How Fake Reviews on Amazon Affect Brand Trust

Amazon has a growing number of fake, not actual consumer, reviews for products on its platform. For some categories, the percentage of fake reviews even outnumbers the real reviews.

For example, 63% of beauty reviews are fake, followed closely by electronics, where it’s reported that 61% of those reviews are false -- and these are two of the most highly purchased categories on the platform.

To make matters worse, 90% of consumers rely on these reviews to decide whether or not they’re going to purchase a product. On top of that, these consumers are largely unaware of the growing number of fake reviews on Amazon, with 75% believing the reviews are fully or somewhat trustworthy.

With how much consumers base their decisions on these reviews, it’s important that Amazon works on getting this under control more than they have in the past.

How This Affects Brand Trust

Even though consumers are unaware that these reviews are fake, it harms the brand trust once purchasers realize that the product doesn’t actually fit what they were looking for.

And with 80% of consumers saying that “authenticity of content” is the most influential factor in their decision, it’s important to make this a top priority for your company. Being dishonest makes you instantly lose credibility and creates angry customers who feel cheated by your company. When you’re honest with your customers from the start, you’re setting expectations, allowing them to self-qualify, and making sure you end up with the best-fit customers for your company.

One example of how you can really make your honesty shine is by utilizing The Big 5 blog content. With this type of content, you’re being fully transparent by sharing issues with your services, the cost, and even creating “best of” lists that don’t include your company. By writing this type of content, you give your audience an extra dose of honesty AND standing out from the others in your space.

Lesson Learned

Fake reviews do not equal happy customers. To make sure those who do end up purchasing your service or product become evangelists, it’s important to be upfront and honest with them. 

This goes both for your customer testimonials and with ALL of your marketing messaging. As you’ve seen with Amazon, fake reviews equals short-term success, and real reviews create long-term, happy customers.