Incentivized Baloney

[katyruddrn]

Is anyone else hoping Sephora allows more filtering of incentivized or filtered content? If they want this platform to grow, we are going to have to open it to more than just filtered faces with overblown features that were paid or gifted to post. Many of us have asked for a filter on product reviews to remove free product reviews. The more consumers demand transparency and a means to eliminate the social media driven garbage, the better the platform will be!

[forestmaiden]

I completely agree!! Not against having some incentivized reviews. But it has gotten absolutely ridiculous. Tonight I was researching  a product and with over 2800 reviews, I filtered out incentivized reviews, and that left 32!! Thirty two. And of those 32, 2 actually wrote that they were gifted the product, I guess they “forgot” to click incentivized. And lo and behold, none of the non-incentivized reviews were 5 stars for this product except for one. I generally never see any negative incentivized reviews, and of course people are going to feel pressured or the want/need to write a good review so they can keep getting free products! It has really gone too far, especially with all the Sephora kids now and all of that marketing and madness. I sure am glad this stuff wasn’t like this when I was a teenager… it’s still overwhelming to me at nearly 40 years old!

[katyruddrn]

Such a good point, I didn’t even think of how impossible this must be for kids and teens to navigate! 

[FatCatFashion]

I’ve seen probably 15 incentivized reviews across the last 5 years that have exceeded my expectations! When I come across someone who manages to answer questions I never thought to ask (such as the way an eyeshadow palette lid opens, if an item fits in a quart sized bag for airline travel, etc).

The majority of incentived reviews are unhelpful because the content quality is subpar. Unfortunately some people aren’t really able to encapsulate the mind of a reviewer and think to provide information beyond the manufacturer’s ad copy..

I don’t mind 5 or 10 incentivized reviews on a new product but when I see 500 reviews on the first day a product is launched I have ZERO interest in making a purchase.

how do you sort through 500 reviews to find the genuine one? 

I’m not a total hater of incentivized reviews I just think they need to have standards for the people who provide said reviews.

[katyruddrn]

 

It’s very easy, just go to the filter button and click “verified purchases” and “Non-Incentivized Reviews Only”. To give you an idea of how extensive this issue is, I just did it with Makeup by Mario’s new concealer and it took the number of reviews from 808 to 124!!!! 

[cplusplus]

I agree, the incentived reviews are annoying. When a product I am thinking about getting has  ton of incentived reviews where it appears more than regular reviews, I am suddenly turned off from buying it. Now that I think about this, this is probably good for my wallet 😂

[CookieGirl1]

@katyruddrn I think that it's important to realize that you CAN choose to filter out those reviews if you don't want to see them and that there are plenty of people who give 100% honest reviews whether a product is gifted or not.  I--like a lot of people--have been fortunate enough to receive at least one or more products free to review and I've given plenty of glowing reviews as well as very negative ones.  Its typically not difficult to tell from a review if the person has actually used and tried a product or not based on their description of their experience or the specific reasons that they provide for liking/not liking a product and you'll often find that even incentivized reviews may provide helpful swatches.  Just disregard the reviews that are too generic where it's more obvious that someone hasn't really bothered.  "Incentivized" doesn't mean that people are being monetarily compensated for a review whether it's good or bad; it just means that they've been been given a reason (like a free product) to be prompted to post a review, so it isn't as though they have anything at stake by what kind of feedback they give.

While I understand your point, it's also important to just take everything with a grain of salt and to give some people the benefit of a doubt.

[elise222]

@CookieGirl1 the other nice thing about the incentivized review is that often when a product is newly released, the company will have sent it to some to review so there's at least some initial reviews to base your purchase on. Once the product has been around for a while, I'll filter out the incentivized reviews - but it's nice to have some photos and experiences to go off of!

[cplusplus]

An expected response and status from someone who has been incentivized. 😂😊🙂