Marketplace Briefing: Amazon is quietly testing product search results that show seller ratings
This is the latest installment of the Marketplace Briefing, a weekly Modern Retail+ column about the ever-changing e-commerce marketplace landscape. More from the series →
Amazon is quietly experimenting with adding seller feedback ratings to the overall search page on its marketplace.
Some agencies and sellers recently noticed changes to the Amazon website and mobile app that add seller ratings to products that appear in search results. In one example posted on LinkedIn, an Amazon consultant posted a mobile phone screenshot of product listing results for a search for “shampoo.” In addition to the usual product information customers are accustomed to seeing when they search for something on Amazon — like price, shipping time and product ratings — search results now include a new line of information. Underneath the Prime badge, listings include a numerical rating from zero to five, with five being the best, which indicates a seller’s average seller rating, and the total number of ratings that the seller has received in the last 12 months.
Notably, the change appears to only apply to whichever seller wins the buy box, the featured listing that shows up in the overall search results. As such, winning the buy box leads to more sales for that specific seller.
When a user clicks on a specific product page from the search results, the listing itself doesn’t display a seller rating, suggesting the change primarily impacts the search results page only. A review of search results by Modern Retail indicates that the seller rating only shows up when there are multiple merchants selling the same product. Also, any products sold by Amazon do not display a seller rating in the search results. Instead, customers are shown a disclaimer of sorts that says, “Sold by Amazon.”
It’s unclear when exactly the change went into effect, but it appears to be relatively new. It’s also unclear how widespread or permanent the change is. Amazon is known for experimenting with the digital shopping experience, from testing new features to tweaking the user interface. But the recent change to the search results page has garnered attention from industry players because it marks a departure from how Amazon has historically presented merchants on its website.
More than 60% of sales on Amazon’s marketplace come from independent sellers, according to the company. Amazon has added nearly 5 million sellers since 2018, per Marketplace Pulse. And yet the scale of Amazon’s marketplace, including its army of sellers, has largely been invisible to customers. Unlike rival sites like eBay, which is clearly a hodgepodge of different sellers, the uniform appearance of Amazon’s marketplace lends it the appearance of a traditional retailer.
It remains to be seen how precisely the change will impact shoppers and merchants, but several agencies and sellers that spoke to Modern Retail said it struck them as mostly beneficial, particularly in terms of customer service.
Amazon did not respond to multiple requests for comment, including specific questions about how widespread or permanent the change was.
Seller ratings on Amazon are nothing new, but they haven’t always been as visible as product ratings. To see a seller’s ratings, one typically had to go to a particular product page, find the seller’s name underneath the “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons where the listing says “Sold by.” From there, the site would take you to a page that would show you all the sellers’ ratings. Unlike product reviews, seller ratings are more customer service-oriented, with a focus on a customer’s buying experience, such as whether the seller was professional and helpful. If the change is indeed permanent, seller feedback has taken on a new level of importance.
To Jon Elder, CEO and founder at Black Label Advisor, which manages hundreds of brands, the increased visibility of seller ratings stands to reward merchants who are vigilant about customer service and maintaining positive ratings.
“Sellers are very happy about this change because it will help the legit brands convert more customers,” Elder said. “It will be painful for crappy sellers, though.”
Elder isn’t alone.
“Some sellers are a lot better than others, and I think by showing the seller ratings in the buy box, it incentivizes sellers to do a better job for the Amazon shopper,” said Jason Boyce, a veteran Amazon merchant who now runs Avenue7Media, a consulting business for sellers. “A company that has a lot of good, well-meaning seller ratings should have an opportunity to win the buy box over another one who may be a little bit lower in cost but has poor ratings.”
Boyce added that the change would mostly likely impact bad actors. In fact, that’s probably the whole point.
As Amazon has grown, fraudulent or malicious sellers have popped up. This has led to a black market of fake product reviews. Adding seller ratings to the search results page makes it easier for customers to tell if a merchant has a poor customer service record.
Amazon’s policies prohibit inauthentic reviews, and the company has said it devotes huge resources to ensure ratings and reviews are legitimate, including human investigators, machine-learning models and legal action. In 2022, Amazon blocked more than 200 million suspected fake reviews, according to the company.
No one knows precisely how Amazon’s search algorithm ranks products in the results. But Jared Mason, vp of e-commerce services at e-commerce accelerator Pattern, said poor seller ratings on Amazon tend to appear lower in search results, and they’re less likely to win the buy box compared to sellers with positive feedback.
“They’re only showing the seller rating for people that win the buy box, but the buy box selection algorithm skews towards people with a positive rating, which is to say it’s unlikely that low sellers will ever show up on this page with their rating being displayed,” Mason said.
Moving forward, Elder said that sellers should try to maintain at least a 4.9 seller rating. Luckily, this isn’t hard to accomplish, according to Judah Bergman, the CEO of Jool Baby, which sells baby products, including swings and changing pads. Amazon says it removes seller feedback that isn’t about the buying experience. So, if a customer gives a low rating because a package was late or arrived damaged, for example, Amazon will often remove it. This is particularly true for merchants who sell and ship products through the Fulfillment by Amazon program, Bergman said, because, in such instances, Amazon assumes responsibility.
Bergman pointed out that customers are more inclined to leave product reviews than seller feedback. For example, Jool Baby has garnered 10,549 seller ratings since the brand debuted on Amazon. By comparison, a single Jool Baby product, like a travel potty training set for toddlers, has more than double that amount, with 23,228 ratings.
“It’s very uncommon,” Bergman said. “If they leave negative feedback, often it’s a product review.”
Gwen McShea, president of Lean Edge Marketing in Vermont, which has about 30 clients, said the success of the change will depend on how much it influences shopping behavior. Amazon’s ratings and reviews are one of its biggest advantages against competitors because it removes the need to conduct product research beforehand. When shoppers go to Amazon, they’re generally ready to click “Add to Cart.” But customers aren’t yet trained to take seller ratings into account when they shop for products, and she questioned if the average consumer understands the difference between product and seller ratings.
“It makes customers aware of information that they probably weren’t aware of before, but it’ll depend on if consumers pay attention to it, and that’s a big if,” she said.
Pattern’s Mason agreed. As he put it, “It’ll be fascinating to see if this starts an education process or if this also becomes one of those white noise things that consumers don’t look at very often.”
Marketplace news to know
- At its UnBoxed conference, Amazon unveiled new ad products, including an updated DSP and updated AI features.
- Amazon is bringing back its Holiday Beauty Haul to gin up even more fourth-quarter sales. The event will run between Oct. 21 and Nov. 3, 2024.
- Walmart has promoted CRO Seth Dallaire to chief growth officer. In addition to the non-retail business, he will now oversee the marketing, design and product teams.