Summary
- Amazon is using a questionnaire to learn more about influencers reviewing products from its marketplace.
- The move aligns with the FTC’s ban on paid reviews and testimonials.
- What will happen with the information Amazon collects isn’t known.
Amazon is making even more of a concerted effort to clean up product reviews. When they work, the company’s Rufus AI summaries have made it easier to get the gist of a product’s quality without having to comb through multiple testimonials, but Amazon has bigger fish to fry: paid influencer reviews on social media. According to Bloomberg, Amazon has been reaching out to shoppers with a questionnaire digging in to whether they’ve reviewed a product for a social platform in an attempt to catch sellers manipulating reviews.
“We are researching reviews and would like to talk to you about the interaction you had with the seller on this product,” a copy of the questionnaire Bloomberg obtained reads. Amazon is reportedly sending shoppers 11 questions to answer, with at least one pointedly about social media reviews: “Can you describe the work you’ve done for this seller as an influencer (e.g. posted videos on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram etc.)?” The goal here is pretty clear. Amazon is trying to single out shoppers who might have been paid by Amazon sellers to review, positively or negatively, products on the company’s online marketplace.
What happens next for Amazon shoppers?
Questionnaires are a drop in the bucket
Amazon
The timing of these questionnaires being sent out is no coincidence. In August 2024, the Federal Trade Commission banned fake reviews and testimonials. The official rule “prohibits selling or purchasing fake consumer reviews or testimonials,” prevents “insiders” from reviewing a product without disclosing their relationship to the company making it, forbids the creation of company-run review websites that claim independence, and doesn’t allow “review suppression practices.” Amazon already has an automatic system for removing fake reviews from its own platforms, according to Bloomberg, but this questionnaire campaign seems to be focused on reviews that are happening on platforms Amazon doesn’t control.
It’s not entirely clear what Amazon plans on doing with the results of these questionnaires, how many shoppers have received them, and what the company will do next. It shouldn’t be very hard to ignore this questionnaire if you want to. But if Amazon does decide to take a more aggressive next step, it could put a chill on affiliate marketing with the platform. Either way, improving the experience of learning about a product before you buy it has needed a rethink for a long time. As Bloomberg notes, paid reviews have been a problem since e-commerce became a thing, but now that there’s a whole class of shopping influencers who make their money with Amazon affiliate links, it’s especially problematic.
But if Amazon does decide to take a more aggressive next step, it could put a chill on affiliate marketing with the platform.
It’s hard for sellers to stand out on Amazon, especially with the sheer number of competitors you have to deal with, so sending out products for influencers to review makes sense as a way to increase your reach. But paying for reviews quickly defeats the purpose of reviews in the first place. If everything is marketing, how influential will those fake reviews really be? Clearly, Amazon is taking steps to respond.
