Plea to Sephora to include a "Turn Off 'Incentivized RATINGS'" option when searching for products. (A solution to the problem.)

[hearingxcolors]

Have you noticed how years ago, a product only ever had a perfect 5-star rating if it was BRAND NEW and had like 5 reviews... but now there are SO MANY supposedly perfect products for sale? Well, it's not because companies have suddenly happened upon a perfect product. No, it's because those companies have suddenly happened upon a perfect system to exploit for their benefit.

---------THE PROBLEM---------

Incentivized reviews are great for the people who receive the free products in exchange for 15min. of their time. However, unfortunately, these reviews are never anonymous, which means that these people either 1) feel pressured to give the product a stellar review so that they will not hurt their chances of receiving more free products in the future, or 2) just wanted free products and will make something up and slap a 5-star rating on it so they can be finished with the chore as quickly as possible.

In the case of the former, I do completely understand the feeling of pressure and the desire to continue receiving products. I'm not blaming them at all. I'm blaming the companies that are using this feeling to their advantage, unscrupulously capitalizing on this desire for free (expensive) products and the fear of missing out, which results in their products being bathed in 5-star reviews, which in turn makes them much more money. 

---------WHY IT'S A PROBLEM---------

However, this makes it impossible for consumers like myself to make educated purchases anymore. I can't even rely on the simple x/5-star rating shown on each product anymore, because they are so incredibly inflated by these incentivized reviews; seriously, it's HARD to find a product now that DOESN'T have any incentivized reviews. And the flood of those incentivized reviews skews the average star rating to the point that it can't even be trusted anymore. When you land on a product page, you can turn off the "Incentivized Reviews", but that's only for reading through them. It does nothing for the actual star rating at the top of the product page -- the one rating that everyone can quickly glance at, the rating that "makes or breaks" it for most people (e.g. if a product has 2 stars from 100 reviews, I won't even bother to look at the product page).

Unfortunately, even checking Google for their reviews doesn't work, because as a search engine, they pull their reviews from Sephora anyway! Go ahead and check: search for any product that Sephora carries, Google the name, and click "Reviews". You'll see many (most?) of the reviews Google provides are actually pulled from Sephora's website. So this workaround doesn't work at all. On top of that, the Google version of the Sephora reviews don't say whether it's an incentivized review or not, so unless the original review on Sephora's site specifically mentions --in the body of the review-- that they received the product for free, you'll have no way of knowing on Google if it was incentivized. Googling it just won't work.

But we consumers need some way to make quick decisions about purchasing, some way to quickly filter out the bad and find the best of the best. This rating is so important for making quick decisions and is so influential in a customer's decision to buy or leave a product, and these companies know that; these companies know that the star rating system is their first impression... and first impressions are crucial. So these companies have learned to exploit it.

So how do we fix it so everyone wins?

---------THE SOLUTION---------

Sephora, you need to include a way for consumers to "Turn Off 'Incentivized Ratings'" while searching for products, either for that single search or perhaps have a toggle in the Account Settings that we can toggle on and off that apply permanently (until we want to turn them on again). Ideally, you would offer both options: a toggle in Account Settings to permanently turn them off, and also in the search area as a temporary toggle. Turning off incentivized ratings should then cause the website to RE-CALCULATE the star ratings for every product so that the new average rating DOESN'T factor in any incentivized reviews; this way, the new ratings that the user sees isn't artificially inflated by the incentivized ratings.

This is the solution.

Until Sephora creates a way to search for products by "Top Rated" while offering the option to "Turn off 'Incentivized Ratings'" (or just offering a toggle in Account Settings), we the consumers will have to remain extremely skeptical of the ballooned ratings on all these products.

Additionally, it's absolutely in Sephora's best interest to help consumers make the choice that's right for the consumers, because otherwise they will just end up returning those products -- and that costs Sephora money! It makes much more sense for Sephora to help customers make the educated choice from the start, which will cut down on returns, thereby saving Sephora money.

Sephora, please add this feature to your website. It is desperately needed and better yet, it's a win-win-win solution: the reviewers win because they still get their free products; the consumers win because they can finally go back to trusting reviews and the star rating system again; and Sephora wins because they've made those consumers happy and they've made them feel like they care about them (thereby increasing their reputation and, ultimately, their sales), all while cutting down on the costs of returned products! I truly hope someone at Sephora reads this, and it gets passed along to someone who can build and implement this feature. 

Thank you for reading,

Kira

[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!

[ambazinga]

I also have an issue with trying to leave verified purchaser reviews. It is like they aren't even wanted and all they care about are incentivized reviews. I have reported so many times but nothing has ever been done about it.

[DaneeBT]

Hi @ambazinga I'm so sorry about this. I'll send you a PM.

[MWC53]

Thank you! I don’t look at those incentivized reviews at all and scan till I find an actual review. 

[HeliCurlyhair]

You nailed this! 

[DaneeBT]

Hi @hearingxcolors 

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us regarding product reviews and incentivized ratings! We greatly value your feedback and I'll share this with the appropriate teams for consideration in any future changes!

Regards,

Danee