Your star-rating impacts visibility, conversion rates, and sales. What you might not know is that Amazon’s method for calculating star ratings is far from perfect. Here’s a breakdown of how it works, and why it’s broken.
How Amazon Calculates Star Ratings
Amazon uses an algorithm to calculate your product’s average star rating. You’d think it’s the sum of all ratings divided by the total number of reviews, right? Not quite.
Here’s how it works.
- Weighting of Reviews: Amazon’s algorithm doesn’t treat all reviews equally. Recent reviews carry more weight than older ones. So keep doing everything you can to drive positive reviews.
- Impact of Star Ratings vs. Written Reviews: A 1-star review without a written explanation can outweigh a 5-star review with a detailed written review, especially at lower review quantities. This lack of distinction means that a negative star-rating may not actually reflect genuine issues with the product.
- Quality of Review Content: Reviews that are detailed, well-written, and deemed helpful by other users can carry more weight. Do everything you can with the customer experience to drive high-quality positive reviews
Why It’s Broken
The biggest problem with Amazon’s star rating system is that it oversimplifies reality. A drop from 4.3 to 4.2 stars can be devastating for a product’s sales, yet this might happen due to one poorly timed 1-star review, which could be completely unrelated to the product’s quality.
Another issue is how certain factors, like shipping or packaging complaints, can affect the star rating despite not being related to the product itself. This puts sellers in a tough spot, as they may end up dealing with unfair reviews they can’t do much about. Amazon rarely if EVER removes reviews that violate their ToS concerning shipping and packaging issues.
The Takeaway
While Amazon’s star ratings are a crucial metric, they’re far from perfect. As sellers, it’s essential to focus not just on getting positive reviews, but on strategically managing your review health.
At eCom Triage we’ve built a free GPT to check your reviews. Schedule a Discovery call to see how we can help with your product reputation management.
