The Reason Why You Can’t Trust Reviews Anymore
We all want to make the best shopping decisions. For a long time, I thought the best way was to browse reviews. But then I heard how many fake reviews were on these sites. So I went to the holy grail: reputable review sites. Well, I got duped again.
I thought that if a product had killer ratings on Amazon or if a big-name publisher recommended it, then it must be legit. I was totally wrong.
My trust was based on claims of testing and unbiased opinions. But the reality is much different. We've seen online shopping dominate retail. And as it did, competition got fierce. And marketing tactics got shady. It is near impossible to tell an authentic opinion from sponsored content or an outright lie.
The consequence? You end up buying crap products that don't meet your needs. The whole online review ecosystem loses its allure as money gets wasted.
Google still sits on the search throne. But no matter how you slice and dice the search results, only 16 publishers surface. They just happen to have over 560 brands under that all roll up to a handful of players.
These publishers often recommend products without even testing them. Instead, they paraphrase marketing copy from the Amazon listing.
Even though Google prioritizes reviews backed by testing, the evaluations usually don't happen.
Once you see it, you can't unsee it. The same products are recommended across tons of big-name websites. And the products often suck.
Reviews are flawed because the incentives are all run by the same media companies. Affiliate marketing profits now come way before authenticity.
That's why we created VOUCH. So that you could get real recommendations. From real people, not media companies. Who really own the products and had the experiences.
