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We tend to check the reviews of a product that we’re about the purchase online to see what other customers have to say about it. Amazon’s review system is pretty good but the company has never clamped down on “incentivized reviews” before. Incentivized reviews are those that are written by someone who was given that product either free or at a significant discount in return for a review, and those reviews are not always entirely truthful. Amazon has now dropped the banhammer on incentivized reviews.

Amazon’s community guidelines have been updated today to reflect that incentivized reviews will no longer be allowed. The company says that these reviews account for a small fraction of overall reviews on Amazon.com.

Companies that give products for free in exchange for incentivized reviews don’t necessarily tell those people to give a positive review, however, countless studies have shown that incentivized reviewers are less likely to provide negative feedback about something they have received for free or for a significant discount.

Amazon will continue to support incentivized reviews submitted through its Vine program which was created in 2007 to provide bias-free customer reviews. Through this program, retailers can pay Amazon a fee to send their products to trusted reviewers who are never in touch with the retailers themselves. Amazon has control over these reviews as it limits how many Vine reviews can be displayed for a particular product.

The latest change in its community guidelines regarding incentivized reviews does not impact the book industry standard of sending out advance copies of non-fiction books and novels for reviews before they are released.

Filed in General. Read more about . Source: amazon

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