With Amazon being the "Go-To" for looking up reviews, I think Amazon should take future reviews of a product and break them up into categories similar to the below:
Product(shipped by Amazon)
Product(shipped by 3rd party)
Seller
Vine professional reviews
Shipping
When completing a review, customers should state their "prior" knowledge of the product, how long they have owned the product prior to posting the review, and should be concerning the category of the review they submitted for.
The reasoning for this is because I have noticed the following
1)Websites like fakespot are now showing "fake" reviews either by paid reviewers who give 5 stars automatically or most of the time, and from fake accounts. Trust me, a Vine review is not the same as a person who paid full price. Example - someone who pays $150 for some Jaybird X2 headphones will be harder on a product then someone who got it for free. Also if you buy a "counterfeit" from a 3rd party seller and not Amazon, for all we know your not even reviewing a genuine product. Hence a person who bought off of Amazon who is not a paid reviewer would weigh more when picking a product.
2) People who post reviews based on the seller or damage to the box should not belong in product reviews, rather seller reviews. Sellers should have more detailed feedback like eBay when it comes to how they pack an item, how fast they respond to email, how quickly they ship. Also concerning to seller feedback, the item they purchased could be posted beside the feedback so we can see what the feedback is based off of.
With the plethora of reviews currently out on Amazon, it would be difficult to sort what is what so I think Amazon could call these legacy reviews since they still have some weight. I just think a new rating system moving forward would benefit people like me and people I know who shop on Amazon. Here is an example
I am in the market for a Nikon 105mm macro lens. I know what its capable of. I come to Amazon find the price I want however the 3rd party seller I am looking up, while he has good feedback, I have no idea if he sells $5 Chinese chargers and happened to post this or if he is a camera shop like Adorama. This is where knowing the item that a person leaves feedback would come in handy. I want to buy from a reputable 3rd party seller who knows how to pack a lens and can stand behind their product.
In conclusion - we all read Amazon reviews for different purposes. Having a bunch of 5 star reviews makes a product look fake and having 1 star reviews sounds like your just mad. Reviews should be weighted based on the "full" review of a product, not just because you would give it a 0 if you could. It potentially draws people away from a decent product especially since many people have no idea what that product is or how to properly use it. All they know is they ordered it, it didn't work as expected, and now they are mad so they put a 1 star review stating "This is garbage" which is of no help to me or anyone else in the community. A simple question with How knowledgeable are you with this item? or How long have you owned this product? would quickly show me that you may need more experience with the product before putting a review.
