There’s nothing worse for a shopper than feeling duped, double crossed, or cheated. It makes them feel stupid, and to rub it in, they’re left holding a bad product as a reminder. But the product reviews were five star. How could that have happened to me, the customer thinks, over and over again until the reasoning blooms into blinding anger. And the online store they bought the piece of junk from won’t give refunds unless they submit a radiant product review. And so the customer stomps off with: So that’s it, they think, all those product reviews were fake, but to get my money back I have to be complicit in this scheme too. I’m not going to do it! But unfortunately, there are a lot of others who will, as this NYTimes article suggests.
But the article goes on to warn that fake reviews aren’t going to pay off:
Fake reviews are drawing the attention of regulators. They have cracked down on a few firms for deceitful hyping and suspect these are far from isolated instances. “Advertising disguised as editorial is an old problem, but it’s now presenting itself in different ways,” said Mary K. Engle, the Federal Trade Commission’s associate director for advertising practices. “We’re very concerned.”
And there’s also a forthcoming fake product reviews detection solution, according to the article:
Researchers like Bing Liu, a computer science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, are also taking notice, trying to devise mathematical models to systematically unmask the bogus endorsements. “More people are depending on reviews for what to buy and where to go, so the incentives for faking are getting bigger,” said Mr. Liu. “It’s a very cheap way of marketing.”
At FastPivot, we always encourage merchants to add real product reviews to their websites. Our affiliate, PowerReviews Express has been easy, affordable, compatible with Yahoo! Stores (it only takes us a couple of hours to install) and accurate. For merchants who have never used reviews, they give shoppers the ability to quickly assess a consensus of opinion before deciding whether to purchase that product. PowerReviews Express is developed from the same technology that powers major retailers like Staples, Drugstore.com, and REI. To see how they work with Yahoo! Stores, check out this product page featuring power reviews: Titanium Jewelry
Let us know (by commenting on the blog) what review systems you’re using, and what you would recommend.
