Amazon is the great global supermarket. Or rather, it is a the great world bazaar. And as such, it not only sells products on its behalf, but is also home to thousands of stores that trade under the company’s logistics umbrella. But like real-world bazaars, some of those merchants don’t play fair and cheat to fool people. In the case of Amazon, they write fake reviews speaking too highly of their products. Now the company has taken action and kicked out hundreds of these stores. Amazon has confirmed that it has banned more than 600 Chinese brands (spread across 3,000 seller accounts) for review fraud incidents. According to Amazon, these companies intentionally and repeatedly violated review policies that prohibit incentivized reviews. Uncovered the great hoax of thousands of Chinese sellers on Amazon (Photo by RONNY HARTMANN / . via .) The online retailer released the figure in an interview with Vice President Cindy Tai at state-controlled China Central Television. Previously, he had been relatively silent on the broader effort to curb these practices. The offensive began in earnest five months earlier, but received increased attention when Amazon banned big tech stores Aukey and Mpow. Sellers were caught offering rewards, including gift cards, to customers who left their reviews. Amazon subsequently expelled RAVPower, Vava, and other relatively well-known brands for similar behaviors. It’s unclear how many non-Chinese brands have faced bans. There are indications that these sellers are circumventing bans or have somehow escaped detection, such as the Aukey headphones under the Key Series brand. However, it’s safe to say that the broader anti-fraud strategy has significantly changed Amazon’s market. – much to the chagrin of banned companies that relied heavily on Amazon-based sales. Read more Last April we learned that Amazon had expelled more than 300 Chinese sellers from the store, affecting brands such as Aukey, Tacklife, Mpow, TaoTronics, TopElek, VictSing, RAVPower, And a long etcetera. Some have not stood idly by, and for example Aukey tried to sneak into Amazon using alternative names such as BCMASTER. In recent months they have used others, such as Hamlaem, to sell their headphones, changing the photos, but offering basically the same product. Now, the number has doubled, and there are already more than 600 the chinese brands that have disappeared from Amazon following the expulsion of a total of 3,000 vendors. All of them committed the same infractions: introduce false reviews on their products. These reviews could be entered by themselves, or by paying buyers to publish them. Higher standards Amazon has already banned promoting reviews with a reward on its platform since 2016. Still, it is not easy to locate the violators: some offers are hidden behind a VIP testing program or an extended warranty. Other companies only target buyers who have left negative reviews, promising to refund the product without having to return anything., as long as they remove the negative review. “Customers rely on the accuracy and authenticity of product reviews to make informed purchasing decisions, and we have clear policies for both reviewers and seller partners that prohibit abuse of features in our community. We suspend, prohibit, and we take legal action against those who violate these policies, wherever they are in the world, “Amazon said in a statement. More news that may interest you: AWS and the Bundesliga will release two new Bundesliga match data for the 2021-2022 European football season Amazon’s surprising idea: hire delivery men who smoke cannabis Amazon shakes the retail sector with its store opening plans
