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I'm really not sure what to think about this, so I'd love to discuss it with you on Linkedin or Twitter .
As I write this, it's Thanksgiving Week in the US, which means millions of people will spend billions of dollars on black people Cyber Friday and Cyber Monday, and will temporarily say things like “those movie has a door” without any embarrassment.
According to national practice, almost every conceivable product has around 1,417 competing brands and variations, making the buying process truly an informative Spartan Race.
Hick's law says that the more choices we are faced with, the time it takes to make a choice increases, not decreases. More and more we try to eliminate Paradox of choice this by consulting online reviews.
I have written a lot here about strength of online reviews and theme is the main element of my book, Hug your Haters . Basically, we trust online reviews.
Research cited from BrightLocal shows that 80% of customers trust at least some reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends or family members.
And this is not just about e-commerce. Absolutely half of in-store purchases start with reading online reviews according to BazaarVoice.
Absolutely half of all in-store purchases begin with reading online reviews. Click to Tweet
But what if the reviews become SO IMPORTANT that they not only help us decide but also show what's actually available for purchase? It already happened.
When the review Dogtail
Amazon has opened two retail locations (in development) called “ Amazon 4-Star “, sounds like a crazy brand of sneakers but in reality, an entire store filled with a full range of products has high consumer ratings on the Amazon platform.
This is the post-modern version of the “As Seen on TV” stores, with consumer confidence. By definition, product type is a type of product ): pressure cooker next to the book. The television is adjacent to the wrench. Unlike most retail experiences, Amazon 4-Star does not sell a single item; it sells confidence. “What could go wrong? All at least 4 stars! ”
I have two big questions about this approach.
First, are we tempted by reviews that we agree with a lot of the product being dictated by that consumer feedback? Have we turned down a sweater with a 3.9 gauge to the point where we often believe it doesn't even need to be unmatched in durability and bravado to be able to afford it?
What if Amazon (which also owns Whole Foods and several real-world bookstores) took this 4.0 or higher argument to a logical conclusion: “There is no product under 4.0 to sell on Amazon.com , at Whole Foods, or at any other Amazon-owned retail store. “I don't see that as far-fetched and I'm not sure it's a positive outcome for consumers. It will lead to rampant review ads and lots of heavy review invites.
Furthermore, I know we trust reviews in general, but we don't trust all reviews from everyone equally, do we? I have a friend. Let's call him Art, because that's his name. He is a highly paid commercial and television director in Hollywood. He really knows how to make movies, for real. However, his actual taste in movies is disgusting, at least to me. And isn't that the way it should be? I don't want to be a travel snob, but I'll save for this, as I'm on the road 200 days a year. When I read a 5-star GLOWING review on TripAdvisor for a shabby accommodation option called “Motel ONE” located on a dirt road in Alabama, I regretted it, but I questioned whether the experience was similar. Does our comparison with hotels lead us both to draw the same mathematical conclusion about customer experience.
Yes, I trust the reviews. But it is not enough to limit buying alternatives based on them.
Amazon is Amazon
And my second question is, isn't this really just another genius Trojan Horse for Amazon?
Because not only does Amazon feature 4 stars for a range of products that consistently receive high scores from Amazon.com shoppers, it also includes a bonus of Amazon-made products, regardless of the rating. price.
Amazon Firesticks. Countless Amazon Echo variants. The doorbell rings (owned by Amazon). And a wide variety of clothing, home appliances and other electronics made by Amazon, some of which Amazon "secretly" through their endless fake homeware brands appeared overnight, embellished with a quickie logo produced on 99 Styles .
The Amazon brand doesn't have a huge cache. Partly that's because they're not seen in the same way as manufacturers like Apple, Microsoft or J Crew – even though they're roughly on par with all of them in terms of the actual product produced. The Amazon brand is also murky because Amazon itself is murky. It sells everything. It also makes more money in B2B than in B2C. Amazon is everything and so, from a brand perspective, is nothing but efficiency (and increasingly ruthlessness).
Because of the weakness of the brand, if Amazon opened an “Amazon” store in your local mall, adjacent to the Apple store and the Microsoft store, you wouldn't know what to do with it, right? are not? Not sure what it will contain? Is it a luxury? Exemptions? Electronic device? Entertainment? I am not sure such a venture will be successful.
And they know it.
So instead, the Seattle businesses (for now) say, “What if we created an Amazon store, but instead of relying on our brand to drive traffic?” traffic, we use the concept of “highly rated products” instead? That gives the store a unique reason to exist and one that competitors can't easily adopt. And it allows Amazon to use the "4-star" cloak to conceal its true purpose: to ship as many Amazon-made goods as possible.
Your 4 stars Hurt my feelings
Concurrently with Amazon expanding another promotion into retail using their “4-star” gambit family, Lyft is making major changes to the review ecosystem on its platform.
How important are reviews for drivers at Lyft, Uber, et al? VERY.
In an effort to keep drivers loyal to their platform, Lyft announced this week changes to the system by which the driver rates the driver at the end of each trip.
Now, any time a rider doesn't explicitly leave a rating, it counts as a five-star rating. It's a bit pretentious!
Now, after every 100 trips given, the driver's lowest rating is automatically removed from their total. The message here seems to be: it's okay if you treat your passengers badly; Just work harder and we'll magically remove any traces.
Now, any rating of four stars or less must be interpreted by the rider. Why should passengers take the time to justify their own dissatisfaction? Not to mention the fact that 4.0 out of 5 isn't harsh criticism right?
Part of the problem is point inflation inherent in the 5-ratio scale. In my estimation, this is mostly true in ride-hailing apps. You don't see people feeling bad about giving a crockpot 3.0 on Amazon but giving a driver a 3.0 on Uber and you feel like you just prevented his kids from going to college.
Watch How does Lyft describe it? on their own website:
5 stars means a great ride and meets Lyft standards. Anything lower than 5 indicates that you are not satisfied with the ride.
Wait. Does 4 out of 5 mean unhappy? If you used a 10-point scale, would 8 out of 10 also mean unhappy?
Yes, reviews are important. They are very useful mechanisms for quickly sorting through our options and alternatives. But perhaps we have taken the pendulum too far from the “wisdom of the crowd” as stores ONLY sell products with reviews and riders will feel guilty and ashamed for giving a mediocre trip less than perfect score.
Or maybe, I'm all wrong on this one. What do you think? Let me know on Twitter or Linkedin . Thank.
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