If you have ever taken a look around Amazon and read some reviews, you have likely into the “Verified Purchaser” sticker accompanying said reviews. What is a verified purchaser on Amazon and can they be trusted? Keep reading to find out.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- If an Amazon review has been marked as being written by a verified purchaser, that means the customer actually bought the item on Amazon.
- Additionally, in order to qualify as a verified purchaser, you must have bought the item at a standard price and not a deep discount.
- This is an attempt to eliminate pay-to-play schemes in which companies sell items for pennies in exchange for positive reviews.
What is a Verified Purchase?
According to Amazon, a review written by a verified purchaser means that the person who wrote the review bought the product from Amazon and did not receive the product at a deep discount or receive it for free. If the review has not been marked as an “Amazon Verified Purchase”, there is a chance that the customer bought the product somewhere else or it was given to them for free as part of a “pay to play” scheme. That is one of the strategies of how to get customers to buy your product.
Insider Tip
A review written by a verified purchaser means that the person who wrote the review bought the product from Amazon and did not receive the product at a deep discount or receive it for free.
Verified Purchase Update
For a long time, Amazon verified purchase stickers were awarded to reviews that bought the product on Amazon at any price. This led to companies trying to game the system by “selling” items to consumers at drastically reduced prices in exchange for favorable reviews. As an example, a consumer would be allowed to buy a television at just a dollar, as long as they wrote a review. The company may not have demanded that the consumer write a positive review, but it was expected nonetheless. Read this to understand why reviews are important.
Customer Review Minimum Cost Update
They also instituted another policy to reduce the number of fraudulent or fake reviews. In order to even write a review on Amazon, you have had to have spent at least 50 dollars via an approved credit or debit card since the account was created. This did not make much of a dent in the pay-to-play practices mentioned above, but it did eliminate robo-reviews and the like. A newly created bot-controlled account would not have an approved credit or debit card that spent 50 dollars, as this would not be cost-effective for bot farms.
Can Companies Still Game the System?
Unfortunately, yes. One popular scheme is for companies to offer a free product if you purchase another product and write a review of said product. The consumer will assume the review should be positive and then the “free” product will typically end up being, for lack of a better word, junk. Other companies prepare review templates that are sent to customers. These templates do not typically feature any spaces to fill in negative comments.
Insider Tip
In order to even write a review on Amazon, you have had to have spent at least 50 dollars via an approved credit or debit card since the account was created.
F.A.Q.S
Why do these Amazon verified purchase reviews matter?
A verified purchase review will make you relatively sure that the review was not written by a robot or a customer that has been tricked or manipulated into leaving a positive review.
What is an unreliable review?
An unreliable review on Amazon is one written by a bot, an AI of some kind, an algorithm, or a customer writing the review under false pretenses.
Can Amazon reviews be trusted?
In most cases, a verified Amazon review can be trusted, though there could be other factors in place to make them suspect.
STAT: Amazon.com buyers can leave a review with an Amazon Verified Purchase badge, providing they have purchased the product on Amazon for at least 80% of the original value. (source)
REFERENCES:
- https://www.wikihow.com/Spot-Fake-Reviews-Manufactured-by-an-Amazon-Seller
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_(company)
- https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202076110r
- https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/how-do-i-get-a-verified-purchase/207255
- https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G75XTB7MBMBTXP6W
