Verified Purchase Badges on Ratings & Reviews

[TeamBIC]

EDIT 1/13/2022: We heard how much you value seeing the Verified Purchase badge on Ratings & Reviews when shopping online on Sephora.com and the Sephora app. Good news: new Ratings & Reviews for in-store purchases made October 14, 2021 and onward are now eligible for the Verified Purchase badge if written within 90 days of purchase! As long as you use the same Beauty Insider account you used in-store to compose and submit your review within 90 days of purchase, your review will qualify for verification. 

EDIT 10/6/2021: We’re excited to share that new Ratings & Reviews on online purchases made on July 11, 2021 and onward are now eligible for the Verified Purchase badge if written within 90 days of placing your order! This means Sephora Beauty Insider Community members have 30 more days to try and test their online purchases before submitting a review and qualifying for verification.

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Team BIC here to unveil an exciting new enhancement to Ratings & Reviews: the Verified Purchase badge! We’ve been working hard to ensure that Sephora's Ratings & Reviews are genuine and authentic ­­-- and therefore one of the most useful tools for curious shoppers like you who like to do their research. This new feature is a badge which indicates that a Community member’s review is linked to a real Sephora order.

Of course, this doesn't mean that all reviews without a badge are inauthentic reviews (they might have purchased the product in store before in-store purchases made October 14, 2021 and onward became eligible for the Verified Purchase badge, received the product as a gift, tried a sample in store, or purchased it from another retailer);

it's simply meant to serve as an added stamp of authenticity for online purchases that can be authenticated by Sephora.

So how does your review get verified? Starting now, if you purchase a product online, then write a review of it within 60 days of your purchase, you'll see it accompanied by a Verified Purchase badge once your review has been published! Easy, right? Just make sure you're shopping with the same Beauty Insider account that you're using to write reviews. And keep in mind that only online purchases can be verified at this time.

We’re excited to see your verified reviews in action!

[Edited 1/13/22]

[ellebucu]

There should be a longer time period (more than 60 days) so that it can be verified.

I only review items that I have purchased the full size, but I do so after testing them for a couple of months or after finishing the product. I want to be as honest as I can when I review the products.

Please consider extending the time frame a review can be verified.

As well it should not matter whether the items were bought in store or online. Those purchases should be treated as equal.

I agree with some of the comments that have mentioned the reviews should be limited to full size purchases.

[kristinafh]

I appreciate this change. I hardly ever leave a review because it’s frustrating to know that reviews are both rigged with companies writing their own AND when I leave anything other than a five star review, I get a lot of not helpful’s (even though I write with the same quality that I do in five star reviews). Side note: I never have trusted the reviews on Sephora - it will take a lot for me to get there. Other suggestions: 1) For those reviews that aren’t a verified purchase, don’t allow them to appear before the verified purchases.  2) Don’t allow reviews for the first seven days on skincare. Even if a person has an allergic skin reaction, they can wait seven days to post the review. 3) Allow for someone who marks the review as not helpful, to add comments on why. At least the reviewer knows the reason (and hopefully it’s legitimate). 4) Samples from the store should never be reviewed and / or given the same visibility as full product, purchased reviews. 5) You’ve got the technology - if someone purchases the product in your store and it’s connected to their Sephora account, that should be a verified purchase. 6) Allow people to enter a value of “received as gift” or “purchased in store” or “received from subscription box”. And my last thought - it would be nice to rate individual stores on various factors: variety of brands carried, stock available, cleanliness of the store, ease of checkout, ability to use various Sephora promotions, and helpfulness of employees.

[AlexBT]

Hey @kristinafh! Thanks for taking the time for writing such in-depth feedback and sharing your ideas. I appreciate that as a reviewer, you want feedback about why your review is marked unhelpful - especially so that your reviews aren't labeled as "unhelpful" for no apparent reason. Totally fair. Your suggestions are really interesting -- I especially like the concept of putting a hold on reviews depending on the type of product purchase, like skincare. There's just always the complexity that maybe the reviewer has been using the product for years and this is just the first time they've bought it from Sephora specifically. Lots to think about. 🙂 Also love your note about adding the ability to review stores - that would be really helpful. Thanks again, and we hope that with added improvements we can make this Community a trusted review space for you. ❤️

[jamiiief]

Was this in response to the sunday Riley thing

[samanthasmom]

This is good news. Now you can please eliminate all the damn influenster reviews?

[MelBeez]

Hi @samanthasmom ! Influenster partners with Sephora and the brand being reviewed on certain campaigns. The reviewer that receives the product "free for testing purposes " is required to post a review on Sephora or Ulta as an another example to fulfill the entire process of that campaign. If they don't do the review they could stop receiving free products to test or have their rights to Influenster revoked. They are just following the rules. They are valid reviews, in fact most give better reviews than what, in my opinion, the product should receive. But now that I am a part of Influenster community I know why those reviews are there. I used to get irritated by them as well. now I just scroll past them if they get to be too much. you will find that are heaviest the day or two after the product launches. We have been testing it for a few weeks or so prior and once able to complete the campaign it's like, finally! Sometimes we are really excited about it and cant wait to tell everyone since we are sworn to secrecy until it launches. So I guess I'm saying, for now just scroll past them, and hopefully Sephora will figure out a way to filter them. That would be a nice feature!

[Mzbmw]

Thank F-in God... If I see one more product that has a million reviews of I received this for free but the feedback is my own bs... I'm gonna scream. Is there a way we can filter by verified purchases?

[AlexBT]

@Mzbmw Not yet, but definitely something we've considered! 🙂

[chelly89]

How is this more accurate/helpful when it entirely excludes in store purchases? All the purchases are hypothetically linked to an individual's BI account & should therefore provide the option to review purchased products as "Verified Purchase". Are all review readers only supposed to trust people who purchase products online? Is there some secret loophole that makes people who purchase items inside a physical store less reliable or not intelligent enough to post a "Verified Purchase" review?

Where's the critical thinking Sephora? This is nearly pointless and your marketing team/focus group needs to step it up.

[AlexBT]

Hi @chelly89, sorry it took so long to reply - we appreciate your honest feedback. Totally agree with you that reviews on in-store purchases are not any less valid or trustworthy than online purchases, just like reviews on a product that you received as a gift from a friend aren't any less valid than purchases with your own money, for example. This is just the first step that the team was able to implement for purchases that we do currently have the capability to verify - but we acknowledge that there's still a lot more to be done! Just because these online purchases can be verified does not mean that reviews from all other types of purchases or sources are untrustworthy. 

[aeiri]

Preach

[GG84]

@TeamBIC 

Can there be an option to filter the reviews so that we can filter out the people who received the product free? I’m searching for a new foundation this second, and I’m looking at a fairly newly launched one - there is no way 1000 people have taken the time to review it. I don’t want their opinion, and scrolling to find the genuine reviews is a lengthy process. 
I suspect this may even help cut back on returns. 

[curlychiquita]

Fantastic! Thank you, @TeamBIC! 😀

[GG84]

It’s a bit glitchy. I reviewed two items on the same order and only one got verified 🤔

[AlexBT]

@GG84 Hi! Just out of curiosity, do you still notice that only one of your reviews from this order has a Verified Purchase badge! Interested in looking into this.... 🙂

[GG84]

@AlexBT Yes, I just checked for you. 

[AlexBT]

@GG84 Thanks for confirming and letting us know! Flagging and having someone look into it as we speak.

[grizzlymaze]

This is a big deal for me. Im thrilled to see Sephora listen to our feedback and work on making it happen. Thank you very much!!

[greeneyedgirl107]

@TeamBIC Great step in the right direction!

[molkie]

This is a great enhancement - I always read reviews before purchasing an item for the first time. Thank you!