3 ms·

It's interesting that, according to the Amazon spokeswoman, items with negative reviews sell better than items with no reviews.

by gruseom 13y ago

unimpressive 13y ago
Makes sense. A negative review implies that the product was delivered. No reviews calls into question the legitimacy of the seller.
abat 13y ago
This is true for me with third party sellers. I've had bad experiences where small third party sellers list products incorrectly on Amazon and I have to go through the process of returning the product. A negative review can provide evidence that users are getting shipped the right product in the right condition. In these cases, I often don't care whether the user actually likes the product. I just want to know they got the right product in good condition.
UntitledNo4 13y ago
Also, a negative review might end up being positive for someone else. I have recently been looking at reviews of Sony noise-cancelling earphones, and made sure to read the negative review(s) as well. One reviewer gave it one or two stars because they thought the noise-cancellation functionality was not worth it. Somewhere, though, in his negative review he mentioned that the sound quality is excellent. Having older version noise-cancelling earphones and being happy with them, I assumed he got a faulty pair and decided to buy them anyway. (I actually ended up buying Onkyo earphones, but that because I ended up by their booth at the last IFA, tested the headphones and fell in love)
- jaynos 13y ago
  These are the Amazon reviews I hate. 2 stars because they bought more product than they needed? Put that in the same category of the 1 star reviews from people who bought the wrong product and had no problem returning it to Amazon.
vidarh 13y ago
I will often instantly move on from items with no reviews, while stay on the page to carefully read reviews otherwise, and often the negative reviews will clearly point out downsides that won't affect me, or at least make me think the item is ok for the price, so I'm not that surprised. Certain mediocrity is sometimes preferable to the uncertainty of no reviews.
tpsc 13y ago
There is an interesting talk by Jason Cohen about honesty in business including Canon's experiment with negative reviews: http://vimeo.com/48549019 http://vimeo.com/48549019
dictum 13y ago
I think it's a case of correlation, not causation: a product gets negative reviews if there are people buying it. Essentially, a product without reviews is a product that people aren't buying (hence, not reviewing).

It's interesting that, according to the Amazon spokeswoman, items with negative reviews sell better than items with no reviews.

by gruseom 13y ago

It's interesting that, according to the Amazon spokeswoman, items with negative reviews sell better than items with no reviews.

unimpressive 13y ago

Makes sense. A negative review implies that the product was delivered. No reviews calls into question the legitimacy of the seller.

abat 13y ago

This is true for me with third party sellers. I've had bad experiences where small third party sellers list products incorrectly on Amazon and I have to go through the process of returning the product. A negative review can provide evidence that users are getting shipped the right product in the right condition. In these cases, I often don't care whether the user actually likes the product. I just want to know they got the right product in good condition.

UntitledNo4 13y ago

Also, a negative review might end up being positive for someone else. I have recently been looking at reviews of Sony noise-cancelling earphones, and made sure to read the negative review(s) as well. One reviewer gave it one or two stars because they thought the noise-cancellation functionality was not worth it. Somewhere, though, in his negative review he mentioned that the sound quality is excellent. Having older version noise-cancelling earphones and being happy with them, I assumed he got a faulty pair and decided to buy them anyway. (I actually ended up buying Onkyo earphones, but that because I ended up by their booth at the last IFA, tested the headphones and fell in love)

jaynos 13y ago
These are the Amazon reviews I hate. 2 stars because they bought more product than they needed? Put that in the same category of the 1 star reviews from people who bought the wrong product and had no problem returning it to Amazon.

vidarh 13y ago

I will often instantly move on from items with no reviews, while stay on the page to carefully read reviews otherwise, and often the negative reviews will clearly point out downsides that won't affect me, or at least make me think the item is ok for the price, so I'm not that surprised. Certain mediocrity is sometimes preferable to the uncertainty of no reviews.

tpsc 13y ago

There is an interesting talk by Jason Cohen about honesty in business including Canon's experiment with negative reviews: http://vimeo.com/48549019 http://vimeo.com/48549019

dictum 13y ago

I think it's a case of correlation, not causation: a product gets negative reviews if there are people buying it. Essentially, a product without reviews is a product that people aren't buying (hence, not reviewing).