Amazon.com Inc. is asking web shoppers to offer details about product testimonials they’ve posted on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, suggesting the e-commerce large is extra aggressively concentrating on paid opinions that retailers can use to realize a aggressive edge.
Amazon has automated techniques designed to detect paid opinions and different indicators of bizarre habits, and employs fraud-detection investigators.(REUTERS)
In a questionnaire despatched to a reviewer and seen by Bloomberg, a member of the corporate’s product evaluate staff wrote: “We are researching reviews and would like to talk to you about the interaction you had with the seller on this product.” Eleven questions adopted, together with one which requested: “Can you describe the work you’ve done for this seller as an influencer (eg posted videos on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram etc)?”
Amazon’s marketing campaign coincides with a authorities clampdown on paid product opinions. In August, the Federal Commerce Fee introduced a brand new rule prohibiting companies from paying for client opinions and giving the company authority to hunt civil penalties in opposition to violators.
Earlier than saying the rule, the FTC notified 700 firms, together with Amazon, Fb and Google, about its plans to curb a scourge that has change into extra prevalent lately. Whereas paid opinions date again to the early days of e-commerce, thousands and thousands of individuals have since change into influencers who earn cash to tout merchandise however generally fail to reveal their model affiliations.
It’s unclear how Amazon determines who ought to obtain questionnaires or what it intends to do with the responses. It’s additionally unclear how efficient the marketing campaign might be since reviewers can merely ignore the questions.
“We have robust and long-standing policies that prohibit review abuse, and we suspend, ban, and take legal action against those who violate these policies,” Amazon spokesperson Juliana Karber mentioned. “We consistently monitor and enforce our policies so customers can shop in our store with confidence.” She declined to reply questions in regards to the questionnaires.
Amazon has automated techniques designed to detect paid opinions and different indicators of bizarre habits, and employs fraud-detection investigators, Karber mentioned. Such efforts prevented greater than 250 million suspect opinions from showing on Amazon in 2023, she mentioned. The corporate has filed a number of lawsuits in opposition to paid evaluate farms, just for new ones to emerge.
Representatives from TikTok and YouTube mum or dad Alphabet Inc. declined to remark. Instagram mum or dad Meta Platforms Inc. didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Paying for opinions is particularly tempting through the aggressive vacation buying season, when on-line retailers usually generate most of their gross sales and revenue. A profitable paid evaluate marketing campaign through the busy vacation interval can increase gross sales of obscure merchandise earlier than the paid testimonials could be detected and eradicated.
Chris McCabe, a former Amazon investigator who runs a consulting enterprise for on-line retailers, mentioned he has by no means seen the corporate ship a questionnaire to social-media influencers earlier than. He not too long ago heard from a number of Amazon retailers apprehensive the corporate would droop them after influencers they labored with obtained the questionnaire.
“Amazon sellers will all have to be very careful how they interact with TikTok influencers and social-media influencers in general,” McCabe mentioned. “Amazon is starting to investigate the reviewer side of the problem and sellers are going to get suspended if they choose influencers poorly.”