Online shopping has changed a lot with a wider range of products as well as a more immersive way of presenting them online, but establishing the authenticity of a product online is still a challenge.
Users use product reviews to determine the quality of a product, but they are often inundated with fake reviews.
And not only that, it’s also not easy to distinguish which reviews are genuine and which aren’t.
Reviews on eCommerce websites are meant to be a yardstick for measuring product quality, but with increasing competition, brand marketers are turning to bad practices like leaving fake reviews.
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In times like these, it can be very difficult to check the authenticity of reviews, but you don’t have to worry because the folks at Fakespot have made it easy to check the authenticity of a review.
“Reviews are meant to be a way to make sure you’re getting a good product. But with all the fake reviews, that trust is broken. Fakespot is trying to do something about it. Never again buy a 5-star product that actually turned out to be 1-star,” the company says on its website.
At the time of writing this report, Fakespot has analyzed more than 548 million reviews of 2 million Amazon products and several thousand Yelp listings.
All you have to do is copy and paste the URL of the product you’re looking for to view reviews, and after a few seconds, Fakespot will let you know how credible the product reviews are.
“User reviews should be an informative tool to provide honest feedback from other consumers, but what if you can’t trust the reviews themselves? Fakespot helps smart consumers make smart decisions,” the company’s website says.
Fakespot uses parameters such as the language used in the reviews, the use of too many positive adjectives, which is rare even if a user likes the product, and the authenticity of the reviewer’s profile, among others.
The number of positive reviews flooding the thread on the same day also raised suspicion on the website.
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Although this website is not a foolproof way to establish the authenticity of a product listed on Amazon or Yelp, since the metrics it points to can sometimes also be used by a real reviewer, but it gives you an idea of the product.
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