Are Amazon's "reviews" going to disappear?

According to foreign media reports, Amazon is conducting a test on product browsing pages: removing reviews, including star ratings and number of reviews , from search results .

As it stands, Amazon's product display page displays not only the product name, price and other information, but also a star rating and the number of reviews (after the star rating). However, the product page displayed in the test only has information such as the product name, price, and sales volume in the past month.

( Currently displayed page, source: Amazon )

This change was first discovered by a brand seller founder, who then posted it on a social platform. Later, an investigator from an authoritative organization said that he had also found the same change on the website and mobile terminal, and said that "it is hard to imagine that this will become a permanent change." At the same time, some netizens speculated whether there was a bug on the Amazon page.

(Test display page, source: seller post)

Amazon spokeswoman Maria Boschetti later confirmed that the change was a test , not a page vulnerability , but she did not provide details about the current status of the test or how long it would last .

According to Amazon, this change can simplify the selection process when consumers browse a large number of products, and said that this change currently only affects a part of the products and is limited to the search page. Maria Boschetti also emphasized in an interview that information such as star rating and comments can still be seen on the product details page. It is reported that the test is carried out simultaneously on the website and mobile terminals.

This change by Amazon has also sparked widespread discussion among sellers, consumers and related parties.

Some industry insiders believe that this change means "buyers staying longer on the platform, more clicks from buyers and more advertising spend by sellers."

Sellers believe that the most important thing is where the product is displayed. If the most profitable products are displayed on the first page, they are in good shape. In fact, listings with fewer reviews but displayed on the first page are usually better than those with hundreds of reviews hidden in the search results; although it seems that they (Amazon) are moving away from reviews, he believes that this is more to adapt to changes and balance the impact of fake reviews, (so) reviews are still important.

Some sellers believe that this display method can increase the click-through rate of low-star products, but at the same time, due to the low CVR, it may increase their ACoS. In the opinion of this seller, this test will lead to a lot of "window shopping".

Consumers say that ratings used to be an important trust signal a few years ago. But now Amazon search results are filled with ads and a large number of almost identical products, so this (change) signal is very valuable. But over time, the page may become more confusing: "It seems that many products have almost perfect ratings... This is meaningless and cannot be trusted."

Some people also believe that Amazon's cancellation of this part of the content has saved screen space and users ' browsing time to a certain extent . After all, as more and more consumers use smartphones to browse and shop online, it is understandable that companies choose their websites and applications .

As a seller, what do you think about possible new changes on Amazon?

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