with Amazon’s previous changes to sales display, Amazon may begin to focus on sales in the future, exacerbating the price spiral among sellers;

5. Pay attention to product quality. Force sellers to improve product quality, give better products a chance, and eliminate low-scoring products.

For Amazon sellers, the importance of product reviews is self-evident, and every policy adjustment affects everyone's sensitive nerves . From the first launch of reviews by Amazon in 1995 to the current situation where reviews have become an important driving force for consumers to buy, Amazon has been constantly improving and updating its review policy.

Common feature updates include review titles, photos, and videos. In order to expand the scope and diversity of reviews, starting in 2019 , Amazon allows customers who purchase products to leave a quick star rating without having to write a full review. The importance of the star rating of reviews to sellers has become more prominent. Now, the front desk only displays the proportion of five-star reviews, which may be in line with the fast-paced lifestyle of current shoppers and facilitate buyers' browsing.

To facilitate buyers, Amazon also uses artificial intelligence to summarize review summaries, allowing buyers to make purchasing decisions quickly.

Amazon announces use of AI to summarize product reviews

Amazon announced on Monday the launch of a new generative AI tool that summarizes customer reviews for products. The AI ​​tool will summarize the product features and common feedback frequently mentioned by users in the form of a paragraph , directly next to the product detail page , without the need for users to sift through hundreds or even thousands of reviews.

Amazon said the feature will make it easier for customers to access more reviews, breaking down product reviews into different attributes such as ease of use, functionality and stability, and highlighting common words people use to describe products.

(Amazon review excerpt)

Currently, these AI-generated review summaries can be seen in the Amazon mobile app and have been displayed in multiple categories (not all categories), including TVs, headphones, tablets, and fitness trackers. It is worth noting that not all products in these categories are applicable. For example, the Galaxy Tab A7 has review summaries, but the newer Galaxy Tab A8 does not.

The new AI-generated customer reviews are the latest in a series of review innovations. This new review policy change includes the following:

1. Seems to mainly show positive reviews

The new AI reviews tend to show more positive reviews and less negative reviews, or save relatively negative content for the end. In other words, this may be because Amazon search promotes the status of highly rated products, so it is difficult to find negative product summaries.

2. Highlight the keyword attributes of the product

In addition to summary text, Amazon also highlights product attributes. For example , for the LG 3D Smart TV, the AI-generated review mentioned that the product was easy to set up and had excellent streaming speeds. Below the text is a list of product attributes, such as "ease of use" and "stability," which customers can also click on to get targeted reviews that mention these keywords.

3. Show real product reviews

Amazon claims that it will use fraud detection tools to regulate AI-generated reviews and will strictly prohibit false reviews that intentionally mislead customers, provide unfair, untrue, or inappropriate reviews for the product or service. These product summaries only come from verified purchases to reduce false reviews.

A new round of spiral is about to begin , and small and medium-sized sellers must lower prices to grab orders?

Just like the display of the five-star rating ratio, AI review summaries are currently only displayed in certain product categories. Many sellers have not yet discovered this. More than 60% of the sellers contacted by Yienjun are still unaware of this adjustment. Amazon sellers Huihui and Zhouzhou both said that they have not seen AI review summaries for the products they sell.

Amazon has been testing using artificial intelligence to summarize reviews for some time and officially announced its use this week.

Vaughn Schermerhorn, director of Amazon Community Shopping, said: “We are constantly testing, learning, and fine-tuning our AI models and may expand the review highlights feature to other categories and customers in the coming months , continue to make it easier for customers to submit reviews and add new content types, while using AI to help customers view review highlights.”

In June of this year, some overseas observers noticed that Amazon was testing review summaries and posted some cases.

At the time, this new change sparked heated discussions among sellers. Some sellers believed that Amazon’s adjustment made the number of reviews unimportant. Many old products on Amazon had tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of reviews, which might not exist in the face of AI.

However, many industry insiders believe that Amazon uses artificial intelligence to summarize product reviews, and it is impossible for the number of reviews to be unimportant in the future, because products that allow AI to summarize product summaries require a large number of reviews to support them. If there are only a small number of reviews, it cannot reflect the comprehensiveness of a product at all.

Now, considering the number of reviews hidden on Amazon’s front-end, the number of reviews may not be that important in the future, and sellers will focus on sales and product quality. In the opinion of Amazon seller Big Cat, everyone may have to lower prices to grab orders in the future, and a new round of spiral is about to begin.

Another feature of Amazon AI review summary is that it blocks reviews that are not genuine. Sellers believe that Amazon has been cracking down on fake reviews, and this review policy adjustment will definitely pay attention to this aspect. In the future, fake orders are doomed to fail.

" The new AI-generated review summaries are only for trusted reviews that we have verified purchases , " Schermerhorn said. He also said that Amazon welcomes real reviews, whether positive or negative, but strictly prohibits false reviews that intentionally mislead consumers by providing unfair, untrue or unspecific information about the product or service.

The ultimate goal of Amazon's review policy adjustment is to make it easier for customers to browse product reviews and promote more purchases. For sellers, no matter how the review policy changes, it will eventually return to the product and remain unchanged in the face of ever-changing circumstances.

Amazon

Number of reviews

Adjustment