Product reviews - the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY

A recent survey we recently did on LinkedIn showed that almost 90% of people read product reviews, these numbers correlate with other studies done by other companies (i.e. oberlo, qualtics).

That makes sense, right?

We all want to buy a product only after someone else has tested it and explained to us what are the pros and cons of using it. It makes us feel safe and reassured.

So far so good.?

But, as we all know, sellers and marketplaces (such as Amazon, eBay, and Walmart) also know that, and they will use this knowledge to drive us, the buyers, to make purchase decisions faster. Getting familiar with the tricks and biases of product reviews is important to any buyer in order to make the best decision that fits their specific needs.

I am listing here my opinion about the good, the bad, and the ugly in product reviews that any buyer should consider (you should definitely read “The Ugly” section).

The Good

1. More information - Product reviews share information that normally you will not get from sellers. Such information includes real images and videos of the product, reviews on technical specifications, and examples of how the products are being used.
2. Different perspectives - Every person has their own opinion, and getting different perspectives can be very helpful. Having diverse information can make a lot of difference.
3. Product comparisons - Many product reviews include comparisons for similar products that can be very useful, particularly when you are under budget constraints and struggle to find the best product for your budget.
4. Minimize the risk and uncertainty - Most of us don’t like bad surprises and we really want to feel we made a good decision. Reading good reviews makes us feel safer when purchasing online.

The Bad

1. Spending too much time - With so much information out there, with so many options, alternatives, and ideas, it forces us to invest a huge amount of time in reading reviews. Some people will invest hours in making a $50 decision (does it worth it?).
2. Losing focus on what’s important - We, the buyers, try to optimize our decision according to the number of features the product offers. Considering too many features will make us compromise on what’s really important.
3. Too many technicalities - Product reviews are packed with technicalities. The average buyer may not be familiar with this technical jargon which may create additional confusion, and waste time in learning these technicalities and may lead buyers to give extra credit to features that sound “smart” or “advanced”, that may not be relevant at all.
4. Product reviews struggle to compare products from different price ranges? - When you try to compare products in different price ranges, you normally compare products that have different features. We do it all the time, mainly when we don’t want to pay on features that may not be in use. Most product comparison reviews compare similar products or compare 2 to 3 different products only that may not be relevant to you.

The Ugly

This section showcases some biases we do in the buying process that sellers may use to improve their sales. I believe that in 99.9% of the cases there is nothing illegal with the sellers' actions, but these actions may lead us to make decisions that are less than ideal for us.

1. Reviews are not always legit - One of the oldest promotion tactics is to team up with review sites that will drive traffic to sellers’ products. Another option is the “buy” reviews on Amazon, just search on Google “buying reviews on amazon” and you will easily find solutions to help sellers with getting reviews. On ebay you can actually write a review without purchasing the product.
2. Promoted products (ads) are hard to identify on product recommendation - Though there are great reviews sites that try to stay objective, you can still find reviews sites (in particular in niche categories) that are getting paid to drive traffic to specific products which may not fit our needs best. In many cases, these sites mention that the content is promoted, however, they normally do it in a hard way to identify. For example, it is hard to see that the 5 most ranked products in this Amazon search page are actually ads. Search results are actually a product recommendation methodology that is not much different than other products reviews sites. Search results pages are highly considered by buyers, and buyers may make wrong decisions when ads are not easy to identify.
3. The number of customer reviews may be misleading - We are biased to think that the best products have more customer reviews. Let’s take Amazon for example. Sellers may change the product they sell, but keep the same Amazon product page (same ASIN). This means that old reviews will be associated with a new version of the product.
4. Rating score may be misleading (yellow stars) - We are biased to think that the best products have a higher rating score. The rating scores we see on products normally vary between 4.2 and 4.7 stars. This small range is heavily influenced by the number of reviews, the activities of the seller, the price of the product, and even the specific features of the product. Therefore it is hard to say that a rating of 4.5 is better than 4.2, but still, this small difference impacts our judgment very easily.

The bottom line

Product and customer reviews are important, they are probably the only way today to get information about products that are not totally influenced by the sellers. If we, as buyers, will be familiar with the tricks and customer behavior biases, we will make much better decisions.

On a personal note

Enabling buyers to make intelligent decisions without wasting hours in product research is a personal goal that I set for myself. As buyers, we have to fight back and disarm from implementing marketing tricks.?

That’s exactly the reason I have established Requiremints. We are loyal to buyers' needs, and simplify decision-making on what matters most.?

We do that by collecting information from multiple sources, filtering the ones that matter, doing manual investigations, and arming buyers with the right questions that should influence the decision.?

I really hope we will make a change, empower buyers all around the world, and hopefully will help a bit in preventing some waste of buying low-quality products.?

Ori F.