Is the label that Amazon assigns to many products in its catalog to be trusted? The company keeps the methodologies adopted for awarding the recognition secret.
When looking for a product in the vast Amazon catalog, it often happens to find yourself in front of the Amazon’s Choice label with which the articles recommended by the ecommerce site.
But how does Amazon Choice function, and who chooses the products to present to users? And most importantly, are the recommended articles the best?
What is Amazon Choice, and how products are selected?
Let’s start by saying that Amazon Choice started as a closely related Alexa feature. Amazon’s digital assistant was developed to save time and effort by allowing users to purchase products directly from the ecommerce site.
To avoid problems, the company’s technicians led by Jeff Bezos have made it possible – for Amazon customers – to purchase through Alexa only products with the Amazon’s Choice marking.
It is Alexa herself who explains that Amazon Choice products are items that can boast a high valuation, competitive price, and immediate availability.
However, it is legitimate to ask whether an algorithm governs the operation of Amazon Choice, whether there is, in any case, the supervision or direct intervention of Amazon personnel, whether a company can pay to see its products bear the special label.
The fact is, no one knows exactly how Amazon Choice works, not even the sellers themselves.
The spokespersons of Bezos’ company, confirming the definition given by Alexa, however, pointed out that no person can secure the Amazon’s Choice sticker by paying.
Nevertheless, the methodology for choosing products remains a mystery, and it is not known how much it is based on an algorithm and how much on human intervention.
The choice is clear: Amazon tries to keep this information secret because, otherwise, sellers could implement tactics that are not exactly crystal clear and respectful of the ecommerce site and users.
Some interesting aspects related to how Amazon Choice works :
1) Did you notice, first of all, that Amazon’s Choice label is shown on one product at a time? The choice about the attribution of the “stamp” strictly depends on the search terms entered.
2) Amazon products, where available, tend to carry the “sticker”. But often, lower quality objects are found with the same diction.
3) The algorithms underlying the awarding of recognition seem to change constantly, a bit like those used by Google for ranking web pages in search engine results (SERPs).
4) A product that sells well on Amazon may get the “sticker,” but it may not necessarily be a high-quality item. Several users have complained that Amazon’s Choice products got damaged after just a few uses. A series of interesting examples are collected at this address.
5) Fake reviews, a real plague for most online services, can contribute – along with other factors – to assigning the Amazon’s Choice label to products that don’t deserve it. However, pay attention to the comments’ content: some may appear false, written in approximate Italian, and with inaccurate references to the product.
Services like ReviewMeta and Fakespot help verify reviews’ trustworthiness by producing a final judgment once the bogus comments are removed.
The only problem is that both services do not work well with the Italian version of Amazon (indeed, Fakespot is not exactly compatible with Amazon Italy): you can search for the same article on Amazon.com and get a judgment based on the reviews that appear reliable.
A tech-savvy writer with a knack for finding the latest technology in the market, this is what describes John Carter. With more than 8 years of experience as a journalist, John graduated as an engineer and ventured soon into the world of online journalism. His interest includes gadget reviews, decoding OS errors, hunting information on the latest technology, and so on.
