Amazon has deleted reviews on a large scale, and the front-end reviews have changed again!

Since last year, Amazon has repeatedly made changes to the review module, including but not limited to testing the number of reviews without displaying them, using AI to summarize reviews, and launching an AI questioning tool based on reviews.

Behind these frequent actions, it is not difficult to see Amazon’s determination to carry out review reforms. Now, many sellers have just returned to work after the Spring Festival and have received another "surprise" from Amazon: the front-end review has changed again.

It is understood that according to reports from many sellers, the review interface on Amazon's front-end has changed again recently: after clicking the filter button, all variant reviews are still displayed, and only the first 100 reviews are displayed.

Before this, consumers could filter corresponding reviews based on product characteristics such as size, color, quality, etc. to quickly understand the specific feedback of the product.

It is not clear whether Amazon is testing the waters for a review section revision or whether there is a bug in the system, but considering Amazon's recent actions, many sellers speculate that new changes may be in the works.

Last August, Amazon launched a product review summary feature based on generative artificial intelligence , in which AI provides a concise summary of consumer reviews on the listing.

In mid-January of this year, Amazon once again started with artificial intelligence and tested an AI tool designed to answer buyers' questions about product information.

When a user asks a question about a specific product, the tool will generate an answer based on product reviews and product details pages within seconds, helping buyers quickly obtain specific information about the product without having to browse through a large number of reviews or spend time reading product lists.

As we all know, most consumers have the habit of understanding other buyers' feedback before purchasing a product, so reviews greatly influence consumers' purchasing decisions.

However, it can be observed that whether it is the previous trial of hiding the number of reviews, or the launch of various AI tools to improve the efficiency of users in obtaining product information, or the current cancellation of review filtering and only displaying the first 100 reviews, to a certain extent, it subtly reflects that Amazon is intentionally reducing the weight of reviews.

AI can extract the key points of reviews and provide product information based on buyer reviews. Once customers get used to this convenience, they will gradually stop reading reviews one by one, so the conversion rate and advantages of reviews are likely to be weakened.

On February 7, Amazon released an announcement on its official website, disclosing the results achieved in combating fake reviews in the global market in 2023. This is like another preview of Amazon's rectification of the review section - just recently, many sellers reported that Amazon is carrying out a large-scale review deletion operation.

Amazon stated in an email notification that in order to better protect sellers' businesses, Amazon has launched an automatic process to prohibit the display of product reviews that violate its policies. All relevant reviews posted by violating buyers from January 28 to February 3, 2024 will be deleted.

In fact, this is not a sudden move by Amazon. As early as the end of December last year, some sellers reported that they frequently received emails from Amazon deleting reviews. "I have not done any fake reviews, but in the past one or two months, such emails have been too frequent, about four or five per month. Most of the ASINs involved are hot-selling products, and some are listings that have been deleted for a year and are not for sale."

Similar situations also happened to many sellers:

"I received the same email and I can't see the specific comments or order number."

"I also received one today. I don't know what it was about and I can't see which comment it was."

"I received it too. I took screenshots to record the comments every day, but I can't find which one was deleted. Maybe it was deleted without showing up."

According to feedback from sellers, Amazon has further strengthened review control in recent months, using its own algorithm to monitor bad reviews from bad buyers. According to customer service, such situations will not affect listings. However, some sellers reported that they could not determine whether the removed reviews violated regulations, and even some normal reviews were implicated for no reason.

In addition, the review interface also has a reporting function. If you think a review has a problem, you can click "report" to report it. The specific reasons for reporting mainly include six aspects:

1. The review is not related to the product

2. The comment contains disrespect, hatred and obscenity

3. This review is suspected of being paid for

4. Harassment and foul language

5. Spam, advertising, promotions

6. Exchange cash for discounts

When Amazon receives a report request, it will review whether the review violates the platform policy and delete it if it does.

There have always been many cases of bad buyers or competitors posting malicious feedback, which has annoyed many sellers and has had little effect on their complaints to Amazon. Now that Amazon has taken the initiative to delete reviews and provide a reporting function, it is undoubtedly conducive to maintaining the product review ecosystem.

On the other hand, Amazon has not announced the specific rules for deleting reviews, and sellers are unable to view the specific deleted reviews, so the possibility of accidental damage cannot be ruled out.

Behind Amazon's frequent changes in the review interface, it is foreseeable that a new round of changes may be launched in the future. For sellers, the best way to deal with it is always to operate in compliance, build a product moat, and win the trust of consumers with better quality and service.